Senate amendments return House Bill 2 with 6% recurring increase; Senate adds funds for schools, roads, health and cleanup projects

The Senate Finance Committee returned House Bill 2 to the House with a 6% recurring spending increase and a 30% reserve level, and the committee outlined a series of targeted changes to education, roads, health programs and environmental cleanup funding.

Chair Munoz opened the informational briefing on the Senate amendments and said the meeting was intended for questions rather than votes. Director Salih told the committee that “house bill 2 came back over with 6% spending, like we agreed to, 30 reserves.” That, and other spreadsheet detail in the packet, formed the basis for the committee’s review.

Why it matters: The Senate amendments alter where some dollars flow within the same overall budget framework; the changes affect recurring program baselines (what the state funds year to year) and nonrecurring project investments. Lawmakers used the session to ask for clarifications on items such as K–12 funding, early childhood transfers, road maintenance and bonding, and healthcare cost responsibilities.

Most significant changes and clarifications

- Education: Senate Finance moved to fully fund the K–12 secondary factors, producing a roughly 8% increase in public school support compared with the prior figure presented to the Senate, and preserved a $1 million wellness‑room appropriation while adding a separate $5 million appropriation for school suicide‑prevention and broader youth behavioral‑health supports in the Public Education Department budget. The Department of Health also received a separate $9 million appropriation for expanded youth suicide‑prevention work outside schools. As Senator Charles summarized, “the house pretty much got everything, in reoccurring on house bill 2… CYFD remaining largely flat.”

- Early childhood and trust funds: Senate amendments changed transfers into the early childhood trust so two revenue streams would be split (50% each) between behavioral health and the Medicaid trust fund when certain triggers are reached; committee staff described mechanism and trigger language in the packet. The Senate also added an initial deposit to the behavioral/Medicaid trust approach discussed later in the hearing.

- Health and benefits: To implement an employer/employee 80/20 premium cost split referenced in bill language, the committee was told roughly $78 million is appropriated “to pay the cost of the premium increases as well as the employer share” and that money would come from the Health Care Affordability Fund. The Senate also addressed a shortfall for the national 988 crisis hotline and identified a plan to stabilize it via a fee increase; members were told the hotline faces an urgent need of about $9 million to continue operations beyond the fiscal year.

- Roads and bonding: Senate Finance added $65 million for road maintenance on the Senate side and negotiated constraints on a bonding package the House sent. The Senate’s approach includes triggers and caps on bonding amounts and limits the use of state bonding to state roads; lawmakers described guardrails intended to prevent unplanned general‑fund obligations.

- Environment and contaminated sites: The Senate added $20 million for remediation of neglected contaminated sites, but staff and senators repeatedly noted the state cannot use that money on sites wholly on the Navajo Nation without federal and tribal approvals; the Environment Department will need federal concurrence for sites on tribal land.

- Higher education and online system: The amendments keep most higher‑education funding intact; the Senate converted a previously nonrecurring athletics allocation into recurring support for UNM (reported as $3 million recurring) and set NMSU at a smaller nonrecurring amount. Senators also discussed a new statewide online system for universities that they estimated would cost roughly $12 million to stand up.

Budget totals and federal match

Committee staff pointed members to the packet and the Senate’s online database for line‑by‑line changes. In response to committee questions, staff cited a large federal match figure for HB 2 when all agencies and federal dollars are included and asked members to consult the published spreadsheets for agency‑level detail.

What the packet and staff note, and what remains to be resolved

Staff said language and transfers were negotiated between the Senate and the executive branch; members asked for clearer tables of contents and line references for the Senate amendment so they could find particular changes. The Senate indicated it would make staff available for follow‑up questions and pointed lawmakers to the online database for language comparisons.

Ending

The briefing was informational; no formal action or votes occurred in this meeting. Committee members spent the session seeking line‑item clarifications and pressing staff and Senate presenters for the language and fund‑transfer details that will be needed on the floor and in subsequent hearings.