Albuquerque voters will soon decide whether to strip themselves of veto power over a downtown performing arts center, one of the last questions tucked onto this year's ballot. The measure would repeal a decades-old city charter rule requiring voter approval before the city spends more than $10 million on such a facility, and it almost didn't make it onto any ballot at all.
The Albuquerque City Council voted unanimously to put the question in front of voters, according to KOAT. As the station reported, the city charter currently requires a public vote on any performing arts project that costs more than $10 million, and the council's measure would remove that requirement entirely. The vote that sent the question to this year's ballot actually happened back on March 3, 2025, when the council approved it 9-0, as City Desk ABQ reported.
A Clerical Error Delayed the Vote by a Year
Albuquerque voters were originally supposed to weigh in on the proposal during the 2025 election, but the city clerk's office forgot to include it on that November ballot. City Desk ABQ reported that a clerical error by the Clerk's Office left the charter amendment off the Nov. 4, 2025 municipal election ballot entirely. City Clerk Ethan Watson later confirmed the mistake, per the same outlet, and the office said it was exploring all options to ensure voters could weigh in on the matter as soon as possible.
Councilor Joaquín Baca, who has pushed for the change, noted that turnout usually drops compared to a general election, a dynamic that shaped how officials thought about rescheduling the question. The measure has since landed on this year's ballot, which Albuquerque voters will cast in the election taking place November 3, as part of the broader slate covered by KOB 4.
Where the Performing Arts Center Could Go
The underlying push for a downtown performing arts center has been in development for years, and Baca has pointed to a specific site: a city-owned parking lot just north of Civic Plaza, according to the Albuquerque Journal. Baca has said downtown Albuquerque lacks amenities found in other downtowns beyond a convention center, and he's argued a performing arts center could help change that. He has also said he introduced the charter measure because the $10 million threshold strikes him as an odd, singled-out clause in the city's governing document — one that doesn't apply to other big-ticket projects like roads and bridges.
Voters originally added that threshold, known as Section 7, to the city charter during a special election back in March 1991, the Journal's reporting notes. Baca has said repealing it would simply give city leaders more flexibility, though the ballot question itself does not ask voters whether to build a performing arts center or how much to spend on one — only whether to remove the requirement that they sign off first.
Critics Point to Other City Projects Gone Sideways
Not everyone is on board. Critics of the ballot measure point to other costly or delayed city projects as reasons to keep voters in the loop, including a pricey art bus initiative and Albuquerque's Route 66 visitors center. That $13 million visitors center, built with city, county and state money, was finished in 2022 but still hadn't opened to the public as of mid-2025, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The Rio Grande Foundation has also come out against the repeal, arguing that the current law simply gives voters the final say on how their own money is used, per Errors of Enchantment. That outlet's rundown of the 2026 ballot confirms the measure was originally meant for 2025 ballots but was accidentally omitted before resurfacing this year.
What Comparable Arts Centers Have Cost Elsewhere
The price tags on performing arts centers built in other cities vary widely, which helps explain why the $10 million threshold draws scrutiny either way. The Kirkwood Performing Arts Center outside St. Louis opened in 2021 at a cost of roughly $24 million, the Journal reported, while the Tanger Center in Greensboro, North Carolina, opened in 2020 with a $93 million price tag. San Antonio's Tobin Center, which opened in 2014, cost more than $200 million.
Albuquerque's charter proposition does not set a price for any future facility; it only addresses who gets to approve spending once a project clears the $10 million mark. That distinction is likely to remain central to the debate as the November 3 election approaches and voters decide whether to keep their own check on the city's checkbook.
