Transcripts For CSPAN2 Maine State Of The State Address 20180222

Is taking care of our constituents at home. Voices from the states on cspan. Maine Governor Paul Lepage delivered his final state of the state address last week at the statehouse in augustine. He said he will not move forward to a voter approved measure to expand medicaid because the state legislature hasnt determined to pay for it. He leaves office in january of 2019 after eight years on term limits. [applause] thank you so much. Members of the 128th legislature, distinguished guests, and my fellow citizens, i want to briefly remember Paul Mitchell of waterville, brother of senator mitchell, who passed away this weekend. He was a dedicated Public Servant and a good friend. As i begin the last state of the state address of my time as governor of this great state, let me be first to thank my wife. Honey, please stand. [applause] first of all, she looks gorgeous. [laughing] [applause] she has been unwavering as a representative from the governor to the people of the state of maine. And here she has done it with grace, with dignity, and shes never said no, that i can recall. Shes just unbelievable. And in case i forget, happy valentines day. [applause] i also want to thank our children. And tonight there are two that are here, lauren, who youve all heard and known. Shes been with me since 2010. Now shes on her own trying to set her own career, and i want to tell you, before its done shes going to tower over whatever she wants to accomplish. My other daughter, lisa, who has two children, im so proud of, and she has a son that is very active. And all i can tell he is payback is a bitch. [laughing] [applause] because i remember when she was young. [laughing] Staff Sergeant Ronald Fowler of the air force at 243rd engineering installation squadron, thank you for your service to the state of maine antique United States of america. You make us very proud to be the outstanding officer in 2018, and i cannot be any happier, and my wife, and the first lady, is so proud to be seated next to you as she is such a dedicated person of our military. [applause] little unusual, im going to thank a few people recognize a few people tonight. And one is sergeant angela i dont how to pronounce her lasting but she is head of the security detail. And in her home at the blaine be house the rule is of this. If my wife is not around, angela is in charge. [laughing] and the other one is holly lusk, my chief of staff who just took over recently. I was approached, you seem to be more assertive than youve ever been. Well, holly has the distinction of getting me out of my shyness. [laughing] [applause] tonight im here to speak to you about the future of maine. The future of this great state. We have made progress but there is much more we could have done and we should have done. But as we move forward, i hope that you can get it done. In his last state of the union, Ronald Reagan said, if anyone expects just a proud recitation of the accomplishments of my administration, i say lets leave that to history; were not finished yet. So my message to tonight is put on your work shoes; were still on the job. Now is not the time to slow down. Now was the time to working until the very last minute of my administration. The last day as they inaugurate the new governor in 2019. I hope to take my lovely wife and i, sit back, take some rest and get to enjoy each Others Company once again. I came into office saying i will put people before politics, and i have tried to do that. Politics as usual puts our most vulnerable mainers at risk. As most of you know, im no fan of the status quo. Today, special interests continue to highjack our ballot box and politicians continue to kowtow to wealthy lobbyists and welfare activists. The legislature has forgotten about the mainers who need our help the most. Our elderly, our intellectually and physically disabled and even our youth are being left out of the process. I vow to spend my final year as governor fighting for those mainers who dont have a voice in augusta. [applause] for the last seven years i have heard that the left is compassionate. Subsidizing solar panels for wealthy homeowners at the expense of the poorest people in maine is not compassion. Raising taxes on hardworking families to expand welfare entitlements for able bodied people is not compassionate. Catering to the activists in the halls of the state house instead of the struggling Family Businesses on main street is not compassionate. I know what its like to need help. And i know some representatives. I see craig right there and weve talked about it. We know what it is to have rough times. We understand that its not always easy. Thats what every saturday i meet with constituents one on one. We talk about their problems. I have been accused of getting involved with peoples personal lives and trying to fight for them from my office. It is all our jobs. It is our jobs as elected officials to help them. We are, after all, Public Servants. For the last seven years my priority has been to make all mainers prosper, and ive been fighting both sides of the aisle because i believe that both sides of the aisle need to be working closer together. Too many maine families are facing skyrocketing property taxes that strain household budgets. Our elderly on fixed incomes are particularly vulnerable to these increases. You simply cannot tax your way to prosperity. As chief Justice John Marshall wrote, the power to tax is the power to destroy. School budgets are not commonly blamed but arent normally blamed for tax increases. The real culprit is the tremendous amount of land and Property Value we have allowed to be taken off our tax rolls, leaving homeowners to pick up the tab. These