House affirms $6.2B budget, sends to governor’s desk

The New Mexico House of Representatives on Wednesday concurred on the $6.2 billion budget the Senate sent back to it to vote on, and the budget now heads to the governor’s desk to sign.

The House voted 57-10 to approve the budget Wednesday evening. It had originally approved a roughly $6.3 billion budget, which was cut some in the Senate. Overall, the budget has been cut by hundreds of millions of dollars over the past several months because of dwindling revenues from the oil and gas industry.

There are some winners in the budget: Medicaid gets a $21 million increase, as do public schools, though they are getting just $7 million more. Corrections officers at state prisons are also set to finally get a raise, with $11 million coming to prisons.

But higher education will be hit with a big loss, leaving state colleges and universities reeling with a decrease of nearly $20 million.

The court system will also see budget cuts – exactly the opposite of what it needed.

Budget analysts estimate $125 million in cuts for the next two years but say it’s unlikely state jobs will be lost.