Governor Lujan Grisham Gives Big Pay Raises to Her Staff, While Limiting Raises to State and School Employees
(Want to know how much your boss makes an hour? See note below.)
Caroline Buerkle, the Governor’s Director of Cabinet Affairs, received a raise of $18,554, increasing her salary to $204,048 a year.
Between December and March, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham rewarded several of her staff with immediate pay raises up to $18,554, while limiting pay increases for state and school employees to 3%.
The pay raises for the rest of state and school employees do not take effect until July 1, 2024.
The pay raises given to her staff are in effect now and will be further increased another 3% when the other state and school employees receive their raise in July.
This is not the first such special pay increase the Governor’s staff members have received while other state and school employees are left to struggle with non-competitive salaries.
More on this and a related story next week.
The following table shows the most recent raises given by the Governor to her close staff.
| Name | Position | Status | Old Salary | New Salary | Increase |
| Caroline Buerkle | Director of Cabinet Affairs | Raise | $185,494 | $204,048 | $18,554 |
| Jesse Guillen | Dep. Director – Legislative Affairs | Raise | $111,301 | $127,982 | $16,682 |
| Maddy Hayden | Director of Communications | Raise | $127,192 | $139,984 | $12,792 |
| Donicia Herrera | Legal Assistant III | Raise | $79,498 | $89,981 | $10,483 |
| Vanessa Kennedy | Constituent Services Director | Raise | $127,192 | $134,992 | $7,800 |
| Michael Coleman * | Director of Communications | New Hire | $139,984 | $149,989 | $10,005 |
NOTE: Click on the bright yellow label in the Home Page Roundhouse Movidas Banner above which is entitled “State Employee Organizational Listing Report” and link to a pdf of the entire New Mexico state employee March report which identifies, among other things, each agency’s employees, titled position, and hourly salary rate.
The Yellow Label looks like this:
You can locate any employee (including your supervisor and department leaders) and their hourly salary by using the little search icon in the top left corner of the scroll down document.
Roundhouse Movidas will update this public information each month.