Governor OKs most of NM lawmakers’ record budget, vetoes other hard-fought bills

By Nash Jones

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has approved the largest budget in New Mexico history, with much of the increase coming amid an ongoing oil and gas boom. She made only minimal cuts to appropriations in the nearly $10.8 billion spending plan that goes into effect in July, marking a 6% increase over this year’s budget.

In addition to cutting budget line-items here and there, Lujan Grisham vetoed 35 bills that did what hundreds of others did not this session by getting across the finish line.

In a statement, Lujan Grisham thanked lawmakers for prioritizing what she called the “pressing needs” she addressed in her own proposed budget, including health care, education, public safety, the environment and housing. Departments across those sectors will receive significant bumps, including over 20% more for the Early Childhood Education and Care Department and Health Care Authority, and just under that for the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, according to a legislative analysis.

The budget also gives public school and state employees 4% raises and starts the new Behavioral Health Trust Fund off with a $100 million deposit. That’s on top of fully funding the Senate’s $280 million behavioral health package.

The governor said the minimal cuts she made were “targeted” and “necessary to maintain fiscal responsibility.” She vetoed only about $19 million. That included funds for bills that did not pass, allocations that the governor says amounted to violations of the state constitution’s anti-donation clause and recurring programs created with non-recurring dollars.

More significant than the money was the language she slashed throughout, arguing the Legislature wandered into potentially dangerous separation of powers waters by limiting the executive branch’s ability to manage programs. Those departments will still get that funding, but without instruction from lawmakers on how to spend it.

The budget maintains about 30% in reserves as a safety net for leaner years.

Outspoken about some vetoes, silent about others

While Lujan Grisham signed 160 of the bills lawmakers sent to her desk this year, she axed 35 others with her veto pen. She provided an explanation for 18 and “pocket vetoed” the other 17, meaning she effectively stuck them in a drawer without acknowledging them.

Among her vetoes was a hard-fought tax package lawmakers negotiated in the session’s final hours. Most of the changes were set to take effect next year, meaning its price tag of about $113 million a year — and climbing — was also deferred. In a statement, the governor called the effort “last-minute dealmaking that delays relief, ignores economic opportunity and undermines fiscal responsibility.”

Lujan Grisham also vetoed a few bills dealing with lighter fare — one would have made the tortilla the official state bread, and two others would have created license plates for low riders and the New Mexico United soccer team. She admonished lawmakers for passing those proposals while more serious matters languished, calling it “a misuse of time and priorities” during “a time of extraordinary challenges.”

Of the more significant bills the governor nixed, one would have allowed local school boards to choose the number of days in a school year. The state already sets the number of hours. Another would have created a property tax exemption for veterans, which she argued would actually narrow the window of time a vet has to apply.

Legislature-approved bills to reform the state parole system and create two wildfire relief funds also got the boot. The governor took issue with the way federal money would fill one, saying it would limit the state’s response to a catastrophic fire. She called the one-time appropriation for the other “meager.”

Another key bill that got the axe would have increased transparency at the Roundhouse by requiring lobbyists to file reports disclosing their work — and their clients.

Lujan Grisham said she agreed with the proposal’s intent. She has long touted the value of government transparency. At a forum hosted by the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government in 2018, the then-congresswoman and candidate for governor broadly laid those out.

“If you lead by creating the expectation by everyone in government and everyone in the Legislature and every public official to create an environment where we are completely transparent, you will get a much more open government,” she said. “Knowledge is power, and if we don’t provide that knowledge to the public, it subjects itself to real abuses in the system.”

In justifying her veto, Lujan Grisham characterized a 48-hour deadline to report lobbying activity as “onerous,” and called a requirement that lobbyists file updates if their positions change “unclear.”

About half of the scrapped bills were pocket vetoed, meaning she simply did not act on them and did not have to provide a reason. But that practice’s days may be numbered. Lawmakers passed a resolution that will put a question to voters next year about whether to amend the state Constitution to eliminate pocket vetoes. If passed, the governor would need to sign or actively veto a bill with an explanation. Otherwise, it would automatically become law. The constitutional change would not take effect until 2027, so would not affect Lujan Grisham, who is term limited.