Officials with the Veterans Affairs health care system in New Mexico are planning two town halls to discuss health care and disability claims with veterans and their families. The back-to-back town halls will be held next Wednesday at the New Mexico Veterans' Memorial in Albuquerque. Following whistleblower complaints, investigators earlier this year uncovered large-scale improprieties in the way VA hospitals and clinics around the country scheduled veterans for appointments. Thousands of patients were forced to wait months for appointments.
The most recent audit of Albuquerque's Veterans Affairs hospital shows there were 111 veterans on the electronic waiting list as of Aug. 14. That's down from 248 at the end of July and down from more than 1,040 in May. The list includes new patients for whom appointments cannot be scheduled within 90 days.
Students at one Santa Fe elementary school soon will be sharing about 250 iPads. The move marks one of the first steps in the district's 55 million-dollar plan to provide every one of its 14-thousand students with a digital device. The New Mexican reports the Santa Fe school system is contracting with Apple and Pearson, an educational services company that provides a curriculum on the devices. It's also working with IT Connect Incorporated, a local company that will provide the hardware, software and other support. The district says it plans to implement the technological infrastructure at a gradual pace of six or seven schools per year. The school board voted 3-2 earlier this year to impose an additional property tax to raise the money needed for the program.
Dirt is being leveled in three New Mexico counties as the state's largest electric provider prepares to install thousands of solar panels. PNM says its planned solar power centers in Valencia, Cibola and Sandoval counties will be capable of producing enough electricity to meet the needs of 89-hundred average residential customers. The solar centers will cost about $48 million to construct. The largest one, the Meadowlake energy center east of Los Lunas, will be made up of more than 122-thousand solar panels. PNM already has eight utility-scale solar centers in operation. Four more centers are planned for next year. The utility says that by 2016, its solar centers will be capable of generating enough electricity for 40-thousand average residential customers for a year.
A measure passed by state lawmakers that calls for New Mexico counties to funnel more gross receipts taxes to a fund that helps hospitals pay for uninsured care is forcing San Juan County to consider cutting services and raising taxes. The county has already frozen or abolished nearly eight-percent of its workforce in recent years, and County Executive Officer Kim Carpenter says the county is considering more reductions as a result of the legislation. Carpenter tells The Daily Times San Juan County is close to having 10 percent fewer workers than in 2009. The county's payment to the statewide safety net fund is about thre-million. In addition to other obligations, the county's health care assistance program would experience about a six-million dollar deficit in fiscal year 2016.
Santa Fe Weather: Sunny today and tomorrow with highs in the mid-80s. Tonight, expect clear skies with the low down to 56.