I built custom homes for 35 years. Every single homeowner told me the same story. They went to the architect and said we have $300,000 total budget, the architect proceeded to design a $ 480,000 house That ended up costing $560,000 to build. It would be odd if it happened occasionally but I'm not kidding it was damn near every single time.

Why the hell is everybody blaming the architect. The city council had to approve the deal before construction began.

I only stumbled onto these KRQE investigative reports just today. Never realized how inept and corrupt New Mexico is. This sounds like one big money pit. It's been going on five years now. Was this ever completed?

How was that chairman, Martinez, still in charge of anything? The dude still didn't want to take responsibility and actually got combative. Tells you all you need to know about him. Just ridiculous.

Majestic! Monumental! Ostentatious! Absurd! Abandoned! This is what New Mexicos government can do for *YOU*!! I feel so much better about my own state after watching videos like this. Congratulations, New Mexico!

Arrogance exceeded only by corruption...

Corruption at its best.

every state needs a larry barker

Good job Larry!

The bank loan is also a tax increase.

The tax dollars that this state wastes on bullshit is unprecedented, having lived up east on the Atlantic coast,I can identify pocket lining crookbastard politicians and judges ,,, there ain't no shortage here.

New Mexico government defined!!

A local tax increase! Go figure!

I'm a New Yorker, but once lived in Alamosa, Colorado. The heating and cooling bills for the trailers has not been chump change. At least $7,000-$10,000 dollars in excess per year. Just sad, especially because NM cuts developers deals all the time. *"Hey, finish this building for us, and we'll give you a tax credit."* As a college dropout, I could list off ten ideas. Like taking 100 high school students and pairing them with said company to teach them a trade, and get the building done. It's embarrassing, that AmeriCorps NCCC has existed since 1994 and these jokers never called.

And when they finally do finish the job there will be a big brass plaque placed in a conspicuous place with the names of the commissioners names. Oh, the county will be sooo proud !!! This kind of crap seems to go on all the time in New Mexico. Thanks to Larry Barker and KRQE for their hard work.

They put the money in there pockets

Seems to me that the county should fall back on everyone who had their hands in the building of this center.

This reminds me of the jail they were building in Detroit and they ran out of money halfway through. It was prime, expensive real estate. A billionaire businessman offered to buy the half built jail so he could develop the property and pay to have a new jail built somewhere else but the city voted *NO* 😂😂

I don't understand how this happens. Oh wait is politicians getting their hands dirty.

If state money is used for local projects, then it should come with the requirement to complete the project as funded by the planned deadline or future funds for any purpose are cut off until the money is paid back. This would encourage smaller, more reasonable projects and fewer of them. Of course, since it isn't the politicians' money, there will be all kinds of waivers offered so such a requirement would have no teeth.

Their courthouse should send the sheriff to the architect, arrest him, and charge him with fraud of some sort.

More of my tax dollars and I don't even live in that county. Crooks in charge. It's not the contractors. It's the crooks in government that approved of the expense.

Jail time = decades. Seize every thing they own right down to their jewelry, sell it and put the proceeds in the county kitty.

Wasting our money is something that bureaucrats are good at. Add lying, stealing, harassing us - etc.

who has snowmobiles stored in the building??????? fire all involved to this point and get new people in there that will do their jobs

Homeless people should go live in it .

This is so corrupt the Taxpayers are getting ripped off by the City or County the Contractor reaps millions.

Did she actually say, "Mistakes were made?" She cannot be unaware of that classic bit of transparent dishonesty- it's a textbook case of government doublespeak.

Can We the people claim such buildings and turn them into manufacturing ? We have government buildings half finished all over the US. They are paid for by the people, so why not put them to good use. Now that Chinese products are unavailable, Americans can see that manufacturing must be rebuilt in America for our own survival.

Most of those people in the video starting when the Senators and then they got a big part of that money that just playing the part you know better than that

Sorry taxpayers you get what you vote for...

Taxpayers should be outraged people need to be in jail

Sounds like the commission knew that they’d eventually find the money

Just do a forensic audit of Peter Martinez, the architect, and the builder's finances....especially the way Nr. Martinez acted out on camera.....he's probably the weak link....

The frustrating thing is that Mora used to have a magnificent courthouse that was constructed in 1889 in stone in the Romanesque style. It was the pride of the county but they abandoned it in 1939 and let it burn down in the 1950s.

Hope they voted that fool commissioner out of office!

Who else saw snowmobiles in building?🤔

Use it for something. Send the homeless there. No need to waste more money to build homes for homeless.

In light of Corruption in US the Mora building project should be turned over to Homeless support services.

Put the county commission in tents until the quit

Architect and Contractor declare bankruptcy and the cost of the lawsuit will be added to the tab of correcting and completing the building.

Over time the county should shift more & more government offices into that new building. Good to hear the county is going to sue the entities involved in the initial construction.

What the hell is going on out there in NM?? Corrupt from top to bottom

I bet some politician made his family rich on this.

Of course they built at 12 million dollar building with a 5 million dollar budget that's government 101

Follow the money trail. Where does it lead? FOIA requests should be submitted. Who is responsible?

Vote them out!

Larry you are the best. That's a fact.

Bet nobody went to jail! Sick!

Court houses should be simple office buildings not ridiculous art projects

Sounds like unintelligent POLITITIONS doing what they do best, f over their communities!

And millions of people want to go to your country,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,WHY.

sublease part of the building to law offices, law library and other buildings.

