By Kevin Hendricks — Voters in this year’s elections took away the next governor’s New pocket veto and gave the nation’s last volunteer legislators a salary.
Voters approved all four constitutional amendments on the ballot Tuesday by wide margins, with support ranging from 63% to 75%, according to unofficial results. The amendments end the governor’s pocket veto, put legislators on salary for the first time, open general election ballots to school races and bond questions and create nominating committees for university regents.
Amendment 1: No more pocket vetoes
The pocket veto amendment was the most popular measure on the ballot, passing 75% to 25%, or 494,437 to 164,368.
Governors have 20 days after a session ends to sign or veto bills. Until now, any bill left unsigned simply died, no explanation required. That’s a pocket veto, and New Mexico governors used it a lot: Of 160 bills vetoed from 2014 to 2024, 143 died that way.
Now an unsigned bill becomes law, and every veto needs a written explanation. That makes Gov.-elect Deb Haaland, who won Tuesday’s governor’s race and takes office Jan. 1, the first New Mexico governor who can’t kill a bill by ignoring it.
Lawmakers sent the amendment to voters unanimously, 66-0 in the House and 38-0 in the Senate. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham opposed it.
Amendment 2: School elections join the big ballot
Voters approved Amendment 2 by 65% to 35%, or 423,872 to 230,295.
The Constitution formerly required school elections to be held separately from partisan elections. That’s gone.
The change lets the Legislature move school board races to even-year general elections, when turnout is higher, and lets districts put bond and mill levy questions on those ballots instead of paying for separate elections. The Legislature still has to pass a law to make the move.
Supporters, including the New Mexico School Boards Association, argued districts deserve the bigger turnout. Opponents warned of crowded ballots and politicized school races.
Amendment 3: Vetting university regents
Amendment 3 passed 70% to 30%, or 441,916 to 190,138.
Governors can now only appoint nonstudent university regents from lists provided by nominating committees. No more than half of each committee’s members can belong to the same political party.
Student regents will now be picked from lists provided by the student government instead of the university president.
Supporters said the change curbs appointments of political donors. Regent controversies at New Mexico State University and Western New Mexico University fueled the push.
The committees don’t exist yet. The Legislature must create them by law, likely in the session that starts Jan. 19.
Amendment 4: A paycheck for lawmakers
Lawmaker pay drew the most opposition but still passed easily, 63% to 37%, or 415,498 to 239,681.
New Mexico was the only state that didn’t pay its legislators. Now they’ll earn a salary equal to the state’s median household income, about $67,800, adjusted as that figure rises or falls.
Paying all 112 legislators will cost about $7.6 million a year. The salaries start in 2029.
Supporters said a salary lets working parents, young people and lower-income New Mexicans afford to serve. The amendment passed the House 41-26, with every Republican voting no, and the Senate 23-19.
WHAT’S NEXT
- Jan. 1: Haaland takes office
- Jan. 19: 2027 legislative session begins; lawmakers must write laws creating regent nominating committees and any move of school elections
- 2029: Legislative salaries begin
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