Gov, Lawmakers Propose Record-Spending $8.4 Billion Plan

COVID-19 by the numbers

As health officials warned in a Wednesday briefing, New Mexico’s COVID-19 cases continue to surge amid the onset of the Omicron variant: 3,231 new cases yesterday, a 22% increase over Thursday and one of the highest—if not the highest—case count of the pandemic (neither SFR nor the state health department were able to conclusively determine if that was the case by press time). There have now been 364,861 total cases; DOH has designated 314,196 of those cases as recovered. Bernalillo County had 1,078 new cases, followed by Sandoval County with 271 and Santa Fe County with 262 cases. Of Santa Fe County’s new cases, 101 were in the 87507 ZIP code, which had the third highest number of new cases among ZIP codes in the state.

According to the state’s most recent vaccination case report from Jan. 3, over the last four weeks, 66.4% of COVID-19 cases have been among those who are not vaccinated, as have 83.6% of hospitalizations and 88.1% of deaths.

The state reported 36 additional deaths, 24 of them recent, including a male in his 50s from Santa Fe County who had been hospitalized; there have now been 209 deaths in Santa Fe County and 5,969 total fatalities statewide.

Hospitalizations also ticked up by 8% yesterday, with 540 people hospitalized with COVID-19.

Currently, 89.1% of New Mexicans 18 years and older have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 76% are fully vaccinated. Among that demographic, 36.3% have had a booster shot. In the 12-17-year-old age group, 67.1% of people have had at least one dose and 57.5% are fully inoculated. Among children ages 5-11, 29.1% have had at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine and 18.1% are fully vaccinated. In Santa Fe County, 99% of people 18 and older have had at least one dose and 85.7% are fully vaccinated.

The health department officially adopted the CDC’s new guidelines on quarantine and isolation yesterday. If you find them confusing, you’re probably not alone, as this Atlantic magazine story details (we think this DOH graphic might be easier to understand than the CDC explainer).

The state health and homeland security and emergency departments yesterday announced a vaccine event at the Santa Fe County Fairgrounds from 10 am to 6 pm through Jan. 9 with Pfizer adult vaccines and Pfizer vaccines for kids ages 5-11. According to a news release, walk-ins are welcome, but the event will be “quicker and more efficient for everyone” if you register and complete your medical questionnaire beforehand.

New Mexicans can register for a COVID-19 vaccine here, schedule a COVID-19 vaccine booster here and view a public calendar for vaccine availability here. Parents can add dependents to their vaccine profiles here.

You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.

Gov, LFC unveil $8.4 million budget plans

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham yesterday released her fiscal year 2023 recommendations, which detail $8.4 billion in recurring spending and represent a 13.4% increase from the last fiscal year. “There’s a saying that budget is policy, and this executive recommendation paints a clear picture of where this administration stands and where my priorities lie,” the governor said in a statement. “These are investments that take us beyond the status quo, beyond decades of unnecessary austerity—these are investments that carry our state and its people into a future that lifts up every New Mexican.” Top ticket items include $200 million to provide 7% raises to New Mexico education personnel and increase base educator pay levels; $195.1 million to expand pre-K capacity, boost early childhood educators’ salaries and launch new programs; and $85.5 million to expand tuition-free college through the Opportunity Scholarship. Other budget items include $6.5 million to support the Cannabis Control Division; and $2.5 million to create a 15-person Climate Change Bureau within the Environment Department. The Legislative Finance Committee also released its proposed budget recommendations for the next fiscal year (starting in June). While both plans call for increased spending at record high levels, they include some differences, such as the LFC’s recommendation for about half as much money for the college scholarship program. The LFC plan allocates more money for public school and public safety spending. Both plans were released in advance of the 30-day legislative session focused on financial issues that kicks off Jan. 18. The Albuquerque Journal reports the Roundhouse will remain open to the public during the session (with proof of vaccination), but will not allow tours or exhibits.

CDC reviews, make public, cannabis applications

If you’re wondering who is applying for cannabis licenses in advance of the April 1 start to legal adult sales, the state’s Cannabis Control Division has launched a public search function through which one can peruse applicants by business type, name, location and other criteria. Thus far, the CCD says it has issued 17 new producer licenses—six of which are micro-businesses—approved 13 new premises, and says it is reviewing more than 300 additional applications with plans to issue licenses across all industry sectors in a timely manner. “New Mexico is on track to start sales and support a thriving medical cannabis program and adult-use cannabis industry,” CCD Director Kristen Thomson said in a statement. The department also has renewed licenses for 34 legacy medical cannabis producers. SFR talks with the owners of one of Santa Fe’s legacy medical cannabis producers, father and son Len and Eli Goodman, who own Best Daze. The company opened in February 2018 and is expanding as the forthcoming recreational market ramps up, with a new shop on Mercer Street expected to open later this month. The Goodmans anticipate heavy demand when adult sales begin and say their emphasis will be on protecting their medical patients’ access. “They have to be our priority for two reasons,” Len Goodman says. “One is because we have to assume they really need it for medical reasons, health reasons. But they’re also the people who have supported us all these years. They’re our loyal customers. We’ve gotta take care of our folks.” Best Daze is one of Santa Fe’s few Southside dispensaries, and the only one on Airport Road.

