Pandemic relief spending package headed to governor’s desk

A spending bill that would use nearly half of the roughly $1.1 billion in remaining federal relief money given to New Mexico under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 is headed to the governor’s desk.

The New Mexico House of Representatives just after 1 p.m. on Thursday agreed to the state Senate’s amendments to House Bill 2. They passed the latest version of the bill on a voice vote, without a roll call vote that would have recorded the vote of each individual senator.

The $478 million would go to state agencies, covering housing services, upgrades to state parks, pre-trial services monitoring and a new rural hospital.

$478 million for state needs passed by the NM Senate, despite fears of a rushed process

Money should be distributed shortly after it is signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. She also has the option of vetoing it.

The Senate changed language in the bill about money for remediating orphan wells to include orphaned “and inactive” wells at the request of the state’s Department of Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources.

House Minority Floor Leader James Townsend (R-Artesia) asked whether the “inactive” term in the bill would shut down any wells or force companies to prematurely plug wells.

House Speaker Brian Egolf said the change was required by the federal pandemic relief law and would not cause hardship for the oil and gas industry.

The amended version also axed $26 million in additional funding to the Department of Information Technology, because the agency didn’t need the money.

The bill also contains $5 million for food banks but a lobbyist for the New Mexico Association of Food Banks and the state’s restaurant association previously told lawmakers that is not nearly enough.

Lawmakers to take swing at spending $470 million

“Most of our food banks will find themselves out of food by February at the rate that this is going,” Allison Smith said. She asked lawmakers for a minimum of $15 million as quickly as possible.

Rep. Stefani Lord (R-Sandia Park) asked why the $26 million taken out of the Information Technology budget wasn’t moved to the food bank budget.

“We should have put more money in that (food bank budget),” Lord said.

Rep. Patricia Lundstrom (D-Gallup) said “I would be stressed to try to explain what Senate Finance does, so I don’t think I could give you a good answer.” 

More details about what’s in the spending package can be found here.