New Mexico lawmakers push forward on ‘traumatic’ budget; it could cost Doña Ana County $2.7M

SANTA FE, New Mexico — The state House of Representatives on Friday night approved a budget solvency plan that fills a gaping general fund deficit by harnessing federal recovery funds, tapping half the state’s financial reserves and pulling back spending increases.

General fund spending for the fiscal year that begins July 1 was revised downward to $7 billion from the previously approved $7.6 billion plan, while keeping spending increases on public education.

Pay increases for public employees at public schools and state agencies on July 1 are scaled back to 1% or less, from the original 4% hike. Only state employees earning less than $50,000 will receive a raise, and public school administrators are not eligible for the pay bump.

House legislators voted 46-24 along party lines on the bill that pulls back agency spending increases that were signed by Gov. Michell Lujan Grisham in March at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic in New Mexico. The plan cuts spending at state agencies, including the Legislature.

The cuts still leave legislators with another $1 billion future budget deficit to resolve when they meet again in 2021.

House finance committee Chairwoman Rep. Patricia Lundstrom of Gallup said further spending reductions are unwise until more is known about the economic impact of the national recession and New Mexico’s crucial oil sector.

“This is a very responsible budget in the face of some very unsure economic times,” she said “It is a framework for solvency because I believe we have a moral obligation to help people."

Republican lawmakers say the solvency plan doesn’t go far enough toward trimming annual spending obligations to offset a $2.4 billion decline in estimated state income for this fiscal year and next.

“To maintain this level of spending where going to have to raises taxes, and we don’t have rich (people) in New Mexico, so it’s going to hit families,” said GOP Rep. Jason Harper of Rio Rancho.

The Senate is drafting its own budget plan. Any differences must be reconciled before the governor considers the legislation.

"It's just traumatic. That's catastrophic," Democratic Sen. Jeff Steinborn of Las Cruces said in describing the $2.4 billion shortfall. "In the worst of times in my time in the Legislature, we had about a billion dollars. That was just epic in terms of the kinds of choices you're forced to make with education and healthcare - I mean, basic crucial things."

The Senate on Friday approved a bill that cancels up to $13 million in infrastructure projects that aren’t initiated by local governments within 90 says.

Democratic Sen. George Muñoz of Gallup said the bill puts local authorities on notice that they must move forward with job-creating construction projects quickly or risk losing state funding. The Legislature could recall more than $100 million when it meets again in January.

“You should move your projects along or you will lose them,” Muñoz said.

In Doña Ana County, about $2.7 million in projects could be impacted. Those include:

• $200,000 for a new activity bus in the Gadsden Independent School District
• $10,000 for improvements to the New America School in Las Cruces
• $100,000 for new sidewalks in La Union
• $2.4 million for a road between Santa Teresa and Sunland Park

The Senate also approved up to $500 million in low-interest loans from the state’s multi-billion-dollar severance tax permanent fund to support local businesses, nonprofit groups, local governments and tribal businesses that have experienced a sharp decline in revenues. Eligibility is capped at businesses with $5 million in annual revenues.

New Mexico legislators also pushed forward Friday with temporary election reforms and an initiative to require body cameras by all law enforcement officers.

On the second day of a special legislative session, the Democratic-led state Senate approved election changes aimed at making absentee balloting more reliable in November as residents flock to mail-in voting.

That bill also aims to ensure greater access to polling places in New Mexico’s Indigenous communities that have been hard-hit by the coronavirus. The Democrat-sponsored bill now moves to the House for consideration.

The election bill was approved 40-2 by the Senate. Sen. Democratic Sen. Bill Tallman voted against the bill because it was stripped of provisions to distribute absentee ballots directly to voters — even those who don’t request them. Absentee ballots are available only by request in New Mexico for any reason.

“Study after study has debunked the voter-fraud myth,” Tallman said.

The state Senate took up deliberation of a bill from Democratic Sen. Joseph Cervantes of Las Cruces that would require body cameras be worn by all law enforcement agencies and officers.

Cervantes' bill doesn't deal with chokeholds, because he said they already are a crime in New Mexico if they lead to great bodily harm or death.

In addition Friday, state representatives unanimously passed a proclamation celebrating Juneteenth. The holiday commemorates June 19, 1865, when enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, were informed of their freedom, two years after emancipation was put to paper.