New Mexico House Leader Javier Martínez (D-Albuquerque) and other House leaders previewed public safety and behavioral health proposals for the 2025 legislative session during a Jan. 10 news conference in Albuquerque. (Photo courtesy NM House Democrats)
New Mexico House leaders will push for $200 million toward “rebuilding” the state’s behavioral health system and a new children’s advocate office for the Children’s Youth and Families Department, alongside stiffer penalties for a variety of criminal activity in the upcoming 60-day session kicking off Jan. 21.
Speaker of the House Javier Martínez (D-Albuquerque) told reporters during a Friday afternoon news conference in Albuquerque he anticipated behavioral health and public safety bills “will move expeditiously” in the first 30 days.
The lawmakers’ preview comes as Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham continues holding public safety town halls across the state, and follows her failed attempt last year to pass public safety bills during a special session.
Martínez said “dialogue has been ongoing” since the end of the special session last July, both with the governor’s office, as well as “with public defenders, district attorneys, law enforcement and civil rights organizations. That’s exactly the point we were making prior to the special session being called,” Martínez said. “This is the type of effort that will require an all-hands-on-deck approach.” While he expects a variety of public safety proposals and it remains to be seen what the final form of a compromise would look like, “I’m hopeful, and I fully expect that compromise can be reached,” not only on this issue, but on a “variety of other issues.”
Specific bills will include $200 million toward “rebuilding” the state’s behavioral health system, Majority Floor Leader Reena Szczepanski (D-Santa Fe) said, noting that the system “is not meeting the demand for treatment services, especially for New Mexicans who want services. When people make the difficult decision to get help, they face too many barriers, too many wrong doors and too long of a wait. No one should have to make 10 calls to find an appointment for themselves or for a loved one, but that’s what’s happening now when someone enters care.” Residents, she noted, “need a behavioral health system that follows up, that helps patients make the connections to additional care or services they need so that they can fully heal. And we need a behavioral health system that doesn’t let people fall through the cracks.”
State Health Care Authority will open 7 behavioral health clinics throughout New Mexico in January
House Democrats say they also will push for a new “office of the child advocate” within the state Department of Justice for independent oversight of the Children, Youth and Families Department, which Martínez characterized as a “broken agency,” adding: “We will bring and demand greater accountability, transparency and oversight from this critically important agency.” Comparable attempts to create oversight of CYFD have failed in recent sessions.
On the public safety front, Rep. Christine Chandler (D-Los Alamos), who chairs the House Judiciary Committee and the Legislature’s interim Courts, Corrections, and Criminal Justice Committee, said legislators intend to bring bills that will address gun violence; DWI and “reckless drivers who endanger New Mexicans on our streets.” In addition, she said, lawmakers will seek to increase penalties for human and fentanyl traffickers, while seeking to increase services from victims of the former and those who need substance abuse treatment.
“We’re entering the session with a focus on our shared values, and we know there is nothing more fundamental to the well being of families and communities than public safety, “ Chandler said. “It doesn’t start or end with this legislative session.”
Chandler said lawmakers also would also introduce “a thoroughly vetted competency bill.”
The legislators presented their agenda at Manuel’s Food Market in the Albuquerque neighborhood Martineztown, a more than 100-year-old family grocery store that has been closed for the last few years, but is working toward reopening.
“I haven’t met a single person who hasn’t been impacted by rising costs of housing, health care and basic necessities,” Dayan Hochman–Vigil (D-Albuquerque) said, noting that “here in New Mexico, we have a long history of divestment in our communities, including the one where we stand today.” At the same time, she said, “our state is abundant in culture, beauty and natural resources, and our people are hardworking and resilient, like our hosts today… We intend to build on that legacy this session with the family and worker-centered agenda.”
That agenda will include “significant investments to make housing and health care more affordable and more accessible; relieving the pressures of inflation by cutting taxes for middle income New Mexicans”; and “investments in communities like Martineztown.”
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