The New Mexico State Senate has approved a bill to help victims of the Calf Canyon-Hermits Peak Fire.
The bill passed unanimously Wednesday will provide assistance to help repair public infrastructure damaged in the fire, floods, and debris flows.
$100 million is being provided from the general fund to provide loans to municipalities, counties and other political subdivisions.
The dollars will be released as no-interest loans.
Cosponsor Senator Pete Campos says while FEMA and the White House have promised compensation for damages of the blaze, those dollars take time to receive and help is needed now to rebuild.
“There’s so many aspects of this that have affected human lives, the animals within the area and of course the structures that have been burnt or destroyed by floods,” he said. “Along with that our efforts have been on the local level to raise resources in order to help those people that have been adversely and directly affected but this has already been several months down the road and as we’ve dealt directly with FEMA, the information is being gathered but the resources right now have not been delivered to the people that have been adversely affected.”
The loans are to be repaid within 30 days of the political subdivisions receiving their funding from the federal government.
The Attorney General’s office is still working with State and New Mexico’s federal delegation regarding just compensation for those who lost property due to the fire that began last April when a controlled burn by US forestry officials got out of hand due to high winds.