NM Governor’s office proposes $11.3B state budget and increased spending
–Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office on Monday unveiled a budget recommendation for the upcoming fiscal year that includes increased spending for universal child care, along with additional funding to compensate for federal cuts.
Lawmakers will convene for 30 days in Santa Fe beginning on Jan. 20 to craft a budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
The governor’s $11.3 billion budget recommendation represents a $502.8 million increase over the budget for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. During a news conference, Lujan Grisham’s chief of staff and several cabinet secretaries attributed the proposed increased spending largely to the governor’s universal childcare initiative, as well as funding changes related to HR1, commonly known as Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
The proposed budget calls for an additional $160.6 million for the state Early Childhood Education and Care Department’s universal childcare program, which began in November. That brings the overall cost of childcare to $606.4 million, according to the executive budget recommendation.
“Even as we confront unprecedented federal funding challenges, we remain in the strongest financial position in state history. This budget puts that strength to work for families, students and communities across New Mexico,” Lujan Grisham, who’s entering her final year as governor, wrote in a statement. “I look forward to working with the Legislature to pass a budget that reflects our shared values.”
Under the proposed budget, the state would keep about $3.4 billion in reserves.
“We feel strongly that this is a responsible budget. We have seen massive increases over the years. This is definitely slowing down from those,” said Daniel Schlegel, Lujan Grisham’s chief of staff. “Thirty percent reserves, I’d reiterate, is a very big cushion for us moving forward.”
State spending is often categorized as “recurring” — creating new staff positions at state agencies or paying for employee health care premiums — and “non-recurring” — one-time expenses like road construction projects. The slowed growth reflected in the proposed budget primarily affects recurring spending.
State economists earlier this month briefed lawmakers on the state’s economic outlook. They said New Mexico is “treading water,” while much of the nation is in or near a recession, and attributed the stalled revenue to lower oil prices and corporate income taxes codified in HR1. They also predicted further revenue declines amid federal cuts to programs like Medicaid and SNAP.
“My expectation is that the Legislative Finance Committee will come in a little bit lower than this budget, which happens pretty much every year,” Schlegel said. “We’ve been driving toward universal childcare and universal pre-K since the start of this administration, and that’s no secret. That’s something that we have as a shared priority with the Legislature. I think that figuring out a way to fully fund it is going to require some creativity between us and the Legislature.”
He said the governor’s staff believe the program should fall under recurring spending as a top priority for the state, but said he expects “productive negotiations” in the 30-day session around finding ways to consistently fund it into the future.
Sales taxes are expected to be the state’s largest source of general fund revenue next fiscal year at $5.5 billion, according to the proposed budget.
Schlegel acknowledged the challenges that come with the slowed growth, but said the state remains in a strong position to spend on non-recurring projects.
He offered the governor’s 50-year Water Action Plan, which Lujan Grisham announced last year amid reports that the state’s water supply will decline by up to 25% in the coming decades, as an example. Monday’s budget recommendation would devote $232 million across several state agencies in non-recurring spending to implement the plan. That $232 million would go toward restoration programs in the New Mexico Environment Department, the Office of the State Engineer’s Water Rights Settlement Funds, programs aimed at conserving water in agriculture at New Mexico State University and more.
The budget proposal includes $57 million to implement a wage scale and career mobility framework in the childcare, early intervention and prekindergarten workforce across the state. It also recommends directing $16.5 million to the Children, Youth and Families Department’s Juvenile Justice Service Division because of the increased number of children detained across the state.
It also includes a recommendation to spend $13.5 million on public safety pay raises that would apply to law enforcement personnel and fire response hotshot crews. The governor’s office previously confirmed to Source NM that public safety will be on her legislative agenda in January.
LFC report: Improving New Mexico's criminal justice system could lie in better data sharing
–John Miller, Albuquerque Journal
The key to driving down stubbornly high crime rates and improving judicial efficiency in New Mexico may lie in revised data collection and tracking by local law enforcement in conjunction with the state, an analysis presented to the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee found last week.
“Despite large investments by you, the Legislature, violent crime rates remain high and accountability has not become more swift or certain," Stephanie Joyce, LFC program evaluator, said at the opening of the presentation to the nonpartisan committee last Thursday.
