Regents approve one-off bonus

The Board of Regents ruled Tuesday that employees making less than $50,000 per year will be eligible for a bonus.

Employees haven’t been eligible for a recurring pay raise in three years, and this year saw a 1.75 percent decrease in what they’re required to pay into their retirement funds.

“(The bonus) is a fill-in for deductions in income over the last two budget cycles,” Regent Gene Gallegos said.

To be eligible, employees must have been employed at UNM for the past two years without breaks. According to Board of Regents documents, full-time employees are estimated to receive $950 each, but that number may change as the University works out the final details. Part-time employees will receive pro-rated bonuses based on how much time they put in at UNM per week.

The bonuses will cost the University about $4 million, and will come from a reserve fund of nearly $4.9 million left over from a higher-than-anticipated year-end balance for fiscal year 2011.

Regent President Jack Fortner said New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez opposes the bonuses, which could affect UNM in the upcoming legislative session.

Martinez spoke out against the bonuses earlier this week, saying they mean different treatment for UNM employees and other state workers.
“The governor believes that the intent of the Legislature was clear and does not believe that some state employees should be exempted from contributing more to their retirement, while nearly all other state employees are being required to do so,” Martinez’s spokesman Scott Darnell told the Albuquerque Journal.

UNM staff council president Mary Clark said she disagreed.

“While we are state employees in some respects, while we do get certain state funding, the output of work we do benefits UNM,” she said. “We have this money, it’s been vetted across campus. I think it’s the right thing to do.”