MLG releases massive $9.4B budget proposal for upcoming legislature
On Tuesday, far-left Democrat New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham released her executive budget that she will demand the legislature pass in the upcoming 2023 Legislative Session starting next Tuesday, January 17, 2022.
The massive $9.4 billion budget would be a 10.58 percent increase from last fiscal year’s $8.5 billion budget. This proposed budget would include a four percent increase in salaries for state workers, a four percent increase for all school staff, along with a $750 rebate, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican.
In the budget are sweeping social programs, including $107 million for housing and homelessness initiatives, $200 million infusion for health care programs, and $30 million for “free” school lunches in all schools.
Despite the massive spending on education and educator salaries, New Mexico’s schools rank below all other states and the District of Columbia.
Weak-on-crime politics have led to a deadly past few years in New Mexico, especially in the state’s most populous city, Albuquerque, which shattered its homicide rate again in 2022, the second straight year in a row.
Last year’s budget included $75 million in recurring funds for socialist “free” college for citizens and illegal aliens, millions for an anti-gun office of “gun violence prevention,” millions to carry out 2019’s Energy Transition Act (Green New Deal), among other waste that was spent on socialist-style handout programs in the state.
This year’s proposal would include a $4.1 million slush fund of sorts to the Environment Department to “develop and implement actions related to climate change,” along with $5.9 million for enviro-Marxist policies.
New Mexico remains the most federally dependent state in the nation. This executive budget would continue that record of heavy dependence on the government.
After the budget was released, Power The Future’s Larry Behrens wrote, “Governor Lujan Grisham has proudly said we need to transition away from fossil fuels, but she sure can’t seem to transition away from spending the revenue,” adding, “Before taxpayers foot the bill for more of the Governor’s green pet projects, it’s past time for an examination on the Governor’s past initiatives to see if they’ve delivered on her over-hyped promises.”