Committee gives "do pass" to memorial asking governor to form frontier‑area task force to study rural needs

A House committee gave a do‑pass recommendation to Senate Joint Memorial 2, which asks the governor to appoint a task force to study the needs of frontier areas and recommend ways to improve access to infrastructure and services.

Senator Campos and Representative Joseph Sanchez sponsored the memorial and deferred to Carol Miller, an expert witness who traced the initiative back to work begun in 2017–2018 and to a 2021 effort. Miller said the memorial emerged from grassroots conversations during the COVID‑19 pandemic, when volunteers and community organizations combined efforts to reach remote residents and revealed persistent gaps in infrastructure and staffing.

"We have about seven entities all struggling without enough money," Carol Miller testified. She described a pattern in which volunteer fire departments, water associations, libraries and community centers operate in silos and lack capacity to pursue and manage state grants and administrative requirements. The memorial asks the governor to appoint a task force to study how state resources and administrative processes could better support frontier communities.

Committee members asked how the governor would appoint members, whether existing regional councils of governments (COGs) or local entities should be used, and whether any resulting study would lead to actionable funding. Several members noted the memorial is nonbinding and intended to generate options for possible future legislation. Representative Mason said the memorial would be a step toward developing recommendations that could later be included in the state's strategic economic plans.

The committee recorded a do‑pass motion by Representative Lord and a second by Representative Garcia. A roll‑call produced a committee recommendation of do pass with a 4‑2 tally. Representative Collin registered a “no” vote, stating concerns that regional COGs might already cover this work and that studies sometimes do not result in action.

Proponents said the memorial is intended to broaden participation from diverse frontier communities and to examine longstanding barriers — including volunteer‑run infrastructure, audit rules that limit how small entities spend funds, and the need for local capacity to apply for and manage grants. The memorial’s supporters said the governor’s involvement would allow cabinet‑level agencies to coordinate resources and that community participation would be part of any task force process.

With the committee recommendation, the memorial advances as a legislative request to the governor to appoint a task force and produce a study of options for improving state support to frontier and very rural communities.