Sept. 18 – The amount of money saved by New Mexico government job openings is expected to be lower than in previous years as agencies fill more positions and give big pay raises to existing employees.
“We have seen a major shift in agency operating budgets over the past year, with significant pay increases given to staff who had to fill many vacancies,” Charles Sallee, director of the Legislative Finance Committee, told lawmakers this week.
“You’re going to see that throughout the fall, so that may have reduced the recurring chargebacks that we’re seeing,” he said, referring to the money that went back to the general fund, “but it was certainly larger amounts than you had set aside for.”
The significant pay increases, which affect all three branches of state government, including the Legislative Finance Commission, may require some agencies to increase their personnel budgets to cover costs.
Dylan Lange, director of the State Personnel Agency, said the raises are necessary to recruit and retain workers.
Staffing agencies have adjusted their workers’ salaries in recent years to offer competitive wages and help staff offset sharp increases in the cost of living, Lange said in a statement on Wednesday.
A study on compensation published in May found that government salaries are competitive but not excessive, based on a comparison of national data, he said.
“The state of New Mexico is currently 4.7 percent below the general market for industry wages,” Lange said in the statement. “If our state hopes to retain its public employees while recruiting and enticing future generations to serve in public service, we must begin closing this gap.”
He added: “State employees in the classified service are still paid on average at the middle of their pay scale.”
Helen Gaussoin, spokesperson for the Legislative Finance Committee, said in a statement that the agency is seeing a trend of lower vacancy savings as it reviews data in preparation for developing the fiscal year 2026 budget.
There are a few factors at play, she said.
“First, the state has more employees — about 750 more in September 2024 than in September 2023. Second, some agencies have given some employees bigger raises than expected,” Gaussoin said.
For the 2024 budget year, the legislature has approved a 6% pay increase.
“But the average increase for the approximately 15,000 government workers who stayed in the same jobs throughout the budget year was 9.7%,” she said.
“We are even seeing some parts of state government that may need additional staffing to maintain current staffing levels,” Gaussoin said.
The Legislative Finance Committee, the financial and management arm of the Legislature, has data showing that some agencies are spending more on staff than budgeted. Gaussoin stressed, however, that the information is preliminary and based on staffing levels at a single point in time.
“We’re not pointing fingers,” she said. “We’re very, very early in the budget development process and we may find something that’s concerning, but right now we’re just noting [lawmakers on the Legislative Finance Committee] that staff costs more than we expected.”
According to Gaussoin, there are about two dozen agencies in the state that appear to have a “negative” vacancy savings, though that number could change with further analysis of the data.
“If an agency has positive vacancy savings, [Legislative Finance Committee] Staff could propose a smaller increase in staffing than the agency requested (or no increase at all), assuming the agency can cover some of the costs with the savings,” she said. “Agencies with negative staffing savings may need a staffing increase to maintain the status quo.”
Follow Daniel J. Chacón on Twitter @danieljchacon.
