Senate Passes $10.22 Billion Budget

February 12, 2024

For Immediate Release

Contact:
Chris Nordstrum
(415) 601-1992
Chris.Nordstrum@nmlegis.gov

(SANTA FE, NM) – Today the New Mexico Senate fulfilled a key constitutional duty by passing House Bills 2 & 3, New Mexico’s budget for fiscal year 2025. With the revisions made in the Senate, the FY25 budget totaling $10.22 billion in recurring spending is almost $653 million, or 6.8 percent, above the FY24 budget. With this increased spending, state reserves will remain at 30 percent. Additionally, a transfer of $1.3 billion from the general fund to a number of new and existing trust funds will ensure the solvency of critical programs such as the Lottery and Opportunity Scholarships, as well as housing, natural resources, and government innovation demonstration projects.

The Senate Finance Committee made a number of revisions to House Bills 2 & 3, including:

• Cleaning up New Mexico’s roadways by allocating $220 million from the general fund for local infrastructure, roads, beautification, and litter control efforts. Taken together with Senate Bill 300, this represents a $747.8 million dollar investment in roads throughout the state.
• Updated classifications for the Tobacco Settlement Permanent Fund and new Government Recurring Opportunity (GRO) Fund, protecting New Mexico’s AA bond rating from S&P Global Ratings.
• Fully funds New Mexico’s universal free school meal program on a recurring basis, ensuring New Mexico’s students can focus on their studies and not their stomachs.
• Provides $10 million for updates to the State Equalization Guarantee funding formula, giving rural school districts and facilities additional resources for the 2024-2025 school year.
• Supporting literacy interventions, reading instruction, out-of-school time programming, summer enrichment, educator fellows, and high-dosage tutoring with over $50 million of funding for implementation.
• Boosting Medicaid reimbursement rates for all rural hospitals and providing an additional $8 million to increase DD provider rates.
• Funding New Mexico’s food banks with $5 million worth of support.
• Helping New Mexico’s seniors and those with disabilities by increasing supplemental SNAP benefits from $25 to $100 per month.
• Ensuring the continued operations of New Mexico’s smallest hospitals, with $50 million in urgent supplemental funding.
• Greenlighting recurring funding and support for veterans to support suicide prevention strategies, tranportation initiatives, burial equity, and homelessness intervention efforts.
• Doubling down on law enforcement recruitment efforts with $25 million allocated for recruitment of local law enforcement, correctional, and detention agencies. Additionally, there is now $25 million for the recruitment of statewide, local, and volunteer fire departments as well as $11 million for Emergency Medical Services. 

“Hold your head up high New Mexico, this is a budget we can all be proud of,” said Senate Finance Chair George Muñoz (D-Gallup). “We may be a small state, but we are not a poor state, and our budget reflects our values by looking out for those who need help the most.”

“Importantly, this budget transfers over a billion dollars from the general fund to a series of endowments and expendable trusts to support future spending on things like housing, conservation, water, and workforce development,” continued Senator Muñoz. “If you include the higher education trust fund currently working its way through the process, then the legislature is ensuring that $2.263 billion of the $3.479 billion in New Money is secured to address future liabilities of the state. With additional legislation being worked on, we’re also looking at never having to bond capital ever again. We are truly securing our fiscal future for generations to come.”

House Bills 2&3 now go back to the House of Representatives for concurrence.

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