land owners must contribute to our tax base. Its time for all land and real estate owners to take the burden off homeowners and pay taxes for a fee in lieu of taxes. The federal government does it. Maine property tax people homeowners need a break. We, you and i need to make sure that a large foundation, the Natural Resources council of maine who are whipping off ripping off the land owner in the state of maine need to step up to the plate. [applause] all those of you who have exercises during the course of this meeting you are welcome. The rest of you, you know, you got to break a sweat sometimes. We propose allowing municipalities to collect property taxes or fees from large nonprofit entities and we have tried to require land trust to contribute to their tax rules. We have been met with staunch resistance from the democrats. Now, lets talk about this. Lets think outside the box. Tough problems the tough decisions and solutions. I dont walk away from tough decisions and i think i have proven it many times, even this last weekend. Im not embarrassed to tell you that it is the right decision. Training to be efficient and effective leaders to the state. We establish an online registry for all non processed to have ownership and all property taxes options report within municipalities exceeds 18 billion. Think about that. 18 billion. The loss of that tax revenue shifted over 330 million to guess who . Hardworking Property Owners in maine. My office is going to be distributing to each one of you the total value the total proper value for each tax rules for each town along with the estimated increase in taxes that the annual homeowner has had to pay. It will be out tomorrow and you can run away but you cant hide. The main people need your help and you need to stand up and be counted in this dialogue. You can continue to put land on conservation and i complement you for that but lets save the planet but lets pay a fair share. You need to pair your taxes. [applause] [applause] over 4 million acres have been conserved by the federal State Government, as well as nonprofit organization, such as land trust. Nearly 20 of the state is conserved development. Ladies and gentlemen and people of the state of maine, this area is larger than the entire state of connecticut. Think about that. We have taken the state of connecticut and made it taxexempt. In 1993, about 35800 acres of land was owned by land trust and that number has increased by an astonishing 1270 since 1993. Land trust now control over one half million acres with an estimated taxable value of 400 million. I am all in for conservation but they need to contribute towards the hardworking people of the state of maine. We cannot just turn our backs and walk away. We need and could have a state that is every bit as prosperous as the state of New Hampshire and all you need to do is make sure that everyone contributes. Ask your local officials how much land in your community has been taken off the tax rolls. Then ask them how much tax revenue they could be contributing to help the property tax owners of maine. The desire to preserve land to the taxpayer without their input is out of control. We must restore balance. We must ensure that all Property Owners are required to contribute to the local tax base. Everyone was pay their fair share and now i have listened to pair share comments at least a thousand times in the last eight years. It is not only here in the halls of government but its in your communities and everyone has to pay a fair share. It is common sense. Let me move on. Richard and lynette are the elderly couple were evicted from their home due to their inability to pay their property taxes other fixed income. Due to Health Reasons they were unable to attend to it and there were two or three other company couples that have gone to the same thing and they are also elderly and werent able to get them arranged to get there tonight but i will tell you this in 2015 the town of albion closed on their home and sold it for 6500 and the property was worth 70 and 80000 and a compassionate neighbor offered to pay their taxes on the day the lien reflected. The town officials refused to accept the money. , the town refused. I dont believe there is a person in this room, whether in the gallery sitting here as an elected official, that would think that that is a proper thing to do. If someone walks in and is willing to help these people why couldnt they . I was told that it is one example and i am telling you its a lot more. As we dig into it now there is a lot more. A lot more than you realize and i will tell you this, though, i will say this. We are finding out that some of the cities are far more compassionate than some of the rural towns. But it is a problem. This couple was removed from their home and she was bedridden from a stroke and they lost everything, all of the equity and everything else. If you budding landowner that bought it demolished and evicted the. I wish i had learned from them a little earlier because could have intervened and we did try. But it was too late to help. I submitted a bill to protect the elderly from foreclosure going forward. I am not suggesting and you need to sit with me and talk about changing the language of the bill, please work with me. I am not suggesting that cannot and will outlaw foreclosing on elderly but what i am saying is very simply this. As a mayor for eight years in the city of [inaudible] i never had to throw an elderly couple out of their homes because there are options. When you file a lien it takes 18 months to perfect in a town official has 18 months to work with this family and i urge you all to have the compassion to work with them so that we can preserve whatever little equity we have and