New Mexico has added more than 1,000 jobs since Jan. 1 thanks in part to financial incentives from the state.

Health company creates 614 jobs in state

Standing before a blue backdrop reading "Jobs for New Mexico’s future," Gov. Bill Richardson today announced the creation of 614 new jobs in New Mexico, thanks in part to financial incentives from the state.

By Shea Andersen
Tribune Reporter

Richardson made the announcement at Cardinal Health’s facility in Albuquerque. That company, which employs 1,000 people in New Mexico – 260 of them in Albuquerque – will be adding 155 new, skilled and well-paid jobs to its Albuquerque facility.

The company is a contract manufacturer of sterile drugs for the pharmaceutical industry.

Most of the new hires will be manufacturing technicians and laboratory staff, said Art Solomon, senior vice president for Cardinal Health.

"I would say the vast majority of these will be local people," Solomon said.

Even as Richardson spoke, construction workers were continuing work on an addition to the Cardinal Health building in the North I-25 business district.

Richardson said 1,051 new jobs have been created in New Mexico since January 1.

"Jobs is what it’s all about, new jobs," Richardson said.

Those jobs are created in part because of grants New Mexico gives to companies who plan to expand their operations here. Cardinal Health, for example, received about $600,000 from the state’s In-Plant Training Fund, which the Legislature boosted to $15 million this year.

The fund is managed by a committee that reviews applications from companies who want to expand in New Mexico, using New Mexico workers.

Rick Homans, the state’s Secretary of Economic Development, said he was especially proud that of the 614 new jobs announced today, 415 were in rural New Mexico, including Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad in Clovis, which will be adding 80 new jobs at an average wage of $19.23 per hour.

"When we announce 80 jobs in Clovis that pay $80,000 with benefits, that is like 1,000 jobs (in Albuquerque)," Homans said. "Those jobs don’t come easy."

Asked why a massive company like Cardinal Health, which employs 50,000 people worldwide, needs incentives from New Mexico to grow, Richardson said the incentives sent a message.

"We want to send a message that the state, even symbolically, wants to be supportive," Richardson said.

What was also clear was that Richardson and staff were taking notes during the visit of President Bush to Albuquerque this month. The blue backdrop Richardson stood before read "Jobs for New Mexico" over and over, like the backdrops Bush employs in his own media events.

"How do you guys like this, like President Bush, huh?" Richardson joked to the crowd.

http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/news03/051903_news_homjobs.shtml