Log In


Reset Password
News Education Local News Nation & World New Mexico

Official: Cibola County may be bankrupt by end of February

GRANTS, N.M. – Officials say a New Mexico county is in deep financial trouble and may be bankrupt in 60 days.

The Gallup Independent reports Interim Cibola County Manager Valerie Taylor says the county is in “crisis mode,” and if it doesn’t “make significant changes,” it is “going to be insolvent by the end of February.”

Taylor says she contacted New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration Local Government Division Special Director Michael Steininger to straighten out the county’s finances.

The county overspent by $9.5 million from 2013 to 2016, and wrote a $7 million check to CoreCivic in November that bounced. The county has a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to serve as a pass-through for CoreCivic, which houses detainees of the federal agency at its prison in Milan.