Increment of 1

I am proud to sponsor and initiate Bernalillo County's "Increment of One" program through the Office of Economic Development. During my campaign for Bernalillo County Commission, I made a promise to focus on Economic Development. I often said that over the past 9 years Bernalillo County was serious about Economic Development. So serious that they had one guy and a part time assistant. The budget appropriated to the Office was less that of smaller sections in the County. Despite the limited resources, the Office did an exceptional job in attracting companies such as Tempur Productions, the relocation of Verizon, and the issuance of IRB's such as Sennheiser Electronic, SBS Technologies, and New Mexico Foods (to name a few).

With the support of my fellow commissioners we have added staff and resources to the Office and they are now moving forward. An initiative that I promised during the campaign is a focus on small businesses. We spend all of our time trying to lure these international companies and forget about the backbone of our community - the small business persons. I am proud to say that the Increment of One Program is started and is now a great success. Each commissioner is visiting businesses in their district and - "listening to the concerns of the business people." It has been an eye opening experience. We have heard how government does not listen, how government impedes, how the small business people need connections with other businesses, and the need for a clearing house that will answer the most simple of questions. One overarching concern is that government offers incentives to large businesses and forgets about the smaller business people.

The second part of this program is that we will have a summit on January 13th at Albuquerque Studios. We will have micro-lenders, small business assistance and over 400 small businesses speaking of their experience. Finally, we will develop a legislative packet to submit to our local,state and federal delegation. For more information call Jesse Lopez at 468-7000.