Sen. George Munoz, D-Gallup, introduces guest and makes a comment about getting and keeping doctors in rural hospitals at the start of the floor session, Wednesday, January 29, 2025. Muñoz and other Senate lawmakers are pushing forward a package of behavioral health bills. (Eddie Moore / Albuquerque Journal)
A three-bill bundle addressing behavioral health in New Mexico (including a new $1 billion fund) moved through its first committee Monday with just a few amendments. Now all three bills head to the Senate Finance committee.
Lawmakers said this effort will rebuild New Mexico’s systems for addressing mental health challenges—including substance misuse—and is part of a push to address behavioral health in the session’s first 30 days.
Sen. George Muñoz (D-Gallup) told Source NM in an interview that while he’s “not an expert on behavioral health,” the bills allow the Legislature to have a strategy to fund solutions in different parts of the state.
“Carlsbad, Farmington, Hobbs, Gallup, it’s different everywhere you go,” Muñoz said.
“Everything we’re doing is setting up something that is specific to the needs of the area, and we’re letting them determine what the needs are.”
Each bill has bipartisan sponsors from leadership on both sides of the upper chamber.
Senate Bill 1 will take $1 billion dollars from the general fund to create a new separate investment fund. Beginning in July 2026, the fund would pay out 5% of its value to pay for behavioral health programs. Senate Health and Public Affairs voted unanimously to move the bill forward. The bill has 17 sponsors, including Muñoz, who chairs Senate Finance.
Senate Bill 2 is what the sponsors call a “down payment” on fixing current behavioral health treatment and programs. If passed, it would give $140 million to 13 state agencies for grants and improvements from housing service providers to reading clinics and paying for treatment. It also helps the courts start a regional planning process. The price tag would increase in future years, with the state’s Health Care Authority estimating it would require $760 million to pay for seven full time employees, according to a cost analysis of the bill.
Senate Bill 3, if passed, would regionalize behavioral health planning and reform. The bill would direct the Administrative Office of the Courts to name behavioral health regions; organize regional meetings; complete mapping of how people interact with the criminal justice system; and coordinate the development of regional behavioral health plans. The behavioral health plans must follow certain standards and be submitted to the Legislature, which will also review annual progress reports from each region starting in June 2027.
Sen. Larry Scott (R-Hobbs) was the lone dissenting vote against SB2 and SB3, which moved on from the committee in an 8-1 vote.
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