HB 43 New Mexico House · 2026 Regular Session

DISABILITY & SURVIVOR PENSIONS CHANGES

HB 43 amends New Mexico's Public Employees Retirement Act to clarify disability and survivor pension rules, including removing inconsistencies in survivor pension calculations. It creates a disability review committee within the retirement board to handle disability retirement claims. The bill also allows state fire members and other eligible public safety workers (like police officers) to earn retirement service credit during approved workers' compensation leave if their employer continues paying both employee and employer pension contributions. Technical changes are made to service credit purchase and reinstatement procedures for members.

Issues: ✓ Labor & Employment

Bill status signed all 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

Feb 2026

House Passage

Feb 2026

Senate Passage

Feb 2026

Signed into Law

Mar 2026

Introduced Jan 6, 2026 Signed Mar 4, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

introduced version → Final Version · 5 edits

MODERATE

This bill clarifies and expands rules for public employee pension service credit in New Mexico. It adds provisions for service credit during workers' compensation leave for injured employees in dangerous work situations, clarifies purchase costs and forfeiture rules, and establishes procedures for correcting pension errors and recovering overpayments.

Scope change

The bill expands eligibility for service credit to include time spent on workers' compensation leave for injured peace officers, police, fire, correctional, and detention officers working in inherently dangerous conditions.

ELIGIBILITY

Service credit now accrues during approved workers' compensation leave for injured members of specified public safety occupations working in inherently dangerous locations or circumstances.

REQUIREMENT

Clarified that service credit cannot exceed one year per calendar year and must be purchased through authorized procedures in the Public Employees Retirement Act.

ENFORCEMENT

New provisions allow the retirement association to recover overpayments made within one year of discovery and hold individuals liable for fraudulent information with interest and collection costs.

DEFINITION

Service credit is now defined as only credit earned during actual employment periods with an affiliated public employer.

TECHNICAL

Added provisions allowing reinstatement of forfeited service credit through repayment of withdrawn contributions plus compound interest.

Floor votes · Senate Feb 19, 2026 · House Feb 9, 2026

How they voted

36–0

Passed · 2 other

Total votes 38

Feb 19, 2026

D Democratic22

22 Yea

100% 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 4, 2026

Signed into law

Signed

executive

Feb 19, 2026

Upper · Passed

passed Senate

upper

Feb 17, 2026

Upper · Passed

DO PASS committee report adopted

upper

Feb 10, 2026

Introduced

Sent to Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee

upper

Feb 9, 2026

Lower · Passed

passed House

lower

Feb 4, 2026

Lower · Passed

DO PASS committee report adopted

lower

Jan 30, 2026

Lower · Passed

DO PASS committee report adopted

lower

Jan 22, 2026

Introduced

Sent to House Labor, Veterans & Military Affairs Committee & House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee

lower

Jan 21, 2026

Lower · Passed

not printed House Rules and Order of Business Committee

lower

Jan 6, 2026

Introduced

Sent to House Pre-file

lower

5 primary · 0 co-sponsors