For reelection this year. This is 40 minutes. [applause]. [applause]. Speaker, president kochi, former governor, distinguished justices of the court, representatives of our congressional delegation, members of the hawaii state legislature, elected official, military leader, honored guests, family and friends, good morning and loja. As a new legislative session opens, i want you to know im ready to work with you on the issues that affect us all. The state of our states is a strong. We are a resilient people and the future is bright. As i stand before you today, im struck by the beautiful and often challenging complexity that makes hawaii our home. We really are the most beautiful place on earth. We are of many cultures and faiths and we lived together in greater harmony than anyplace in the world. People from all over the planet come here to enjoy our environment, our culture and their gifts to all of us, the gift of tolerance and respect and a celebration of each other and our differences. We often need to be reminded of what makes us so special. We are one of the healthiest states in the nation. People here live longer than anywhere else in the country. We have led the nation in Health Insurance for decades in the current chaos and in the current chaos, we stand firm in caring for each other. We have the lowest unemployment rates in the nation. We are strong financially. Our bond rating is the highest its ever been in our history making it possible for us to get the most bang for our buck when we borrow money. This saves the state tens of millions of dollars allowing us to make critical investments in our schools, housing and highway and we have made our voice clear , hawaii will not stand for the hateful and hurtful policies of the trump white house. [applause]. We are doing more than any other state to stand up for what is right such as daca in the Paris Climate Accord and to stop what is wrong such as the travel ban and stopping transgender members of the military from defending our flag and our freedom. [applause]. And yet so many of us are living paycheck to paycheck relying heavily on our extended family to make ends meet. Owning a home is out of reach for many family with housing costs rising faster than wages. Too much of our time is spent in traffic affecting our families and quality of life. The growing gap between those doing well and those were not should concern all of us. We depended too heavily on imported food and fuel and we must find a just place in our relationship with our own history and with the people of the first nation of hawaii. And the challenges to our island environments such as Global Climate change stare us in the face every single day. I honor my predecessor, former governors and i have built on what they have done. In doing so i affirm three truths about hawaii and the way we govern, first i see hawaii is a place any people that cherished cherish our children, celebrate our diversity and want a better life for the next generation. Second, i see hawaii is a place any people where we believe in ohana. We respect and understand that our ocean is critical to our quality of life and finally, i see hawaii is a place any people where we still believe in the promise of hawaii and the prospect of limitless opportunity. This is the legacy of our whole culture, the culture of our immigrant family and all of those who choose to call hawaii home. We have put the value and beliefs into action to chart the course to our collective future. Is one thing to say our children matter. Its is quite another thing to do something about it. We have invested more widely in classroom than in previous years we promise to pull 1000 of hawaiis hottest classrooms where soaring temperatures have hindered learning for years. Im proud to report with the legislative support that we have exceeded our original goal and we are at 1200 classrooms and counting. [applause]. I also promise to empower our schools so they can focus on 21st century skills and critical learning. In meetings around the state, Community Members, teachers, staff and principles expressed frustration about the top down mandate and onesizefitsall approach to schools and so with more than 3000 parents, teachers and Community Members from around the state we created a new blueprint for education. This blueprint for change is now in the hands of new doe leadership. I also recognize that it is not enough to say to our teachers we respect how hard you work. Thats why we have given our educators the pay raise that they have long deserved. [applause]. Now, lets talk about housing. When we say ohana, we truly mean no one gets left behind. For those who want to live in hawaii, probably no issue is more challenging than finding a decent affordable place to live and that probably no issue challenges as as a society more than the daily site of those were now living on our streets and in our parks. With dedicated more money to Mental Health treatment and Services Including to our homeless population. We have initiated the largest annual increase in production of Affordable Housing with thousands of new units coming to market. We are on track to meet our goal of 10000 new Housing Units by 2020 with at least 40 affordable and this session im requesting 100 million to maintain the momentum and produce more Affordable Homes across the state. [applause]. Is been my firm belief that the straight state must remain committed to developing and delivering hawaiian homeland to beneficiaries. In 2016, we provided 24 million in funding to the department of hawaiian homeland. This was the highest level of funding in the departments 95 year history and more than double what has been set aside previously. For its part coin homeland has been ramping up developments of vacant and turnkey lock. More than 220 bots were awarded in 2017 and that number will more than double in 2018. [applause]. We have also worked hard with the departments to spend down federal funds and identify alternative sources of revenue that can be used to sustain the agency over time. Our Housing First policy focuses on transitional housing as a way to get people into permanent housing. The new Family Assessment Center moves families off the streets and into permanent housing in less than 90 days. A special team of Public Housing reduce the vacant turnaround time from 267 days to just seven days. [applause]. And our landlord summits increase the number of landlords willing to rent to families transitioning out of homelessness. Even in the tragedy that is homelessness there are significant fines that these policies are starting to make a difference. , this is down 9 statewide, the first to klein