SANTA FE — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued her sixth State of the State address, the second of her second term as governor, laying out her legislative priorities for the 2024 legislative session on Jan. 16.
The legislative priorities are supported through the governor's FY25 Executive Budget Recommendation, and encompass initiatives in housing and homelessness, health care and behavioral health, education and child wellbeing, public safety, economic development, infrastructure, and tax reform.
Lujan Grisham’s legislative agenda for the 2024 session of the New Mexico Legislature includes:
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INFASTRUCTURE
- Dedicate 2% (approx. $170 million) of the state’s Severance Tax Permanent Fund to invest in companies developing advanced energy technologies
- Establish an advanced manufacturing tax credit as a companion to the Inflation Reduction Act incentives
- Establish an infrastructure matching fund to enable communities to access federal grants that require a local match
HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS
- Establish a state Office of Housing as a one-stop shop for housing developers and contractors, streamlining processes from start to finish
- Require local governments to implement zoning and permitting requirements that are best practice as a condition of receiving state funding for housing development
HEALTH CARE, BEHAVIORAL HEALTH, AND CHILD WELL-BEING
- Establish a hospital provider tax that will bring in an additional $1.5 to $2 billion in federal dollars into the state
- Fully launch the Health Care Authority
EDUCATION
- Require 180 days of instruction at public schools
PUBLIC SAFETY
- Require a 14-day waiting period for the purchase of firearms
- Ban assault weapons
- Raise the purchase age to 21 for all firearms
- Prohibit guns in public parks and on playgrounds
- Allow law enforcement to directly file Extreme Risk Protection Orders
- Increase penalties for felons in possession of a firearm
- Strengthen commercial burglary statute
- Establish a rebuttable presumption to keep violent criminals behind bars pending trial
- Require treatment for those repeatedly entering the criminal justice system as a result of substance misuse
- Prohibit panhandling on medians and roadways
The governor also announced plans to dedicate $43 million for statewide clean-up and beautification efforts.