Lt. Governor Diane Denish has been stonewalling requests to produce all documents showing how she spent $225,000 in federal stimulus money.  When she has produced documents, they have shown her spending federal stimulus funds on political campaigns and extravagant use of state airplanes.  Her office has been forced to admit improper use of these funds. The unanswered question remains:  what’s in the documents she’s holding back?

On September 28, 2009, New Mexico Watchdog submitted a request under the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act to inspect and copy

all documents concerning or containing information about how funds received by the Lt. Governor under the 2003 Job Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act were spent.  To aid in your compliance with this request, according to reports by the Department of Finance and Administration, the Office of the Lt. Governor received $225,000 undeer the 2003 Job Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act for “various project.”

It was the “various projects” language that piqued our interest.  We had never seen an appropriation that let the recipient spend federal money however they chose.  We decided to look into it.