LFC Proposes $6.15 Billion Budget

The Legislative Finance Committee is proposing a $6.15 Billion budget with $50 million earmarked for state employee raises.

The raises include a 1.5 percent across the board raise for all state workers and another $40 million for schools and state agencies to use for hard-to-fill positions, to reward "deserving employees" and to fix other pay issues.

State police would get another $3 million to implement a new pay plan and CYFD would get $1 million to recruit and retain child protective services and juvenile justice employees.

Meanwhile, the budget would set aside $35 million for early childhood education initiatives, including $12 million for literacy programs.

About 58 percent of the budget ($3.55 billion) would go to education. Public schools would get $2.7 billion, an increase of nearly $143 million.

Gov. Susana Martinez is expected to unveil her budget proposal in the near future.

Read more in tomorrow's New Mexican.

UPDATE: 3:25 pm Here's the LFC handout of budget highlights (shamelessly stolen from NM Telegram)

LFC Budget Highlights by Matthew Reichbach