BY Whitney Holland, American Federation of Teachers New Mexico President
Dear Editor,
We have less than one week left in the legislative session and political games are in full swing in the Roundhouse.
During the late hours of Feb. 12, Senate Finance Chairman George Muñoz completely stripped the budgeted 1% raise for ALL state workers, K12 educators, and university staff and faculty.
This was done with little debate and other members of the Senate Finance Committee seemed to be unaware of this action before it was announced by Chair Muñoz who then hastily adjourned the committee meeting.
Leaders of New Mexico’s public sector unions – AFSCME Council 18, CWA-NM, NEA-NM, and AFT NM – immediately got to work to object to this brazen decision.
We immediately issued a join press statement, have submitted letters to the editor to New Mexico’s major publications, and will be holding a press conference Feb. 14 in the Roundhouse rotunda at 1:30 pm to continue to advocate for the restoration of this cut.
What is most troubling is that Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s executive budget, the House of Representative’s budget, and the Legislative Finance Committee’s budget all called for and provided a 1% raise for fiscal year 2027. It is unacceptable that the budget has been balanced on the backs of state workers.
If the other ten members of the Senate Finance Committee do not stand up to Chair Muñoz and forcefully demand the restoration of the budgeted raise before advancing the budget out of that committee, we will be asking you to reach out to members of the House of Representatives leadership to “Restore the Raise.” Please watch for those requests to act as this develops.
The other members of the committee are: Sens. Benny Shendo, Craig Brandt, Pete Campos, Bobby Gonzales, Steve Lanier, Michael Padilla, Jeff Steinborn, Nicole Tobiassen, Linda Trujillo, and Pat Woods.