First of all building should never have been approved when it went over budget.

Government doesn’t care how they spend taxpayers money! After all if they need more money they simply raise your taxes.

Get ‘em Larry!

1st Question: Why would any county resident WANT to use a COURT? Do the residents want to be criminals?

The World looks at the US and laughs hysterically! There is no shame in these shysters, they occupy nearly every government position in the US.

Tax Increase 🤷‍♂️

why did the board accept the 12 million plan and why did the board not put the job out to tender IN COM PET TENCE

Ok, We have a $5 million budget , Let’s build a $12 million structure. What could go wrong?

They raised taxes to help pay. NOT RIGHT

When buildings are left like this… they rot, from the inside out.

Imagine being sentenced to prison from a single wide trailer

wait, at 4:50. were those SNOWMOBILES!?!!?!?!

Sounds just like MDC which was built on reclaimed land leading to almost half of it being unusable

Common sense says if the person coming up with the plans goes over budget you get them down to where you need them to be in budget or you get someone else that can be well within budget.

Lol is it a casino??? What a fancy court house

Follow the money.

This is the third project I've seen bankrupting taxpayers. Turn bldg into low come housing and keep county in Mobil homes. Oh wait, the politicians keep getting paychecks and live in rich neighborhoods!

Poor government workers having to work out of mobile homes, imagine if they had to live in them like many people do.

Not just the citizens of Mora paid, all state monies given to the country come from All our taxes, not just the county. We all got screwed. Why didnt someone just say No to the architect.

Stupid people doing stupid things with other peoples money...

Telling you right now… money was used elsewhere and claimed it was for this building!

That commissioner should be fired

Cut there pay to pay for it

The contractor made a huge sum of money!

Wow its almost like they overpayed the developers and pocketed the difference.

I wouldn't live in NM for any reason.

Pathetic , Every day everywhere . Pathetic

Seems like New Mexico has a massive issue with scammy construction projects. Everything about a dozen different videos from different projects.

Is NM the most corrupt state in the union?

This is got to stop...vote liberals OUT!

Mora county voted for what they get, don’t cry wolf to the world , throw the thieves out of office and county.

And just think, there was a time when people thought Bill Richardson (former NM governor) would make a great POTUS… yeah, NO!

Dam New Mexico Got a phucked up System.... This the Second building they have up there that's just sitting around empty the other being a museum that was only used for 8-10 yrs then closed... WHAT A WASTE OF FUNDS!!!

You should have a landscape to save WATER!

Same thing is gonna end up happening with the high speed rail project in California. Pure government waste.

THATS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DON'T KEEP A A EYE ON THE Architect YOU SHOULD MAKE THE ARCHITECT PAY THE DIFFERENCE ALONG WITH THE PEOPLE THAT KNEW ABOUT WHAT WAS GOING ON.

Sounds like Chicago

Whats with the snowmobiles in the courthouse??

Martinez how do these get elected and re-elections

In California the state will pay counties more money for a building that is being leased than they will for a building that is owned. 20 years ago I worked for a county and there was one building that could house around 70 people that had 11 people sitting in it, that way could could maintain a 10 person average in order to get paid by the state for that building. That building was owned by the county. All the other filled to capacity buildings were leased. What I'm trying to say is it's always a money game.

SCAM the taxpayers and pocket it.

I'd like to take a look at this senator's campaign contributions

It's almost like they knew it would never get built so they built enough of a building to force the construction later.

Seems like this is happening in ruidoso right now, with like 8 million for road repairs and the "repairs" are half done and worse than before.

The Tal Mahal is a tomb too.

Who selected the architect and signed off on the plans?

Assign any task to a public governmental organization, even if it’s a modest sized little city or county government, all the way up to and including the U.S. Government, you run a high risk of something like this happening. Separation of the source of the money from the expenditure of the money brings in the reality of human nature wherein people spending their own money can be stingy, penny-pinching, tight-fisted, tireless bargain hunters who pore over the books in the middle of the night because they can’t sleep as they are so worried that they might have been taken advantage of somewhere along the way; yet those same people handling huge sums collected from immense hordes of nameless, faceless, dehumanized warm bodies (we’ve come to just calling them “Tax Payers” for heaven’s sake…); then suddenly they become capable of throwing money around like it was limitless, with their only responsibility being “just be sure to buy something nice… that we can all be proud of, and will look good to the voters. As long as voters continue to support the legislation and put into office the candidate that promises them the most “free stuff” - without regard for cost, whether in dollars or in personal liberties, without regard for patriotic duty, ethics, or setting of precedent, none of this is going to change. Something very close to this also dominates the world of those things typically paid for by insurance… like healthcare, for example; ESPECIALLY healthcare whose premiums are subsidized. This provides an additional degree of separation between the source of the money and the expenditure of the money. Even Scrooge can’t expect any form of ‘buyer protection’ or an itemized recipient for his taxes … he has been conditioned to accept that he will hand over his money, in the amount specified, at the time it is demanded, and if he might ask where it goes or what it paid for, he will be regarded as insane. Sufficiently conditioned to expect no accountability, the healthcare consumer doesn’t even look at the hospital bill, and in the absence of a buyer constantly complaining about prices and threatening to go to a competitor, PLUS being able to justify costs under the blanket of charging enough to cover liability insurance for the lawsuits historically brought in connection with any given product, removes from vendors any motivation to be competitive in their pricing. As long as the trial lawyers association has the legislators by the balls, this isn’t going to change either.