Pay raises for most state employees next year probably are off the table.

That’s because continued decreases in crude oil prices will translate to a sharper-than-expected drop in new revenue for New Mexico’s next state budget.

“I don’t think there’s going to be room for across-the-board compensation increases,” Gov. Susana Martinez’s budget chief, Tom Clifford, told the Journal on Monday.

One of the Legislature’s top budget makers agreed. “There won’t be pay raises,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Arthur Smith, D-Deming.

Budget experts told the Legislative Finance Committee on Monday that the state will have about $141 million in new revenue for the fiscal year 2015-16 budget, less than half the $285 million in new money estimated earlier this year.

Read more here: http://www.abqjournal.com/507670/news/raises-not-likely-for-most-state-workers.html