Transportation & Infrastructure
Transportation & Infrastructure
Democrats believe in state and federal investment in public infrastructure and transportation to improve our state’s economic competitiveness, create jobs, fulfill climate targets, and achieve equitable and safe communities. We also believe everyone should have clean affordable water, electricity, heat, and high-speed internet.
We Affirm:
1. Our nation’s spending on infrastructure has fallen to its lowest level in 70 years, resulting in lost
productivity, investment, collapse of U.S. manufacturing, and a degradation of our competitive edge
worldwide. In New Mexico, 30% of our roads in poor condition and 7% of our bridges are rated
structurally deficient. Fully 25% of students in New Mexico do not have access to broadband at home.
Indigenous people in New Mexico are 67 times more likely to live without running water than other
Americans; and
2. That New Mexicans suffer disproportionately from lack of high-speed rail and a renewable energy wide-area
transmission network; and
3. Native, rural/frontier communities, and underserved communities throughout the state, including urban
communities, lack adequate infrastructure. Government has a role in providing all our communities with
affordable and reliable essential utilities, including electricity, clean water, sewage, heat, high-speed internet, and
transportation; and
4. That good paying jobs from infrastructure projects can lift families out of poverty; and
5. The practice of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) uses a disproportionate amount of water relative to all other
industry and domestic uses; therefore, water availability and infrastructure must be prioritized for human use over
fracking use; and
6. It is essential to improve broadband and infrastructure for rural/frontier and tribal communities and ensure parity
and predictability in the distribution of funds so that telecommunications companies have the ability to serve those
areas equitably; and
7. Infrastructure development must coincide with climate-protection goals; and
8. Infrastructure development must be resilient and minimize resources used and environmental impacts; and
9. Infrastructure development and the ensuing benefits must be accessible to all people, including those with
disabilities; and
10. Clean, running water must be available to all New Mexicans for health and sanitation; and
11. Broadband infrastructure must be adequate to support telehealth, remote learning, and other services needed by
communities, especially during public health or safety emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic; and
We Will:
1. Support the formation of a National Infrastructure Bank (NIB) modeled on the four previous nationally chartered
public banks. This would require no new federal debt, no new taxes, and would be budget neutral, operating as a
government-owned, depository bank that lends to state and local governments for targeted infrastructure projects
at low rates; and
2. Enable New Mexicans access to our share of 25 million new jobs created in the U.S., many of which will pay
Davis-Bacon Determination wages, promote Project Labor Agreements, encourage buying American-made
products, and develop apprentice programs for youth to acquire long-term skills; and
3. Reduce income inequality by increasing wages, building the middle class, and investing in disadvantaged
communities and lower-income areas; and
4. Give hiring preference and opportunity to New Mexicans and particularly to those from the most local
communities to restore roads and bridges to address decades of neglect; and
5. Build the infrastructure for affordable public transportation, electric vehicles, and bicycle routes; and
6. Install local infrastructure now so that high-speed broadband networks are an immediate reality for both urban and
rural New Mexicans and therefore meet all broadband needs related to their health care, education, and
employment; and
7. Modernize all public buildings at all levels of government to be energy efficient and powered by renewable
energy; and
8. Develop a statewide plan for land use and infrastructure growth and secure the necessary public funding, through
sources such as a public bank, to implement this plan; and
9. Protect communities from the impact of climate change and help them to mitigate its effects by incentivizing
renewable energy utilities; and
10. Encourage the reduction of residential and industrial water usage by providing sustainable water policies,
including aquifer protection, water-supply planning, consumptive water-use permitting, and resource protection
programs; and
11. Protect our water supply by demanding the cleanup of toxic substances in aquifers around New Mexico by those
who are responsible for the pollution; and
12. Protect public health and safety by modernizing drinking and nonindustrial wastewater systems, including
technology to recycle water; and
13. Provide necessary infrastructure, roads, and access to water to officially recognized colonias; and
14. Fully fund the New Mexico Tribal Infrastructure Fund (TIF) to include water-line projects, fire stations, and other
community development projects on Indigenous lands, including funding for Enhanced 911 Service/Rural
addressing and signage; and
15. Increase energy efficiency and make transportation more affordable by:
a. Reducing vehicle energy consumption and/or increasing vehicle fuel efficiency;
b. Increasing access to and use of cheaper and more efficient fuels, vehicles and vehicle models (including
electric vehicles), transit, biking, and walking;
c. Supporting new technologies for energy-efficient, safe forms of transportation, such as electric bicycles;
d. Increasing vehicle occupancy, e.g., through carpooling, car sharing, rail freight; and
e. Reducing the distance that people and goods need to travel as a part of daily life; and
16. Ensure that infrastructure is consistent with developing forms of transportation, such as safe roads for electric
bicycles; and
17. Develop a robust public transportation system, with a focus on high-speed rail, that serves all communities,
including rural ones; and
18. Increase equitable access to mobility by:
a. Reducing the need for vehicle ownership, e.g., by developing public transportation;
b. Enabling more people to live closer to where they need to be, such as through the development of housing
with easy access to goods and services and economic opportunities;
c. Increasing the stock and availability of such location-efficient affordable housing;
d. Increasing the convenience and affordability of public transit or other shared modes of travel; and
e. Prioritizing mobility access improvements for underserved communities.
