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Finance Authority Outlines Loan Programs, Water Trust Demand and Systems Upgrade
Summary
New Mexico Finance Authority told lawmakers it is modernizing systems, underwriting Opportunity Enterprise loans for housing and commercial development and expects the Water Trust Board to recommend 114 applications that far exceed available funds; staff urged a two‑track process to absorb larger awards efficiently.
Marquita Russell, CEO of the New Mexico Finance Authority, briefed the subcommittee on NMFA’s structure, program activity and operational improvements. She said NMFA administers 25 programs across 13 statutes and serves as administrator for several policy boards, including the Water Trust Board and Opportunity Enterprise and Housing Development Review Board.
Russell described an Integrated Business Application (IBA) project to standardize and replace multiple legacy systems, reduce manual transfers and create a single, authoritative data source; NMFA hired BDO Digital and expects a minimal viable product by December next year. "We are standardizing those processes and procedures and we're implementing...the Integrated Business Application Project," she said.
On program activity, Russell highlighted two Opportunity Enterprise funds—commercial development and housing development—where loans require at least 10% equity and are priced at "60% of Wall Street Journal Prime with a floor of 3." She summarized active loans and pending deals (including Midtown Santa Fe and NewSpace Nexus) and noted long lead times on affordable housing infrastructure because Low Income Housing Tax Credit and bond financing remain necessary parts of closings.
Water infrastructure dominated questioning. NMFA reported it received 114 applications totaling roughly $525 million in requests while available capital from severance tax bonds and previous appropriations covers a much smaller amount; wastewater projects accounted for many large requests. Russell said the Board is expected to recommend many projects for legislative authorization and advised that delivering a large number of awards would require either simplifying authorization criteria temporarily or separating processes by project size and readiness to allow faster execution.
Committee members asked about board vacancies, closing timelines and whether an additional infusion of capital (for example, another $200 million) could be absorbed; Russell said NMFA could authorize and recommend large numbers of projects but implementation capacity and client management would be the limiting factors, and recommended tailoring authorization and administrative processes to match scale.
