$7K baby bond for each New Mexico child? What the state treasurer is proposing

• New Mexico State Treasurer Laura Montoya has reintroduced a “baby bonds” proposal to state legislators.
• The proposal would grant children born in New Mexico a state-funded bond, initially around $7,000, that grows over time.
• Recipients could access the funds at age 18 for specific uses like education, housing, or starting a business within the state.
• To access the money, individuals would be required to complete a financial literacy course.

New Mexico State Treasurer Laura Montoya reintroduced baby bonds to legislative teams at a recent conference.

During this conference, Montoya and her team explained what baby bonds would do, what they would mean for New Mexicans and asked for their thoughts and what she could change to help get it passed in the New Mexico Legislature.

Baby bonds are a way for parents to set children up for success later down the line, Montoya said. New Mexico would allocate around $7,000 to each newborn child as part of the bond proposal. The bond would grow over time, and the child would have access to it at age 18. Bonds could be used for a down payment for a car or to pay for parts of school that are not covered by the lottery or opportunity scholarships, buying or renovating a home, or starting a business all withing the state of New Mexico.

Montoya said the funds would not be used for random expenses.

“Now you might be saying, ‘when I was 18 and I would never give myself that money.’ You’re not getting the money directly. So, what happens is it all gets put into a pool of cash that is invested by the State Investment Council. They manage the money and then when you need it, let’s say you’re a student and NMSU gives us an invoice, you say ‘yes, I went to school and NMSU needs to be paid out,’” Montoya said. “Then it goes to the appropriate (agency), whether it’s EFA (Education Freedom Account) or whoever the Legislature designates, will then sign off the check and send it directly to NMSU. So, it’s their money but it isn’t their money.”

Montoya hypothesized on how a bond would benefit a young New Mexican.

“So, you consider an 18-year-old from a working-class family living in Rio Arriba (County), who dreams of attending a four-year college and eventually becoming a nurse. However, achieving this dream would have been difficult given her family’s working-class income. Having a Baby Bond has already made a difference. Research indicates that even small dollar savings accounts with money designated for school results in low-and middle-income children being more likely to enroll in college,” Montoya said.

Montoya said that statistics from the Treasurer’s Office, other state government agencies and pulled from public records to show what a baby bond could do for someone in a low income bracket.

“So, in Rio Arriba only 6% of adults have a degree beyond a bachelor’s degree. Only 7.5% of renters in Rio Arriba are able to afford median home price and baby bonds can contribute to significant decreases in student loan debt especially for women and people of color. You’ll see that same $7,000 she used $13,000 of it for nursing school when she was 18. Then, she still made another $23,000 and she used 30,000 for a home down payment. By the end of it she still had $150,000,” Montoya said.

The children who receive baby bonds would gain access to them only by taking a financial literacy course — or as Montoya calls it financial fitness course. This could be offered through state banks, but she said maybe later down the line it will be offered in kindergarten through grade 12.

“Financial fitness for me is something that I’m very passionate about because I grew up super humble and we didn’t have anyone to teach us what that looked like in having a savings account and investing and so many New Mexicans don’t. So, the one place we can learn this is in our schools, and we need to partner because a lot of our schools don’t have some of that expertise,” she said. “We need to partner with our banks; we need to partner with others that are doing the work already. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. We just need to bring more people in to partner.”

Department Head and Professor at NMSU Harikuman Sankaran questioned whether the bonds could be used by students already relying on the New Mexico Legislative Lottery Scholarship and New Mexico Opportunity Scholarship. Deputy State Treasurer Ricky Serna said students had the option to access the funds regardless of scholarship awards.

“If I’m a student that says, ‘I live in Albuquerque and I’m going to UNM, I already don’t have to pay tuition and I have a scholarship and now I don’t have to pay for books and fees. Do I have to now wait until I buy a home to access my baby bond?’ Maybe it’s ‘No, I can tell UNM I have enough to put me to work in the school of arts and sciences or put me to work somewhere because I want to use some of my money now, right?’ I think that’s the idea,” Serna said.

Montoya said that this concern would be addressed later to not overcomplicate the bond proposal.

“But that’s something the Legislature can do in the future, too. I mean we have 18 years, so I don’t want to complicate it at this moment. I just want to keep it as simple as possible, but I understand (the concern) of what you’re saying on the long-term investment to have them buy in,” Montoya said.

Montoya said Baby Bonds have the potential to address some of the state’s largest issues – poverty, educational attainment and housing. As the bond recipient gets older it too can ease the burden of housing, retirement and reliance on public assistance.

Children born in New Mexico could access the investment between the ages 18 and 35 to build wealth.

Montoya asked the public to comment on the use of Baby Bonds, an issue the state Legislature will consider in the 2027 Legislative session.

Leighanne Muñoz is the business and development reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News and is a fellow with the New Mexico Local News Fellowships and Internships Program, which places emerging journalists in newsrooms across New Mexico. Learn more at www.newmexicolocalnewsfellowships.org. Email her at lmunoz@gannett.com.