stay in their home for as long as they can because ultimately guess who picks up the tab . I can tell you right now that they are in a nursing home and theyre both very ill and since they lost everything we, the people, are picking up the tab. They did not want that. They were very proud people and she was a veteran, elderly gentleman and from the greatest generation that they dont ask for handouts. We, the Public Officials of the state, through the on the street. We must fight to protect our parents and our grandparents whose fixed income cannot keep up with the rising cost of property taxes. This commonsense solution will require municipalities to put a little more effort and show a little more compassion for the people who live in the communities and frankly, i dont think that is too much to ask. When i was mayor would have folks that had problem with the taxes and would come in and i see a counselor here that shared in those meetings that weve never had to throw people out and there were some really sad stories but we always found a way and i think we as people remain have the fortitude to do that. We dont have to make it very complex and it could be a one paragraph, do everything you can before you foreclose. That is all we ask. [applause] thank you. I want to thank representative for sponsoring this bill and i truly, from the bottom of my heart, urge you all to support this bill. It can be made very simple and it can be made so that we will all want to do the right thing and there are many options available to the elderly the problem has always been they simply dont know. I think that is a really Good Opportunity for this body. Want to get in to the tax conformity now because im on a roll and my taxcut has resulted in tangible savings for maine families. A family of four earning 90000 pays 29 less today than they did when we did the tax package. A family of four earning 35000 who are paying 298 in income tax no longer pay income tax. [applause] and despite, despite the rhetoric you hear from people, this is not wealthy people. This is not tax breaks for the rich. These are tax breaks for hardworking people coming. People in the New Hampshire is 74000 and the number one have to income in 28 border our state and we have this figured out and we ought to try. [applause] the new federal tax cut and object will provide savings for families and businesses in the federal tax cut will result in an estimated economic benefit of approximately 1 million in 2019 for the plumbing. More than 500 million of that will be a direct income tax benefits to the main families in the Small Business in the state of maine. However, whenever Congress Changes the federal tax code maine has to make a decision and whether to conform to the federal tax code or to state unfocused and we have historically and with most states have historically stayed and informed the federal tax code. Doing it is better for maine because it certifies the tax code and keeps one tax system, not doing so means that the state of maine has to go on to its own and higher whole lot of people and beef up their income tax division. For that reason i am proposing legislation to conform fully to the federal tax code. However, again because of the hard work that has been done over the last seven years and in reducing our taxes in dealing with the exemptions and the standard deduction with the federal government is doing now if we conform fully we are going to be having a tax increase. I am asking you all that this is really federal tax dollars in im asking you to pass it on to the main people. Conform but pass it on because that is the right thing to do. [applause] i am asking you that if you dont i will not use a taxcut the federal government is trying to pass on to americans and i will not stand in the way and allow it to conform and not pass it on. I am simply not going to. In fact, i think after seven years you have probably got the hint that i am not big on increasing taxes. I do believe in conformity and i do believe in Medicaid Expansion. Medicaid expansion, while i think it is a bad public policy, when you give ablebodied people a free ride it is the law of our state and i will enforce the law of the state. [applause] that is the good news. That is the good news. [laughter] now let me give you the bad news. Medicaid expansion is the loss and i will execute the law but funding is a legislative constitutional duty and it is the legislators responsibility to appropriate the funds. Appropriate the money so we can implement the law sooner than later. I do not believe it is appropriate for this body to wait until after the november elections. Do it now. Do it now, the people of maine if you believe in it then fund it. I have laid out the basic principles to guide your decision on how to paint Medicaid Expansion. I will not jeopardize the states long term school health. We must avoid the budget disasters of the past and many of you are here and you know what i am talking about. We paid off 750 million through our hospitals. We must Fund Medicaid expansion in the way that is sustainable in ongoing and therefore my principles are very simple. No tax increases on main families were businesses. Note use of the Budget Stabilization fund which is better known as the Rainy Day Fund. Note use of other onetime funding mechanism known as gimmicks. You all know what i am talking about. Fully fund the Vulnerable People of maine who are still waiting for services. [applause] no reductions of services of funding for Nursing Homes or people with disabilities. [applause] it would be fiscally irresponsible for the legislator to demand to implement Medicaid Expansion without adequate funding. It is simply not too much to ask a legislator to prioritize are