Economic development officials urge investment in industrial site readiness, explain incentives

SANTA FE — Department of economic development staff told the House Commerce & Economic Development Committee on an afternoon hearing that gaps in basic infrastructure on publicly held sites are a barrier to recruiting industry and that the department will push for funding to complete a broader site‑readiness study.

Mister Roper, division director for the Economic Development Division, told the committee the department identified about 35 publicly held sites with potential to be industrial parks but found “serious gaps” in water, sewer and power capacity. “If you don't have electricity and you don't have water, you don't have economic development,” he said.

Committee members were given an overview of two major incentive programs. Roper described the Job Training Incentive Program, known as JTIP, as a wage‑reimbursement program created by statute in 1972 that reimburses a portion of trainee wages for two to six months, with higher reimbursement rates available for rural/frontier locations and for hires meeting specific criteria. He also outlined the Local Economic Development Investment Act (referred to in the hearing as LITA), noting it is an exception to Article IX, Section 14 of the New Mexico Constitution (the anti‑donation clause) and authorizes local governments to invest in land, buildings and infrastructure for economic development.

The department’s presentation framed industrial site readiness as the principal priority for the session. Roper said the next legislative package will request funds to expand the public‑sector study to include private industrial sites and to quantify infrastructure shortfalls across the state so the department can target investments by highest‑and‑best use (for example, whether more fiber or more electrical capacity is needed for a given site).

Roper described structural changes inside the department intended to support targeted growth sectors, saying the science and technology team has grown from zero to three staff in recent years and that the department may seek legislation to create a standalone science and technology division to sit alongside existing divisions for film, outdoor recreation and creative industries. He called expansion of existing in‑state companies a principal source of steady growth, citing Vitality Works in Albuquerque as a multidecade, in‑state growth example.

On workforce and market constraints, Roper told the committee he estimated the state's unemployment rate at about 4.9% and said labor‑force participation in his estimate was “about 55%.” A committee member later noted a workforce participation figure of 57.9% as of Jan. 17 (not specified in the department’s presentation).

Members pressed Roper on electricity and transmission capacity. He said forthcoming legislation would seek statutory changes to allow investor‑owned utilities to build a limited amount of additional capacity — which he described as necessary because utilities are currently constrained from adding capacity until they have firm customer commitments. He also said national demand trends (data centers, AI workloads, quantum computing) are increasing pressure on transmission and generation capacity.

Committee members and Roper discussed LITA details: applicants must be vetted by regional representatives, local governments adopt an ordinance and project participation agreement, and statute requires security equal to the grant award and clawback language. Roper said local governments may now use LITA for retail projects if their own ordinances have been updated to reflect statutory changes.

Committee Chair Doreen Gagos said department secretary Rob Black will present to the committee on Friday and that members should submit amendments and substitutions at least 24 hours in advance when possible. The committee was told bills will be heard on Wednesday and the session adjourned.

The meeting included extensive Q&A but no formal motions or votes on policy changes during the session.