New Mexico state budget (2011-2012)

Note: This article was last updated in 2012. Click here for more recent information on state budgets and finances.

See also: Archived New Mexico state budgets

Legislative Proposed Budget

Lawmakers sent Governor Susana Martinez a blueprint for spending $5.4 billion. The measure cut spending by $152 million, 2.7 percent, from FY 2011.Gov. Martinez had until early April to sign or veto bills passed during the Legislature's 60-day session, including budget bills.

Pensions

Lawmakers saved $111 million in the FY 2012 budget by reducing government contributions to public employee pensions and also requiring state workers and educators to offset that by paying more into their retirement programs. The measure also allows the government to skip making higher contributions to an educational pension program that were mandated by a 2005 law.

Governor's Proposed Budget

Gov. Martinez proposed a FY 2012 state budget that reduced state spending by three percent and did not raise taxes. The governor's proposed budget can be found here.

The governor's proposed budget was based on estimates from December 2010 that the state’s revenues would increase 4.4 percent from FY 2011 to FY 2012. The budget cut the auditor's budget by 8.8 percent.

The House approved its version of the budget, House Bill 2, on March 2, 2011, and sent it to the Senate.

The biggest different between the governor's proposed budget and that set forth by the Legislative Finance Committee was that the LFC suggested cutting the corrections budget by $11 million and Martinez's cut was less .