in eight years. [applause]. Theres more to be done for sure we continue our effort to offer services to those who have so far refused to leave the streets to move into a better life. We have set aside money in this years budget to support more progress on the homelessness front. Our budget request also includes 15 million in additional funding for Housing First initiative, Outreach Services and maintaining safety and our public places. [applause]. We also know how Important Community partners have been in tackling this challenge. Take the village, a permit Housing Project for homeless families launched by local businessman duane. [applause]. Duane, brought together the city , state and nonprofit and businesses to make the village a reality in record time. The first 30 families moved and recently. Doing, please, stand to be recognized, duane. [applause]. Ohana also means that you should be able to put food on the table in the home with your family to eat it. That means jobs that pay well and commute that works. Even though to reason is and unemployment is low, many of our residents are living paycheck to paycheck, one Health Emergency or car repair away from crisis. Some people may have two or three jobs to make ends meet. The challenge is not just about creating jobs, its about creating quality jobs and the training that them. I understand the frustration of many and thats why im working to transform our economy to give residents a diversity of Employment Opportunity that pay higher wages and lead to a better quality of life for all. [applause]. We are tackling another qualityoflife issue and that is traffic congestion. I have three goals, get projects done quickly, get them done inexpensively and get them done with minimum impact on the environment and we are making progress from zipper and shoulder lanes and other lanes to 60 around our Public School and truck only routes we are going to wear the problems are. We are reducing backup and bottleneck in many places all across the state. We want commute times to be shorter. [applause]. We must create a better life for the next generation. It is what we all want. We all dream of our children succeeding here in hawaii. With my three children on the mainland, i know firsthand how hard it is to have them an ocean away. My personal goal, the goal to which i have dedicated my service as governor is creating a hawaii that is all of our children and gives all our children the choice to live and called hawaii home. [applause]. My grandparents came to hawaii in search of opportunity. It is not acceptable to me that many of our kids are essentially becoming immigrants in other places because we dont have the opportunity here in hawaii. While i while there is more to do, i am proud of what we have accomplished together. We have more College Program so High School Students can earn college credits, saving families money and making it easier to graduate with degrees. We expanded campuses and offer more courses. The creation of hawaiis promise scholarship helps to pay for the cost of attending uh Community Colleges. The interpreters bring startups together in one shared space and helps with the loan and the grants and we also founded the annual competition which enlists hundreds of professionals and amateur writers to develop solutions for the states biggest Information Technology challenges. We must prepare our young people for jobs in this sector and that means supporting stem education, focusing on science, technology, engineering and math. The good news is that it is expanding at all levels. Of the university of hawaii is one of the leaders in this work with the campus increasing its stem graduates by more than a third in recent years in the Community College leading the way trickling the number tripling their numbers. [applause]. Also, helping to train students in our schools are partners, a Computer Programming and coding academy founded by two local software engineers. They are working with the doe and private foundations. Together they are teaching High School Students advanced coding and Cyber Security skills. We would like to recognize the founders, jason and russell chang. [applause]. [applause]. Hes up in the back. To be sure that workers analyze existing industries arent left behind, we have made available a wide variety of occasional training opportunities through the department of labor and industrial relations. These programs match training with current job openings in fields ranging from Computer Science and shipyard welding to banking and food safety. Within State Government as we rise away from modernization we remain fully committed to retraining every worker to use the new Computer System and technology tools. Technology helps us be more responsive to serve the public. You will we are making good on that. I am proud that together we will able to pass assistance for fulltime the family caregivers who also have fulltime jobs. This is a win for hawaii families. [applause]. We also work to make sure those who have served our state get to retire with the dignity they were promised and deserve the. With the legislatures of support we took aggressive steps that will save us 1. 6 million over the next 20 years. [applause]. As we have been taught, paying our bills, honoring our obligation and saving for the future is how we build a brighter future, and we have done that. One value that has guided this administration is to simply not pass on our debts to our kids and grandkids. Together we have made tremendous strides in this task, rebuilding our Rainy Day Fund to 310 million. We have gone after and collected millions from those who are not paying their fair share. [applause]. And we are working to our tax Collection System to make it easier and fairer with people of hawaii. We made needed changes to improve the system, so we can collect the tax revenues we rely on to deliver state services. I believe we are on the right track to accomplish this major task. [applause]. We are also making Great Strides in protecting our ocean resources. To date, we have protected over 40000 acres of watershed forest on hawaii, a wahoo and other islands. [applause]. [applause]. We helped preserve a turtle bay, land from the further development. A joint agreement with u. S. Navy is helping us reach our Renewable Energy goals and together have established guidelines to use recycled water on food crops. Working with all of you here in the legislature we were able to provide tax credits for chronic farmers which means a healthier people and healthier land. [applause]. And you passed and i signed a law to abide by the Paris Climate Accord, the first state in the nation to do