Joyce presented the 64-page report, titled "Policy Spotlight: Felony Arrests and Outcomes," along with fellow analysts John Valdez and Garrett Moseley.
The analysts found that roughly half of law enforcement agencies in the state were not current in their reporting of crime or clearance rates to the New Mexico Department of Public Safety as of September, a requirement under state law. DPS reports data it receives from police agencies in New Mexico to the FBI, a system of information sharing in place in the state since 2008.
But in 2018 the FBI switched the way it would compile crime data going forward, from the previous Summary Reporting System (SRS) to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). Since the switch, many law enforcement agencies in New Mexico, and elsewhere in the country, have not kept up with annual reporting of crime data.
According to the report, the data that is available from 2024 showed the highest number of crimes were reported in Albuquerque — the state's most populous city by far — but the smaller municipalities of Gallup, Taos and Belen had higher overall crime rates, meaning reported offenses per 100,000 people.
A footnote in the data table reads: "Not all jurisdictions report data to NIBRS."
The LFC report found that despite more than $380 million in one-time funding awarded by the Legislature to improve staffing and information-sharing across the criminal justice system since fiscal year 2021, there were significant gaps in crime data gathering across the state.
"Several large agencies have recently cautioned they have been reporting inaccurately for years," the report states. "Court filings for felony crimes have not shifted substantially, suggesting arrest rates are probably roughly the same as in FY18."
The findings cast doubt on the state's current body of criminal justice data, which has noted precipitous declines in both violent and property crimes.
The analysts recommended an incentive — tying grant funding for local law enforcement agencies to how well they report crimes.
“The central theme is to get better information to people at all levels of the system to help them make better decisions," Joyce said.
That extends to local law enforcement agencies themselves, half of which responded to a survey commissioned by the committee that they don't use real-time crime data to determine where officers should be deployed and when.
The committee also recommended shifting responsibility for its crime data-sharing network from the New Mexico Sentencing Commission to the Administrative Office of the Courts, the state judicial system's central support agency.
Despite recent reforms, felony cases also continue to crawl through New Mexico's state district court system, with courts resolving only about 79% of felony cases within 365 days on average, well below national rates. The number of hearings and continuances, or delays, in a court system was the greatest predictor of case efficiency.
The New Mexico Supreme Court in recent years has enacted new rules to speed up case processing in state courts. In the 1st Judicial District in July, for example, the high court issued a new rule requiring criminal cases to be resolved within seven to 10 months, except for those of "unusually high complexity."
During last week's presentation, the committee recommended the Administrative Office of the Courts standardize performance tracking and guidance on best practices to further improve case processing speeds.
Analysts also suggested assigning universal case numbers that would apply to all court events tied to the same crime, creating an automated notification system to alert parties to activities in cases they're tracking, a "functioning" victim notification system and ensuring more consistent fingerprinting of people arrested for misdemeanor or felony crimes, which Joyce said remains the gold standard when tracking defendants whose other identifiers might change over time.
Red River candidate contests one-vote election loss
—Taos News
In Red River, a Town Council candidate who lost by a single vote has filed a petition in state District Court asking a judge to delay final approval of the Nov. 4 regular local election. The petition claims that people who cast ballots were not legal residents of the town.
The Taos News reports James Michael Nail submitted the petition on Dec. 3. The case was assigned to 8th Judicial District Court Judge Steven Romero.
Justin Brandenburg won one of two council seats up for election with 101 votes, according to official results, while Angela Howles-Black garnered the second seat with 98 votes. Nail got 97 votes and candidate Brian Waltz had 88 votes in the four-way race.
In an interview with The Taos News, Nail said he believes at least nine voters on the town’s rolls do not live within Red River’s municipal boundaries.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that results in the Nov. 4 elections in New Mexico, a total of 10 council, school board or mayoral races this year were decided by five or fewer votes. All of those races were in small towns.
