Hundreds of millions of dollars earmarked for behavioral health service expansions are flowing from the state’s coffers to communities across New Mexico — but the reform effort isn’t moving as efficiently as some lawmakers would like.
During a meeting of the Legislative Finance Committee on Thursday, lawmakers and analysts alike identified some growing pains facing the state as it attempts to overhaul a long-troubled behavioral health system, including political friction during regional planning processes and a lack of improvement in some of New Mexico’s biggest behavioral health challenges — namely, overdose deaths.
The Legislature has since 2022 provided $843.5 million in one-time funding for behavioral health initiatives, according to a report released Thursday by the Legislative Finance Committee. About three-quarters of that money has already been spent, primarily on programs to expand access to mental health and substance abuse services and increase the behavioral health workforce.
In 2025, for instance, the funding supported programs ranging from medication-assisted outpatient treatment to financial aid for students pursuing degrees related to behavioral health or addiction counseling.
That is “really good news,” Legislative Finance Committee fiscal analyst Allegra Hernandez told lawmakers.
“It means that the money that you all are highlighting and appropriating is getting spent and going out the door to New Mexicans,” she said.
So far, however, that money hasn’t affected some key behavioral health measures. In particular, Hernandez pointed to overdose deaths — which rose in New Mexico in 2025, despite falling across the country.
“While the money is being invested, it’s perhaps not doing as you all as the Legislature intended,” Hernandez said.
Reform efforts didn’t stop with the one-time funding.
The Legislature in 2025 passed a series of measures intended to overhaul the state’s behavioral health system. Chief among them was the Behavioral Health Reform and Investment Act, also known as Senate Bill 3, which tasked the Administrative Office of the Courts with coordinating the development of regional behavioral health plans in hopes of expanding access to services throughout the state.
Now, all three branches of New Mexico’s government are working together to put that mandate into action.
Regional teams across the state — divided along the same lines as New Mexico’s 13 judicial districts — are finalizing plans to address local behavioral health needs. The Health Care Authority has already released funding for the most urgent priorities, fiscal analyst Harry Rommel told the committee Thursday.
But where there is intergovernmental collaboration, there may also be infighting. The Behavioral Health Reform and Investment Act does not outline any system of governance for the regions, said Sarah Jacobs, deputy director of the Administrative Office of the Courts.
“We have a lot of varying politics at the local level,” she said. “Some regions are working very well together. Others are having a little bit more difficulty, and they are looking to us to be like, ‘How do we operate this?’ ”
That’s a tough question for the state agencies to answer, given the law doesn’t provide any specific guidance, Jacobs said.
Rep. Nathan Small, D-Las Cruces, said that may merit “further guidance” from the Legislature to the local regions on how best to organize themselves.
Rep. Rebecca Dow, R-Truth or Consequences, said she’d like to see the state moving faster to improve its behavioral health system — particularly to respond to the needs of children in the custody of the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department.
“I was under the impression that we’d be further along than we are. … That’s a hard pill to swallow if you’re a child welfare advocate or if you’re watching what’s happening at CYFD,” Dow said.
However, Nick Boukas, director of the Behavioral Health Services Division at the state Health Care Authority, said the reform efforts are on track and, in some cases, ahead of schedule. The changes brought on by the new law — including statewide research efforts and the regional plan development — just take time to get moving.
“We’re really where we thought we would be,” Boukas said.
