Gov. Lujan Grisham delivers State of the State address, announces legislative agenda

SANTA FE, N.M. — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham delivered her fifth State of the State address from the Roundhouse in Santa Fe Tuesday afternoon. The State of the State kicks off the 60-day legislative session.

Here is a look at the governor’s legislative agenda:

HEALTH CARE & BEHAVIORAL HEALTH

• Expanding and improving rural health care delivery: Establishing the Rural Health Care Delivery Fund, created with a $200 million investment, to provide support for rural health care delivery in parts of New Mexico often underserved by available health care options by providing funds for the establishment of new or expanded services.
• Protecting abortion access for New Mexicans: Codifying abortion rights protections in state statute to ensure access to reproductive health services is safeguarded.
• Expanding access to reproductive health services: Investing $10 million in capital outlay funding for a full-spectrum reproductive health clinic in southern New Mexico.
• Improving access to affordable, high-quality health care: Creating the New Mexico Health Care Authority, a comprehensive entity that will expand access to affordable health care and streamline the government’s efforts to support families and their health care needs while more effectively holding insurers accountable.
• Providing transparency for prescription drug pricing: Requiring licensed drug wholesalers to disclose prices and require Pharmacy Benefit Managers to disclose any increases of more than 40% over a five-year period, or more than 10% in the prior year, as well as the reasons for the increase.

EDUCATION & CHILD WELL-BEING

• Extending in-classroom learning time: Requiring and providing the resources needed for increased educational hours during the school year.
• Supporting special education: Providing extended learning time for students with disabilities, ensuring special education services are data-driven and effective, and increasing supports for special education educators.
• Ensuring teachers keep more of their salaries in their pockets: Covering the individual cost share for health care premium costs for school personnel, a first-of-its-kind initiative for New Mexico.
• Kids Kitchens – Establishing healthy universal free meals for students: Eliminating school meal costs for every New Mexico child. An additional $20 million capital outlay investment will fund school kitchen infrastructure improvements to enable schools to provide healthy and fresh foods for students.
• Attendance interventions: Requiring data-informed school attendance interventions aligned with student needs and expanding drop-out prevention and recovery efforts.

PUBLIC SAFETY

• Keeping repeat violent offenders off New Mexico streets: Establishing a “rebuttable presumption” to ensure that those accused of murder, gun crimes, rape or other sex crimes do not pose a danger to the community before being released pending trial.
• Addressing the scourge of gun violence: Keeping New Mexico families, communities and businesses safer through a robust tranche of gun legislation, including a ban on the sale of assault weapons, an end to the state loophole on straw purchases of guns, safe storage reforms, and a law allowing victims of gun violence to bring civil suits against firearm manufacturers.
• Tackling organized retail crime: Targeting offenders who fund organized crime through retail theft by creating the crime of organized retail crime in state statute, amending statutory language on robbery and shoplifting to encompass aggregated crimes of theft, and better enabling prosecution of commercial theft.
• Getting more police officers on the streets: Investing an additional $100 million in the Law Enforcement Recruitment Fund to continue supporting the hiring of law enforcement officers to forces across the state.
• Establishing parity in survivors benefits for first responders: Establishing a state fund for survivors benefits for the families of firefighters killed in the line of duty.
• Supporting public safety and government staffing: Amending PERA regulations to 1) allow for PERA retirees to return to work for no more than three additional years after having been retired for a minimum of one year and 2) raise the pension salary maximum to 100% in order to retain qualified personnel.
• Preventing wildfires caused by fireworks: Providing the executive with the authority to ban the sale and use of fireworks during drought emergencies.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & TAX REFORM

• Putting more money in New Mexicans’ pockets: Delivering economic relief through one-time rebates of $750 to each individual taxpayer or $1,500 to couples filing jointly.
• Reforming the state tax code: Supporting New Mexico working families and businesses by enacting tax policy reform, including reducing the gross receipts tax rate by an additional quarter of a percent, implementing anti-pyramiding for professional services in the gross receipts tax rate, and delivering personal income tax progression for middle-class New Mexicans.
• Continuing to support New Mexico’s booming film industry: Updating the New Mexico Film Tax Credit to further incentivize the hiring of more New Mexico residents, promote New Mexico’s diverse locations and cultures, expand productions to additional rural communities, and sustain robust investments in workforce development and job training.
• Protecting and preserving lands for generations to come: Establishing the Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund to create sustained funding for state programs that protect and preserve our environment. Programs that will be supported over the next three to five years through this funding include the River Stewardship Program, Healthy Soils Program and Outdoor Equity Fund.

STATE OF THE STATE

View the address in the video above or click here to watch the stream, if you’re in app.

GOP RESPONSE

“What was missing from the Governor’s speech was any mention of the real issues New Mexicans are facing; she failed to mention just how far behind our students are, the record-breaking homicides in Albuquerque, doctors fleeing our state, how her priority eco-legislation will harm our farmers and ranchers, and sadly no mention of the oil and gas revenues or workers that are funding this progressive spending spree. Most New Mexicans do not live in the utopia that Lujan Grisham described, and Republicans are committed to working to provide meaningful relief and support to New Mexicans. House Republicans are committed to working across the aisle to make sure that the realities that our communities are facing are not forgotten as they were in today’s speech.” – House Minority Leader Ryan Lane

View the GOP rebuttal in the video above or click here to watch the stream, if you’re in app.

ROUNDHOUSE SECURITY

Security at the legislative session is always a top priority, but there’s been a heightened sense of caution this year because of a string of shootings targeting metro-area Democratic lawmakers.

Former Republican candidate Solomon Peña was arrested Monday for allegedly organizing the shootings. The state’s Republican Party and House Republicans sent out a statement Monday night saying they condemned all kinds of violence – and Peña should be held accountable if proven guilty in court.

Everyone, no matter their party, stood up and applauded the law enforcement that made that arrest when the governor brought up the investigation in her speech.