truly needy over those looking for taxpayer funded handouts. I am very serious when i tell you that it is important that the disabled, the elderly and those with the intellectual disabilities are put in front of the line and not behind the li line. [applause] dhs cannot hire and train the additional hundred and five people needed to run expanded Medicaid Program without money. We cannot pay the state share of new enrollees of medical bills without funding. Democrats hospitals, hospitals and advocacy groups and wealthy outofstate interest who campaigned for this referendum claim that adding 80000 people on to this program will save us money and i will tell you right now i will take you to your word. Show me the money and put it in writing. [applause] before this election, show the maine people that what you campaigned on is the truth and i will be the first one to admit that i was wrong. But i will tell you i have been trained in this business of finance for many, many years and there is only two ways to fund this program. One is the way you say it could be done because there are savings and the other one is with new revenues. Either way you have the responsibility to make sure that the executive branch and the department of health and Human Services has the resources necessary to move forward. I am ready to do it. [applause] i now ask [inaudible teresa andd if you look back at the top these are people you should be thinking about. Teresa has shared with me the hardships she and her son have experience while awaiting services for his physical and intellectual challenges. The site has autism, and intellectual disability and bipolar disorder. He qualifies for services but he is stuck on a waitlist. Because his mother needs to care for him, it will be impossible for her to continue working. She has been told that she could leave josiah at st. Marys and refuse to give up thus making him homeless and available for section 21. People living, this is wrong. This is highway robbery to do that to a maine citizen who is actually a consistent of all of ours and we need to take care of our own. [applause] i asked the legislator Funding Program so that people like teresa and desire can get the help they do really need to qualify for. It would be unconscionable to have to do the Nuclear Option and leave josiah so he can get services. They are better than that. You are better than that. We need to take care of it now. [applause] now i will get on my high horse. [laughter] any legislators tell me they dont pass bad bills. I had a full list but i have decided to just cut it down to one that is current and one that i see i feel very, very passionate about and my family does. My wife in particular because she is given so much of our time to the military. I vetoed a bill that would prohibit 18 yearold adult from buying cigarettes but the legislator overturned. The law denies rights and responsibilities to 18 yearold adult want to purchase illegal products. Folks, this is not about cigarettes and no one should ever start smoking because it is a little difficult to put. Actually, i will say, its not that bad. I have done it seven times it is a terrible thing to do. This is about protecting ones personal choices from an everexpanding nanny state. Our laws must recognize one age when adulthood begins. You, the legislator, was to pick that age. I dont care if the ages 18 and i dont care if it is 21. But it cant be both. [applause] legislators have no problem letting 18 yearold vote for them in the elections or die in wars. Lets think about that of moments. Legislators think 18 yearolds are not adult enough to decide whether they can buy a pack of cigarette but they think 18 yearolds are adult enough to vote are complex referendums like the legalization of marijuana and the elimination of the chip credit and the 3 tax surcharge that almost devastated our economy. Think about that. Thank god, thank god that cooler heads prevailed. Because economically, folks, that was an absolute financial disaster. Just the period between november and the time in which we shut down government, 500 prominent affluent people said i am done for the state of maine. It would have continued. Young adults should be treated like young adult. An 18 yearold can fight for our country, pay taxes, get married, divorced, make personal medical life and death decisions and even younger teens can use birth control, smoke medical marijuana, then let 18 yearold be the maturity age. Let them be adult. And i will tell you to do 5000 soldiers. 38,000. 38,000. Of 18yearolds. Nearly 45,000 of the 55,000 were under 21. Folks, if we are going to put a rifle on their back in an untoward, i think we owe it to them to have the maturity to make the decision whether they can buy a pack of cigarettes or not. So my message to you is educate, dont legislate. [applause] it is time. We are the oldest state in the nation and we must attract people to maine. I would refer attractive young people. They require us to get serious. Im going to ask you all to please join in that effort. I will put forward bills this session to support investment in their workforce. Now is the time to make Strategic Investments of our economy and the people in the states of maine. Bond sales have not focused on commercialization. I support commercialization of bonds. Maine has supported research and development and that is good. And that hope has always been to create jobs. R d is very critical, but its not enough to bring Innovative Products to market. Developing a patent that sits on the shelf is not a good return on investment for the taxpayers and that is what has happened in the past good most of the money in r d have gone to universitys, jackson lab research and Development Impact and