The Roundhouse in Santa Fe. Post file photo
By Milan Simonich
The Santa Fe New Mexican
Legislators live to talk. Truth is the first casualty of their off-the-cuff orating.
Here’s what state Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, publicly said this week about a film and production company in his hometown.
“A couple years ago we had a nice announcement for a big film production studio coming to Las Cruces, 828 Productions. They were going to film their first production in May of 2022,” Cervantes said during a public hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Wrong. Not until August of 2022 did 828 Productions announce it would relocate from California to Las Cruces. The company officially signed an agreement for certain financial incentives from state government in March 2023.
Cervantes had much more to say about 828 Productions failing to deliver. “They were going to invest a hundred million dollars with high-paying jobs in Las Cruces,” he said. “We put [Local Economic Development Act] money into it. The city of Las Cruces put money into it. The governor came down, a $3 million ribbon cutting, the whole bit.”
Spending $3 million to snip a ribbon would have been a monumental scandal. That one would have spawned war-size headlines — if it were true.
Cervantes jumbled words and large numbers to deliver inaccurate claims. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in August 2022 announced the state would pledge $3 million in job-creation funds as the company “meets its job target of at least 100 full-time, year-round employees.”
The most recent statistics on employment at 828 Productions are from 2023. The company had 12 direct employees and six indirect employees, according to the state Economic Development Department. Workers received an average annual salary of $63,000 and the company’s payroll was $751,000.
But 2023 was an off year for movie production companies nationwide because of a five-month strike by screenwriters. Production was halted as members of the Writers Guild of America struck from early May until reaching an agreement with major studios in late September. Like turning around an aircraft carrier, restarting the movie business took time.
Todd Lundbohm, founder of 828 Productions, told me he was perplexed by Cervantes’ comments.
“All I can say in response is this: 2024 was 828’s first full year as a New Mexico film partner, and in that year alone we brought over $100 million in production spend to the state and created hundreds of jobs for New Mexicans. If you’re wondering where your indie film partner is, we’re right here,” Lundbohm said.
Cervantes’ kicker during his comments to the Judiciary Committee was a complaint that 828 Productions had not renovated buildings to house its studios. “There’s not been a stone turned, right?” he said.
But the governor in 2022 said the film company planned within six years to invest $75 million to build a 300,000-square-foot studio and a 20-acre back lot.
In a text message on Tuesday, Cervantes seemed to yield on his criticism of no stone being turned: “So they have 3½ years to complete that construction,” the senator wrote.
Exactly. That leads to the question of why Cervantes ripped a new company advancing a clean industry that can put people to work.
The reason seemed to be one of Cervantes’ ongoing concerns about how the state does business: “New Mexico is increasingly and notoriously gullible to the economic projections of various investments,” he said.
Cervantes cited 13-year-old Spaceport America as one business that has not generated enough revenue for the state after receiving enormous financial contributions from taxpayers.
He was on the right track for a moment. But going after Lundbohm’s 828 Productions was a derailment in logic. The film company is a modest, nascent enterprise compared to the Spaceport.
Cervantes tearing into a movie business was reminiscent of another politician from Las Cruces, former Gov. Susana Martinez. A Republican, Martinez spent the first months of her administration complaining about tax rebates for companies that make movies and television series in New Mexico.
Martinez later reversed herself. She began taking credit for successes of the state’s television and movie industry.
As for Cervantes, he went on another screed after knocking the Spaceport and the movie production company.
This happened during Sen. Katy’s Duhigg’s presentation of a bill to outlaw certain words on personalized license plates.
“I’m looking at ‘profane.’ I don’t know what ‘profane’ is, either,” Cervantes said.
He shifted to off-color anecdote at that point. Speaking to Duhigg, Cervantes said: “I think I said in a committee earlier today, in your committee, I think I used the word bulls—, which I shouldn’t use. And I’m sorry and I apologize for saying bulls—. But I guess some people think that I’m full of bulls—.”
Who said politicians lack self-awareness?
Ringside Seat is an opinion column about people, politics and news. Contact Milan Simonich at mismonich@sfnewmexican.com or 505.986.3080.