New Mexico Gov. unveils sweeping public safety proposals

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham gestures during her State of the State address on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Danielle Prokop / Source NM)

‘We can respect civil rights and protect the right of every family to live safely’
By: Julia Goldberg 
​Source NM

“Everyone in this room knows that crime is out of control in New Mexico,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told attendees to her State of the State address at the Roundhouse on Tuesday. “Even our public safety professionals agree, we’re in a state of crisis…the violent crime rate in New Mexico is twice the national average. Addiction is rampant. And we’re clearly struggling to protect New Mexicans from this madness.”
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Following a nearly year-long tour of New Mexico to build support for her public safety agenda, the governor on Tuesday laid out several of the proposals she will push lawmakers to adopt during the legislative session that began at noon.

Those include toughening penalties for people with felony convictions who illegally possess firearms; sentencing for criminals who traffic deadly drugs like fentanyl; and “civil commitment for those who need treatment the most.” The governor also wants to “reform criminal competency laws that let too many dangerous people remain on our streets.” She will also be pushing for a tax rebate for businesses “to help businesses foot the cost of security personnel and equipment until we can get our crime epidemic under control.”

The governor made no mention of yesterday’s inauguration of Donald Trump as president, but ended her speech with a call to action for lawmakers to address crime.

“I recognize that the issues that plague us are rooted in poverty, inequality and generational challenges long neglected,” she said in prepared remarks. “But 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. We need the tools to overcome this challenge. We can respect civil rights and protect the right of every family to live safely, the right of small businesses to conduct commerce securely and the right of our children to grow up in communities free from danger.”
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Following the governor’s speech, Republican leaders in a news conference said they appreciated her new tough-on-crime agenda, which they said they’ve touted for years without any purchase in the Legislature. But they said her speech focused too much on behavioral health spending, which they described as throwing more money at solutions that will be slow to arrive.

As other applaud Sen. Minority Leader William Sharer, R-Farminton, quietly listens to Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham deliver her State of the State Address before a join session of the House and Senate, Tuesday, January 21, 2025. This was shortly after the start of the 2025 legislative session. (Photo by Eddie Moore / Albuquerque Journal)

In a statement provided to Source, Lena Weber, interim policy director at the ACLU of New Mexico, said the organization was “encouraged” to hear the governor’s “commitment to taking bold steps to reduce homelessness and improve access to behavioral health care, describing them as “the real solutions we need to build lasting community safety for all New Mexicans – not more of the same ‘tough on crime’ approach that has failed our state for years.”

However, she said, “we were disappointed to hear the governor yet again propose policies that will fuel mass incarceration in our state and harm our communities. Longer sentences and coerced treatment aren’t the solutions our state deserves. We urge the governor and the Legislature to reject harmful proposals and instead double down on the real solutions that the governor and lawmakers have already proposed that will offer stability and safety by investing in housing, healthcare, education and jobs.”

While the governor made public safety and the beleaguered Children, Youth and Families Department centerpieces of her speech, she also touted her administration for its work on the economy and education, reviewed her proposals for schools, housing, climate, jobs and healthcare.

CYFD
While the governor claimed the state has made progress in CYFD, particularly in the last year, she proposed a partnership with “an independent, outside expert in child welfare and foster care—such as the Urban Institute—to evaluate CYFD alongside the state auditor and make reports to her office and the Legislature every six months.” At the same time, she said she supports an “Independent Child Protection Authority” that will be jointly appointed by her office and the Legislature. 

The Legislative Finance Committee’s budget recommendations note that New Mexico “consistently ranks among the worst six states for repeat maltreatment occurring within 12 months of the initial allegation, and in FY24 the state’s reported rate of repeat maltreatment worsened.”

At the same time, the governor said, the health department is assuming responsibility for the federal Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act because “public health experts are best equipped to support families with drug-addicted babies.” Too many families, the governor added, garnering applause, “do not adhere to the spirit of the program. That’s why it’s time to make these interventions on behalf of children mandatory.”

She also will back exempting foster families and grandparents raising grandchildren from personal income tax and push to double their stipends up to $900 more dollars monthly. “I say, if you are stepping up for kids in need, we’re going to make it easier for you to support them,” she said.

She also urged the Legislature to fully fund CYFD “so it has the resources and personnel it needs to do this important work.” The governor’s budget recommends $286.4 million for the department; the LFC recommendation is $389.4 million. 

Education

The governor said she will propose incentives for schools that ban cellphone use during school hours, “along with funding for enhanced safety measures so that parents don’t have to worry about getting ahold of their kids in an emergency.” She also said lawmakers need to pass a bill to make the state’s Office of Special Education permanent. Another big-ticket item: a $50 million annual investment in the Indian Education Fund.

She will also push for $205 million to solidify the state’s free childcare program; a “comprehensive math and STEM program”; and to fully fund 180-day school years.

Economy

Citing the addition of 134,000 jobs in the past four-and-a-half years, the governor noted that the state has cut its unemployment gap in half over the last two years. The most recent employment gap data available does show gap decreasing, but that appears to be because the number of openings has decreased. The number of unemployed people has stayed largely the same over the last two years.
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The governor also announced that quantum computing company Quantinuum “is establishing a major research and development presence here in New Mexico.”

Climate change

Noting the “devastating coverage of wildfires ravaging Los Angeles,” the governor also acknowledged the fires that have “ravaged communities in our state, testing our patience and resilience as we struggle under the weight of natural disasters in our backyards.” Moreover, she said, “getting insurance protection is becoming impossible, either because it’s simply no longer available or exorbitantly expensive.” To that end, the governor said she’ll propose a state-sponsored fire insurance program “outside the private market…to help make people whole when tragedy strikes.”
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The state does currently offer insurance as a last resort to those who have been denied in the private market, through its so-called FAIR plan. The state’s insurance regulator is seeking $50 million to expand that program during this year’s session.

The governor also re-upped her proposal for a Strategic Water Supply.

“Our state, like so many others, is facing a severe water shortage, and climate change is only making the problem worse. Yet we have enormous reserves of brackish water lying beneath our feet. And we have massive amounts of industrial water that is being injected right back into the ground. Let’s build the technology to clean up that industrial water rather than pollute our aquifers.”

The proposal has garnered opposition from environmentalists.