New Mexico officials say federal cuts will probably deepen children and senior hunger - Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
Congress’ recent paring back of federal food programs will impact New Mexico’s food from the farm to the table, state officials told lawmakers Monday.
At a Las Cruces hearing, state agency deputies overseeing New Mexico’s agriculture, food assistance programs, school lunches and senior care told the interim Water and Natural Resource Committee cuts will likely deepen children and senior hunger.
However, the full impacts of the Congressional spending bill signed by President Trump in July remain uncertain, they told lawmakers, as some cuts go into effect immediately, but others are implemented in later years.
State lawmakers have met over the summer to address cuts to federal programs like Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as New Mexico ranks the highest enrollments per capita in both programs. Members of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office has said she will call a special session in late August or September to address federal policies.
Just over one in five New Mexicans — 457,655 participants — use SNAP benefits and nearly 40% are children. Niki Kozlowski, the acting deputy secretary for the state’s Health Care Authority told lawmakers that cutting eligibility and stricter enforcement of work requirements will likely worsen outcomes for low-income children.
“We have a very high rate of child food insecurity, about 23%, which we do believe is likely to worsen due to the downstream impacts of this bill,” Kozlowski said.
While $5.5 million of the cuts to school SNAP programs are not immediate, the state is working to transition schools to a different federal program, said Michael Chavez, the senior manager for student success and wellness at the state’s education department.
“We’ve got to stay ahead of the curve of what these cuts are going to be,” Chavez told Source NM.
The state’s senior population also has the fifth highest poverty rate in the nation with 64,000 New Mexicans over 60 years old receiving SNAP benefits as of fiscal year 2022.
“The impact of funding cuts, although unknown, is very alarming for this population because we do know that our aging population is growing and they’re in need,” said Denise King, who directs aging network services for the New Mexico Aging and Long-Term Services Department.
Reduced federal funds will impact state programs for produce safety inspections and climate funding for sustainable farming, Les Owen, the deputy director at the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, said.
The 40% reduction in the federal budget will not impact actual inspections of produce, but will limit how much outreach and education the agency can do. Owen also noted the U.S. Department of Agriculture canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in funding, which impacted a few programs in New Mexico for soil health and reducing carbon in ranching.
Originally, New Mexico was awarded funds for 22 projects according to a USDA dashboard, but Owen said he didn’t have a full figure of the grant cuts when reached by Source NM.
“All of these changes, the shake-ups and the reorganizations have created just a tremendous amount of uncertainty,” he said.
APS board can approve Albuquerque teachers union new contract at upcoming meeting - Noah Alcala Bach, Albuquerque Journal
The Albuquerque Teachers Federation’s contract for the next two years could be approved by the Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education on Wednesday.
Among the most notable negotiated changes are a new policy that allows new teachers to have a minimum of two workdays to prepare to begin teaching and increased compensation for some teachers’ work outside of classrooms.
Ahead of the new school year, Superintendent Gabriella Blakey told the Journal she saw no issues with the negotiated changes in the contract.
According to longtime ATF President Ellen Bernstein, over 2,500 union members voted, with 97% voting yes to approve the ratified contract. The board now has the final say on its approval.
The contract currently appears on the meeting’s consent agenda and is slated for essentially automatic approval unless a board member requests that it be pulled for discussion.
The last time the board voted to approve a contract with the teachers’ union was in August 2023. It passed on a 4-3 vote, with former Board Member Peggy Muller-Aragón and current Board Members Courtney Jackson and Crystal Tapia-Romero voting against it.
Also on Wednesday’s agenda, the board will receive a report from district leadership on the progress the district is making toward its goals regarding high school graduates’ readiness.
The latest report shows continued progress the district is making toward its goal of improving student outcomes.
According to agenda materials, the students monitored are surpassing benchmark goals set for them. To achieve that goal, students must earn credits in two Advanced Placement or Dual Credit courses or receive a bilingual or industry certification.
For the last school year, nearly 46% of graduates accomplished the feat, above the goal of roughly 42%. By 2028, the district hopes that around half of its graduates will hit the set threshold.
The previous school year’s numbers represent an over 3 percentage point increase from the 2023-24 school year.
NM Attorney General files petition to remove Gallup district attorney from office - Dan Boyd, Albuquerque Journal
In a move that could break a tense legal stalemate, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed a petition Monday seeking to remove the McKinley County district attorney from office for failing to adequately do her job.
The petition filed in the state Supreme Court alleges that Bernadine Martin, the embattled district attorney, has violated state procurement laws, created a hostile work environment and relied on contract attorneys after running off all staff attorneys in her office.
She also broke state law by engaging in private legal practice while serving as district attorney, the state Department of Justice alleged in its court filing.
"In effect, respondent is the elected district attorney in name only," Edward Marshall, the director of government litigation in Torrez's office, wrote in the 25-page petition.
"She has delegated her responsibilities and the trust of her constituents to hired guns whom she does not supervise, evaluate, or direct on either law or policy," he added.
