Thread by @GovMLG

This legislative session was truly a turnaround. After eight years of stagnation, and after sixty days of hard work, sixty days of agreement & disagreement alike, we have demonstrable results. This session has been a sterling example of productive and substantive good governance.

I am incredibly proud to have one of the strongest Cabinets in recent history, all unanimously confirmed this session and including the highest percentage of female Cabinet members in state history.

The members of this Cabinet are a true team of advocates, not “political” appointees but experts, researchers, committed servant leaders. New Mexicans can be assured that we have steady hands at the wheel.

I appointed 22 regents, all unanimously confirmed. We finally have boards of regents that are accountable to their institutions, free of interference, able to do the best possible job for their constituents.

We have $458 million headed to our classrooms, an unprecedented sum of new money, though I asked for even more – our kids deserve it. In putting those funds toward educator raises, the at-risk index, programs for underserved communities, we’re putting our $$ where our mouth is.

This time next year I will have at least one more Cabinet member, as we approved the 24th cabinet-level agency: The Early Childhood Education and Care Department. This investment in our shared future was a promise made and delivered.

The Energy Transition Act will accelerate New Mexico to the front of the pack nationally on climate-conscious governance. We are aggressively raising our clean-energy standards because we can & should & will be a leader. We are not leaving our neighbors in San Juan County behind.

We are making a promise to future generations of New Mexicans, with this and other environmental legislation, that we recognize the risks, we acknowledge the power we have to change direction, and we are taking bold leadership.

It didn’t always look like we were going to get to $12 an hour for our minimum wage, but we did.

For the first time since 2009, the workers in this state who are paid the least will be paid more, starting Jan. 1.

This is a perfect example of compromise in action: We listened to each other, we acknowledged the other side, but we always, always kept New Mexicans foremost in our deliberations. With this minimum wage bill, we are putting hard-working New Mexicans first.

And speaking of New Mexicans coming first: The lost decade of job growth is hereby over, as of this legislative session. ‘Diversification’ is no longer just a buzzword.

We re-committed to our film industry, raising the cap and committing to begin paying off the Martinez backlog now. We committed to approving legislation that will boost and accelerate the hemp industry in this state. We’re creating a new Outdoor Recreation Division.

This is only the start: We also approved new higher education Centers of Excellence, planting the seed for career-accessibility in exciting growth fields, a surefire path to keeping our talented young adults here and expanding promising industries.

We’re investing a new $50M in small businesses by doubling the annual distribution from the Severance Tax Permanent Fund through the Small Business Investment Corporation and nearly doubling the Working Families Tax Credit to put money back in the pockets of N.M. families.

And there is more. Over the next few weeks, you’ll be seeing me as we sign into law this transformation, the work of the last two months enacted all across this state, the first winds of genuine change in this state.

From education to economic development, from environmental safeguards to transformational energy legislation, good governance was the theme of this session. This is only the beginning.