The 2026 New Mexico legislative session is officially over. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and leaders from both chambers of the state Legislature on Thursday hailed the passage of key priorities such as universal no-cost child care, medical malpractice reform and an ICE detention ban.
Some of the governor’s priorities, including a bill to ban the sale of certain firearms and bills to join several interstate compacts for licensed professionals, did not make it to her desk. But both the governor and legislative leaders said that should not detract from a busy 30-day session full of legislative wins.
“None of us got everything we wanted, myself included,” Senate President Pro Tempore Mimi Stewart (D-Albuquerque) said in the final minutes of the Senate’s floor proceedings Thursday. Her Clear Horizons Act, which would have codified emission reduction goals into state law, died in the Senate.
At a news conference Thursday afternoon, Lujan Grisham said she believed lawmakers took care of this year’s priorities “in large part.”
“I get to say I’m the first governor of the first state in the nation to truly deliver for children and families,” she said.
Pass with care
While 30-day sessions are constitutionally confined to budgetary matters and anything given the go-ahead by the governor, lawmakers filed the highest number of bills since the 2020 legislative session. Only a fraction of them passed both chambers, though.
This session, lawmakers passed 10.93% of the bills under their consideration. Both chambers combined sent 75 of 686 bills they introduced to the governor’s desk before the session’s final gavel. That is, by a hair, the lowest percentage of bills to clear both chambers since Lujan Grisham took office. Legislatures in the last three 30-day sessions sent between 10.94% and 12.1% of bills her way.
In 2026, the House introduced 378 bills and the Senate introduced 308 bills.
A deal to use the Zia symbol
The House Appropriations and Finance Committee late Wednesday night broke away from the House floor to vote on a number of spending items, including some that Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham pushed to include in the budget.
One of them gives $2 million to the Zia Pueblo for the “past, present and future” use of the Zia symbol. The symbol adorns the state flag and is largely synonymous with New Mexico.
Daniel Schlegel, the governor’s chief of staff, told committee members that the state Indian Affairs Department worked out what is effectively a licensing agreement with pueblo officials, allowing the state to use the symbol in perpetuity.
The pueblo has used the Zia symbol for much of its 1,000-year history, according to a history on the pueblo’s website. Its four points represent the cardinal directions, the seasons, the stages of life and “sacred obligations” for all humans, including a “strong body, a clear mind, a pure spirit and a devotion to the welfare of others.”
The state’s embrace of the symbol has been somewhat controversial among pueblo leaders in the decades since. In the 1990s, the pueblo demanded $70 million from the state for use of the symbol, representing a $1 million charge for every year it had been in use. Pueblo leaders have taken steps in recent years to ensure appropriate use of the symbol, particularly by private companies.
Offsetting potential ICE detention closures
In one of their final acts Wednesday night, state lawmakers approved funds for counties and municipalities that could lose jobs or revenue as a result of House Bill 9, which prohibits public entities from contracting with federal agencies to house immigrant detainees.
Senate Bill 273, which Sen. George Muñoz (D-Gallup) sponsored, provides about $11.9 million to counties and municipalities surrounding the state’s three ICE detention facilities in Torrance, Otero and Cibola counties. Funding is aimed at replacing gross receipts tax revenue as well as paying for increased prisoner transport costs, if the facilities shutter.
An early version of the bill had Torrance County receiving only $600,000 this fiscal year for potential gross receipts taxes. After Rep. Stefani Lord (R-Sandia Park) intervened, the county and Estancia will now receive roughly a little more than $1.9 million.
The bill also has provisions that interrupt the state’s payments should any of the counties find other uses for their facilities or if private prison operators opt to contract directly with ICE.
While supportive of the funds, GOP lawmakers at a post-session news conference said they aren’t nearly enough to protect counties from potential impacts of HB9, a bill they adamantly opposed.
“They’re trying to stop the bleeding of a wound that they created,” said House Minority Leader Gail Armstrong (R-Magdalena).
State Fair money a’flowin’State lawmakers late Wednesday approved a bill that authorizes $92 million in bonds for improvements and property acquisitions at the New Mexico State Fair grounds in Albuquerque.
The bonds, made possible through Senate Bill 48, will finance construction of a 10-acre public park, along with pedestrian safety upgrades at two nearby intersections that are among the deadliest in New Mexico.
The Legislature in 2025 created a new State Fair District Board that has up to $500 million in bonding capacity for transforming the fairgrounds, which border Albuquerque’s International District.
“The International District deserves this transformative investment and I’m proud we were able to deliver it,” the governor said in a statement Thursday.
This year’s budget also contains $100 million in special appropriations for the fairgrounds, including $30 million to build new housing on-site.
Lawmakers across the state expressed interest throughout the session in the redevelopment project and particularly whether it will require moving the annual State Fair from its home of 92 years. No decision has been made yet, Rep. Janelle Anyanonu (D-Albuquerque) said late Wednesday night on the House floor.
Stantec, a design firm the board contracted to produce a master plan, released preliminary maps showing possibilities for the site late last year. A final master plan is expected sometime in February.
Howie Morales honored in final session
