Wrapping up the legislative session

“I think it was a great session,” state Sen. Jeff Steinborn, D-Doña Ana, said about the 30-day session of the New Mexico Legislature that ended Feb. 19 in Santa Fe. “I think we did a lot of good for the state,” said Steinborn, a conservationist who lives in Las Cruces. He has served in the New Mexico Senate since 2017 and served eight years in the New Mexico House of Representatives before that.

Steinborn, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, said the legislature passed “a good budget,” but he was disappointed in the “lack of climate change legislation,” especially a bill to close “the micro-grid loopholes (to regulate) industries that would wildly increase our climate emissions.”

State Rep. Doreen Gallegos, also a Las Cruces Democrat, said the legislature passed and sent to the governor the two pieces of legislation she worked hardest on during the session: Senate Bill 241: Child Care Assistance Program Act, which creates universal child care in New Mexico, and House Bill 99: Medical Malpractice Changes, which caps punitive damages against doctors.

Both bills were on Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s legislative agenda and were important victories in her last session as governor, said Gallegos, executive director of Mesilla Valley Court Appointed Special Advocates and a New Mexico House member since 2013.

Gallegos said doctors and dentists in Las Cruces have taken extra time during her visits with them to talk about medical malpractice, “telling me what a problem it is. It was very important to get that change made,” she said. HB99 “is a practical solution and it meets very real needs of the state.”

By passing SB241, “New Mexico has done something no other state has done: made childcare a right, and made it permanent,” Lujan Grisham said in a news release issued on the last day of the session. “With more than 13,000 new children enrolled since the state removed income limits last November, the 2026 session solidified that progress with $160 million to expand universal childcare, $30 million over three years to implement a wage and career ladder for early childhood professionals, and $20 million in capital outlay funding to expand childcare capacity statewide.”

Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, completes her second consecutive four-year term as governor in 2026, and is barred from seeking re-election. The legislature has 112 members: 42 senators (26 Democrats, 16 Republicans) and 70 representatives (44 Democrats, 26 Republicans).

Republicans gained one seat in each chamber in the 2024 election. The governorship and all House seats are on the 2026 ballot. All House and Senate seats will be on the 2028 ballot.

The governor has already signed into law HB9, the Immigrant Safety Act, which bars local governments “from participating in the federal civil immigration detention system,” according to an analysis of the bill by the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee). The bill, whose sponsors include state Rep. Angelica Rubio, D-Doña Ana, and state Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Doña Ana, Otero, passed the Senate 24-15 and passed the House 40-29.

The governor also signed SB2, State Highway Project Bonds, which passed the Senate 31-9 and passed the House 44-23. The bill authorizes up to $1.5 billion in additional bond debt for road and bridge projects statewide.

Other bills passed by both houses of the legislature and sent to the governor include the following. (The governor has until March 11 to act on these bills, or they are automatically pocket vetoed. The governor also has line-item veto authority.)

• HB 2, the General Appropriation Act of 2026, which passed the House 55-15 and passed the Senate 23-16. Sponsored by state Rep. Nathan Small, D-Doña Ana, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, the bill is “a responsible, forward-looking budget that reflects New Mexico’s fiscal strength,” Lujan Grisham said in her news release. It proposes a state general fund budget of more than $11 billion, including a 2.6 percent increase over the current year and budget reserves of 27 percent, the governor said.

• SB151, Corporate Income Tax Changes, makes changes to state corporate taxes, creates tax incentives for doctors, homebuilders and journalists, extends a high-wage job tax credit and provides a one percent pay increase ($62.7 million) for state employees.

• SB240, Capital Outlay Projects, which passed the Senate 37-0 and passed the House 49-8, appropriates $1.3 billion to fund 1,344 capital outlay projects statewide, the LFC said.

• HB66, Health Care Professional Loan Fund Changes, passed the Senate 40-0 and passed the House 69-0. It establishes an award of up to $75,000 a year for four years for licensed physicians and appropriates $25 million for health professional loan repayment, the LFC said in a bill analysis.

“New Mexico needs at least an additional 5,000 healthcare workers to address current shortages,” the LFC said, adding that 401 new loan repayment awards were made in Fiscal Year 2026 through the state Health Professional Loan Repayment Program. The average educational debt among recipients was $131,000.

• House Joint Resolution 1, Board of Regents Nominating Committees, puts a constitutional amendment on this November’s general election ballot that would create nominating committees to pick New Mexico higher education institutions’ (including NMSU) boards of regents candidates. The bill, sponsored by Steinborn, was passed by the Senate 34-7 and by the House 67-0. It mandates the governor appoint regents (with state Senate consent) from a list submitted by a nominating committee appointed by the legislature for each institution.

• House Joint Resolution 5, Legislative Compensation, passed the Senate 23-19 and passed the House 41-26. The resolution, whose sponsors include Rubio, places a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would create salaries for New Mexico legislators. The pay would be equal to the state’s annual median household income, which is about $67,000, according to the LFC. If approved, the change would take effect beginning in 2029. The LFC said the compensation would cost about $6.7 million a year.

According to multiple sources, New Mexico is the only state that does not pay legislators a salary.

“Without a salary, legislators are often limited to those who are independently wealthy, have high-income jobs that let them take time off, or are retired,” the LFC said. “A modest salary may allow more working parents, young people, and lower income people to serve. A salary also reduces reliance on outside financial and other support, including from lobbyists and interest groups that may include conflicts of interest.”

• HB61, Aggravated Battery on Police Officer, passed the Senate 37-0 and passed the House 55-11.  “Currently, shooting at and missing a law enforcement officer is classified as a second-degree felony, while shooting at and hitting an officer is only a third-degree felony. The bill corrects this disparity to make both offenses a second-degree felony and enhances penalties for attacks on law enforcement,” the governor’s news release said.

SB235, Microgrid Oversight Act, who sponsors included Steinborn and state Rep. Joanne Ferrary, D-Doña, passed the Senate 22-20 but died in the House Judiciary Committee without a vote. The bill would have authorized the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission to “approve and regulate the operation of microgrids in the state,” according to the LFC, including energy and water use.

The bill defined a microgrid as “a permanent or temporary electric system that includes a self-source generation resource, is capable of generating not less than 20 megawatts and is capable of operating independently or connected to the grid.”

Steinborn said he will introduce a microgrid oversight bill again during the 2027 session. Its success may depend on who New Mexico elects this year as its next governor and “whether or not they care about this issue and join us to fight to close this loophole,” he said.

Steinborn said there was bipartisan support for some issues during the session.

“I think where we had common ground, we definitely were on the same page,” he said. “I don’t think you saw people disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing. We did work together (on) medical malpractice and in some cases the budget. We do work across the aisle. We do like each other.”

The legislature also passed “the largest in the nation income tax credit for physicians,” Steinborn said, and allocated $24 million in new medical residencies. He said 40-70 percent of residencies “will stay in the community where they do the residency,” and that will be of particular benefit to rural communities.

Steinborn said Dr. John Andazola, chief medical officer of La Clinica de Familia in Las Cruces, “really helped pioneer the medical residency expansion that we were able to get funded. It’s kind of a Las Cruces-led initiative that is going to benefit the whole state.”

Passing universal childcare will become part of Lujan Grisham’s and Gallegos’ legacies, said Gallegos, who sponsored legislation that created the Early Childhood Education Care Fund in 2020.

Guaranteeing money for childcare will help “make sure kids are safe, there are meals going into schools and daycares, children are being assessed for disabilities and services are there for those who need them,” she said.