Fast-tracked behavioral health bills generate support, questions at Roundhouse

SANTA FE — A bipartisan package of bills expanding New Mexico’s mental health and drug abuse treatment system received broad support Wednesday, but also prompted a slew of questions.

The proposals would, as a whole, establish a behavioral health trust fund with up to $1 billion in startup money, while also setting up a new state government framework based on regional implementation plans.

Specific programs that would get a funding increase include housing assistance, mental health clinics and law enforcement-run crisis intervention programs.

Behavioral health has emerged as a key issue during this year’s 60-day legislative session as lawmakers look for ways to reduce homelessness, drug use and violent crime.

“It’s a huge issue in the state and we’re finally paying attention to it,” said Sen. Martin Hickey, D-Albuquerque, during Wednesday’s meeting of the Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee.

The bills, Senate Bills 1, 2 and 3, are sponsored by a bipartisan group of senators, including the chamber’s Democratic and Republican floor leaders — Peter Wirth of Santa Fe and William Sharer of Farmington.

Wirth and other top Democrats have indicated the Senate could move quickly on the bills with the goal of getting them to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s desk by the midway point of the 60-day legislative session that began last week.

During Wednesday’s committee hearing, the package was applauded by senators but also scrutinized.

Senate Bill 1, the proposed trust fund legislation, was approved on a 10-0 vote. But action on the other two bills in the package was put off until next week after more than three hours of debate.

Wirth indicated he was on board with the decision to delay a vote, saying all senators on the committee should have time to vet the bills.

Meanwhile, Sen. Liz Stefanics, D-Cerrillos, said up to 50% of New Mexicans could eventually come in contact with the state’s behavioral health system.

“I think that we’re talking about a very large number,” she said, citing increased rates of depression, alcoholism and other conditions.

Sen. Jay Block, R-Rio Rancho, talked about his own experiences with post-traumatic stress disorder following his deployment to Afghanistan and growing up with a parent who struggled with drug use.

“I don’t want another kid to go through what I went through, or another veteran to go through what I went through,” Block said.

But he also asked about data-tracking mechanisms in the behavioral health package, saying, “If we’re not making progress, we just can’t keep throwing more and more money at it.”

New Mexico has one of the nation’s highest suicide rates, and more than one-third of state residents reported anxiety or a depressive disorder in 2023, according to Kaiser Family Foundation data.

While the state is projected to spend roughly $1.1 billion on behavioral health programs in the current budget year, the state’s behavioral health collaborative had not met in over one year and did not have an appointed director as of last fall, according to legislative data.