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New Budget Recognizes Those Taking on New Mexico’s Biggest Challenges

With a labor-friendly governor and legislature in place, working people in New Mexico won big in the new state budget.
Photo Credit: AFSCME Council 18
New Budget Recognizes Those Taking on New Mexico’s Biggest Challenges
By AFSCME Staff ·

With a new governor and a labor-friendly legislature in place, AFSCME New Mexico won many key victories for working people throughout the state.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham earlier this month signed the fiscal year 2020 budget passed by the New Mexico Legislature. The budget includes significant investments across all state agencies to help with recruitment and retention.

Lawmakers rewarded the hard work and dedication of the women and men of AFSCME Council 18 by including 4 percent raises for all state workers and higher education employees. This is the largest across-the-board raise that state workers have seen in over a decade.

To help reduce turnover and retain behavioral health and mental health staff at the state Department of Corrections, a 10 percent raise was included in the budget. This is a significant step toward achieving the goal of ensuring that the state continues to hire and train workers for those critical positions. 

"The bottom line is that elections matter and who we have in office matters to each and every one of our members. We appreciate the hard work of our allies in the legislature and are excited to finally have a governor that puts people before politics, and supports a budget that invests in vital public services and the hard men and women responsible for making our great state run,” said Connie Derr, executive director for Council 18 and an AFSCME International vice president.

Other legislative victories achieved by AFSCME and our pro-worker allies include: 

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