NM leaders tout voter reform; Gov signs off on state Senate map

Voter reforms introduced yesterday by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver would designate election day as a state holiday; allow 16-year-olds to vote in local elections; and expand voting access for Native Americans, among other features. The state emphasis on voting rights echoed a national push by Democrats tied to yesterday’s anniversary of the US Capitol attack. “Protecting voting rights is essential to upholding our democracy and ensuring New Mexicans’ voices are heard,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “On this somber anniversary of the [Jan. 6] Capitol insurrection, an anti-democratic attempt to overturn a free and fair election, we are reminded that it is more important than ever to safeguard access to the ballot box. While voting rights are under attack across the country, New Mexico is taking every action to protect and expand them.” Toulouse Oliver’s statement says the proposed legislation “gives us the chance to pass one of the most powerful voting rights bills in our state’s history. The governor also signed off yesterday on Senate Bill 2, passed by the Legislature during last month’s special session, which updates state Senate districts and was the final redistricting proposal requiring the governor’s signature.

Listen up

January is shaping up to be a good month to read, learn and discuss...virtually. Friends of the Wheelwright Museum have you covered. The newest episode of the Wheelwright’s Nativescape podcast features a recent Friends program with author Anne Hillerman, who joins the Friends of the Wheelwright Book Club for a special presentation of her book Stargazer, which continues her late father Tony Hillerman’s series with the crime-fighting trio of Bernadette Manuelito, Jim Chee, and Joe Leaphorn. If that program whets your appetite for more, at 2:30 pm, Monday, Jan. 10, the Wheelwright will host a free virtual lecture with jeweler Deanna Tenorio (Santo Domingo/Pomo); and the Friends Book Club will discuss Louise Erdrich’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Night Watchman at 1:30 pm, Jan. 19.

Pie Town in the Big Apple

PopPhoto showcases a handful of photography shows worth viewing in 2022, including “Alter Egos | Projected Selves” at The Met Fifth Avenue in New York (through May 1, 2022) The show includes the artwork of Debbie Grossman, who “uses the power of digital imaging and photo manipulation to invent a striking new narrative on the fluid nature of gender.” Her subject? Pie Town, New Mexico. Grossman’s three images in the show “are based on the work of Depression-era photographer Russell Lee, who worked for the Farm Security Administration in the 1940s and documented a small community of homesteaders in Pie Town, New Mexico. “In 2010, Grossman appropriates Lee’s photos and reworks them using Adobe Photoshop software (which she considers her primary medium) and creates an alternative Pie Town, one that’s inhabited exclusively by women. So, Grossman’s photos are in the show because it’s her fantasy or vision, or concept—'to make the history I wish was real’—that you might consider a self-portrait.” In her artist’s statement, Grossman writes: “Lee wanted to photograph there because he felt Pie Town represented a kind of hardy, small town community that was disappearing in America…Seventy years later, I am drawn to a similar utopian ideal. I’m filled with a longing to connect with that time and the people in Lee’s images—I’ve had a lifelong obsession with frontier life. I fantasize about locating myself within those pictures and that time. So in an attempt to make the history I wish was real, I have made over Pie Town to mirror my fantasy.”

City seeks Women’s Commission applicants

The City of Santa Fe is accepting applications for the Santa Fe Women’s Commission through 5 pm, Feb. 10, with one position open for a representative from District 1 and one position open for an alternate from any district. The alternate can participate in discussions and can vote in the absence of a voting member. According to a news release from the city, members of the Women’s Commission will be “responsible for providing a gender-equity lens through which the city’s programs, policies, services, ordinances, budgets and practices are viewed. The Commission may make recommendations on topics that directly impact women and girls within the city. The Commission may also seek and recommend opportunities to partner with other organizations, community members, and agencies to ensure women and girls have equal opportunity and representation in decision-making roles.” The commission was established in 2019 by resolution, in which the definition of both “women” and “women and girls” includes transgender women, self-identifying women and girls, and gender non-confirming individuals. The commission meets from 5:30 to 7:30 pm on the second Tuesday of each month. Interested applicants may apply by submitting a letter of interest and a resume to: Anna C Pendas at axcale@santafenm.gov; (505) 955-6236.

T-shirt weather returns

The National Weather Service predicts a high today of 52 degrees, sunny, with north wind 5 to 10 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Saturday looks about the same, with Sunday a scant chillier with high temps in the mid 40s.Thanks for reading! The Word is ending the first week of 2022 lying prone and watching the pupping beach on Seal Island National Wildlife Refuge.