Gov releases price range recs
Flush with funds and heading into the 60-day legislative session beginning Jan. 17, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham yesterday launched her 2024 fiscal year proposed budget recommendations, which embody: 4% pay raises for all state workers; one other spherical of tax rebates; $107 million devoted to varied applications to handle housing and homelessness; and a $200 million infusion into the Rural Well being Care Supply Fund, amongst a slew of different initiatives. The governor’s $9.4 billion price range represents a virtually 12% improve from the prior 12 months and maintains reserves at 34.9%, among the many highest in state historical past, based on the governor’s workplace. The rise in proposed spending follows revenue estimates released in December projecting near $3.6 billion in “new” income. “At the moment, we’ve a historic alternative for change within the state of New Mexico,” the governor said in a statement. “This price range builds upon the immense progress and success of the final 4 years…It additionally empowers the state to proceed to tackle new and modern methods which might be disrupting the established order, that assist our kids, our households, our colleges, our small companies and our whole financial system to develop and prosper.” Different top-ticket gadgets within the governor’s price range embody: $220 million to increase classroom studying time; $100 million to proceed regulation enforcement recruitment efforts; and one other $157.4 million for the state’s Alternative Scholarship. The governor’s proposed raises for state workers would value simply over $91 million, with the governor noting in her proposal that “compensation is an integral element of constructing a top-notch workforce.” On this week’s SFR, author Andrew Oxford examines whether or not the governor’s attempts to end state employees’ telework options is counter-productive to her different workforce efforts.
Pure fuel costs rise
Some New Mexicans will face steeper natural gas prices this chilly winter—however apparently it may have been worse. Commodity costs for New Mexico Gasoline Firm clients have elevated by greater than 77% over last January, based on executives, however NMGC used its “hedging” program to plan forward, stopping a rise that may have been even increased. All advised, the typical residential invoice from final 12 months that peaked in January at $135 will run about $211 this month, the corporate tells SFR. In anticipation of rising prices, the corporate opted final 12 months to basically lock within the value in 2023 for the minimal quantity of fuel it expects to make use of. “It’s been in follow for a very long time that we’ve achieved this. It’s an annual program and a few years we don’t use it,” NMGC Vice President of Engineering and Gasoline Administration Tom Bullard tells SFR. “It’s type of like an insurance coverage coverage. However within the years, like this 12 months, when fuel costs are risky, and so they go means up, that does repay. This 12 months, it has paid off very nicely.” Even with the hedge in place, the spike over 2022 in New Mexico is important and comes on high of a 4.3% improve that started this month as the results of will increase to the company’s cost of service. On the brilliant facet: It’s not as excessive as what customers in California can expect this month.
Gov appoints new PRC commissioner after additionally new one resigns
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham yesterday announced she has appointed James F. Ellison, Jr., to the New Mexico Public Regulation Fee. She did so following the resignation of Brian Ok. Moore, whom she appointed to the commission (checks calendar) on Dec. 30. ICYMI, following a constitutional modification, the PRC turned a three-member appointed versus elected physique within the latest attempt to make sure individuals who serve on a physique that regulates utilities are certified to control utilities. Moore, a former Republican state lawmaker, is president and CEO of Ranch Market grocery store in Clayton. Based on the governor’s workplace, he submitted his resignation in a letter that stated he doesn’t meet the statutory academic {qualifications} for the appointment. Those requirements: a bachelor’s diploma from an accredited college and 10 years work expertise in a related discipline or an expert license/post-graduate diploma in a sector regulated by the PRC. All of the candidates had been, purportedly, vetted by the impartial PRC Nominating Committee earlier than finalists’ names had been submitted to the governor. Moore’s resumé doesn’t, in reality, listing the required academic levels, simply attendance on the College of Denver; one Nominating Committee member told the Albuquerque Journal the members assumed he had graduated. At any fee, the governor’s new choose, James F. Ellison, additionally was on the short list of nine candidates the Nominating Committee submitted to the governor initially of December. Along with his professional experience of three a long time working in electrical utility operations and energy markets, he additionally has a bachelor’s diploma from Clemson College, one grasp’s diploma from the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise and one other from Stanford College. The three new PRC commissioners are scheduled for their first meeting at 9:30 am right this moment, though all three will nonetheless have to be confirmed by the state senate.
NM promotes sources for LGBTQIA+ communities
Within the six months because it launched, the national 988 mental health helpline has obtained more than 2 million calls, chats and messages. In New Mexico, the state Human Providers Division introduced this week its efforts to construct consciousness in regards to the helpline’s sources for the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood, which had been carried out late final 12 months. According to a news release, this system is a pilot challenge of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, supported by the federal Substance Abuse and Psychological Well being Affiliation and in collaboration with The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention group for LGBTQIA+ younger individuals. LGBTQIA+ youth and adults who contact the 988 Lifeline may be related with a specifically skilled, LGBTQIA-competent psychological well being peer by cellphone 24/7, and by way of textual content and chat through the hours of 5 pm to 4 am MST day by day. “Linking these in must compassionate and efficient care by increasing entry to affirming assist for LGBTQIA+ youth is a key step in saving lives, lowering stigma, rejection, trauma, victimization, micro-aggressions, homophobia and transphobia,” HSD Director of Behavioral Providers Neal Bowen, stated in an announcement. “In our early 988 neighborhood listening periods, we heard loud and clear that LGBTQIA+ communities throughout New Mexico wish to know they will belief and depend on a secure and supportive disaster response to enhance, not worsen the state of affairs—Now they will.” Extra info is out there at 988nm.org.
