Voters approve Paseo, minimum wage bonds

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Tuesday voters in Albuquerque headed to the polls with two important questions on the ballot: the Paseo del Norte-Interstate 25 interchange project and second raising the minimum wage.

Both bond questions passed.

The $50 million bond question to start work on the Paseo re-do was expected to pass easily and it did with more than 60% of the vote.

That means the first phase of construction on the interchange could begin as early as next summer.

The highly controversial minimum wage question which raises pay from $7.50 an hour to $8.50 an hour also passed.

An Albuquerque Journal poll last week of likely voters showed 62 percent were in support of the raise while 30 percent opposed it.  Eight percent of those polled were still undecided.

Tuesday night it also passed with more than 60% of the vote.

KRQE News 13 spoke with Mayor R.J. Berry Tuesday evening to get his reaction on outcome.

He said he will be on the phone with the department of transportation first thing Wednesday morning to try and get the project going.

He also spoke to the minimum wage increase.

"I don't think this was really an argument about, philosophically about do we want people to do better, I think my concern was more is this the right way to go about it," said Mayor Berry.

Despite that the Mayor says at the end of the day he works for the voters and he accepts their decision.

Even though the measure passed, it could be awhile before workers see the increase, opponents have threatened to sue and there is a chance the republican controlled city council could overrule the vote.

When it comes to the Paseo project, it was actually on the ballot twice, in addition to authorizing the city to issue $50 million in bonds, Bernalillo County voters approved $5 million to help the project too.