State’s record budget funding important local programs

Las Cruces is a model for the rest of the state as it makes state funds available “to help our businesses when there’s a catastrophe,” state Sen. Carrie Hamblen of Las Cruces said April 26 during the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce’s annual legislative wrap-up lunch at New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum.

A $5,000-$10,000 one-time allocation can “help a business stay afloat” as it deals with the aftermath of a fire or some other catastrophic event, said Hamblen, a first-term Democrat who is vice chair of the Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committee. The funds come from the so-called junior bill, a supplemental appropriation separate from capital outlay that allocates state funds to specific agencies, projects and entities.

State Sen. Bill Soules said each New Mexico senator received about $4.1 million in capital outlay funds during the 2023 session, and he will allocate that money to support Las Cruces International Airport, the Doña Ana County Election Warehouse Center and infrastructure on the city’s East Mesa, among other programs and projects. Soules, a Las Cruces Democrat first elected in 2013, is chair of the Senate Education Committee and the legislature’s interim Legislative Education Study Committee.

State Rep. Nathan Small, who is the new chair of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee (HAFC), said New Mexico is making “record investments” in career and technical education (CTE) for students across the state, including internship programs like the one Doña Ana County will sponsor for the third consecutive year in 2023. Those programs are an important part of the legislature’s investment in education, Small said, because students who participate in internship programs “are not involved in the criminal justice system.”

Soules said he would like to “get the business community pulling as hard as the legislature is pushing” to make CTE programs successful. He said the legislature appropriated $70 million for CTE and early childhood education centers around the state and for increased school security.

Soules also stressed the overall benefit of education and training to businesses and the workforce of New Mexico.

“Good education IS economic development,” Soules said.

State Rep. Michaela Lara Cadena said, while tax reform legislation passed during the 2023 session with support from both Democrats and Republicans that “cut taxes for 98 percent of New Mexicans,” and included a reduction in the state gross receipts tax, she was disappointed Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham line-item vetoed big chunks of the bill (House Bill 547). Cadena, a Democrat who lives in Mesilla, is vice chair of the House Taxation and Revenue Committee. She was first elected in 2018.

Cadena said one of her goals for capital outlay spending – each New Mexico House of Representatives member received about $2 million in capital outlay funds in 2023 – made available more “partner agencies” that demonstrate need and haven’t been funded before. An important goal for capital outlay spending is “interrupting the cycle of poverty,” said Cadena.

Small said Grisham signed a record $9.6 billion budget for New Mexico for the fiscal year that starts July 1. New Mexico is one of only a few states in which the legislature “builds its own budget alongside the governor,” Small said. HAFC crafted the General Appropriation Act of 2023 (House Bill 2).

“I was very, very proud of our committee,” Small said.

Small said the state budget is likely to continue growing at least into the 2030s, noting that the state is now second (behind Texas) in oil production.