SANTE FE, NM – New Mexico Governor, Bill Richardson, has signed legislation approving a change in the New Mexico state flag and state nickname. The current state nickname of “Land of Enchantment” will be replaced with the new motto of “Land of Unending Construction.”

“People have been talking about the constant construction in our fine state for years now, and we decided to finally do something about it,” Richardson said. “It’s gotten to the point where when someone thinks about road construction, they think about New Mexico. We wanted to capitalize on that. Right now, 93% of our roads and highways are under construction. How awesome is that? I can tell you, it makes this old governor proud.”

In addition to the new slogan, the state flag will be replaced with an image of a traffic cone against a yellow background.

“When we were asked to redesign the flag we thought to our selves ‘what does one think of when they think of construction?’ Besides New Mexico in general, people think of traffic cones,” said graphic designer Victor Vaughan. “It just clicked, you know. That was the easy part. The hard part was trying to figure out what color to put behind the traffic cone. I slaved over that for about two months before I realized what it should be. Yellow. It came to me in a dream. It was magical.”

Both the change in nickname and flag passed the state Senate unanimously last month paving the way for the Governor’s signature.

“We, the residents of this beautiful state, are excited to finally have a state nickname and flag that really represents who we are,” said Richardson. “We’ve established an identity over the last several decades as a place where workers can come and find work. I’m proud that the second you enter the state by car, regardless of the highway, you are immediately greeted by a beautiful construction zone full of hard working New Mexicans… and some Mexico Mexicans. But that’s only for the really shitty, dangerous jobs.”

In the late 1970’s, then Governor Jerry Apodaca proposed a perpetual state of construction for New Mexico’s Interstates and highways that would both guarantee jobs and give the state a unique identity.

“When I did that, I was just trying to embezzle a ton of money,” Apodaca said. “I was skimming off the top, buying all kinds of things that I didn’t need. I was completely in the pocket of a couple of the bigger construction firms. But then after years and years of blowing millions of dollars of the tax payers money, the phenomena took on a life of its own. Soon, that’s what our state was known for. So hell, I ran with it. The more money we wasted on road construction, the more I could skim off the top. It was a win-win situation.”

Residents of New Mexico have long been proud of the constant state of construction, and many feel the change in the state flag and nickname are long overdue.

“It makes me proud to see the new flag and hear the new nickname,” said Gina Cox, 48, a life long New Mexico resident. “Now we finally have something that we can be proud of. Before, we were just a dirty, crappy place to live. Now we’re a dirty, crappy place to live with a shiny new flag and nickname. I’ll tell you, things are finally starting to look up in this shit-hole.”

Despite the overwhelming support, some residents of New Mexico would rather be associated with something other than orange construction cones.

“While the new flag and nickname are all well and good, I think we should be celebrating something other that construction,” said Steve Page, 27 of Santa Fe. “We have Hatch chilies and, um, that Balloon festival. Um, we’ve also got. Shit this is hard. You know what? New Mexico is a shitty place to live. I really need to move.”