Commissioner candidates differ on child care and solar
Rebecca Busic and Rodney Cox took questions in Dolores on Wednesday. They meet again October 1 in Cortez.
The two candidates for the Montezuma County commissioner seat being vacated by Jim Candelaria took questions from an audience in Dolores on Wednesday evening and split on several of them, KSJD reported.
Republican Rodney Cox and Democrat Rebecca Busic appeared before about 80 people at a forum sponsored by the Montezuma County Democrats, moderated by KSJD news director L.P. McKay. Candelaria is term-limited. The race is on ballots countywide on November 3; our voter guide has the full list of what is on the ballot.
On the 2025 federal budget law known as the Big Beautiful Bill, which requires states to check Medicaid eligibility twice a year instead of annually, Cox said he supports the law and sees no problem with checking eligibility twice a year, adding that some services may need to be cut. He said he wants to be sure children and the elderly get the benefits they need. Busic said the extra checks come alongside new penalties for errors, which she said lands on the county’s social services department from several directions at once, and that fraud rates in the department are very low.
Both said the effect on Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez worries them. Cox said the hospital is critical to the local economy and that he would do anything he could to protect it, while noting commissioners have no direct role in running it. Busic said commissioners should take an active interest and press U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd to expand Medicaid rather than cut it, and suggested encouraging county employees to use the hospital system.
Child care drew the sharpest contrast. Cox said child care matters but county money should not pay for it, and argued that cutting regulation would let private providers meet the demand. Busic called child care infrastructure, said the supply has shrunk locally since the pandemic, and suggested bonuses for providers and possibly using county lodgers’ tax money.
On a proposed 125-megawatt solar facility east of Cortez, Cox said he opposes it and would rather see panels on existing buildings, though he noted that as a commissioner he would have to approve anything legal that fits the county land-use code. Busic said she was surprised by the opposition, and noted the county recently added language to its land-use code allowing large-scale solar. On data centers, Cox said he would fight any that draw on local water. Busic said she would put an immediate moratorium on data centers while the county learns more.
Asked to name a county decision they disagreed with, Busic pointed to the board’s April decision not to seek a grant for a summer lunch program; Cox said he would have rejected large-scale solar facilities. Both said they agreed with the decision not to put a rubbish ordinance on the November ballot. Both have said they support a 1 percent county sales tax, though none is on this year’s ballot.
Busic and Cox meet again Thursday, October 1, at 6 p.m. at the Cortez Chamber of Commerce building, 20 W. Main St.