NM Gas Co owner announces sale to private equity firm
International energy company Emera Inc. announced yesterday its intention to sell New Mexico Gas Company to private equity firm Bernhard Capital Partners for $1.25 billion. Emera purchased NM Gas Co in 2016 as part of its acquisition of Teco energy companies. Its proposed sale to Bernard Capital next year will require approval by the Public Regulation Commission. “This transaction strengthens Emera’s balance sheet, supports our ambitious capital plan and reinforces our strategic decision to optimize our portfolio and reallocate capital to our highest growth markets to drive long-term value for our shareholders,” Emera President and CEO Scott Balfour says in a statement. “New Mexico Gas is a strong regulated utility with a customer-focused team. We’re proud of the work we have done together over the past eight years to drive customer growth and enable nearly $800 million USD in strategic capital investments to expand and maintain a safe, reliable system that will serve New Mexicans for decades to come.” Private equity interest in utilities overall has grown, following the passage of the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and concomitant funding for related energy infrastructure projects. Private equity firms’ interest in clean energy tax credits, along with oil and gas companies, also has been increasing in recent years, the Wall Street Journal and High Country News report, respectively. According to Emera’s news release, BCP has investments in close to 70 companies across 20 platforms, including several utility companies. “This investment directly aligns with Bernhard Capital’s strategy to invest in infrastructure assets and utilities that are critical to building more resilient communities,” BCP founder and partner Jeff Jenkins says in a statement. “We value the strong history of New Mexico Gas Company and are committed to retaining the invaluable institutional knowledge of its employees. The leadership team and all employees will remain in place after closing, and we anticipate creating approximately 70 new, local jobs.”
HCA rolls out new grocery benefits program
In the waning days of summer vacation (Santa Fe Public Schools students return Aug. 9), the state officials yesterday announced the distribution of new “SUN Bucks” EBT cards for groceries of $120 per child to eligible families (ones with children ages 5 through 18 who were active on SNAP, TANF and most types of Children’s Medicaid between July 1, 2023 and Aug, 1, 2024). “Summer should be a time of joy and growth for our children, not a time of worry about where their next meal will come from,” New Mexico Health Care Authority Secretary Kari Armijo, says in a statement. “SUN Bucks will help bridge the gap, ensuring families have the resources to keep their kids healthy and thriving.” According to a news release, approximately 275,000 K-12 students will benefit from the new program. People with automatic eligibility should receive their cards by Aug. 30. “Our goal is to ensure that every child in New Mexico has access to the nutrition they need to succeed, both in and out of school,” state Public Education Department Secretary Arsenio Romero says in a statement. “The SUN Bucks program is critical in supporting our families and communities throughout New Mexico.”
Kaune’s market in new hands
Cheryl Sommer, who has owned Kaune’s Neighborhood Market with her husband Kurt since 2003, announced yesterday it has been sold to market employees Leah Chacon and Rachael Chacon. “Although bittersweet emotions accompany this transition for me, Kurt and I are very excited that the institution of Kaune’s, which is so important to our community, will continue to be led by women who were born and raised in Santa Fe,” Sommer writes. “Leah and Rachael have worked with us since 2022, and bring energy, enthusiasm and creativity to their new venture which we know will lead to continued success for this very special business.” Sommer, who has served as the market’s CEO, earned several awards during her tenure, including a 2021 entrepreneurial excellence award from the National Grocers Association, a “local heroes” recognition from Edible New Mexico magazine in 2016 and second place in SFR’s most recent Best of Santa Fe contest in the grocery store category. “It has been an honor of a lifetime to own and operate Kaune’s,” Sommer writes. “I am profoundly moved and deeply proud of our journey over the past [21] years and grateful to have had such an extraordinary team beside me. I can think of no more rewarding way to run a business than to be sustained by such a dedicated group, coupled with your support and your loyalty.”
