There’s little data so far to demonstrate recent state spending on mental health and substance abuse services is making a difference in outcomes or access to care, according to a Legislative Finance Committee report released Tuesday.
But that doesn’t mean the state’s investments aren’t paying off, said Nick Boukas, director of the Behavioral Health Services Division at the state Health Care Authority.
“I think we are making a difference,” Boukas told lawmakers during the Tuesday committee meeting. “But I don’t want it to look like we were going to put $1 billion into this, and, in 60 days, everything’s fixed. I wish it was that simple.”
The Behavioral Health Services Division asked the state for an additional $7.2 million in general fund dollars for its fiscal year 2028 budget.
That money, Boukas said, would replace opioid settlement dollars and bring funding for supportive housing programs into the agency’s base budget. Money from the massive settlement agreements with pharmaceutical companies and pharmacies — accused in a series of lawsuits of fueling the opioid crisis — has been trickling into state and local coffers for years, but it’s hard to track in New Mexico. The first opioid settlement payments arrived in April 2022, and the last is expected in 2039.
“We’re requesting your consideration for moving that over to the base budget,” Boukas told lawmakers.
New Mexico policymakers have in recent years made major changes and investments in the state’s behavioral health system. Since fiscal year 2024, the state has provided $89.5 million to increase payments to behavioral health providers, according to the Legislative Finance Committee report released Tuesday. Lawmakers in 2025 appropriated $565 million in one-time spending for behavioral health services.
Part of that spending was related to the 2025 New Mexico Behavioral Health Reform and Investment Act, also known as Senate Bill 3, a major reform measure that tasked the state Administrative Office of the Courts with coordinating the development of regional behavioral health plans to expand services throughout the state.
That work is ongoing now. Nearly $25 million earmarked for “early access” funding to address urgent behavioral health priorities — like residential programs, crisis care, perinatal substance use disorder treatment, and medication-assisted treatment for people involved in the justice system — is already “out the door” to local communities, Boukas said.
A state commission in July approved the regional plan for Santa Fe, Rio Arriba and Los Alamos counties, which emphasized expansion of behavioral health crisis services. Only two regions — those covering Lincoln, Otero, Mora, San Miguel and Guadalupe counties — await approval by the panel.
The regional planning process hasn’t been frictionless. Analysts in June warned lawmakers about political tensions during those processes and a lack of improvement in some of New Mexico’s biggest behavioral health challenges — namely, overdose deaths. Some lawmakers have already voiced their frustrations over lack of efficiency in that process.
Moreover, each region is set to receive between $6 million and $13 million in behavioral health funding over three years — which isn’t all that much to make systemwide improvements to mental health and substance use services.
Boukas fielded tough questions from Democrats and Republicans alike during Tuesday’s committee meeting.
“I want your honest opinion: Is it moving the needle or is it not moving the needle?” asked Sen. George Muñoz, a Gallup Democrat.
Boukas said it is — but he noted behavioral treatment isn’t always as straightforward as other medical care. He used the example of a broken leg, which might result in surgery and a few visits to an orthopedist before getting better.
Because behavioral health can involve months or years of ongoing work, Boukas said, “I’m not going to see, for lack of a better term, a cure like I would if I had broken my leg. What we’re trying to do is have people be less dependent on the crisis systems and move them more into the long-term systems.”
Rep. Mark Duncan, a Republican from Kirtland, put the point more directly: “We’ve spent a whole lot of money with zero results yet,” he said.
That’s largely because most of the behavioral health reform programs have yet to roll out to the point where they can start collecting that data, according to Boukas. He said he expects to see results from early access funding “shortly” and present that information to lawmakers.
Duncan said he hopes to see that data soon.
“If we’re going to continue to fund things, we’ve got to see the data that drives those funds,” he said.
Margaret O’Hara reports on issues affecting healthy communities in New Mexico. Her work is funded by a grant from Anchorum Health Foundation. Anchorum will not have any role in editorial decisions. The New Mexican and its Public Service Journalism Fund retain full editorial control. Philanthropically funded stories by The New Mexican are made available to all readers without a paywall.
