NM will have pick up substantially more of the healthcare costs starting 1/27 when the Medicaid work requirements start and other federal funding ends. We in NM are very fortunate to have the ability to pick up more of the costs to cover the devastating federal cuts, thanks in part to revenues generated by and distributed through our various sovereign permanent and trust funds. We are flush now largely due to the extraction industry, but we need to plan for the future when we don’t have the huge oil and gas resources.

In the past, when we had shortages in education funding, the legislature passed a ballot measure that voters approved to increase the distribution from the Land Grant Permanent Fund for Public Education and the narrow list of other named beneficiaries.

We need to make sure that the other sovereign fund that can cover the increased healthcare costs, nutrition, and other critical needs caused by the Big Ugly tax cuts. More New Mexicans live in poverty than in most other states. We have a nest egg that must be put to use for the emergency we will face when the Big Ugly federal cuts are implemented after the election. The proposed federal budget for Fiscal Year 2028, which starts Oct 1, will only make matters more urgent. The Big Ugly cuts go through 2029, and the Departments of War and Homeland Security are likely to get the lion’s share of the budgets for several years, even if leadership changes in the next Congress and presidency.