COVID-19 by the numbers
Reported Jan. 10: New instances: 281; 661,596 whole instances. Deaths: 4; Santa Fe County has had 380 total deaths; 8,859 whole fatalities statewide. Statewide hospitalizations: 95. Sufferers on ventilators: three
The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s most up-to-date Jan. 5 “community levels” map exhibits only one county categorized as “yellow”—medium danger—for COVID-19: San Juan County. The remainder of the state—together with Santa Fe County—is inexperienced, aka has low danger. Corresponding suggestions for every stage may be discovered here.
Sources: Obtain 4 free at-home COVID-19 assessments per family by way of COVIDTests.gov; Examine availability for added free COVID-19 assessments via Project ACT; CDC interactive booster eligibility tool; NM DOH vaccine & booster registration; CDC isolation and exposure interactive device; COVID-19 treatment info; NMDOH immunocompromised tool kit. Individuals searching for remedy who don’t have a medical supplier can name NMDOH’s COVID-19 hotline at 1-855-600-3453. DOH encourages residents to obtain the NM Notify app and to report constructive COVID-19 dwelling assessments on the app.
You may learn all of SFR’s COVID-19 protection here.
Pay attention up
The Institute of American Indian Arts continues its Evening Reading Series this week with visitors from its Grasp of Positive Arts in Creative Writing mentor program and Lannan Visiting Writers. At 6 pm tonight, this system will characteristic poet, essayist, quick story author and program mentor Bojan Louis (Diné); IAIA MFA facuty member, former Wisconsin Poet Laureate and founding director of Indigenous Nations Poets Kimberly Blaeser (Minnesota Chippewa Tribe); and essayist, quick story author and program mentor Toni Jensen (Métis). At 6 pm, Friday, Jan. 13, IAIA hosts readings by novelist, quick story author and mentor Kelli Jo Ford (Cherokee Nation); IAIA alum, mentor and poet Layli Long Soldier (Oglala Lakota); and humanities author, critic, poet, educator and Lannan Visiting Author Raquel Gutiérrez. Each occasions might be held on campus within the Heart for Lifelong Schooling commons, or may be watched by way of livestream on each event’s webpage.
Image this
Uncover journal columnist Tom Yulsman (additionally director of the Center for Environmental Journalism) rounds up his favorite images seen from space last year, which embody Pierre Markuse’s infrared satellite view of New Mexico’s Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire on Could 13, 2022. The picture caught Yulsman’s eye, he writes, “due to its lovely coloring, and the intricate patterning of the mountains and waterways.” Magnificence however, Yulsman acknowledges the devastating wildfire—the largest in New Mexico’s history: “Within the picture, which is about 150 miles vast, areas of lively burning present up in orange and yellow. Rusty-red tones reveal giant swaths of land that had already burned. Far more scorched land lies outdoors the body.” Yulsman additionally used Sentinel-2 imagery to create a visualization simulating an overflight of the fireplace, which you’ll view here. And talking of pictures, New Mexico journal has simply unveiled the winners of its annual photography contest. The journal waived entry charges in honor of its one centesimal anniversary and subsequently obtained greater than 2,400 submissions from over 700 newbie photographers. Grand prize winner Jim Stein captured a storm because it rolled into the Valles Caldera National Preserve (Stein additionally received first place within the panorama class for his photograph of White Sands). Different profitable photographs seize a wide range of New Mexico’s panorama, individuals, animals and even fungi. And talking of photograph contests, SFR’s annual photo contest is underway. This 12 months’s classes: faces, locations, motion and odd, with two winners in every class receiving awards from native eating places and retailers. The $5 entry price advantages SFR’s sister nonprofit’s student training program. Submit solely New Mexico-based pictures by Feb. 1.
Buried underground
“Half Life,” a collaborative challenge between eflux Structure and the Art Institute of Chicago, was created “inside the context” of the exhibition “Static Range” by Himali Singh Soin, “an ongoing challenge that explores the intertwined histories and futures of nuclear landscapes.” One essay within the “Half Life” challenge examines New Mexico’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad. In “Ten Thousand Years of Isolation,” Livia Krohn Miller writes of driving from Albuquerque to WIPP, “alongside abandoned roads and previous long-abandoned development. The land right here is dry, with reds and oranges unfurling below a large, scorching, neon blue sky.” Time, she observes, “appears to misbehave within the desert.” The essay explores New Mexico’s position within the nuclear industrial advanced, noting “the stress between the parallel universes of army infrastructure and majestic nature is palpable everywhere in the state, however maybe most of all in Carlsbad.” Whether or not that’s true or not is difficult to say however the essay makes a compelling argument and considers WIPP’s position within the US’s ongoing makes an attempt—akin to they’re— to handle the nation’s radioactive legacy, with the essay’s title referencing the ten,000 years the transuranic waste buried at WIPP might be sealed. “The actual downside with WIPP,” she concludes, “is an issue inherent to the existence of irradiated materials, which is that, so long as the world continues to provide nuclear waste, there isn’t any sustainable, long-term resolution for its secure storage and disposal.”
Snow, wind and hearth
The National Weather Service forecasts a 20% likelihood of snow showers right this moment earlier than 11 am. In any other case, it will likely be largely cloudy, then regularly grow to be sunny, with a excessive close to 41 levels and windy, with a southwest wind 20 to 25 mph turning into west 25 to 30 mph within the afternoon. Winds may gust as excessive as 45 mph—in reality, we’re below a wind advisory till 6 pm. Some parts of the state may even see winds as much as 65 mph. The weather service’s satellites picked up a possible hearth begin yesterday in Mora County in the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon burn scar; the Mora County Sheriff’s Department subsequently closed after which re-opened Freeway 434 as crews labored on the blaze, which was reportedly greater than 25% contained as of final night time.Thanks for studying! The Phrase thinks she is unlikely to try sea moss, no matter its trendiness (though she did view a bunch of ridiculous TikTok videos of different individuals consuming it).
