With the New Mexico Legislature in session, it means there’s a flurry of action.
On Wednesday, the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce hosted the Governor’s Mid-Session Report to the Business Community at the Sheraton Albuquerque Uptown.
Terri Cole, GACC president and CEO, has represented the Chamber in Santa Fe for decades and says each session is different.
“Just about a month ago, the session kicked off with, thankfully, familiar news of another year of soaring revenues for the state. This included a prediction of another nearly $1 billion budget surplus, and an overall budget north of $10 billion,” Cole said. “Despite the state’s impressive revenue picture, New Mexico’s economic growth – outside of the oil and gas industry – is fairly tepid, our population is not currently growing, and participation in the labor force lags most other states.”
Cole said soaring energy revenues will not last forever, which means New Mexico has an extraordinary opportunity – while the state remains flush with cash – to build a more dynamic and competitive economy that is sustainable for the long haul.
“The Chamber’s primary goal this session is to encourage lawmakers – in the policy they pass and the budget they create – to position our state to better compete for new businesses, workers, residents and visitors,” she continued. “Competition is a choice, and in New Mexico’s case, it will require leaders to prioritize and address a set of serious challenges that currently put our state at a competitive disadvantage.”
Cole said the Chamber’s goals are:
- To make New Mexico a safer place.
- To reduce the tax burden on businesses and families.
- To ensure New Mexico families have access to high-performing public schools run by great leaders.
- To make New Mexico a more attractive place to practice medicine and add to our health care workforce.
Cole put the spotlight on some of the highs and lows of the session so far.
She credits Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for keeping the pressure on the Legislature as it considers public safety legislation.
“She deserves credit for pushing them to the brink by calling the July special session,” Cole said. “And the AG, the public, victims, law enforcement and the business community are united as well.”
The Democratic majorities have done two things so far in the session:
- Assembled a crime package that, in part, includes a major overall of the criminal competency statute aimed at institutionalizing the truly violent criminals and placing others in behavioral health programs, increased penalties by up to three years if fentanyl is involved and increased penalties for different forms of auto theft.
- Creating a behavioral health trust fund and rebuilding the behavioral health care system to provide a long-term revenue stream to fund and expand a well-coordinated behavioral health care system in New Mexico.
But it’s not enough, Cole said.
“We want the juvenile crime crisis addressed, as well as other common-sense anti-crime bills that would, among other things: expand racketeering crimes to include human trafficking, drug dealing and other organized crimes; substantially increase sentences for convicted felons who commit subsequent crimes using a firearm, and add pretrial detention requiring felons to be held in custody pending trial.”
Cole continued on to some of the lowlights of the session by saying, “In 40 years, I’ve never seen a Legislature more focused on excessive taxation and regulation of the oil and gas industry. Everywhere you turn, there’s another bill that would make it more costly to produce energy in New Mexico. That’s not competitive.”
“At the Chamber, we’ve been consistent. New Mexico has the capability of being a world-leading energy producer – of all types of energy. Competing in the energy space would mean putting the pedal down on producing everything – from oil and gas to solar to wind to geothermal to nuclear.
Del Esparza, GACC chair and Esparza Digital + Advertising CEO, introduced the governor to the more than 300 community and business leaders.
“Michelle Lujan Grisham is our state’s 32nd governor,” Esparza said. “She comes to the position with an extensive career of public service – one that has included representing New Mexicans at EVERY level of government – local, state and national.”
Lujan Grisham said she made everybody nervous when she called the special session last July to tackle public safety and crime.
“I have, in fact, called many special sessions,” Lujan Grisham said. “… In the two years that are left, we’re going to have more. That’s not a threat or challenge. When you have such wild swings at the federal level, states have to be in a position to respond to any number of things. I’m predicting right now, when the federal budget, whenever that is, occurs, we’re going to need a special session by October just to deal with health care and to keep our rural hospitals open.”
Lujan Grisham said she doesn’t call a special session to earn political points.
“Crime and public safety have needed New Mexico’s attention for well more than a decade,” she said. “I can point fingers a lot of places, but that’s not going to move the needle. In fact, we’ve shown that it hasn’t.”
She continued to say of New Mexico’s crime and public safety situation, “It is all of our faults. Because this is a state that tends to not course-correct when we see the warning signs. We’re starting to figure that out in fires, but we’re not seeing it in other places.”
Lujan Grisham pinpointed that there have been signs for years when it comes to public safety and education.
“This is not new for me,” she saidm as she’s always been involved in trying to reduce crime. “I’ve been working on this issue for far too long, which may be why we’re all a little ramped up because we don’t do enough course-correction.”
Lujan Grisham then focused on youth crime.
“We lose kids in New Mexico to guns,” she said. “We can fight all we want about better work at CYFD, and we should. Guns are happening to kids in New Mexico, and frankly, always have been. That is not new.”
Lujan Grisham said the court system has to be fixed.
“Since 2018, more than 18,000 cases have been dismissed for competency in the courts of New Mexico,” she said. “Now, if you don’t meet competency, those judges can’t stand trial. But there’s nothing that restores competency.”
The governor said some legislators are advocating to redirect money in some of the state’s large investment funds, like its early childhood fund, temporarily to Medicaid. Lujan Grisham said she normally doesn’t want to touch any of the state’s trust funds for that use, but she’ll look at proposals “openly and objectively.”
“I’m prepared for the worst of it. New Mexicans should be, too,” she said. “But I tend to fight to make sure that first, New Mexicans are protected, and second, we hold the federal government accountable. And I’m going to try to do those at the same time.”
The Chamber also recognized its new Leadership Circle investors, which include Waste Management and Giving Home Health Care. D.H. Lescombes Winery, Amaran Senior Living and Touro College of Dental Medicine were also recognized as new Chamber investors.
To see luncheon slideshow and hear the audio, click here.
