A look at how New Mexico became the first state in the US with universal child care

SANTA FE, New Mexico (KVIA) - It took years for New Mexico to become the first state in the nation to offer universal child care. This month, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham cemented the vision into law.

The bill, signed March 10, originated from the most recent 30-day legislative session. One of the sponsors, Democratic State Sen. Linda Trujillo, who represents part of Santa Fe, said this has been a goal for a long time.

"To be honest with you. And it started way back in 2019. And it's just evolved from creating the early childhood department to 2020, creating the trust fund, for early childhood," she said. "We all became aware of it about two weeks into the session and started working on the language and making sure that we could all agree on it."

Part of the bill is ensuring $700 million in funding being given to the Early Childhood Education and Care Fund over the next five years, including an extra $106 million being added for the 2027 fiscal year.

Sen. Trujillo said during negotiations for the bill, the initial number was over one billion dollars in funding.

"The Senate had put that at $1.5 billion. The House reduced it down to $700 million, which is still sufficient to fund the program for the next five years," Trujillo said. "That money is coming out of the trust fund, which by the time we were deep into the session, we learned was actually over $11 billion."

The Trust fund was created in 2020, with an initial investment of $300 million according to Sen. Trujillo.

Another aspect of the bill is removing income limits for eligibility as well as eliminating co-pays for families unless their income is over 600% of poverty level wages.

Senator Trujillo said this is to account for the expenses working families have to deal with even if they are making enough to be in the middle or upper-middle class income level.

"When when you start looking at, you know, 600% of the poverty level, that's, that's $138,000 a year for a family of four. But that's before taxes, that's gross," Trujillo said. "You haven't paid your Social Security. You haven't, but potentially if you're a state or local, employee or if you have a retirement fund, you haven't paid into your retirement, you haven't paid your medical."

There are some restrictions, including a child having to be under 13 years old or 19 years old if they have a disability, as well as parents having to prove they have a job.

However, Sen. Trujillo said if parents are unemployed at the time of applying there's a grace period to find employment.

"You will have to verify that you're working right. There's going to be some sort of verification because this is available for working families or families that are going to school full time," Trujillo said. "There's a three month grace period, where child care is available if you're searching for a job. It's really going to remove and reduce, significant amount of bureaucracy that costs money."

This bill also adds $30 million in funding to increase the pay for child care workers, part of what Sen. Trujillo says is to stabilize the child care field in the state.

Parents like Maria Remondini welcomed this legislation, saying she's glad child care isn't going to be a financial burden to worry about anymore.

"We don't have to worry about. Can we afford to pay all of our, you know, electric bills and our gas bills and our vehicles," Remondini said. "My family. We have two good jobs. And we still were living paycheck to paycheck. So having this has been a really big blessing to us."

Tax breaks within the bill also benefit the business owners of daycare facilities as Trujillo put it, part the initiative to invest in families and reduce poverty in New Mexico.

The bill passed through the State Senate with a 25-15 vote.