Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham enters the House Chamber to deliver her annual State of the State address Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo by Michael G. Seamans/The New Mexican
By DANIEL J. CHACÓN and CORMAC DODD
The Santa Fe New Mexican
Initiatives to help children, from increased education funding to making oversight changes to the state Children, Youth and Families Department, were a major theme of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s State of the State address Tuesday.
“Let’s double down on our achievements, and let’s expand their reach,” Lujan Grisham challenged lawmakers at the conclusion of her 50-minute speech.
The governor’s proposals universal child care funding, exempting foster families and grandparents raising grandchildren from personal income tax and increasing their monthly stipend by $900, and helping people priced out of housing by spending $50 million on development subsidies. Lujan Grisham also proposed reforms to CYFD, including partnering with an independent, outside expert on child welfare and foster care to provide oversight of the beleaguered child welfare agency, an idea similar to what some lawmakers have been demanding for years.
“Anything we can do to get everybody on the same page with us and move this agency forward is going to be a huge win for the kids of New Mexico,” CYFD Secretary Teresa Casados said in a brief interview after the speech.
“We’re not afraid to try things that are going to work for kids,” she added.
Noticeably missing from the governor’s speech was any mention of Republican President Donald Trump, who was sworn into the day before and who she called “dangerous” during the run-up to the election. She also didn’t mention immigration or border security, or any gun control measures other than a proposal to raise penalties on felons who possess guns.
State Rep. John Block, R-Alamogordo, said he suspects Lujan Grisham, a Democrat serving her second and final term in office, is trying to curry favor with Republicans.
“The governor appears to be courting Republican support for her agenda, and offending us the day after we just took America back with President Trump could blow back in her face,” he said.
Michael Coleman, the governor’s chief spokesman, said Lujan Grisham won’t shy away from important issues during the session.
“Today, the governor was focused on articulating her specific vision for New Mexico over the next year and beyond,” he said. “These other issues are certainly important to her, and in the days and weeks ahead, she’ll engage on them as necessary to protect the best interests of New Mexicans.”
‘Some very worthy goals’
The State of the State address, an annual occasion filled with pomp and circumstance, drew an overflow crowd. Cabinet secretaries and other members of the governor’s executive team took up about half of the House gallery seating usually reserved for the public, as well as a slew of dignitaries — including former U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland — officials elected to statewide office, tribal governors, judges and others.
The governor highlighted New Mexico’s progress over the last six years during her tenure in office, from establishing a “first-in-the-nation constitutional right to child care, universal pre-K and then free college for any resident who wants it.”
“These efforts are an unprecedented commitment to New Mexico’s young people,” she said. “It will pay dividends for generations to come.”
Because of the state’s investment in free child care, more than 30,000 New Mexico children are getting the support they and their parents need to succeed in their education and careers, she said.
“We’re close — poquito close — to realizing truly universal child care in New Mexico, but we are not there yet, and that’s why I’m calling on this Legislature to finish the job. For $205 million more, we can make that promise — free child care — real for every single New Mexico family. Let’s become the first state in America to give every child the start they deserve with universal access to high-quality child care today and for the future.”
The governor devoted much of her speech to child welfare as well as public safety and behavioral health, issues lawmakers plan to prioritize in the first 30 days of the session.
“The violent crime rate in New Mexico is twice the national average,” Lujan Grisham said. “Addiction is rampant, and we are all clearly, all of us, struggling to protect New Mexicans from this madness.”
As she has in the past, the governor called for tougher penalties for felons in possession of a firearm. She also called on the Legislature to “tighten sentencing for criminals who traffic deadly drugs like fentanyl, to compel human civil commitment for those who need treatment the most and to reform criminal competency laws that let too many dangerous people remain on the street.”
The governor proposed a new tax rebate to help businesses foot the cost of security personnel and equipment “until we can get our crime epidemic under control.”
“We have come so far together, but our crime problem destabilizes the very communities we seek to empower,” she said. “It threatens the very prosperity of our state in which we have invested so much.”
Rep. Jack Chatfield, R-Mosquero, said he appreciated how the governor devoted considerable time to public safety. During a special session the governor convened in July, Republican lawmakers supported many of Lujan Grisham’s anti-crime proposals. But the Democrat-controlled Legislature adjourned after five hours without taking up any of them.
“I think there’s some very worthy goals in there,” Chatfield said. “We are where we are because of some of the things that we haven’t done in the past. I think we’ve missed some magnificent chances in the past.
“We need to close the border. We need to stop the flow of drugs coming in. We need to invest in law enforcement. And those things I certainly support strongly,” Chatfield said.
‘A lot of common ground’
Sen. Martin Hickey, D-Albuquerque, said he supports the governor’s focus on behavioral health.
“It’s been a long time coming, and hopefully, we have the moxie to get it done,” he said.
A physician, Hickey also stressed the importance of keeping doctors in New Mexico. Among the proposals the governor brought up in her speech is a state-sponsored medical malpractice insurance program.
“I’m also glad that she recognized that physicians are continuing to leave the state. People cannot get access to care,” Hickey said. “Putting some money there is great. But it’s only as a doctor treating the symptom. We have to address the disease that’s causing the symptoms.”
Some lawmakers contend payouts for lawsuits under the state’s medical malpractice law are driving doctors away amid escalating insurance costs.
“Insurance rates for doctors and health care providers shouldn’t be higher here than they are in our neighboring states, and they most certainly shouldn’t be twice the national average,” the governor said during her speech. “Let’s create a health care landscape that attracts the best providers in the country right here.”
Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, said he appreciated how the governor focused on the state’s accomplishments and at the same time laid out “what we need to do moving forward.”
“It sets the stage for a lot of work coming up,” he said. “But again, going through the different priorities, I think there is a lot of common ground.”
Asked about Trump’s inauguration, which was followed by a flurry of executive orders, Wirth said “it certainly increases the importance of what’s happening” in New Mexico.
“I think citizens on both sides of the political spectrum want to see government work,” Wirth said. “Certainly, I’m going to be focused on putting together an agenda that’s bipartisan, that has lots of buy-in, but also being prepared to respond as things move quickly in Washington, which we certainly saw yesterday.”
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is escorted onto the house floor by Richard Sena, sergeant at arms for the House, before her State of the State address at the State Capitol Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, the first day of the 2025 legislative session. Photo by Gabriela Campos/The New Mexican
