The state legislature’s $10 billion plus budget bill was passed by the Senate yesterday.
House Bill 2 lays out the spending plan that kicks in mid-year, for the 2026 fiscal year.
It’s six percent higher than the fiscal 2025 budget, coming in at a shade under $10.8 billion.
The budget allocates more money for a number of new initiatives, including in education, behavioral health treatment, improving roads, and business development.
But several Republican senators spoke out angrily in opposition to the measure.
Senate Minority Leader Bill Sharer said that the budget at the start of the Lujan Grisham administration six years ago—$6.2 billion has gone up $4.6 billion, or 74 percent and argued that the investment hasn’t had an equivalent positive effect on the state.
“Is our education system 74% better? Has crime reduced by 74%?" asked Sharer.
"Are our higher ed outcomes 74% better than they were? Is anything in state government 74% better than it was? No. And in fact, in some cases, we're worse than we were."
Senator Craig Brandt, of Rio Rancho, voted for the budget bill the day before, in the Senate Finance Committee, but voted nay in yesterday’s floor session.
Two Democratic senators also opposed the bill - Shannon Pinto and Harold Pope.
But in the end it passed 24-16.
Democratic Senator George Muñoz, of Gallup, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, carried the bill in the Senate and pushed back against charges that it’s a tax-and-spend budget.
Then he cited the influence of his mother in helping craft a spending plan that takes into account those most in need.
“She'd be proud that we gave low-income tax credits to poor people, that we have universal child care,” Muñoz said.
"We've done the right things for New Mexicans. We've done better and better and better every single year. And when you have money, you invest money. You invest in economic development, you invest in education, you invest in quality of life.”
The House appropriations measure, amended and approved in the Senate, now goes back to the House for final passage, before moving to the governor’s desk.
