GO Bond 3 for higher education key to student success

General Obligation Bonds, or GO Bonds, come before the voters in New Mexico every two years. For higher education institutions across the state, they are a proven and accepted method of funding bricks and mortar projects throughout the state.

This November, voters will have an opportunity to pass GO Bond 3 for Higher Education to help provide New Mexico's colleges, universities and specialty schools with the ability to ensure students have the tools and resources they need to be successful. There are no tax increases associated with these bonds.

This year's GO Bond 3 will provide more than $230 million in higher education funding statewide, including $94.5 million for The University of New Mexico and its branch campuses. Supporting GO Bond 3 not only provides funding for more than 40 projects at colleges and universities in New Mexico with access to the latest in training and teaching tools but will also help attract, retain, and recruit new students to colleges and universities statewide through a variety of projects designed with student success in mind.

UNM has several important projects as part of the GO Bond this year, including a new Humanities & Social Sciences Complex on the main campus and a College of Pharmacy Renovation for the UNM Health Sciences Center on the north campus. Each of UNM's four branch campuses, including UNM-Gallup (Gurley Hall Renovations), UNM-Los Alamos (Student Services and Success Renovation), UNM-Taos (Science & Space Education) and UNM-Valencia (Nursing and Health Sciences Phase 1), all have relevant projects to improve amenities on those campuses, which are strategically important throughout the state.

Additionally, the passage of GO Bond 3 would create more than 2,300 new jobs in architecture, construction, education and related fields, and will contribute to the economies of 29 cities in 23 counties across New Mexico. The economic impact of GO Bond 3 is estimated to be hundreds of millions of dollars, affecting businesses large and small from every corner of New Mexico.

"We're looking forward to a new humanities building that fits in with the architectural style of the campus of New Mexico," said UNM College of Arts & Sciences Dean Jennifer Malat. "We need spaces where we can think about how the humanities interact with all sorts of different disciplines. We want students to arrive at UNM and see that their flagship university respects their education as much as they do."

Continued investment in higher education will make New Mexico attractive to innovative, forward-thinking businesses, creating an opportunity for even more high-paying jobs. Our communities' commitment to our colleges and universities will not only help bring new jobs to our state and put people to work, but it will also help ensure graduates stay in New Mexico and help build a bright and robust economy-done with no increase in taxes!

Your support of GO Bond 3 will help our students gain a competitive edge when they graduate, allowing them to compete in today's modern economy.

Voters from around New Mexico overwhelmingly supported these much-needed GO improvement bonds for the past six cycles (2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022), and then, just as now, investing in the future of higher education in New Mexico did not increase taxes.

For complete and detailed information on UNM projects, visit bonds.unm.edu.

Top photo feature: The existing Humanities building is 50 years old and is in disrepair according to a facility assessment.