then at one point early on in my tenure as governor we had 57 patents on shelves collecting dust. Our innovators create a vast array of the products in many industries. Biotech, hightech manufacturing, agriculture, after products. We must invest in commercialization in addition to what weve done. We have to do both. Lets get our products to market. Lets feed we has to be. Innovative creators. Maine. We were leaders in the Forest Industry in the paper industry. We were there, but we get, and happy. I had to lose 75 pounds to make a. Maine needs to reinvent itself and the time has come. We need to do it now. [applause] i believe that a commercialization law will go a long ways at helping Companies Like new page who wants to put in a new machine. It would go a long ways for some of the people that i will talk about in a little bit with some great things happening in some Great Companies looking at maine to come and invest. But the 18 million acres of forest land is still here. Lets get into the 21st century and move this state so we can catch New Hampshire. [applause] and if we are to survive and succeed, we need to grow and keep our economy growing. Record numbers of baby boomers are adding retirement. They need to replace the skilled worker. To continue to grow, we must subtract and retain the young work force. Not only will these young people work in our industries, but they will also buy homes. They will pay taxes, integrator communities. And yes, most important for maine right now is having children. We need to have children. Our schools are losing population. We need to reinvent ourselves again for more kids in our schools. My wife and i are done. [laughter] [applause] week cnn should invest in relieving the burden of student that for those who want to stay in maine or choose to relocate to maine to stop their professional career. No one else is doing it. [applause] [applause] my student loan payments prevent our young people from buying a house, car, spending money and local businesses. Many take highpaying jobs out of state. They simply cannot afford to live in maine. That is unconscionable as parents. We should do everything we can. To turn that around. We cannot sit by and let employers have vacant positions that young people could fill. They create funds to make strategic investment in our youth. The main Student Debt Relief program to call for 50 milliondollar bond to fund your interest student loan two kids who attend maine schools. [applause] it also calls for a new low interest Refinancing Program to encourage graduates from other states to move to maine. And so many people that ive met in the cost of the trouble the last seven years will say, maine is so beautiful. Id love to live there, but its so expensive. And it is. And theres no question about it. Until we realize that we have to get involved and develop a Training Program for young people in attract young people come to your always going to be a very high cost place to live. So in addition to asking the legislature to simplify the opportunity credit and providing low income loans and interest free loans to her students, lets increase the credit so employers can get involved in paying off student that. It can be a hiring mechanism for employers. You come to maine. On not only pay you ask, but weve already put it on the books and yesterday when i was in washington i spoke to the president and to ivanka trump was on the program to take income at the National Level and get rid of it, phantom income for students. I also said maine would be a great place to have a pipeline. [applause] [applause] im going to ask you one other thing to have a very serious dialogue. I dont expect it to happen this year, but i really do believe you need to have this dialogue. A good paying jobs attract good workers. To attract manufacturing jobs, more than half the states, 28 in fact have now passed right to work legislation. [applause] im going to talk a little bit of reality here. 28 states now have right to work in the most recent state to become right to work was the state of kentucky in 2017. And it within three months after they announced it toyota committed, amazon commended in another company, daily industries, baylor industries committed. In 2017, the state of kentucky received commitments for 921 billion of Capital Investment, setting a new record of the previous high of being 5 billion. They nearly doubled it. Folks, i will tell you, when i spoke to airbus three or four years ago about getting them to come to brunswick, which i really believed he was the right thing for them to do. They would have invested 250 million, but they elected to go to alabama. This is the ceo told me. Governor, im going to ask you two questions. Hows your energy costs . I said there cheapest in new england. He said that we are looking at alabama. Strike one. The second one was are you ready for work and i said no. He said well, alabama is. So they went to alabama and spent 600 million. And this is what he said to me. And i think i said this last year in fact. He says he may be a good governor come you may be a bad governor. I dont know. But ill tell you right now you dont know how much energy it takes to assemble a chat and that 14 cents versus 4 cents, we will get our money back from our investment back in alabama three times faster than we could in maine. It is just food for thought. I think you really need to be thinking about it. I think it is very, very important. Now, ive told you all the things you should be doing. Let me tell you what we have done. And for many of you, you helped. Some of you, you didnt. But some of you really put it on the mapping really went to battle for s. Despite our challenges, we have make State Government more efficient. We