New Mexico judiciary asks Legislature to convert behavioral‑health pilots to recurring funding, expand interpreter and security support

Chief Justice David Thompson and Administrative Office of the Courts leadership told the Legislative Finance Committee on Jan. 28 that the judicial branch needs a mix of recurring and one‑time funding to sustain recent program expansions and protect court operations.

The judiciary sought recurring funding to continue behavioral‑health pilot programs started with one‑time money, additional language‑access capacity, and new staff to handle growing administrative burdens. "We use $3,000,000 the legislature appropriated us in the July 2024 special session" to stand up behavioral‑health programs, Carl said, and the AOC wants to convert those pilots into permanent programs so work begun in several districts can continue.

AOC emphasized interpreter demand is rising rapidly: interpreter hours provided increased by 16% from FY23 to FY24 and another 19% from FY24 to FY25. To meet that demand without continuing to add contract interpreters, the AOC proposed two administrative scheduler positions to free employee interpreters for courtroom work and requested funds to translate self‑help materials into Spanish and other languages. The AOC also asked for funds to support continuing education for contract interpreters to improve retention.

Technology and records: AOC requested funds for a public dashboard and four data analyst positions to improve data quality and make basic performance metrics publicly available, plus a $100,000 initial implementation budget for dashboard software. The office also proposed a cybersecurity management tool (about $900,000) and incremental server and software funding to sustain the statewide case‑management and e‑filing systems.

Courtroom modernizaion and security: The AOC presented a multi‑year $24 million courtroom modernization plan to replace analog audio/video systems and provide searchable, AI‑generated unofficial transcripts. Separately, the AOC outlined an $18.5 million, multi‑year statewide security equipment plan for courthouses and requested $190,000 to create a security and emergency‑operations administrator position after recent incidents that led the office to arrange 24‑hour security for three judges.

Staffing and compliance: The AOC asked for targeted staff, including an attorney to manage increasingly complex IPRA (Inspection of Public Records Act) requests and an attorney focused on HIPAA‑compliance tooling to reduce manual review time. The AOC said it has few court reporters now and is transitioning many courtrooms to electronic transcription; however, court reporters remain necessary for capital‑offense trials and other courtrooms lacking the technology.

Health‑insurance shortfall: AOC officials asked the committee to cover a one‑time FY26 gap in employer health‑insurance contributions (the transcript indicates roughly a $950,000 shortfall statewide) and noted that the FY27 recurring budget includes the cost going forward.

Why it matters: Committee members pressed on where recurring costs were shown as one‑time requests and sought clearer budget categorizations. The judiciary framed many requests as sustaining investments the legislature has already made — converting pilots and one‑time allocations to recurring support to avoid program interruptions while adapting to a tighter statewide revenue outlook.

What’s next: Committee members asked for follow‑up numbers on potential court‑reporter savings as electronic transcription is phased in and requested more specific cost breakouts for selected items. AOC said it will provide spending and staffing detail during the session’s budget deliberations.