On Thursday, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham called a special session for Monday to address the federal stoppage of food benefits. New Mexico has already drained a $30 million emergency fund to pay for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) through November 10, created by the governor signing 40 emergency executive orders of $750,000 each.
It costs New Mexico $20 million a week to step in for SNAP, and many New Mexicans wonder how the state can foot a bill for the foreseeable future. State Rep. Nathan Small (D-Doña Ana County) said the state has a plan to make sure that the money used to support SNAP doesn’t tank the budget.
“The reason we're able to act is because of really strategic budgeting and then also some really prudent savings,” Small said.
New Mexico has long set aside money into funds for low revenue years and emergencies, and the governor is declaring this SNAP lapse an emergency. Small said that he and his colleagues have been working on this budget for this special session since the beginning of November. Before the state starts dipping into savings, lawmakers are looking to tap into unused funds.
“So within the Healthcare Authority, that's where these dollars are coming from,” Rep. Small said. “We’re prioritizing those dollars first, because those would be sort of unused in this current budget year.”
The Trump Administration and U.S, Department of Agriculture have been in a back-and-forth with the federal courts, and on Friday night the U.S. Supreme Court put an administrative stay on a court order for SNAP benefits to be fully restored. Since SNAP is an entitlement program, the federal government is legally obligated to give recipients benefits and must come up with the money.
On Saturday, Gov. Lujan Grisham announced the state had loaded the full SNAP benefits onto recipients’ EBT cards before the Supreme Court order on Friday night.
With funding up in the air, New Mexico legislators are preparing for the worst. However, if the state does get federal money, Rep. Small says the state will prioritize utilizing that before going into state money.
“We're structuring this so that there are clear guardrails and sort of an order,” Small said. “If and when we receive that federal funding, that federal funding will be used and state funding won't be used.”
Even with guardrails, dipping into reserves like the emergency funds doesn’t come without ripple effects. Charles Sallee, the director of the Legislative Finance Committee, the entity that helps draft the state’s budget, said that the state has to consider the spending from these two special sessions to balance out next years’ budget.
“We have a shrinking amount available for non-recurring spending,” Sallee said. “We have to take into account any other spending that would further affect the availability of those funds for the January session.”
State Senator Jim Townsend (R-Eddy and Otero counties) is also concerned about the state’s spending on such a program.
“If you start spending $20 million a week, that doesn't take long, and you've run up a pretty good bill,” Townsend said.
According to Sallee, that kind of spending is not sustainable in the long-term for New Mexico’s budget.
Sen. Townsend does agree with Rep. Small that New Mexicans should not go hungry during this period and that SNAP beneficiaries deserve payment. However, Townsend said the state should be focusing on the long-term issues New Mexicans face.
“To me, the real issue is that we have a state that has such poverty in it,” Townsend said. “We ought to be trying to cure the problem, instead of trying to cure the symptom.”
It’s unclear how many legislators will show up for the special session. Rep. Small says that he and his Democratic colleagues are confident that this funding will pass in the legislature. The special session starts Monday at noon in the roundhouse and is expected to only be a few hours.
