Opinion: 2020 a year of great disruptions

For New Mexicans, COVID-19 hit in March. It may be named after the previous year, when it first turned up, but the first confirmed case in the U.S. hit the West Coast in January, and in New Mexico it hit less than two months later.

From there, COVID spread like a fog over the entire year, distorting our lives and livelihoods in innumerable ways.

In hindsight, it’s easy to see how 2020 was destined to be a year of great disruptions.

We were barely into the new year when President Trump was impeached by the House. Before his acquittal on Feb. 5, tragedy hit when basketball legend Kobe Brant, his teenage daughter and seven others were killed in a California helicopter crash, while just after his acquittal we saw Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein go down as a rapist — a testament to the growing strength of the #MeToo movement — as a huge field of Democratic presidential wannabes slowly dwindled to a select few choice candidates and, ultimately, Joe Biden.

On Jan. 21, the first confirmed case of COVID hits American shores — the same day the New Mexico Legislature convened in a 30-day session under an ambitious agenda laid out by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

The governor got most of what she wanted from lawmakers this year. She got legislation passed to lower prescription drug costs in New Mexico through imports from Canada, and a cap on insulin charges for diabetics.

Other legislation included the creation of an Early Childhood Trust Fund and a $55 million infusion of cash into the financially troubled Public Employee Retirement Association (PERA). They also shored up the Energy Transformation Act, the state’s version of a “green new deal,” with solar tax credits and other green energy incentives, and they funneled $8 million into Census data collection efforts around the state.

What didn’t get done was the years-long effort to legalize recreational marijuana, which has been on Lujan Grisham’s agenda since taking office in 2019. It’ll be back in the 2021 session.

And despite the fact that the state went into the new year flush with funds, the governor cut $50 million from local project allocations, keeping the money in reserves to “counteract the potential impact of fluctuations in the oil market,” she said in announcing the veto.

The state oil and gas industry, known for its boom-and-bust cycles, did in fact tank this year, along with the larger economy once the pandemic hit in earnest.

On March 11, Gov. Lujan Grisham signs a $7.6 billion state operating budget into law, on the same day the first three confirmed cases of COVID-19 hit New Mexico and the governor declares a statewide health emergency.

On March 25, the U.S. Senate approves a $2 trillion stimulus package in response to a crashing economy, as the New Mexico Department of Health announces its first confirmed COVID death in the state.

Next week: COVID hangs on and makes a comeback, a racial reckoning grabs ahold, and a record-breaking election plays itself out.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

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