Amid an expansion of New Mexico’s child care assistance program to universal access, the state Early Childhood Education and Care Department pitched a $1.2 billion budget for the coming fiscal year to the Legislative Finance Committee on Tuesday.

The proposed spending plan, which includes an additional $160.6 million to expand a state-subsidized child care program that already costs hundreds of million of dollars per year, came to bipartisan chagrin from lawmakers, who noted the agency has already seen enormous appropriations in recent years and said the executive branch had not consulted with the legislative before rolling out the universal access plan.

Still, Cabinet Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky said the benefits of the budget proposal — a $196.2 million increase over the current fiscal year’s — were worth the price tag.

“The health, development, overall well-being of a human’s life starts right here, and that’s why these investments are critical,” she said during the meeting at the state Capitol. “… Yes, there is an increase, but the results are incredibly promising, and we are on track to lead the nation, to provide the blueprint for this country, that we know is desperately needed.”

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in September announced New Mexico would become the first state in the nation to offer child care to all families at no cost. In November the initiative went live, making 25,000 more new children eligible for the benefit.

The agency estimates 169,000 children are now eligible for the program. Some 7,036 children across 6,206 families have been newly approved for child care assistance, one-third of whom were already eligible for the program before its expansion.

To fund the wave of children and families newly eligible for state-subsidized child care in the coming year, the child care program makes up the largest slice of the pie — the Early Childhood Department hopes to set aside $662 million. Another $278.6 million would go to the state’s preschool program and $34.7 million to early intervention services.

The Early Childhood Department also hopes to set aside $10 million per year for three years in funding from the state’s Government Results and Opportunity Program Fund to help set up a wage and career lattice. That framework would allow early childhood workers to receive better pay based on their level of experience and education.

The initiative has long been clamored for by workers and advocates, who say it would provide a fair way for employees to advance careers. The lattice has already been developed, Groginsky noted, adding the department has laid the groundwork for making it a reality through new reimbursement rates for providers and other measures.

Bipartisan criticism

However, the department’s budget proposal was peppered with criticism from both sides of the aisle, with some lawmakers referencing leaner budgets in the coming years.

New Mexico is headed for a slowdown in revenue growth, with projections of about $379 million less in new money in the coming legislative session than was predicted in August, according to a recent analysis by economists from three state agencies and the Legislative Finance Committee.

Sen. George Muñoz, a Gallup Democrat who chairs the powerful Senate Finance Committee, acknowledged New Mexicans need child care but argued the Early Childhood Department “has not been missing … hundreds of millions of dollars.”

“All of a sudden you want to put us in this box, and money is tight,” he said.

Groginsky responded early childhood programs offered a strong return on investment. In fact, she said they represented the “best investment the state can make in the long-term health and well-being.”

“Let us know where you want to cut after the holidays,” Muñoz retorted, adding his and the finance committees’ jobs were to balance the state’s books — which inevitably would mean cuts in order to maintain budget sustainability.

Rep. Meredith Dixon, D-Albuquerque, also expressed concern about the governor’s decision to roll out universal child care without strategizing with the Legislature. Though Groginsky noted the agency’s budget for the current fiscal year covered the launch of the expansion, Dixon said it still would have a “huge budget impact” and there should have been deliberations with lawmakers.

“[I], like many others, think universal child care is a fantastic idea,” Dixon said. “I 100% don’t agree with this approach, and I am sorry for that, because I think it puts me in a position of sounding like I don’t support the idea.”

Child care programs cover just one sector of New Mexico’s economy, said Rep. Brian Baca, R-Los Lunas, arguing many others also need to see expansions. He said lawmakers needed to evaluate whether investing in early childhood programs in this way would bring the promised benefits 10 years down the line.

“We need to be able to make sure that this is sustainable, that what we’re doing makes sense, and that … the outcomes and their safeness [are] in place to make sure that we leave this situation better than we found it,” he said.

Esteban Candelaria is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. He covers child welfare and the state Children, Youth and Families Department. Learn more about Report for America at reportforamerica.org.

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