SB 75 New Mexico Senate · 2025 Regular Session

EDUCATIONAL RETIREMENT CHANGES

SB 75 amends New Mexico's Educational Retirement Act to clarify and update key retirement rules for public school employees and retirees. It requires unclaimed member contributions to be deposited into the retirement fund (Section 2), clarifies gift restrictions for board members (max $50 per gift, $150 yearly total), and allows disabled retirees over 60 to continue receiving annuity adjustments. The bill also updates cost-of-living adjustment rules based on the fund's financial health and streamlines requirements for minimum service years to qualify for benefits. These changes directly affect current and future educators in New Mexico's public school retirement system.

Bill status signed all 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2025

Committee Review

Mar 2025

Senate Passage

Feb 2025

House Passage

Mar 2025

Signed into Law

Mar 2025

Introduced Jan 22, 2025 Signed Mar 20, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

introduced version → Final Version · 5 edits

MODERATE

This bill reorganizes and clarifies the Educational Retirement Act by renaming sections, creating a suspense fund for attorney fees, and updating definitions for cost-of-living adjustments. It also adds provisions for members to purchase years of service and clarifies eligibility requirements.

Scope change

The bill expands the scope by adding a suspense fund for legal claims and clarifying how members can acquire years of service through contributions.

FISCAL

Created a new 'educational retirement suspense fund' to receive amounts from private attorneys' claims, separate from the main educational retirement fund.

DEFINITION

Added detailed definitions for cost-of-living adjustment terms including 'adjustment factor', 'annuity', 'funded ratio', and 'median adjusted annuity'.

ELIGIBILITY

Added provision allowing members to acquire five or fewer years of contributory employment by making direct contributions to the fund.

REQUIREMENT

Clarified that years of contributory employment purchased through contributions cannot be added to actual service performed when calculating retirement benefits.

TECHNICAL

Reorganized bill structure with new section numbering and formatting changes, including removal of bracketed deletion markers and underscored addition markers.

Floor votes · Senate Feb 13, 2025 · House Mar 15, 2025

How they voted

33–0

Passed · 7 other

Total votes 40

Feb 13, 2025

D Democratic24

19 Yea 5

79% Yea

R Republican16

14 Yea 2

87% Yea

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Mar 20, 2025

Signed into law

Signed

executive

Mar 15, 2025

Lower · Passed

passed House

lower

Mar 12, 2025

Lower · Passed

DO PASS committee report adopted

lower

Mar 1, 2025

Lower · Passed

DO PASS committee report adopted

lower

Feb 21, 2025

Introduced

Sent to House Education Committee & House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee

lower

Feb 13, 2025

Upper · Passed

passed Senate

upper

Feb 11, 2025

Upper · Passed

DO PASS committee report adopted

upper

Feb 3, 2025

Upper · Passed

DO PASS, as amended, committee report adopted

upper

Jan 22, 2025

Introduced

Sent to Senate Education Committee & Senate Finance Committee

upper

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors