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Video above: Senate Republican Leader Bill Sharer, Whip Pat Woods and Caucus Chair David Gallegos responded to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s State of the State address on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. They also outlined their priorities for the 2025 legislative session. The first day of the 60-day session began at New Mexico State Capitol on Tuesday. Follow up questions to the presser is below.WATCH: Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham delivers 2025 State of the State address “We’re here to talk about what the governor just talked about. So, first of all, I want to acknowledge the public safety issue. Certainly, statewide everybody knows we have a public safety issue, but we also need a meaningful way to address this stuff, and I’m not sure we got there today,” Sharer stated during Tuesday’s news conference. “She did acknowledge we have serious crime problem, but she more focused on behavioral health than on what the real crime was. We, as Republicans, have been talking about real crime solutions for a long time. In fact, during the special session, we actually supported real crime solutions, while her own party completely abandoned it,” Sharer said.Related: New Mexico Senate and House adjourn for 2024 special session”We’re here to make sure we can do the real work that needs to be done. It’s paramount that we collaborate with the governor on this, but we also need her to collaborate with us to make sure we’re making real solutions,” Sharer added. “We must think more about how we stop random violent crime, drug trafficking, retail crime, auto thefts, or the rest of us will continue to pay. It’s time to talk about putting more criminals into jail and quit the revolving door,” State Senator Pat Woods said. “The Children’s Youth & Families Department she acknowledged this is a real problem. We’re not protecting our children, so her solution was to create another government program. When I think of government programs of what’s failing us, so we need something else, we need to figure out what’s going on at CYFD, and I think we do know what’s going on and put our effort into protecting the children,” Woods said during Tuesday’s news conference. Faith Egbuonu: You guys stated that you all have common-sense solutions that have been rejected from the other side. I ask the specifics of that. You guys also stated you need a meaningful way to address these issues and you guys aren’t sure you got there today with the governor’s State of the State address. The governor stated in her speech that they plan to fully fund CYFD Moving the responsibility of CARA, a program that helps families whose children have been exposed to drug and alcohol use in the womb to the Department of Health. What do you guys’ plan to do?Sharer: So, you talked about commonsense for crime Egbuonu: Yes, that you guys said was rejected from the other side, so I’m curious to know.Sharer: Well, we offered a variety of these things over time, but one of them is the catch and the release. How do you stop the catch and release? Well, we can. Our judges can, but if our judges aren’t going to do it by themselves, certainly, through statute, we can keep violent and repeated offenders off the streets. The governor said so, but for years, we haven’t tried to do anything legislatively. It wasn’t shot down in the first committee. Our bills were shot down in the first committee. The catch-and-release is a huge one because that brings us to the certainty of punishment and the certainty of the punishment is really the deterrent, that’s commonsense.Sharer: As far as fully funding CYFD, I don’t remember exactly what they are in the budget, but fully funded; come on, our budget has increased 70 percent since she became the governor. Do we have 70 percent less crime? Do we have 70 percent more children at can read? Do we have 70 percent better outcomes at CYFD? We’re fully funded. We’re not fully organized and using it. Egbuonu: Were you guys in support of the bill, because it’s been modified for years and still nothing is being done about it but increasing prison time for convicted felons in possession of a handgun, did you guys back that as well? Because I know that’s something the governor proposed, and we got nowhere with the special session. Sharer: In the special session, yes, Senator Morres, Republican, carried that bill. In fact, only republicans carried her crime bills.Republican Party of New Mexico statement”While we acknowledge the governors sentiment that New Mexicans deserve better, her same approach of throwing more money at the many issues in our state has not produced results. Over her 6-year tenure, the state budget has increased by approximately 73%, yet critical areas like education and child welfare remain last in the nation. We have yet to see substantial progress in The Children, Youth, and Families Department (CYFD).While the governor briefly acknowledged the record oil and gas revenues, she once again failed to thank the oil and gas industry for contributing nearly half of our state’s budget while proposing legislation that threatens to eliminate this vital sector by 2050.She introduced the idea of a tax credit for businesses to combat crime, but she ignored the Paid Family Leave Act, which would force many small businesses to close or relocate out of state.We appreciate the governor’s recognition of the crime crisis plaguing our cities. She mentioned some “common sense” policies like reforming the competency laws to keep repeat offenders behind bars, but what she didn’t mention is that these are also Republican policies that Democrats have repeatedly killed year after year. We are hopeful that the governor and the progressive Democrats in the legislature will finally back these critical pieces of legislation this year.Immigration, a critical issue for New Mexico as a border state, was notably absent from her speech. New Mexico cannot continue to be a hub for those exploiting our open borders to bring crime and deadly drugs like fentanyl into our communities.We urge the Democrats in the legislature to prioritize the issues that matter to New Mexicans this year. The Republican Party of New Mexico remains committed keeping our citizens informed about their legislators’ votes throughout this session.” Chair Amy BarelaStay updated on the latest news updates with the KOAT app. You can download it here.