Governor issues third State of the State address

Layouts BreadCrumbs BreadCrumbs The prepared text of the governor’s 2021 State of the State address is as follows: For the thousands we have lost to the virus in our state, for their grieving families, their friends and loved ones; for any New Mexican who suffered this past year, for any New Mexican who experienced loss, or loneliness, or despair; I would ask you to join me in a moment of silent reflection or prayer. My fellow New Mexicans: Grief is a teacher. And the process of grieving changes us. I can speak from experience. When you have lost a sister, or a husband – you might get angry, you might feel helpless, you might ask any power that may be listening to change it, undo it, deal a new set of cards. But in grieving we learn to accept that pain and loss are parts of life, for each of us. A difficult but important lesson. We learn to be patient, to nurture our faith and our relationships, to love more deeply. We learn and re-learn who we are, how strong we are, how precious and temporary everything is. We see ourselves as we are – as one of many; as an essential part of a world that is constantly healing, and growing, and moving forward. We emerge, on the other side, with a new and valuable perspective. As a state and as a country, we have felt more than our fair share of grief this past year. The lives lost; the families and livelihoods and careers upended; the illnesses, the goodbyes we never got to give; the exhaustion, the fear and apprehension … and here we are, still standing, wondering: How will we heal? Where do we go from here? How will we go on? But we have already shown how. If we are strong enough to see ourselves through this year of crisis, and we are; if we are still fighting after the hits we took in 2020, and we are; then there is nothing that can beat us. Nothing. We may get knocked down. But we will never be knocked out. New Mexico has never been stronger, tougher and more resilient than right now. New Mexicans are many things – angry at the injustice of the pandemic; worn-down but resolute after a year of full-time working and parenting; fed up with systematic inequality; ready to build something better and new after this year of upheaval and sorrow. But more than anything New Mexicans are strong. New Mexico has shown incredible, unyielding strength. And that strength will help our state bounce back with speed, beginning right now. Although the pandemic has been emotionally draining for all of us, and has required our full attention and energy, the work of building a better New Mexico has gone on. We have continued to restore and strengthen the responsive and responsible state government New Mexicans expect and deserve. And together we have saved New Mexican lives. In doing that work, in protecting New Mexicans and our state as a whole, we have made ourselves ready to rebound. The leadership our state has shown in fighting COVID-19 is the exact same leadership that will get us back on track. New Mexico was the first state in the country to establish a drive-thru testing site. We have remained steadily in the top 10 nationally for COVID testing per-capita. We mobilized a tribal response and assistance plan that was a model for other states; we’re using cutting-edge science to test wastewater samples to prevent outbreaks at correctional and juvenile justice facilities; and we will continue to rapidly, safely and equitably distribute vaccines to every corner of our state. We told the truth about the pandemic, even when it wasn’t what some of us wanted to hear. We protected our hospitals and health care resources, and we got more than 26 million meals to schoolkids all across New Mexico. Doctors, nurses, caregivers, first responders, daycare workers, grocery store workers, correctional officers and so many more have all shown up for their state with courage, dedication and grace. We stepped up, all of us, as New Mexicans who love our state and look out for our neighbors. Already, we have delivered hundreds of millions in emergency resources to thousands of New Mexico small businesses, the out-of-work, disadvantaged New Mexico families, and more. And we have more to do. But we can do it because throughout this crisis we maintained our financial footing. We planned ahead; we invested in record financial reserves; and we always thought creatively and responsibly about what we can afford – and what we can’t afford to lose. Under the budget I have proposed, we will avoid harmful cuts to life-saving state resources and programs that New Mexicans rely on every day. We will deliver almost half a billion dollars to New Mexicans for pandemic relief. And we will, in fact, increase our investments in support for public schools, in health care and in our economy. With this approach, we will not have another decade of forced austerity. New Mexico’s economic recovery will not lag behind the nation’s, as it did under the previous Republican administration. Because we will choose to keep investing in job-creation programs that work, programs like LEDA and JTIP that created thousands of jobs last year and have retrained thousands of workers, even amid the pandemic. And because we will choose to have the courage to break ground in new industries, to expand opportunities for New Mexicans, and reimagine what our state economy and workforce can be. In short, we will recover faster because we have made sustainable investments, we have a roadmap to a rebuilt and diversified economy, and we have the resources to both take care of our own right now and keep building toward New Mexico’s future. At the same time, we will learn from the last year, what was taken from us and what was exposed. The pandemic has reminded us that New Mexico cannot wait any longer to invest in reliable high-speed internet for all in our state. I call on the Legislature to commit at least half of their capital outlay allocations to new broadband investments, some 200 million dollars. This is the most urgently needed…