The Supreme Court filing comes two months after the state Department of Justice launched an investigation into Martin's job performance at the request of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.
It also comes as Martin has defended her job performance and sought emergency state dollars following a legislative vote to defund her office.
The defunding, which took effect for the budget year that started July 1, was orchestrated by Senate Finance Committee Chairman George Muñoz, D-Gallup. Muñoz has described the drastic budgetary action as a last resort, after he was approached by judges and public defenders with concerns over mismanagement and heavy case loads in Martin's office.
The district attorney has pushed back against the allegations, and argued in a Supreme Court filing of her own the defunding represented an unlawful overreach by the Legislature.
However, the Supreme Court denied her petition, and two separate requests for emergency funding from the state Board of Finance were similarly denied.
The second of those requests was rejected Monday, with the Board of Finance voting 3-1 to deny her request for $3.8 million in emergency funds.
"We don't need to be involved in any way, shape or form," board member Michael Sanchez, a former state senator, said at one point during the hearing.
Few cases of NM public officials being removed
Martin, who is the state’s first female Navajo district attorney, was reelected last year as the top prosecutor for the second division of the 11th Judicial District.
She did not immediately respond Monday to a request for comment about the removal petition.
Earlier this month, Martin held a news conference in Gallup in an attempt to rally support for her cause. But she faced mostly questions and criticism from community members, including family members of crime victims, before abruptly ending the event.
Martin has denied suggestions about a hostile work environment, while insisting she will not hand over operations of her office to San Juan County District Attorney Jack Fortner, who received the bulk of the funding for the McKinley County District Attorney's office under the legislative budget plan.
Under state law, district attorneys can only be removed from office in certain circumstances, including conviction of a felony offense, failure to discharge the duties of the office and gross incompetency or negligence.
The Department of Justice petition claims Martin meets two of those criteria — the ones dealing with the duties of her office and gross incompetency or negligence.
However, it's not common for New Mexico officials to be removed from elected office.
Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin was removed in September 2022 by a state judge for his role in Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C.
Before that, former Public Regulation Commissioner Carol Sloan was removed from the Public Regulation Commission in 2010 after being convicted of felony charges for attacking a woman she believed was having an affair with her husband.
Hostile work environment claims
Much of the Department of Justice's petition seeking Martin's removal focuses on her handling of the McKinley County District Attorney's office.
There were 11 staff attorneys employed by the office when Martin was first elected in 2020, but most of those attorneys began leaving shortly after she took office, the petition alleges, putting a heavy strain on those who remained.
Investigators cited one instance when a staff attorney was fired by Martin in a courtroom. They also talked to former chief deputy district attorney Mandana Shoushtari, who said she was handling more than 900 cases in 2024 and "literally was cracking under the pressure."
Shoushtari was asked to resign in September 2024, and no staff attorneys are currently employed by the office. Instead, the office relies on two contract attorneys, whose contracts were renewed on July 1 even though there were no funds in the district attorney's budget to do so, according to the court petition.
The petition also alleges Martin violated state law by using state funds to prepare her court filings challenging the defunding of her office. She also reportedly used state funds to pay her Navajo Nation Bar dues.
Meanwhile, it's unclear how quickly the Supreme Court might act on the removal petition, as no court dates had been set as of late Monday.
NM Courts announce funding for behavioral health regions - Source New Mexico
Local, tribal or quasi-government organizations are eligible for up to $45,000 in each of New Mexico’s 13 behavioral health regions, the state Administrative Office of the Courts announced on Monday.
The money will be used to support regional behavioral health planning as required under new Behavioral Health Reform and Investment Act — passed by state lawmakers and enacted earlier this year — which seeks to rebuild behavioral health services in the state.
The law requires the Administrative Office of the Courts to divide the state into behavioral health regions, each of which will identify five behavioral health priorities over the next four years.
Last May, Health Care Authority Behavioral Health Services Division Director Nick Boukas laid out a timeline for implementing the law, which the statutorily created five-member Behavioral Health Reform and Investment Act Executive Committee approved earlier this month.
“This funding will help each behavioral health region identify its priorities, engage stakeholders and create an implementation plan that reflects available resources and addresses community needs,” AOC Director Karl Reifsteck, a member of the state’s Behavioral Health Reform and Investment Act Executive Committee, said in a statement.
An AOC news release says the “planning funding process encourages stakeholders in each region to collaborate in
identifying an entity – such as a local or tribal government – to apply for funding and coordinate” the planning work.
Any entity that applies for funding will be required to have a letter of support from county managers in each of the counties within their regions. The money for planning can cover work such as establishing committees; organizing community meetings; and hosting workshops.
Regions are required to co-host at least one community listening session as directed by AOC, according to a memo from the court’s Behavioral Health Investment and Reform Administrator Esperanza Lucero.
Requests for planning funding must be submitted to the AOC by Sept. 30, and will be proceeded by two informational sessions at the end of August and the beginning of September.
“The funding will lay the foundation to build a sustainable regional network for delivering behavioral health services to New Mexicans,” Lucero said in a statement.