’24 session: A success in public safety

The safest communities in our country usually have the most resources. In New Mexico, where there are long lines for mental health and addiction services, a dearth of affordable housing and people struggling to earn livable wages, we, as legislators, have our work cut out for us to ensure people have what they need to thrive. New Mexicans deserve no less and we are committed to making it happen.

Unfortunately, for decades, too many lawmakers have measured the success of a session’s investment in public safety by the numbers of bills they pass that will put more people behind bars. The 2024 session made historic inroads in all major areas that tackle the root causes of crime: poverty, behavioral health, education and trauma. Yet Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and many of our Republican colleagues have voiced their disappointment that we didn’t accomplish more on public safety.

We have a different opinion: By investing in the health, wellbeing, and success of New Mexico families, and resisting notoriously failed policies, lawmakers made momentous progress in fostering lasting public safety.

Decades of research has shown us that we can’t arrest our way out of homelessness, addiction, mental illness or poverty. Mass incarceration actually has an adverse effect on public safety by breaking up families, saddling people with criminal records and diverting resources away from addressing the root causes of crime.

Knowing that crime goes down when we address extreme inequality and invest in community resources, we focused on introducing and voting for bills that took a holistic approach to community safety. We are optimistic that many of those bills will become law.

We’re proud of bills like House Bill 195, which will address New Mexico’s extreme dearth of affordable housing, by earmarking $125 million to help communities build and rehabilitate housing for middle and working-class New Mexicans, people with behavioral health needs, and survivors of domestic violence. Senate Bill 17 will provide critical investments for rural hospitals, a third of which are at risk of closure, by increasing Medicaid payments to hospitals — a solution that will ensure rural New Mexicans won’t have to drive hours for the care they need. House Bill 303 establishes an innovative, threeyear pilot program to provide monetary stipends — covering housing, food, transportation expenses and registration fees — for adults attending workforce training programs. These programs will help provide living wage jobs to people in high demand industries, thereby fueling the economy and increasing financial stability for New Mexico families.

Overall, the Legislature passed a historic budget that will inject an additional $500 million into behavioral health; designate nearly $200 million for housing, provide $10 million for updates to the State Equalization Guarantee funding formula, giving rural school districts and facilities additional resources, and secure reoccurring funding for veterans to support suicide prevention strategies, transportation and homelessness.

It’s not easy to pass comprehensive legislation of this nature in a 30-day session, but together with our colleagues and community advocates on the frontlines of these issues, we did it. We passed targeted solutions that are based on evidence, that made historic investments in areas that have been drastically under-resourced for decades and that will finally provide New Mexicans with opportunities for success and safety that they deserve.

These are the kind of investments that are the true measure of public safety, and the direction legislators must shepherd.