New fiscal year, brighter NM outlook
State workers, teachers get raises as courts resume regular business hours
SANTA FE — After several tight years, it might finally be time to loosen the budget belt a few notches.
New Mexico’s new fiscal year, which officially started July 1, brought with it rare pay raises for rank-and-file state workers and regular business hours for the state’s cash-strapped court system.
Salary increases, which most state employees had not received since 2014, were included in a $6.3 billion budget that lawmakers passed earlier this year.
Most state workers will see a 2 percent pay raise in their biweekly pay checks later this month, and teachers will soon get pay hikes of 2.5 percent. Also, minimum starting teacher pay will increase from $34,000 to $36,000 a year, starting this fall.
“It will have an impact on helping state workers to begin to catch up on the cost of living,” said Miles Conway, a spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union in New Mexico.
While all rank-and-file state employees will get pay raises, some workers’ salaries will increase more than others. State Police and corrections officers, for example, will receive raises of 8.5 percent on average.
Gov. Susana Martinez has said the pay raises will help crack down on crime, as New Mexico recently received the dubious distinction of having the nation’s second-highest violent crime rate.
Legislators signed off on the compensation increases after state revenue levels rebounded following several lean budget years. Through April, the state had collected roughly $682 million more in revenue — or 14.8 percent — than it had during the same time period a year earlier.
“Just to be able to have this much additional money is a big deal for us,” said Rep. Patricia Lundstrom, D-Gallup, the chairwoman of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee. “But I’m not one to say we need to go out and spend every dime.”
In addition to salary increases, the revenue uptick has meant relief for the state’s court system.
Due to budget restrictions and staffing shortages, about half of New Mexico’s magistrate courts had closed their clerk’s offices for at least part of one day a week, and about one-third of district courts statewide had reduced their hours.
But increased judicial funding included in the budget bill for the just started fiscal year means the courts are now able to remain open during regular business hours, according to the Administrative Office of the Courts.
“The judicial branch of government is committed to serving the people of New Mexico with a justice system that fulfills its constitutional and statutory obligations,” said Supreme Court Chief Justice Judy Nakamura. “We are very grateful that lawmakers provided courts with resources in the state budget allowing a resumption of full business hours for customer service.”
Meanwhile, a total of 29 other new state laws also took effect Sunday, the start of the state’s new budget year.
Those laws include legislation to improve New Mexico’s troubled guardianship system through transparency and greater involvement of family members and a bill that untethered New Mexico’s popular lottery scholarship from tuition rates.
Another freshly minted law is a bipartisan crimefighting measure that stiffened penalties for violent criminals caught with a firearm — from a fourthdegree felony to a thirddegree felony —and offers new retention bonuses for veteran police officers.
That law also lessens the penalties for minor offenses such as jaywalking and littering, in a move intended to allow prosecutors to focus on more serious crimes.