so. [applause]. We understand deeply and fully what the future requires of us. I also fought to give native hawaiians a seat at the table when it comes to management of a National Marine monuments. Of the office of Hawaiian Affairs is now trustee of the monuments. [applause]. Our goal of increasing production is another golden opportunity for hawaii. We are blessed with four growing seasons and a landgrant university with the college of tropical agriculture that has a long history of cuttingedge work. With all of these factors, hawaii can and must become the premier center for new agricultural technology. We already have agriculture startups going strong here in hawaii. One company that comes to mind is smart yield. They help small and medium farmers to increase their production with Data Analytics and other technology tools. Of the Company Received International Attention when it was chosen to be part of the vatican very first tech accelerator focused on global Food Production. At this time i would like to recognize the ceo vincent and his mentor, Hawaii Island farmer , richard. [applause]. [applause]. What we need now is the driver to make local Food Production possible. There is no better way than through our schools. I applaud the new leadership in the doe farm to school program. The leadership provided by lieutenant governor. [applause]. And the great cooperation of the department of agriculture and the safety chairman process. Please stand to be recognized. [applause]. Clean energy is not only critical to air and water quality. Its importance to our economy and our wallets as we work to reduce our reliance on imported fossil fuels. Working with the legislature, i was the first governor to sign into law a bill requiring 1 of hawaii based electricity to come from renewable sources by 2045. [applause]. This demonstrates what we can accomplish when we Work Together we want hydropower, seawater air conditioning, solar and wind energy, and the fullest possible use of our waste stream. We celebrate the power plant on the big island as well as the new solar farms on other islands and this week we will join energy energy, Hawaiian Electric in the schools and celebrating three utility scale Solar Project here. [applause]. As a next step, we will grow a Carbon Market here in hawaii. This way carbon polluters from around the world can invest in restoring hawaiis trees and forests to offset their Carbon Emissions wherever that is. [applause]. We want the brainpower and the imagination of the world to continue to come here. And they can help us find our way to 100 Renewable Energy sources for electricity and in doing so, help the world find its way to map 100 . Let us take the billions we export for fossil fuels and spend it here and then export the Energy System we develop. [applause]. We are dreaming big and creating the promise of limitless opportunity. Anything less means we are letting down the next generation hawaii has a much potential in this new globally connected world. We are already viewed as the ideal researchbased and a testing ground for innovative globally significant technology, such as telemedicine, smart city and driverless vehicles. Hawaii is a leader in the solving the issues of our time. Much of what we do here in hawaii is groundbreaking. Hawaii is home to many talented individuals breaking new ground every single day. Hawaii is full of stories of Business Innovators blazing the trail to create new products and services. The big island, tina switch, turned her startup switch fly into a Global Platform used by almost every major travel and Hospitality Company in the world now, she has returned home and started a second company, hobnob , which we hope that shes equal success. Tina who flew in to be with us this morning, tina, kenny rice to be recognized. [applause]. [applause]. [applause]. In our own State Government employees are helping us improve the services to the public everyday. One example is a team of young one yells known as one yells known as the three. The wait time for workers comp has been cut in half because of their efforts. This 2017 team of the year from the department of labor and industrial relations washed a project to digitize mountains of paperwork from some 20000 claims a year and there are many more dedicated workers just like them all around the states. Jodi, ryan and only him, please stand to be recognized. [applause]. [applause]. They are just a sampling of our homegrown talent. We just need to do more to create a supportive environment around them that will launch and sustain their career here in the island. I hope you leave today knowing that we have laid important groundwork and that hawaii is on the edge of something exciting. At the beginning of my speech, i said hawaii is a beautiful and complex place. I believe that is our gift to our children and to the future. Imagine a future economy for hawaii that isnt reliant solely on tourism and the military. Imagine a future where local Business People are inventing useful products and services that are sold across the globe. Imagine that we use our temperate weather and four growing seasons to develop new hightech agricultural tools that increase yields for farmers from hawaii to india. Imagine that we farm are nearshore ocean water to feed our own community and the growing global demands for seafood and with these businesses theres new demands for scientists, technician and marketing professionals. What does this mean for the people of hawaii . It means a healthier economy with quality jobs that enable us to improve our schools, take care and provide more Affordable Housing. This future hawaii isnt as far off as it seems. We have already set things in motion. We put stakes in the ground and were making progress. To face the challenges of the future, hawaii must seize the opportunity, embrace change and identify the Game Changing steps that we need to take. Together, the possibilities are limitless. I believe the quality we treasure most about hawaii are what will draw our children back to us. [applause]. When i ran for governor four years ago, i wanted to take my lifetime of Public Service and fundamentally change the path we were taking. I have committed my life to the people of the state of hawaii. No matter what challenges we face, no matter what frustrations or issues we have with one another, i find my strength and courage in our shared sense of unity. We must Work Together. Aloha. [applause]. On book tvs afterwords program. Kaley reports on populist movement in the united states. Shes interviewed by daily beast editor. Roxanne ortiz argues that the people of
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