New Mexico state Senate minority leader again proposes longshot tax system overhaul
—Santa Fe New Mexican
New Mexico Senate minority leader Bill Sharer has presented a plan to simplify the state tax code by calling for a flat 2% gross receipts tax without exemptions.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that Sharer has presented the proposal in the past. New Mexico imposes a tax on most business transactions called a gross receipts tax, with a base rate of about 5 percent. However, the current gross receipts tax code contains 356 exemptions, credits and deductions.
Under the Farmington Republican’s proposal, the exemptions would be “almost all” eliminated and the state rate would be reduced to 2%, although counties and localities could still levy their own gross receipts taxes on top of that.
Colorado River water negotiators appear no closer to long-term agreement
—Jessica Hill, Associated Press
The seven states that rely on the Colorado River to supply farms and cities across the U.S. West appear no closer to reaching a consensus on a long-term plan for sharing the dwindling resource.
The river's future was the center of discussions this week at the annual Colorado River Water Users Association conference in Las Vegas, where water leaders from California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming gathered alongside federal and tribal officials.
It comes after the states blew past a November deadline for a new plan to deal with drought and water shortages after 2026, when current guidelines expire. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has set a new deadline of Feb. 14.
Nevada's lead negotiator said it is unlikely the states will reach agreement that quickly.
“As we sit here mid-December with a looming February deadline, I don’t see any clear path to a long-term deal, but I do see a path to the possibility of a shorter-term deal to keep us out of court,” John Entsminger of the Southern Nevada Water Authority told The Associated Press.
An essential resource
More than 40 million people across seven states, Mexico and Native American tribes depend on the water from the river. Farmers in California and Arizona use it to grow the nation's winter vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage and carrots. It provides water and electricity to millions of homes and businesses across the basin.
But longstanding drought, chronic overuse and increasing temperatures have forced a reckoning on the river's future. Existing water conservation agreements that determine who must use less in times of shortage expire in 2026. After two years of negotiating, states still haven't reached a deal for what comes next.
The federal government continues to refrain from coming up with its own solution — preferring the seven basin states reach consensus themselves. If they don't, a federally imposed plan could leave parties unhappy and result in costly, lengthy litigation.
Not only is this water fight between the upper and lower basins, individual municipalities, tribal nations and water agencies have their own stakes in this battle. California, which has the largest share of Colorado River water, has over 200 water agencies alone, each with their own customers.
“It’s a rabbit hole you can dive down in, and it is incredibly complex,” said Noah Garrison, a water researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles.
No deal emerges
During a Thursday panel of state negotiators, none appeared willing to bend on their demands. Each highlighted what their state has done to conserve water, from turf-removal projects to canal lining in order to reduce seepage, and they explained why their state can’t take on more. Instead, they said, others should bear the burden.
Entsminger, of Nevada, said he could see a short-term deal lasting five years that sets new rules around water releases and storage at Lakes Powell and Mead — two key reservoirs.
Lower Basin states pitched a reduction of 1.5 million acre-feet per year to cover a structural deficit that occurs when water evaporates or is absorbed into the ground as it flows downstream. An acre-foot is enough water to supply two to three households a year.
But they want to see a similar contribution from the Upper Basin. The Upper Basin states, however, don’t think they should have to make additional cuts because they already don’t use their full share of the water and are legally obligated to send a certain amount of water downstream.
“Our water users feel that pain,” said Estevan López, New Mexico's representative for the Upper Colorado River Commission.
Upper Basin states want less water released from Lake Powell to Lake Mead.
But Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, said he hasn’t seen anything on the table from the Upper Basin that would compel him to ask Arizona lawmakers to approve those demands.
Within the coming weeks, the Bureau of Reclamation will release a range of possible proposals, but it will not identify a specific set of operating guidelines the federal government would prefer.
Scott Cameron, the bureau's acting commissioner, implored the states to find compromise.
“Cooperation is better than litigation,” he said during the conference. “The only certainty around litigation in the Colorado River basin is a bunch of water lawyers are going to be able to put their children and grandchildren through graduate school. There are much better ways to spend several hundred million dollars.”
States brace for Trump push to make oil drilling cheap again.
—Morgan Lee, Associated Press
A Republican push to make drilling cheaper on federal land is creating new fiscal pressure for states that depend on oil and gas revenue, most notably in New Mexico, which is trying to expand early childhood education and save for the future.
