Lawmakers express frustration over unspent public safety funding

SANTA FE — Nearly half of the $424.7 million appropriated by lawmakers for New Mexico public safety initiatives over the past five years has gone unspent, due largely to high vacancy rates and other staffing issues.

Legislators expressed frustration Monday over the unspent one-time funds, which includes more than $213 million to help recruit and retain law enforcement officers, according to a Legislative Finance Committee report.

Of that total amount, only about half — or $110.6 million — had been spent as of last month, legislative analysts found.

Rep. Christine Chandler, D-Los Alamos, the chairwoman of the Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee, said state and local officials have, in most cases, requested the funds but struggled to put them to use upon approval.

“We have been providing the resources they ask for and they need, so let’s just call it as it is,” Chandler said during a Monday hearing in Albuquerque.

She also pointed out Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has used her line-item veto authority to ax some budget language dealing with specifically how the money should be spent.

However, a Lujan Grisham spokeswoman said the legislative report presented Monday contains “numerous instances” of incomplete, outdated and potentially misleading data.

In the past two years, a state budget agency has funded 401 new police officers and helped local departments retain 235 officers, the governor’s spokeswoman Jodi McGinnis Porter said.

“But funding alone will not solve our public safety challenges,” McGinnis Porter added. “New Mexico needs smart statutory changes that will enable the judicial system to adequately address repeat offenders cycling through the courts and ending up back on the street time and time again.”

Lujan Grisham asked legislators to expand the state’s law on reporting crime statistics — among other initiatives — during a special session last month, but Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, said the data shows the current law is not being enforced.

He cited data indicating 25% of law enforcement agencies around New Mexico did not report their crime data to a federal database, as of the 2024 budget year.

“We’re appropriating more and more and more money every year, and getting poorer and poorer and poorer results,” Cervantes said.

In addition to struggles recruiting and retaining law enforcement officers, both prosecutors and the state’s Law Offices of the Public Defender have faced challenges hiring new attorneys, the LFC report found.

The Children, Youth and Families Department has also not spent some of its one-time funding, as about $24 million out of $55 million appropriated for a new child welfare computer system has gone unspent. The agency recently relaunched the effort with a higher price tag, a legislative analyst said.

Rep. Stefani Lord, R-Sandia Park, said the delays are exasperating for lawmakers trying to move the needle on child abuse and neglect cases.

“It seems like we throw money at stuff and then there’s no oversight,” Lord said during Monday’s meeting.

Meanwhile, a wave of officer retirements and departures have complicated the New Mexico State Police’s attempt to bolster its ranks.

State Police were projected to enter July with 645 commissioned officers, after lawmakers approved funding to boost officer pay, up slightly from 636 officers a year earlier, according to LFC data.

“In pockets, we know it probably hasn’t accomplished what we hoped it would accomplish,” LFC Deputy Director Jon Courtney said during Monday’s hearing, regarding the spike in law enforcement funding.

The legislative report also said a recently opened state forensic lab in Santa Fe had a 45% vacancy rate after several recent retirements.