Sen. Bill Sharer, R-Farmington, gives the Republican rebuttal to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s State of the State address at the Capitol on Tuesday. Sharer outlined policy changes tied to crime and public safety, economic development, education and child welfare during the 2025 legislative session. Michael G. Seamans/The Santa Fe New Mexican

By MARGARET O’HARA
The Santa Fe New Mexican

Senate Minority Leader Bill Sharer said he hopes Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Democratic lawmakers do more than talk this session, particularly when it comes to crime. 

The Farmington Republican spoke at a news conference Tuesday at the Capitol following the governor’s State of the State address, raising several of the same issues she highlighted in her speech. Sharer and other Senate Republicans are eyeing policy changes tied to crime and public safety, economic development, education and child welfare during the 2025 legislative session, outlining areas of both agreement and contrast with the Democratic governor and legislative majority.

“We want it to work,” Sharer said. “We want to do this right, but we want to be — as Republicans — steadfast in dealing with this and not piddling around the edges. It seems like what we’ve done for too long.”

The first issue on Senate Republicans’ minds: crime.

In particular, Sharer said his party is looking at changing statute to stop the “catch and release” of violent criminals and be “aggressive” in pursuing more frequent pretrial detention.

“The real solution to crime is certainty of punishment, not adding more time,” Sharer said.

But making that happen, he noted, will require collaboration between Democrats and Republicans. That hasn’t happened in the past, Sharer said, with Republican proposals on public safety “shot down in the first committee.

“We as Republicans have been talking about real crime solutions for a long time,” he said. “In fact, during the special session, we actually supported real crime solutions while [Lujan Grisham’s] own party completely abandoned her.”

Like the governor, Senate Republicans are also planning to pursue changes to the troubled Children, Youth and Families Department. However, the Republicans’ approach differs from Lujan Grisham’s, who proposed in her speech creating a new, independent child protection authority, appointed jointly by the Legislature and governor as a CYFD watchdog. 

“Her solution was to create another government program, when I think the government programs are what’s failing us,” Sharer said. 

Sen. David Gallegos, R-Eunice, said Senate Republicans support creating an Office of the Child Advocate within the state attorney general’s office to hold CYFD accountable as well as changing policies that would send a child born addicted to drugs “back into the drug-infested home.”  

Republicans are also backing a push to create — or, more appropriately, re-create — a statewide school board, similar to the system in place prior to 2003. Such a change would make the statewide board, rather than a governor-appointed secretary, the head of the Public Education Department. 

A bill to make such a change has been filed in the state Senate by Las Cruces Democrat Bill Soules. During last year’s legislative session, the proposal received broad bipartisan support. 

The change from secretary to state school board would increase transparency by allowing school board members to be more familiar with education in their district, said Gallegos, who himself sits on the board of Eunice Public Schools in southeastern New Mexico. 

“You’re going back to the local level, then you get the accountability piece, and you’ll see movement in education,” Gallegos said. 

Lujan Grisham struck a positive tone in discussing the state’s economy in the State of the State, touting more jobs and higher wages. Sen. Pat Woods, R-Broadview, during the news conference painted a bleaker picture, arguing expansion of bureaucracy during her administration has slowed progress for small businesses and for housing development. 

“What are the burdens that we’re putting up in front of our businesses that just cause them to leave the state? … A businessman cannot stay in business if he can’t make a profit,” Woods said.

He connected the issue to a piece of legislation he has filed which would limit the possible punitive damages awarded in a civil case.

“We’ve got a bureaucracy in the way that stops everybody from doing anything,” Sharer added. “When you have to go through layers and layers and layers of bureaucracy to build new housing, you don’t build new housing, and it’s not affordable.”