Governor calls for tougher penalties in State of the State

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SANTA FE – Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham delivered her annual State of the State address on Tuesday, the opening day of New Mexico’s 60-day legislative session at the state Capitol building.

The speech opened with a celebration of “six years of incredible success” since she took office in 2019, though she soon turned to crime and oversight of the New Mexico’s Children, Youth and Families Department as issues dominating her requests of lawmakers.

Lujan Grisham spoke before a joint session of the state House and Senate as well as a gallery packed with state employees and members of the public. Frigid temperatures outside did not discourage protesters outside the Roundhouse, while inside throngs bustled through the curving hallways and browsed display tables in the rotunda.

The governor touted gains in jobs, education access, health care resources, movement toward the state’s net zero carbon emissions goals and a recent upgrade to the state’s credit rating by national credit rating agency Moody’s.

She celebrated programs to fund child care, universal pre-Kindergarten and free college tuition, and called on lawmakers to boost support, including an additional $205 million for universal free child care and funding to extend a structured literacy program she said demonstrated an 11 percent reading proficiency increase among participants in a single summer session, as well as comprehensive education initiatives in math, science and engineering.

The mood of the address shifted as she turned to crime, public safety and behavioral health, saying, “Everyone in this room knows that crime is out of control in New Mexico … we’re in a state of crisis.”

She called on the Legislature to enhance penalties for people illegally possessing guns after felony convictions, and for traffickers in fentanyl and other illegal drugs. She called on lawmakers to reform laws protecting people deemed incompetent to stand trial. She also reiterated a call for laws allowing “civil commitment,” or involuntary treatment, a proposal that has raised constitutional questions and concerns about civil freedom.

Many proposals in this section of the speech echoed calls the governor has made during a series of local town halls across the state – including Las Cruces last July – since a special session she called last year to address public safety was shut down by legislators in a few hours.

She also called for a renewed effort to rebuild the state’s behavioral health care system.

She appealed to her fellow Democrats, who hold majorities in both chambers, with an argument tying public safety and crime to initiatives aiding working families and lifting New Mexicans out of poverty: “…Our crime problem destabilizes the very communities we seek to empower. It threatens the very prosperity of our state, in which we have invested so much. We cannot and we must not let this continue.”

The governor proposed creating funds to help local businesses pay for security features, as well as state-sponsored programs for medical malpractice and fire insurance, saying the private market leaves too many people without coverage.

A major portion of her speech focused on the CYFD, an agency rocked by scandals involving worsening rates of repeat maltreatment of children and mounting lawsuits over abuse, overdose deaths and other neglect.

The governor said reforms of the agency had made progress but she called for twice-annual independent reviews of CYFD’s performance and an independent child protection authority. She also said the state needed to support foster families and suggested they be exempt from personal income taxes and eligible for increased stipends.

Shortly after the speech, a group of Republican lawmakers responded by noting that the governor appeared to have adopted several proposals they had offered in bills that had previously gotten nowhere in the Democratic-led body. Sen. David Gallegos, R-Eunice, said his support would be contingent on a close reading of any bills that came forward, saying he would watch for “poison pills.”

“She did acknowledge that we have serious crime problems, but she was more focused on behavioral health than on what the real crime was,” Sen. William Sharer of Farmington, the Senate minority leader, said at the news conference.

Addressing a question about the governor’s insurance proposals, Sen. Gabriel Ramos, R-Hurley, acknowledged that parts of Grant County, in his own district, were unable to get fire insurance or paid exorbitant rates due to wildfire risk. Ramos expressed hope the body would raise caps on insurance through the New Mexico property insurance program under the state’s FAIR Act.

“Insurance is a tough industry right now,” Ramos said. “It’s getting harder and harder with all these catastrophes that we're having. You know, we look at Ruidoso, and that was a huge catastrophe. We look at northern New Mexico a couple years ago, and it was another huge catastrophe. … We have to make sure that we can help the cities of the state of New Mexico protect their homes and make them whole.”

NM Legislative, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, State of the State address

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