Baja California’s XXV Legislature voted unanimously on April 16 to slash 52.6 million pesos (roughly $2.6 million USD) from its annual budget, but not a single peso came from lawmaker salaries. Instead, all 23 deputies present chose to cut social support funds earmarked for constituents, along with line items for materials and general services.
The BC Congress budget cut followed weeks of public criticism from President Claudia Sheinbaum, who had repeatedly called Baja California’s legislature the most expensive in Mexico. The state congress operates on an annual budget of approximately 1.2 billion pesos ($60 million USD).
Sheinbaum Pressure and San Quintín Funds
The redirected funds are nominally earmarked for San Quintín, the underfunded municipality in southern Baja California that Sheinbaum has personally championed. San Quintín, located about 300 kilometers south of Tijuana on the Pacific coast, became Mexico’s newest municipality in recent years and has long struggled with basic infrastructure and public services.
The vote exposed sharp internal divisions within the ruling Morena party. A Morena floor leader denied the cuts were made at presidential order. At the same time, a Morena lawmaker representing the San Quintín district praised Sheinbaum’s directive openly, contradicting the party’s official framing of the decision as voluntary.
Opposition Raises Accountability Concerns
PAN (National Action Party) legislators questioned the plan, pointing to documented financial mismanagement within San Quintín’s municipal government. Their concern: whether the 52.6 million pesos will actually reach the communities that need it, or vanish into a local administration with a shaky track record.
A deputy from Movimiento Ciudadano (Citizens’ Movement) used the session to press a separate transparency issue. The lawmaker accused a Morena chair of the Congress’s own Administration Committee of blocking minority parties from reviewing internal spending data.
Next Steps Remain Unclear
The Congress president announced that lawmakers will meet with the federal Finance Secretary (Secretaría de Hacienda) to determine how the 52 million pesos will be deployed. No timeline for that meeting has been made public.
The episode leaves a core tension unresolved. Federal austerity pressure forced state legislators to act, but those legislators chose to protect their own compensation while cutting funds that had been set aside for direct aid to constituents. Whether the redirected money improves conditions in San Quintín, or simply moves between budget lines with little on-the-ground impact, remains an open question.
This story was first reported by Punto Norte.