State university presidents agreed to enact a two-year moratorium on new construction by New Mexico universities, Governor Susana Martinez announced May 12.
Martinez said in a statement the decision will benefit taxpayers.
“This moratorium will help us to strike the right balance between providing accessibility to higher education programs and ensuring that taxpayers are not on the hook for unnecessary expansion,” she said.
UNM Planning Officer Mary Kenney said in a May 13 Albuquerque Journal article that it is unclear how the ban will affect the University.
“There are some pretty critical needs we have here, what we’re going to be doing is looking at (the ban), taking a look at where our needs are, and figuring out what the impact would be, if there is any,” she said.
Martinez said the current system rewards universities for building facilities, regardless if schools show increased student performance.
New Mexico taxpayers collectively spend about $52,000 for each college graduate and $6 per square foot of academic space, according to the Department of Higher Education.
Nearly 14 percent of state expenditures go toward supporting higher education. The moratorium could save taxpayers roughly $4 million each year, according to a news release from the governor’s office.
The ban prohibits new building projects but allows projects that secured funding before January 1 to continue. Non-state funded construction will also be allowed to continue.
Martinez said that the moratorium will offset wasting money on building facilities that house redundant programs.
“A school that was initially established to provide specialized training in a certain area of expertise wanders outside this expertise and begins offering duplicate programs and degrees already offered by other institutions, relying on the state and potential students to fund these new offerings,” she said.
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