Hours after President Barack Obama was sworn in on Jan. 20, Gov. Bill Richardson (D) asked the Legislature to take action on the state’s financial crisis but also to embrace his proposals for alternative energy, education, health care, ethics reform and rights for domestic partners.
The state of the state address was to be Richardson’s last before he left for Washington to become Obama’s commerce secretary. But he withdrew his name because of a federal grand jury investigation into whether political donations to him influenced the state’s hiring of a financial firm. Richardson has said he is confident he will be cleared.
“Now I know there are some legislators who were looking forward to my departure, and not having to deal with me this session. I’m sorry to disappoint. I’ll try to make it up to you somehow,” Richarrdson joked.
The governor told lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled statehouse that 2009 would be “the Year of Fiscal Restraint” because of a $450 million budget gap. “Our task this session is not just to cut spending, pass two budgets, and go home.Our task must be to keep building a vibrant, optimistic New Mexico that looks over the horizon with hope and anticipation.”
Toward that end, Richardson proposed what he called an “economic security plan.” Among its elements: balancing the budget, expanding energy tax credits, developing a clean energy workforce, changing the school funding formula, tightening math standards for teachers, increasing grants to low income college students and building a “green grid to harness the power of solar and wind, and use smart electronics to deliver energy to consumers cheaper and more efficiently,” the governor said. The grid is supposed to also tackle the state’s biggest environmental challenge, climate change.
Richardson also asked lawmakers to address social issues such as drunk driving, through stiffer penalties on establishments found guilty of selling to minors or overserving customers. And he proposed tougher measures aimed at protecting victims of domestic violence.
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