Far-left Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s recent State of the State address covered her radical 2024 legislative priorities, including snatching guns from law-abiding citizens and dunking more money into the state’s failing education system. While the governor highlighted several achievements of New Mexico, KOAT 7’s “Target 7” smacked her with a fact-check.
One of the key assertions made by Governor Grisham was about the state’s financial growth. She claimed, “We rank among the top states for financial growth and stability and have grown our permanent fund more than 200 percent.” However, “Target 7 has determined that this statement is mostly false.”
According to U.S. News and World Report’s Best State Ranking, New Mexico is placed 44th in terms of economy, considering factors such as the business environment, labor market, and economic growth. This contradicts the governor’s implication of being among the top states.
UNM economist Reilly White shed further light on this, stating that although New Mexico has made significant advances, it still falls short in several areas. The governor’s office attributed her statement on financial growth to a US Department of Labor report indicating high wage growth in the state last summer.
Regarding New Mexico’s permanent fund, the fund did increase from $23.2 billion in 2018 to $42.9 billion in 2023, marking an 84% rise, not the 200% claimed by the Governor.
Another claim by Governor Grisham was the improvement in reading scores among students. She said, “Over the last year alone, we saw a 4% statewide increase in reading scores for kids in grades 3 to 8. and an unprecedented 5% increase in reading scores for Native American students.” Target 7 found this statement to be mostly true. New Mexico Public Education Department’s report confirmed a 4% increase in reading proficiency, rising from 34% to 38%. However, the increase for Native American students was 3%, not 5%. The changing testing metrics also likely led to increased numbers.
Governor Grisham also addressed the issue of child fatalities due to guns, stating, “Right now, the leading cause of death for our children is guns.” But Target 7 wrote, “A little less than a year ago, the New Mexico Department of Health released its child fatality report. It says unintentional injury was the leading cause of death among New Mexico children, accounting for more than 36% of all deaths. The report defines unintentional deaths as motor vehicle crashes; drowning deaths; unintentional overdose or poisoning and fire-related deaths. That would also include unintentional gun deaths – but it doesn’t state how many were caused by firearms. Suicide was the second leading cause.”
While the governor’s address highlighted her far-left legislative priorities, KOAT 7’s fact-check shows the governor’s issue with the truth.
Pinon, Good job on this post and Bravo to KAOT for the fact check. There is no way that NM ranks in the top 10 in anything positive when it comes to economics, employment or the outlook for either.
MLG did her job well in keeping New Mexicans broke, uneducated and dependent on social services.
Boo to you Governor! liar
Agreed, Mario. As I alway say re NM rankings, always last in the best & first in the worst
Figures don’t lie. But some liars figure.
I’m not surprised by MLG blow hard lying nonsense. It is who she is and will continue to be. Good call on the KOAT.
The truth is certainly an issue with the Empress! If she’d admit she knows nothing at all about education, even her own, she might waste our money in a way that could possibly help someone. She is trying to get promoted out of NM after her two terms of destroying NM are over with. Buh-bye!
Just like the Marxists in DC, they lie, lie, lie and the uninformed voter does not check there stories. This is why NM is run by Marxists.
Would it be possible to create the post, so it is easy to share on Social media? Often the photo will not be shared, which is the part that will draw the eye to the post.
Thank you.
Just highlight and copy the post’s URL and paste it on your social media.
I think we should have had a statistic about child abuse and deaths from child abuse in our state. They keep that hush hush, and there are way more horrible child abuse cases than there are child shootings (even though child shootings are a horrible tragedy) but if she wants to talk about the state of the state, then she should be talking about the state of emergency our child protection is in!
Spot on Gina!
Thank goodness this is MLG’s final year as our governor.
Her current term ends January 1, 2027!
Evil MLG reminds me of the “Emperor has not clothes.” She has lied so much and has tried to puff up her non existant numbers, she actually believes herself. And yet people still voted her in for a second term. WHY??? She is killing NM and why isn’t she being impeached? It’s time and guess we need to get rid of her comrades in the round house to make it happen.
She lies to make herself look good. She was saying all that stuff and I was like yeah right. She was talking how great the State was. She wants to spend an exorbitant amount on making people go green. She is joke that’s dictator thinking.