NM joins IRS tax program
New Mexico taxpayers should be able to file their federal taxes for 2024 tax returns next April through a new free federal program, following the state’s decision to join the Internal Revenue Service’s Direct File Program. The IRS rolled out a pilot for the program during the most recent tax season and announced in May its intention to expand eligibility. According to its analysis of the more than 140,000 in 12 states who used the program to file their 2023 taxes, 90% rated it excellent or above average, citing the program’s lack of cost and ease of use among its benefits. Oregon, New Jersey and Pennsylvania also have signed on to use the tool. According to a Taxation and Revenue news release, approximately 200,000 New Mexico residents will be eligible, although it did not specify the criteria (the IRS provides some details on that point here). New Mexico residents can also use the state’s Taxpayer Access Point to file their personal income taxes, but officials say the new IRS tool will make the process easier. “We’re excited to start working with the IRS to make sure taxpayers have this great new tool available to them when they’re ready to file next year,” Taxation and Revenue Secretary Stephanie Schardin Clarke says in a statement.
Listen Up
This evening’s free Santa Fe Institute 7:30 pm lecture at the Lensic Performing Arts Center on “Making Sense of Chaos: A Better Economics for a Better World” by Doyne Farmer—whose new book has the same title as his lecture—is sold out. Fortunately, SFI will live stream the talk by Farmer, who is an external professor at SFI, as well as the director of Complexity Economics at the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, along with the discussion that will follow between Farmer and John Geanakoplos, the James Tobin Professor of Economics at Yale University.
Wooing Sundance
While we don’t have a line yet on when exactly the scouting group from the Sundance Festival will visit and evaluate Santa Fe, nor how the city intends to show itself off, we did read with interest how Louisville, Kentucky, and Atlanta, Georgia, handled their site visits. As recently announced, Santa Fe is in the running to host the festival in 2027, along with finalists Park City and Salt Lake City in Utah, where the festival will occur in 2025 and 2026, respectively; Boulder, Colorado, and Cincinnati, Ohio. Sundance officials say site visits will be part of the decision-making process, and received the “red carpet” treatment last week in Louisville, the Louisville Courier Journal reports, “from a large banner on the Kentucky International Convention Center to a welcoming message in glittering lights on the Louisville Palace marquee.” Sundance officials also made it to Atlanta last week, according to the Macon Telegraph, and stayed at the historic Georgian Terrace Hotel. Atlanta officials also posted Sundance banners on the visitors’ tour route around town, which “featured stops at the Plaza Theatre, 7 Stages in Little Five Points, the King Center, the Carter Center and Ponce City Market. The city held receptions at both Woodruff Arts Center and the Marquee Club at the Fox, where a caterer offered samples of food evoking Krispy Kreme, Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q and Mary Mac’s Tea Room and DJs played only music by Georgia artists. The committee also tried out food at 9 Mile Station on the rooftop of Ponce City Market and two Midtown eateries Lazy Betty and El Valle.” On Twitter, Urbanize Atlanta noted, “Well you can’t say we didn’t try.”
Curiouser and curiouser
Blooloop, a publication that provides “coverage about the attractions industry for attractions industry professionals” (such as museums, zoos and water parks), writes about Ideum, “an experiential designer of interactive exhibits,” and its work crafting two “enormous curiosity cabinets” at the New Mexico History Museum in Santa Fe. The cabinets showcase items in the inaugural installation of the New Mexico Showcase, Everyday Odysseys: Relics of Life & Adventure in New Mexico, for which there will be a ribbon cutting on Aug. 9. “Through the lens of curiosity and imagination, this exhibit explores the ordinary objects that have shaped the state’s rich and diverse heritage,” the state Department of Cultural Affairs writes in a news release. Blooloop provides extensive detail about the cabinets’ design and installation. For example, “each cabinet stands approximately 10 feet tall, 14 feet wide, and four feet deep. With 800 pounds of tactically hinged 10mm glass panels, each cabinet weighs approximately one ton. The cabinets also feature a bespoke, seamless design which complements the architecture of the gallery. They contain and conceal a huge structural beam, and their hinged doors provide curators with easy access to the cabinets from the front. This ease of access allows the exhibits to be regularly changed.”
Here comes the sun
The National Weather Service forecasts a sunny day, with a high temperature near 88 degrees, and east wind 5 to 10 mph becoming west later this morning. Stormy weather may return later this week.
Thanks for reading! The Word is perusing photos from Friday’s Best of Santa Fe party, while also watching for sharks in the ocean.