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Aging department requests $8.2M recurring, $10M Kiki fund replenishment to shore up senior services
Summary
Secretary Emily Coltenbach asked the Legislative Finance Committee for recurring increases to adult protective services, aging network services and a $10 million deposit into the Kiki Saavedra Dignity Fund to sustain programs such as New Mexico Care and kinship caregiving pilot supports.
Emily Coltenbach, secretary of Aging and Long‑Term Services, presented the department’s FY27 budget request and program updates, emphasizing expansions in long‑term care services and supports for caregivers.
Coltenbach requested $8.2 million in recurring general fund increases, including $1.5 million to fund 10–13 investigative caseworker positions in Adult Protective Services, $500,000 to expand senior employment slots and $5 million to strengthen direct services (meals, transportation, respite and homemaker services). She said Adult Protective Services reports rising referrals and increasingly complex cases—about 50% tied to dementia and self‑neglect—and projected reports rising from roughly 15,000 to 18,000 in the coming year.
The secretary described New Mexico Care’s expansion from fewer than 100 enrollees to 322 statewide and warned capacity pressures could trigger a cap unless funding increases. She asked the committee to replenish the Kiki Saavedra Dignity Fund with a $10 million appropriation and sought an increase to the fund's annual authorization to allow more spending from the existing balance (about $11M currently). Coltenbach also outlined a kinship caregiving pilot funded in part by private foundations—stipends are foundation‑funded, navigators and legal services are state‑run—and said the department will evaluate the pilot.
Committee members probed meal cost averages, suggested donation practices, nonmetro allocations, capital outlay balances for senior centers and the sustainability of pilots across all counties. Coltenbach said the department will provide county breakdowns and evaluation results and highlighted that for every dollar spent on aging supports the state saves roughly $4 in downstream institutional costs, an ROI figure the department said it will document for the committee.
