NM lawmakers set aside $3 million for public health tips • Source New Mexico

New Mexico groups dedicated to public health in local communities got a temporary windfall from state lawmakers this year after they said they had operated for more than a decade without enough money to achieve their mission.

Anticipating a major cut in federal funds because Govt declared public health emergency for COVID-19 ended, state officials agreed to set aside $3 million in the next fiscal year for health boards, local groups that are trusted community health centers in New Mexico.

But the state money will disappear again in 2026, and advocates will have to return to the Roundhouse to try to make the money a permanent part of the state budget each year, called “recurring” spending.

Although the official public health emergency for COVID has been declared over, local public health challenges remain, said New Mexico Alliance of Health Boards Executive Director Valeria Alarcon.

“These differences, these barriers have not been removed,” Alarcon said. “For New Mexico, especially in rural communities, we really remain in the emergency response phase.”

What are the health tips?

There are 33 health boards operating in every county in New Mexico and another nine based in tribal nations in the state. They work on public health issues that their communities identify as local priorities, which may include COVID vaccination and testing, harm reduction, education, transportation, climate change, or primary care.

“The boards of health work at the grassroots level, so they know what their people need,” said Congressman Anthony Allison (D-Fruitland), who has tried to secure funding for the groups every session since he was elected in 2019.

The Torrance Healthy Community Partnership is the health board for parts of three counties in central New Mexico. The two people who run the group say the money will allow them to continue their work around substance use disorders, gun violence, and testing and vaccination for COVID-19.

Based at the New Mexico National DWI Victims Memorial office at Eternal Tears in Moriarty, the group serves all of Torrance, eastern Bernalillo County and southern Santa Fe County.

State law requires each New Mexico board of health to write a community health improvement plan that it submits to the state health department.

The main focus of the Torrance Board of Health is mental health and substance use disorder. Their latest plan calls for mental health counselors to work in schools, along with classes on the harms of tobacco aimed at K-12 students.

They distribute gun locks and the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone — known by its brand name Narcan — throughout Torrance County. They also teach people how to use Narcan to save a life.

Debbie Ortiz chairs the health board and is an advocate for substance use disorder prevention.

“There’s a lot of things that money would help with if we could only dream of having it regularly and not having to worry — going to Santa Fe every year, going to the legislature, begging for the money — when we’re already doing the work.” she said.

Back to “normal” means stopping CDC funding

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Torrance County Board of Health was the “main hub” where people called for COVID vaccines and tests, Ortiz said. She said the group became household names as they helped people — many of them with disabilities — sign up for vaccines and get in and out of vaccination clinics quickly.

“So they trusted us more and more,” she said.

$2.25 billion grant from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allowed health boards across the country to mitigate the effects of the SARS-Cov-2 virus and COVID-19, the disease it causes.

But the subsidy will expire in May.

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Before the grant, the Torrance Board of Health had a “very modest budget” of $15,000 a year, Ortiz said.

The CDC money allowed the health board to hire two community health workers, she said. Without it, a community health worker would soon leave, said Adrian Ortiz, no relation, health board coordinator.

Four years after the pandemic began, people still come to the Torrance Board of Health with questions and concerns or if they just need a COVID test, Debbie Ortiz said.

“Even now, if they feel like they might have COVID, they remember they can get COVID tests through us and we’ll pick them up and deliver them to their homes or meet them somewhere so they can take these tests,” she said.

$3 million set aside for one year

Last fall, the New Mexico Department of Health put the health advice aside from the proposed budget presented to the legislature.

Still, Alarcon lobbied the agency and lawmakers who control the state’s budget. In the last week of January, the Department of Health added $3 million to its agency request. In her campaign to get the money in the budget, Alarcon said she also received support from Rep. Gayle Armstrong (R-Magdalena) and Rep. Tara Lujan (D-Santa Fe).

The House Appropriations and Finance Committee, chaired by Rep. Nathan Small (D-Las Cruces), approved the $3 million, and it was included in the state budget passed by both chambers. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed The budget law is on March 6.

But health boards and their Roundhouse allies did not want the full amount of money.

Alison (Dine) wore House Bill 67, which would set aside $6.6 million each year for health tips, more than double what was approved in the state budget. That bill passed one committee before running out of time and dying in House Appropriations and Finance without a hearing.

Allison said he hoped the Senate would come up with the remaining $3.6 million, but because HB 67 did not make it out of the House, it could not be considered in the Senate.

“This could have been the last time we got record oil and gas revenue, so it was an opportune time,” Allison said. “I guess that’s why, you could say, it upsets me that people kept me in the dark all along.”

About a week before the end of the session, Allison said he asked Small to put HB 67 back on the committee agenda, something Small could schedule as part of his responsibilities as chairman. Small responded that lawmakers had already set aside $3 million in the state budget, so it didn’t need to be heard in committee.

In the 2023 session, the same committee introduced another bill from Allison that seeks funding for public health boards. small said it was only a “temporary table” and that funding could still come into the state budget, but never did.

The next legislative session is make-or-break for NM health boards

This session, Allison said Small’s committee “gave it up to be heard in the Senate,” where he believes it could have garnered more support.

“We’ve never heard of (the House Appropriations and Finance Committee) before, so I was very upset with him, and this is the second year in a row,” Allison said.

Small responded with a written statement sent to Source New Mexico from a House Democratic spokesman.

“We included $3 million for tribal and community health boards in HB 2 this year, marking the first time health boards have been funded in our state budget since the Great Recession,” Small said. “When funding-focused measures like this are included in the budget, there’s no need for a separate bill to also make its way through the full legislative process individually.”

The $3 million is a step in the right direction, Alarcon said, and will allow health boards to retain their staff, usually one or two part-time workers, and focus on one or two priorities in their plans to improve the health of the community.

“While we’re disappointed that we didn’t get the full $6.6 million, we’re still happy with the $3 million,” Allison said.

In a separate bill and the deputies approved $160,000 lump sum over two years for health boards serving Harding, Quay, Union and Colfax counties. Rep. Jack Chatfield (R-Mosquero) included the money for the health tips in his legislative district, Alarcon said.

It is unclear whether the money from this bill will be in addition to or replace those health boards’ share of $3 million.

State law does Ministry of Health, responsible for allocating funding, health board funding.

Alison is not running for re-election and will not be at the Roundhouse to fight for funding next year.

He said Armstrong expressed interest in repeating the money. He wishes she would “run away with him.”

“My parting words when I left the Legislature was that we all need to take care of our five-toed creatures,” he said. “I told them I’d like to make a proposal to both parties: keep working together and don’t act like the animal that represents your party.”