SANTA FE, N.M. – A former state budget director sued over New Mexico’s universal child care program, claiming leaders ignored a $43 million to $46 million funding gap and then fired her.
Kimberly Gonzales filed the lawsuit in Santa Fe County Court. The former Early Childhood Education and Care Department budget director said she had worked in the job since October.
Gonzales claimed she found several budget deficits and raised those concerns to department leaders, including Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky. She said early this year she warned leaders that the universal child care program could be more than $40 million short.
Gonzales said that in June she corrected the department’s trust fund figures, which pay for the child care program, because her numbers did not match what department leadership had presented in support of the program.
Gonzales claimed the department put her on administrative leave a month later and fired her about a week after that.
The department’s current chief financial officer, Carmel Pacheco Aragon, who is on administrative leave, filed a similar whistleblower complaint last week. Both women want their jobs back and damages.
The Early Childhood Education and Care Department sent the following statement to KOB 4:
“This complaint is another manufactured and unfounded allegation by Jacob Candelaria who has shown dedication to taking down Universal Child Care and taking vital benefits from New Mexico’s families and children at all costs. These...
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