The Senate in session on Thursday.
The 2022 legislative session began on Tuesday.
Our legislative goal this year is simple: make sure that the state budget includes funding for continuing the Health Security Plan design process.
New Mexico’s every-other-year 30-day legislative session focuses on crafting a budget for the next fiscal year—in this case, the 2023 fiscal year, which begins on July 1, 2022.
There are several ways to get funding into the budget, and our approach this year is multipronged.
The House: The state budget is initiated in the House. The House Appropriations and Finance Committee is in charge of creating the budget bill (HB 2). Our House sponsor, Rep. Dayan Hochman-Vigil, and other advocates in the House will be working to incorporate a small amount of supplemental funding for the Health Security Plan design process into the budget of the Office of Superintendent of Insurance.
While we are hopeful that some funding will be included in HB 2, it will not be enough to fully support the large amount of research and staffing needed.
After HB 2 has passed the House, it's the Senate's turn to put its mark on the budget.
The Senate: Our Senate sponsors, Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino and Sen. Harold Pope, have already filed SB 80, a bill requesting $1.5 million to be appropriated to the Office of Superintendent of Insurance to continue the design process. This bill was endorsed by the interim Legislative Health and Human Services Committee.
Unlike the 75-page 2019 Health Security Act, this 1-page appropriation bill does not set up new laws or change existing ones. Instead, it simply serves as a path to getting some funding included in HB 2 to continue the Health Security Plan design process. As expected, SB 80 has been assigned first to the Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee and then to Senate Finance. While Senate Finance may consider the bill at any time, the committee must wait until HB 2 comes over to the Senate before it can approve additional funding to the budget.
Realistically, any funding approved for inclusion in HB 2 on the Senate side will fall well short of the requested amount, as supplements to the budget are rarely very large.
Therefore, we must obtain most of the required funding through “junior” monies.
Junior Funding: In those few years where there is more money available to the state, the leadership of the House and Senate may decide that each senator and representative will be able to devote a certain amount of discretionary funding to the departments and projects they view as most important. These discretionary funding requests are put together in an extra budget bill commonly called HB 2 Junior, or just “junior” for short. In 2021, legislators who donated some of their junior funds made it possible to begin the Health Security Plan design process under the auspices of the Superintendent of Insurance.
We are therefore now asking supportive legislators to consider allocating a portion of their discretionary funds to the Office of Superintendent of Insurance for continuing the Health Security Plan design process.
As you can see, there are multiple paths to pursue to achieve our goal!
Stay in the Loop!
Join us on Thursday, January 27, at 6:30 PM for our first weekly 2022 legislative update, via Zoom. Register now!
And, of course, if you are not already on our email list, please sign up today!
We'll be holding virtual weekly updates throughout the legislative session, just as we did last year. The other two meetings are scheduled for 6:30 PM on February 3 and February 10. Register by clicking on the individual dates.