Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed 69 bills Wednesday. Among them was one bill that would fund 16 pilot programs within multiple state agencies. But not everything was approved.
Although the governor signed House Bill 196, she made some line-item vetoes in the process.
Chair of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee Nathan Small (D-Las Cruces) sponsored the legislation and said the line item vetoes were regarding specific language within the bill.
“Including phrases like evidence-based, some other accountability language that was included,” he said.
Small said that these line item-vetoes won't make a huge impact on the bill itself and will not affect the funding.
“This is a really innovative and positive way for us, again, to provide much needed funding for very high need areas,” he said. “Whether that's workforce development, whether that's higher education, whether that's Children, Youth and Families Department, and the fact that the funds are still there is very important.”
The three-year pilot programs will cost $216 million. Those projects include suicide prevention training, geothermal resource development and paying for tuition and fees for students in the workforce training classes and more.
Most of the projects will cost between $1.5 million to upwards of $60 million.
Small said while the governor’s vetoes removed some language around accountability, the Legislature will steward the tax dollars effectively and with transparency.
The funds will be available for the pilot program in the next fiscal year starting in July.
Support for this coverage comes from the Thornburg Foundation.
