Senator Jeff Steinborn is a lifelong resident of Las Cruces, and was born there. He has served in the state legislature for nearly two decades. He comes from a family dedicated to public service—his father served as mayor in the 1980s. After earning his degree from the University of Texas in Austin, Steinborn returned to New Mexico in 2001 and has since worked on issues ranging from conservation to healthcare and public safety.
One of Steinborn’s key initiatives in the current legislative session is a bipartisan bill with provisions to draw more doctors to New Mexico. The bill would eliminate the gross receipts tax on medical providers. “We’re one of two states in the country that still charges basically a sales tax for doctors,” he says. “Not on all expenses, but on enough of them that it makes their life a nightmare.”
Senate Bill 295, which Steinborn is sponsoring, is matched by Representative Hochman-Vigil’s House Bill 344. “We are actually numerically losing doctors,” Steinborn says. “In Dona Ana County, we have doctors leaving for El Paso because they face a different tax and malpractice climate there.” He argues that removing the gross receipts tax would help reverse this trend and ensure better healthcare access for residents.
Steinborn is supporting other measures to improve the state’s healthcare system, including reforms to medical malpractice insurance and Medicaid reimbursement rates. “I know Senator Hickey has a bill proposing some reasonable changes to malpractice laws,” he says. “It has to be a reasonable system—patients need protections, but we also have to create a business climate that keeps doctors here,” he says.
On Medicaid, he acknowledges the challenge of providing care to a population where “half the state of New Mexico is on Medicaid.” He supports increasing reimbursement rates to make participation in the program more financially viable for healthcare providers. “If we’re going to recruit more physicians, we need to make it financially rewarding for them to serve Medicaid patients,” he says.
Steinborn is a passionate conservationist, and is invested in environmental protection and economic development through outdoor recreation. He leads a nonprofit organization dedicated to growing New Mexico’s outdoor economy, and he believes conservation is essential to the state’s identity and prosperity. “The thing about the environment is you have to protect it—it doesn’t protect itself,” he says. “It’s one of the most sacred things we can do as public servants, to preserve the birthright of future generations.”
He views New Mexico’s natural beauty as an economic asset, calling it “the goose that lays the golden egg” and emphasizing the need to balance conservation with responsible economic development.
On the issue of public safety, Steinborn acknowledges rising crime rates but remains optimistic about legislative progress. “Statistically, we have a problem,” he says. “But I do feel safe in Las Cruces.” He points to recent legislative efforts aimed at improving behavioral health services and strengthening competency laws to reduce repeat offenses. “We’ve created a big funding package for behavioral health and improved our competency law to stop the turnstile of people who need treatment or incarceration,” he says. He also notes broad bipartisan support for the crime package passed this session. “There’s been real cooperation across the aisle,” he says. “This is not the end of the story, nor is it even the end of the session.”
Steinborn says he believes in making strategic investments, whether in healthcare, environmental preservation, or public safety, to create long-term benefits for the state. “It’s up to us as leaders to act on these ideas,” he says. “New Mexico has so much to offer, and if we make the right investments, we can ensure a strong and vibrant future.”
