1-25-2024 9:53am

New Mexico House Bill One the Feed Bill Signed into Law

Chris Edwards Editor

The New Mexico legislature is in session and the governor signed the legislation that was passed to fund the session called "the feed bill."

The bill is a formality required to keep lawmakers, staff and everyone else operating in the Roundhouse during the 30-day session. It passed each chamber and was sent to the governor six days after the session started. The vote in the house was 52 yeas, 13 nays, 2 excused, 3 absent. John Block District 51 voted nay and opposed funding the session. Representative Jim Townsend who is running for Senator Griggs seat voted nay against the funding legislation. The vote passed on the senate side with 36 yeas, 0 nays, 3 absent and 3 excused. Senators Griggs and Burt votes yeas.

The bill utilizes $41 million from the general fund for both the session and interim periods, according to the independent fiscal analysis of the bill.

HB 1 was sponsored by Rep. Gail Chasey (D-Albuquerque). It appropriated $11.7 million to pay for the 30-day legislative session, including staff time, mileage costs for lawmakers and other expenses at the Roundhouse.

It also pays for the interim period between sessions that includes $21.9 million for expenses at legislative offices and $2.1 million for the legislative information system, according to the bill’s fiscal impact report.

The Feed Bill further contains funding for committee staff at the Legislative Finance Committee and Legislative Education Study Committees, including money for the interim period between sessions.

The 2024 Feed Bill is a significant reduction from the 2023 bill. The 2023 bill authorized $57.4 million to pay for the 2023 legislative session and to keep the Roundhouse running and included $2.5 million to pay for a feasibility study of how other legislatures around the country have handled professionalization and modernization. The feed bill of 2023 included $11.7 million to pay for the session and $45.7 million for the various legislative agencies’ spending all year long, including the Legislative Council Service, the Legislative Finance Committee, the Legislative Education Study Committee, and the House and Senate chief clerk offices.

The New Mexico Legislature is the only state Legislature in the country whose lawmakers receive no salary, according to a report by the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of New Mexico. Lawmakers are eligible for a per diem of $150 per day over a 60-day regular session, or about $9,000 per lawmaker per year, the report found.

The much-reduced 2024 bill spending $41 Million included studying each chamber’s staffing methodology for “funding various levels of staff,” to prevent each chamber from poaching from one another. "Staff are leaving for higher-paying jobs", explained bill sponsor Representative Chasey.

The law passed and was signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Monday, Jan. 22 and it is entered into law immediately. There were no line-item vetoes by the governor in the final bill and goes forward as proposed.