Mar 9, 2022 | Legislative Updates, Press Releases
SANTA FE – Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Wednesday signed the state budget for Fiscal Year 2023, making record investments in education, public safety, quality of life improvements and social support services, benefiting New Mexicans in every corner of the state. Highlights of the enacted budget include:
- $77 million to increase teacher salary minimums
- $190.5 million for 7 percent raises and a minimum $15/hour wage for all public education staff
- $15 million to more than double the Indian Education Fund
- $11.5 million for personalized literacy training for New Mexico educators
- $25 million for teacher scholarship and loan repayment funds
- $75 million for the expanded Opportunity Scholarship
- $72 million for new law enforcement recruitment and retention funds
- $9 million to provide an average 16 percent raise for New Mexico State Police officers
- $24 million to combat hunger through the Food, Farms and Hunger Initiative
- $10 million for housing assistance for New Mexicans experiencing homelessness
- $10 million to the New Mexico Housing Trust Fund
- $40 million to build new facilities at the state Veterans Home in Truth or Consequences
- $14 million to extend postpartum Medicaid benefits from 60 days to 12 months
- $18 million to eliminate the developmental disabilities waiver waitlist and increase provider rates
- $30 million to endow nursing faculty positions
- $50 million to endow social work faculty positions
- $50 million for the Local Economic Development Act program
- $20 million for the establishment of a state media academy
- $30 million for drought mitigation
- $10 million for dam rehabilitation
- $58 million to provide an average 7 percent raise and a minimum $15/hour wage for state employees
“This budget makes transformative investments exactly where they’re needed: from historic raises for New Mexico educators and growing the country’s most expansive tuition-free college program to creating a new fund to hire public safety officers and unprecedented funding to fight food insecurity,” said Gov. Lujan Grisham. “We are taking full advantage of this unprecedented opportunity to strategically and meaningfully build upon our progress to lift up every New Mexico family.”
Totaling nearly $8.5 billion, the budget for the year beginning July 1, 2023 increases annual recurring state spending by fourteen percent while maintaining nearly 29 percent of recurring expenditures in reserves, continuing to prioritize fiscal responsibility while making transformative investments.