New Mexico lawmakers haggle over budget as session nears end

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico's Democrat-led Legislature is haggling over annual spending priorities while racing to lock in significant policy initiatives on public safety, education funding, tobacco regulation, and incentives for infrastructure investments, as a 30-day annual legislative session winds down.

The state Senate was scheduled on Wednesday to vote on revisions to a $7.6 billion plan for the fiscal year starting July 1 that hikes spending on public schools by $216 million and increases salaries for most teachers and state employees by 4%. A surge in oil production has provided an $800 million increase in state general fund income.

Senate approval would return the amended budget bill to the House, where negotiators have bristled over delays and revisions to funding for Native American school districts.

The Legislature has until Thursday at noon to send an approved budget to Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who can veto any portion of the bill. The governor is pursuing “cradle-to-career” investments in public education with the creation of a $320 million endowment for early childhood education and a pitch for tuition-free public college educations for in-state students.

New revisions by the Senate allocate an initial $17 million toward Lujan Grisham's proposal to provide tuition-free public college, starting in the fall with in-state students who pursue a two-year certificate and associate degrees.

Lead Senate budget negotiator John Arthur Smith, a Democrat from Deming, has lined up funding to boost existing scholarship funding to cover more than 80% of tuition for four-year college students in the fall. Lujan Grisham wants the state to provide tuition-free four-year educations starting in 2021.

On public safety, the Legislature has approved...