February 10, 2025
A surprise budgetary maneuver at last week’s City Council meeting left the Albuquerque Rail Trail with a $500,000 budget cut while igniting concerns about council spending norms.
The council was working through what was initially presented as a straightforward series of minor “clean-up” budget adjustments when an amendment from Councilor Louie Sanchez abruptly shifted the focus. Sanchez proposed reallocating $500,000 from interest earnings on city bonds and another $500,000 from the rail trail to the Westside Indoor Sports Complex, a project set to bring a facility for volleyball, basketball, wrestling, and other sports to a site near Coors and St. Josephs. He argued that the additional funding would effectively finish up a long fundraising effort for the complex and lead to a swift groundbreaking, thus benefiting youth across the city. (The project’s cost was estimated at $15 million last year.)
But the move caused a stir because Sanchez represents a district on the Westside while the rail trail is located in Greater Downtown – and councilors usually keep to an unwritten rule that they not go raiding each other’s districts for funds. Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn, for one, warned that breaking the norm would set a bad precedent.
Councilor Joaquín Baca, who represents the entire rail trail corridor, also voiced his concerns, pointing out that work on the Central underpass was already underway.
“I’d like to finish things before we pull funding from them,” he said.
Chief Financial Officer Kevin Sourisseau, a top deputy to Mayor Tim Keller, also threw cold water on the idea that the extra money would in fact put the sports complex over the fundraising finish line: “Construction costs are rising every day,” he said. “There’s no guarantee that this will fill the void.”
Councilors soon tabled the discussion and moved on to other items, but after 11 p.m., they came back to the bill. Sanchez then announced that he had spoken with Baca in the interim and believed they had reached an agreement to proceed with the funding shift. Baca concurred, saying that he was still concerned about setting a bad precedent but would support it in the spirit of “let’s get stuff done.”
“We will all work together at different times and help each other out at different times,” he added.
Later in the week, Baca added that Sanchez had previously contributed $600,000 from a discretionary fund to help complete the renovation of the Joan Jones Community Center at Pat Hurley Park, which is near but not in his district. The center held its groundbreaking last year.
“I just used this as an opportunity to balance out the books,” Baca said.
Roughly $40 million has been allocated to the rail trail through a combination of federal, state, and city sources. Baca, noting that is too is a big fan of the trail, said he is devoting some of his discretionary funding to the section between New York Avenue and the bosque.
The legislation subsequently passed with a unanimous vote and now heads to Mayor Tim Keller for his consideration. City spokeswoman Sarah Supple did not address a question about whether the mayor might attempt to veto or line-item veto the bill – a possibly futile effort given the united council – but she did make clear that the administration was none too pleased by how things have unfolded.
“These specific rail trail funds were allocated to the Central Crossing, a project that is a high priority for neighbors, businesses, and the administration, and is already under construction,” Supple said. “It’s irresponsible to take away funding from a project in process. We need City Council to get this project back on track instead of funding projects that aren’t already underway or even fully funded.”
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