By Bill RichardsonGovernor of New Mexico

I want to offer my congratulations to Governor-elect Susana Martinez. As she will soonfind out, being Governor of New Mexico is one of the most demanding jobs anyone canhave. But it is, by far, the most rewarding job for anyone wanting to serve the people of this great state.Eight years ago, I was elected to succeed Governor Gary Johnson. While Governor Johnson and I had our differences, he followed through with his pledge to work with meduring my busy and aggressive transition into office. I am offering the same assistance toGovernor-elect Martinez to ensure a successful transition that allows her to hit the groundrunning on Jan. 1.Despite the heated rhetoric during the recent gubernatorial campaign, the State of NewMexico is in a great position to take advantage of a rebounding national economy. Long before the national economy imploded, we created more than 80,000 new jobs in NewMexico and cut more than $1 billion in taxes – more than any other Governor in thehistory of the state. We established a business-friendly climate that continues to attracthigh-wage jobs, particularly in the emerging clean-energy industry that we’ve builtduring the past eight years. No doubt, many New Mexicans are hurting as a result of the recession. But we took immediate, fiscally responsible action more than two years ago that has enabled stategovernment to weather the storm and continue to invest in quality teachers and providecritical services to our most vulnerable citizens.I promised when I first ran for Governor to invest in people. I am proud of the $1 billionwe invested in our classrooms, including professional teacher salaries, access to pre-kindergarten and modern school buildings. I am also proud of the bold, $1.6 billionwe’ve invested in safer, modern highways and the Rail Runner Express, which is anexample of building infrastructure while protecting the environment. And very soon,Southern New Mexico will be the home of Spaceport America, and a pioneer in the private space industry that is already benefitting the regional economy.We also took a fledgling film program and built it into a competitive, private-sector industry that resulted in nearly 150 major projections, thousand of jobs and more than$3.5 billion in economic impact. Thousands of New Mexicans are being trained for these jobs here in New Mexico, and they are finding good-paying jobs in the state when theygraduate.During the 2002 campaign for Governor, one of the biggest, most emotional issues thatyear was New Mexico’s unacceptable DWI problem. Since then, we’ve cut DWI-relatedfatalities by 30 percent. That translate to hundreds of New Mexicans whose lives may