This week’s guests on Report from Santa Fe are Dr. Becky Rowley, president of the Santa Fe Community College, and Dr. Joseph Shepard, president of Western New Mexico University, explaining the General Obligation (GO) Bonds on the ballot in the upcoming November election. 

These educators are followed by Dr. Mauricio Tohen, chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UNM and chief for UNM Behavioral Care, describing GO Bond 3 that will fund a much-needed CLidren’s Psychiatric Center at the UNM Health Sciences Center.

Report from Santa Fe airs Sunday, Oct. 9 at 8 a.m. on Ch. 5.1 and also streams on The PBS Video App.

General Obligation Bonds come before the voters every couple of years, in even-numbered years, and fund capital improvement projects, as well as new construction projects.    

The bonds are packaged so that there are projects in virtually every corner of the state. This is not a bond that will just benefit the Rio Grande corridor, it will benefit every place that has a two-year or four-year college.  

For many colleges, the general obligation bond is almost the only way that they can have capital improvement. The total financial impact of these bonds would be a little over $250 million dollars statewide. 

Each bond - Bond 1, 2, and 3 - focuses on specific needs in New Mexico: 

Bond 1 - The 2022 Capital Projects General Obligation Bond Act authorizes the issuance and sale of senior citizen facility improvement, construction and equipment acquisition bonds. 

Bond 2 - The 2022 Capital Projects General Obligation Bond Act authorizes the issuance and sale of library acquisition bonds.

Bond 3 – The 2022 Capital Projects General Obligation Bond Act authorizes the issuance and sale of higher education, special and tribal schools, capital improvement and acquisition bonds. The higher education bonds included $45 million for the UNM’s College of Fine Arts, $36 million to plan, design, construct, furnish and equip the Children’s Psychiatric Center for the UNM Health Sciences Center in Albuquerque.

Hosted by veteran journalist and interviewer, Lorene Mills, Report from Santa Fe brings the very best of the esteemed, beloved, controversial, famous and emergent minds and voices of the day to a weekly audience that spans the state of New Mexico and has served as a window on what makes Santa Fe and the State of New Mexico truly unique.  

During nearly 40 years on the air, Mills and Report from Santa Fe have given viewers a unique opportunity to become part of a series of remarkable conversations – always thoughtful and engaging, often surprising – held in a warm and civil atmosphere.  

Gifted with quiet intelligence and genuine grace, Mills draws guests as diverse as Jane Goodall, Margaret Atwood, Alan Arkin, Gore Vidal, Isabel Allende, and Stewart Udall, along with a who’s who of New Mexico politics, into easy and open exchange, with plenty of room and welcome for wit, authenticity, and candor. Mills’ ability to elicit the true thoughts and nature of her guests is legendary. Mills and Report from Santa Fe is committed to offering New Mexico viewers – and listeners – yet another decade of wonderfully unique voices and viewpoints.   

More information about future show lineups – and a sampling of past shows - can be found online at www.reportfromsantafe.com