0001|                          SENATE MEMORIAL 18
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0002|     43RD LEGISLATURE - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - SECOND SESSION, 1998
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0003|                            INTRODUCED BY
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0004|                              JOHN PINTO
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0005|     
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0006|                                   
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0007|     
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0008|     
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0009|     
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0010|                              A MEMORIAL
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0011|     REQUESTING THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE
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0012|     SECRETARIES OF AGRICULTURE AND COMMERCE TO FUND THE
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0013|     CONSTRUCTION OF THE WATER TREATMENT PLANT AND OTHER RELATED
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0014|     INFRASTRUCTURE AT NAVAJO AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS INDUSTRY
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0015|     LOCATED IN SAN JUAN COUNTY, NEW MEXICO.
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0016|     
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0017|          WHEREAS, on April 11, 1956, the eighty-fourth United
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0018|     States congress passed Public Law 84-485, authorizing the
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0019|     secretary of the interior to construct, operate and maintain
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0020|     the Colorado river storage project and participating projects
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0021|     and for other purposes; and
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0022|          WHEREAS, on December 12, 1957, the Navajo Nation council
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0023|     passed resolution CD-86-57 urging authorization by congress of
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0024|     the Navajo Indian irrigation project and the San Juan-Chama
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0025|     diversion project in New Mexico and approving in principle
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0001|     legislation proposed for this purpose; and
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0002|          WHEREAS, on June 12, 1962, the eighty-seventh United
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0003|     States congress passed Public Law 87-483 to authorize the
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0004|     secretary of the interior to construct, operate and maintain
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0005|     the Navajo Indian irrigation project and the initial stage of
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0006|     the San Juan-Chama diversion project as participating projects
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0007|     of the Colorado river storage project and for other purposes;
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0008|     and
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0009|          WHEREAS, the San Juan-Chama diversion project was
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0010|     completed on time and has an annual diversion of one hundred
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0011|     ten thousand acre feet from the San Juan river for utilization
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0012|     in the Rio Grande basin in New Mexico, but the Navajo Indian
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0013|     irrigation project is twenty years behind schedule and has
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0014|     been funded in a piecemeal fashion; and
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0015|          WHEREAS, the Navajo Indian irrigation project currently
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0016|     has seventy thousand acres under cultivation and another ten
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0017|     thousand acres currently being developed with thirty thousand
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0018|     acres still left to develop; and
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0019|          WHEREAS, the Navajo Nation's enterprise, the Navajo
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0020|     agricultural products industry, in partnership with the
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0021|     largest potato grower in the United States, is forming a new
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0022|     joint growing venture to grow an additional fifteen thousand
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0023|     acres of potatoes; and
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0024|          WHEREAS, this joint growing venture will provide one
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0025|     hundred new jobs with an estimated two million dollar
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0001|     ($2,000,000) annual payroll; and
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0002|          WHEREAS, the Navajo Nation's enterprise, the Navajo
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0003|     agricultural products industry, is working to form another
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0004|     partnership to include the largest frozen potato processor
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0005|     company in the United States to create a factory venture to
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0006|     produce three hundred million pounds of frozen potato products
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0007|     with an estimated one hundred million dollars ($100,000,000)
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0008|     in gross annual sales, providing four hundred new jobs with an
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0009|     estimated twelve million dollar ($12,000,000) annual payroll;
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0010|     and
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0011|          WHEREAS, the potato processing plant project will help
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0012|     reduce the current fifty percent unemployment rate on the
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0013|     Navajo Nation, a giant step toward self-sufficiency, and will
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0014|     demonstrate to the United States congress that the annual
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0015|     funds for the Navajo Indian irrigation project make new
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0016|     industry such as this possible; and
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0017|          WHEREAS, these projects will also help the Navajo Nation
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0018|     respond to the new welfare reform act, Public Law 104-193; and
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0019|          WHEREAS, in 1996, the New Mexico legislature amended the
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0020|     New Mexico Finance Authority Act to include in eligible
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0021|     projects those of an Indian nation, tribe or pueblo located
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0022|     wholly or partially in New Mexico, including a political
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0023|     subdivision or a wholly owned enterprise of an Indian nation,
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0024|     tribe or pueblo; and
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0025|          WHEREAS, in 1996, the New Mexico legislature authorized
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0001|     capital project loan financing through the New Mexico finance
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0002|     authority to the Navajo Nation for a water treatment plant and
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0003|     related infrastructure for a potato processing plant at the
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0004|     Navajo agricultural products industry on the Navajo Nation,
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0005|     estimated to cost two million dollars ($2,000,000); and
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0006|          WHEREAS, in the same year, the legislature authorized the
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0007|     issuance of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) in
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0008|     severance tax bonds to construct water treatment infrastructure
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0009|     for this same project; and 
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0010|          WHEREAS, in 1997, the New Mexico legislature authorized
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0011|     the New Mexico finance authority to make loans of up to twenty
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0012|     million dollars ($20,000,000) from the public project
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0013|     revolving fund to the Navajo Nation for the development of a
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0014|     potato processing plant; and
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0015|          WHEREAS, in 1997, the New Mexico legislature provided an
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0016|     intergovernmental business tax credit against corporate income
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0017|     tax for new businesses locating on Indian land providing
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0018|     relief on double taxation; and
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0019|          WHEREAS, on March 29, 1996, the Navajo Nation council
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0020|     passed resolution CMA-25-96 appropriating two hundred fourteen
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0021|     thousand dollars ($214,000) for the purpose of planning a
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0022|     potato processing plant at the Navajo agricultural products
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0023|     center and last month appropriated ten million dollars
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0024|     ($10,000,000) to its undesignated reserve for direct capital
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0025|     contribution toward the potato processing plant, the water
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0001|     treatment plant and related infrastructure at Navajo
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0002|     agricultural products industry, thereby demonstrating the

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0003|     Navajo Nation's good faith efforts toward development of this
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0004|     important economic development project; and
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0005|          WHEREAS, pursuant to Public Law 104-127, the federal
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0006|     Agricultural Improvement Reform Act of 1996, the Equity and
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0007|     Educational Land Grant Statute of 1996 and the Equity and
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0008|     Educational Land Grand Statute of 1994, the United States
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0009|     department of agricultural and the United States department of
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0010|     commerce have discretionary authority to make grants and loans
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0011|     for economic development projects and on April 29, 1994,
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0012|     United States President William F. Clinton issued a memorandum
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0013|     directing federal government cooperation with the Native
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0014|     American tribal governments to help support this project;
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0015|          NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE
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0016|     OF NEW MEXICO that the congress of the United States, the
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0017|     secretary of the federal department of agriculture and the
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0018|     secretary of the federal department of commerce be requested
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0019|     to fund the construction of the water treatment plant and
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0020|     other related infrastructure at Navajo agricultural products
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0021|     industry located in San Juan county, New Mexico; and
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0022|          BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
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0023|     sent to every member of the New Mexico congressional
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0024|     delegation, the secretary of the federal department of
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0025|     agriculture and the secretary of the federal department of
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0001|     commerce.
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0002|                              
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