Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham outlined her perspective on the state of New Mexico affairs and her priorities for the 2025 legislative session on its opening day in her State of the State address Tuesday. The governor told the joint session of the Legislature that she hasn’t given up on some of her priorities they rebuffed in the past, including using recycled water for green energy production and efforts to curb violent crime. Her speech touched on improving the lives of children and adults in New Mexico through both changing laws and investing the state’s record revenue in news ways.
CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham made it clear that kids and families are among the most important priorities for her this legislative session. The topic took up nearly half of her speech and included foster care, childhood poverty, education and childcare.
The governor told lawmakers she wants an additional $205 million to help families who cannot afford daycare.
“We’re still working to deliver truly universal free childcare for all,” she said. “In New Mexico, the cost of childcare is out of reach for most families, with many spending $3,000 per month or more to enroll just two children.”
New Mexico is still dealing with the fallout of the Yazzie/Martinez ruling, which found the state was failing to provide students — especially low-income, Native American, English language learners, and students with disabilities — the programs and services they need to succeed.
Lujan Grisham called for making the Office of Special Education permanent, increasing funding to tribal schools, and expanding how many schools follow the 180-day year — even though it proved to be unpopular with many teachers and school administrators.
The governor says strategies like the Summer Literacy Programs have had a positive impact, increasing reading proficiency rates by 11%, and called for more similar programs, especially in STEM fields.
“The work we’re doing in education is shaping New Mexico’s tomorrow, and preparing our young people to one day establish stable and thriving families of their own,” she said.
She is also seeking changes to the Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD), calling for legislators to increase funding, even though the department has failed to spend its full budget in the past.
The governor called for a new independent Child Protection Authority to ensure CYFD adequately resolves all complaints from families and parents, and for a partnership with an independent outside child welfare expert to evaluate and report on the department’s performance. Lujan Grisham resisted efforts by lawmakers in 2023 to create a similar independent advocate within the state Department of Justice.
To further support children in the system, the governor proposes increasing the number of available foster homes by doubling the support stipend up to $900 extra per child per month, and exempting those families from personal income tax.
CRIME AND PUBLIC SAFETY
After Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s special legislative session on public safety last year went nowhere, she kicked off the 2025 regular session urging lawmakers to take action this time around on her priorities to combat crime.
In July, the governor called the one-day special session where none of her proposals were heard one of the most disappointing days of her career. In her State of the State address, she made it clear to lawmakers that she is not interested in reliving it.
“Everyone in this room knows that crime is out of control in New Mexico. And even our public safety professionals agree, we’re in a state of crisis,” she said. “Too many of us simply don’t feel safe in our communities, and that is absolutely, frankly, completely unacceptable.”
She is backing several of the same proposals she did last year. Those include increased penalties for gun possession by those with felonies and harsher sentences for drug trafficking.
“These are really just common-sense solutions that will keep families safer and reduce violent crime,” she said.
She will also push again for lawmakers to compel more people deemed incompetent to stand trial into behavioral health treatment, rather than being released from custody, pushing back against criticism from civil rights advocates.
And, until the state can better curb retail crime, Lujan Grisham proposes offering business owners tax rebates for enhanced security.
“We need the tools to overcome this challenge,” she said. “And I know that we can do so while respecting civil rights and to protect the right of every family to live safely, the right of small businesses to conduct commerce securely, and the rights of our children to grow up in communities free from danger.”
She said she recognizes that many of the state’s crime woes are rooted in issues like poverty and inequality, and that she has spent her time in the governor’s office since 2019 addressing those, as well.
WATER AND GREEN ENERGY PRODUCTION
Lujan Grisham will again push for the state to create a market for treated brackish water and wastewater from oil and gas operations to use in green energy projects. The “Strategic Water Supply” proposal, meant to protect the state’s limited fresh water sources amid its energy transition, stalled in last year’s legislative session.
The idea is for New Mexico to buy desalinated water from those treating it and sell it to outfits that could put it to good use.
Water sources in last year’s original bill included New Mexico’s natural brackish water reserves, but also “produced water” from the state's prolific oil and gas fields.
Produced water is a salty, toxic byproduct of oil and gas production that is reinjected back underground.
“Let’s build the technology to clean up that industrial water rather than pollute our aquifers.” she said. “This recycled resource can be used for clean energy projects, advanced manufacturing, [and] data centers. Brackish water can even put out wildfires in our urban areas.”
After the proposal failed to pass in the last legislative session, Lujan Grisham said at a news conference that the way it was explained to lawmakers and advocates may have contributed to its downfall. In her State of the State address, she attempted to nip that in the bud.
“Let me be clear — and I probably wasn’t as clear as we needed to be,” she said, “I suggest state lawmakers spell it out in statute: Recycled industrial water will not be used for human or animal consumption, or to irrigate our crops. Period.”
Minimal public input and shaky understanding of the program’s details — like where the salt taken out of the water would go — led much of the pushback last session.
JOBS AND HOUSING
When it comes to jobs, the governor was optimistic and made it clear she is interested in keeping all eyes firmly focused on the future and cutting edge technologies.
She announced Qunatinuum, an integrated quantum computing company, will establish a research and development center in the state. She said it will have a $3.5 trillion economic impact, although there was no breakdown of those financials.
“In the last two years, we cut the employment gap in half. Our wages are rising faster than any other state,” she said. “And new jobs are growing fastest in future-focused industries on the cutting edge of our economy.”
Lujan Grisham said embracing new clean energy initiatives is one way to help create jobs, expand the economy and address climate change issues at the same time.
She also acknowledged the state’s housing crisis could cool or even hurt job growth.
“As our economy and workforce grow, we need to build new homes and apartments to drive down the cost of living,” she said.
She pointed to 20,000 housing units planned across the state, including the state fairgrounds redevelopment, which will add up to 200 acres of housing in the center of Albuquerque.
“But, far too often, housing developments like these are stalled or frankly never finished,” she said. “We must remove the barriers with regulatory and zoning changes to make homebuilding easier.”
She called for establishing a permanent state Office of Housing to ensure those developments come to fruition, and suggested $50 million toward development subsidies.
HEALTH CARE AND HOMELESSNESS
Shortly before closing out her State of the State address, Lujan Grisham discussed the future of health care in the Land of Enchantment, calling for expanded behavioral and rural health care services.
“We’re making a better health care system in New Mexico. But talk to any New Mexican in a doctor’s office, or frankly, anyone in this room, and they’ll tell you it’s not enough,” she said. “There’s still a long wait for appointments. Patients are still driving long distances to see a specialist.”
The governor is calling for $50 million for rural health care, and an additional $100 million for behavioral health services to address some of those challenges.
She said the state needs an additional $50 million to help fight homelessness with dedicated services that can lift people up and help keep them healthy.
In order to attract and retain more health care providers, she urged state lawmakers to address the high cost of medical malpractice insurance.