The shift stems from a signature tax and spending cut law President Donald Trump signed in July that rolls back the minimum federal royalty rate to 12.5%. That rate — the share of production value companies must pay to the government — held steady for more than a century under the 1920 Mineral Leasing Act, until it was raised to 16.7% by the Biden administration in 2022.
Trump and Republicans in Congress say the rate reset will boost energy production, jobs and affordability as the administration clears the way for expanded drilling and mining on public lands.
The stakes are highest in New Mexico, the largest recipient of federal mineral lease payments. The state could could miss out on $1.7 billion by 2035 and as much as $5.1 billion by 2050, according to calculations by economist Brian Prest at Resources for the Future.
After New Mexico, the states receiving the most federal oil and gas royalties are Wyoming, Louisiana, North Dakota and Texas.
NM advocacy groups, residents file motion to intervene in feds’ voter data lawsuit against state — Julia Goldberg, Source NM
Nonprofit good government group Common Cause, along with two New Mexico residents, have filed a motion to intervene in the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit against New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver.
Lawyers from the ACLU National Voting Rights Project and ACLU of New Mexico are representing them.
As Source NM previously reported, the federal agency began asking state election officials for their voter rolls last July. Toulouse Oliver told Source at the time her office was “reviewing whether or not we are legally able to prevent sending the private data, which would be Social Security, all dates of birth and driver’s license numbers.”
Ultimately, the New Mexico Secretary of State says it provided the federal government with publicly available data roll information, which excluded Social Security numbers and full dates of birth.
On Dec. 2, the US DOJ announced it was suing New Mexico and several other states for not providing the requested data.
In the filing arguing for the right to intervene in the case, Common Cause contends that it has more than 9,000 members and supporters in New Mexico “whose personal data will be provided to the federal government if DOJ prevails in this lawsuit.”
In addition to Common Cause, proposed intervenors include registered New Mexico voter Claudia Medina, who has lived in the state for more than three decades. Born in Colombia, Medina moved to the United States to attend graduate school and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1995, the suit says, and registered to vote the same day. “She has voted regularly in local, state, and federal elections ever since.”
However, the filing notes, Medina “is concerned about how DOJ might use her sensitive voter data, particularly in light of widely reported recent examples of the federal government’s provision of data to unvetted members of the Department of Government Efficiency …without adequate guardrails or privacy protections.” As such, Medina “fears that the federal government’s efforts to gain voters’ sensitive information will make eligible voters—especially naturalized citizens like herself— ‘less likely to register to vote or even just to vote..’”
Another proposed intervenor, Justin Allen, is described in the filing as a registered New Mexico voter and lifelong New Mexico resident.
“As a young gay man, Mr. Allen’s family did not accept his homosexuality, which led him to engage in ‘self-defeating behaviors such as substance abuse,’ resulting in criminal felony convictions and his incarceration,” the suit says.
While incarcerated, Allen “came to understand the importance of using his voice and exercising his rights, and after his release, he registered to vote when he became eligible to have his rights restored. He also became “a leading advocate for New Mexico’s Voting Rights Act, including the provision focusing on restoration of formerly incarcerated people’s right to vote.”
Allen doesn’t feel safe “knowing that there is a chance” the Trump administration will have his data “and the data of every other registered New Mexican voter,” and he believes that formerly incarcerated people, “despite their voting rights having been restored, will either not register to vote or not vote if the Trump Administration has access to their voter registration information.”
According to a news release, Common Cause previously filed a lawsuit in Nebraska to protect state voter data and has similarly joined with the ACLU Voting Rights Project to file motions to intervene as defendants in DOJ lawsuits against Maryland, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota.
“Unelected bureaucrats in Washington have no business accessing New Mexicans’ sensitive personal information,” Common Cause New Mexico Executive Director Molly Swank said in a statement. “Handing this data over to the federal government violates the law and would put voters’ private information in the hands of dangerous election conspiracy peddlers. Common Cause is fighting to protect the rights of New Mexico voters and to prevent the potential misuse of their data.”