The House has already passed a budget, but its outline faces further adjustments in the Senate Finance Committee today.
SANTA FE, N.M. — The New Mexico House of Representatives has already passed a budget, but its outline faces changes by the Senate Finance Committee.
As of Wednesday night, lawmakers on the committee had not fleshed out anything from the proposal. Instead, they added more money.
By the time the budget passed the House, it was just shy of $10.2 billion. The Senate's first draft is about $10.5 billion.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman George Munoz said the state has the money, so why not spend it?
“We're going to see more funding for literacy education, and we're going to see a tax package with income tax cuts, a huge tax cut on personal income,” said Sen. Muñoz. . “There will be more funding for food banks, more funding for veterans services, and an increase in funding for seniors' SNAP benefits from $25 to $100. $1 million for local hospitals. It's going to cost a lot of hospital money.”
Another Senate priority is fully funding the free school lunch program, which went into effect this school year. The House budget bill only partially funded that program, which Muñoz says has now been fixed.
Munoz knows money from the state's lucrative oil and gas industry won't come forever.
“Oil and gas supplies are starting to slow down, and current funding has reached a plateau,” Muñoz said. “We may not see big numbers like we did this year next year.”
Many of the changes made by the Senate Finance Committee are one-time expenditures rather than recurring ones. Muñoz said most of these changes will help repair roads and bridges, which he says has to happen sooner rather than later.
“We put together a $780 million road package for roads alone,” Muñoz said. “The needs across the state are so great that we have to stay on top of the DOT situation and get ahead of inflation.”
Muñoz said the commission plans to revisit its budget plan this weekend. If all goes well, the budget could head to the Senate floor for a vote as early as Monday.