have lowered the tax burden. We cut the Pension Fund Deficit they nearly half. We paid off our Household Debt and we reformed welfare. And you know, i was in austin, texas last year and i heard somebody say come and people say they want government to run like a business. Until it does. Guess what. I have one elected business. I think im very, very compassionate because i believe estate lives and dies by safety net. But you have to be able to afford your safety net and you have to be, what i call tough love when you set your safety net. I am all for our elderly. Intellectual disabilities under the king administration, we fought the problem went away. But we have done is refilled our county jails. Its time to fix it. [applause] we must continue to make progress. And progress is not allowing ourselves to be hijacked by big artist date money. We must continue to look at her referendums to them as a means of implementing a new way for maine. I will tell you right now the referendum system in maine, whether democrat or republican, you must admit that its not working. [applause] i will tell you right now, it is not the will of the people. Because if it was the will of the people, we would whip up our constitution and we would get rid of a representative republic and you would all be out of a job. Because referendum is pure democracy and it has not worked for 15,000 years. If youre going to have a system, how the system. If you want to have referendums for melissa referendums and you do not want to save it or you can get the true will of the people, im going to tell you right now, 50 plus one is not the will of the people. And i will tell you it is heartbreaking if youre a governor to have to continually veto bills because no one wants to work on getting to a good hill. And so youve got to lobby like hack to get the minority to beat the majority. If you are doing your job and working at the center and we were all working together, we would not need these referendums. They are destructive. Right now is youre going to be hearing that more and more, minimum wages great. The private sector unemployment is way down. Everybodys making money except for one group. The nonprofits who serve Nursing Homes, home care. All of the medical services that require a lot of intensive labor are losing money and we are not giving them reimbursements. We are not increasing their reimbursements. This is wrong. Thats another way of forgetting our elderly. We cant walk away. We need to allow the elders to live their lives and dignity in their golden years. [applause] we are not a true democracy and i would urge you all, strongly urge you to go into this session and fix our referendums. Make them equal to the whole state. And i will tell you an folks on the left, i will look at you right now and tell you, i can get any referendum passed in the state by spending two weekends at portland mall and that is not governing properly. [applause] i am pleased to report that the state financial house is in good order. In fact, it is in better shape than any time the last 40 years. Our economy is strong. Unemployment is at or below 3 . It was at a. 2 when i took office in 2011. And lower than the National Average is lower than all of new england. [applause] id like to take full credit for it, but guess what. Id be a hypocrite. The fact of the matter is theres only one thing i did there was different than when i took office. One thing. I changed the environment for business. I became more business friendly. People come in and say wow, get more letters than complements from people talking about d. O. T. , tec, that now people are working with business instead of against business. That is all we did. Everything else was done by business. And i really tell you thats a message for the future. I just finished a book, reading a book, scully has letters. And in their comment is one of the speeches he gave about the rate in the last. And it goes through a whole lot of very complicated analogies and analysis in the calls down to two things. Capitalism and socialism. And he says, in this day and age, capitalism is greedy and socialism is powerful. If you take those two problems, society is great. Youre the only ones that can do that with good public policy. Public policy that will invite Capital Investment into our state and once it gets here, you appreciate it and are treated fairly. You know, people talk about Unemployment Rate. Ill be very honest. 50 Unemployment Rate is not the real story. The real story is that unemployment has a lot of people that have given up working, looking for work at all. But this is one that i really believe that i had a little bit to do with. The state of maine is number one in the country for having the most amount of people working better in the labor force as a percentage of the population. If they can work, we get them to work. We have to continue doing not. [applause] number of jobs in the dirt or an alltime high in 2017. Although our population is not as high as it has been in the past. Good physical health as a result of making tough decisions and taking bold actions. And i believe that using the liquor money to buy bonds to pay off the house bills was a good move. The only mistake i made there, we should have paid it in smaller increments. Because right now, there is 800 million of hospital projects on the drawing board. 800. We paid off 750 million now and they got 800 Capital Investment. I guess theyre not as poor as i thought they were. Before i took office, and i got to use the Budget Stabilization is a personal slush fund. It damaged our Credit Rating and put us at risk for very scared emergencies. Go back to 11, 12 and team and those of you who were here, we have budget shortfalls like there is nobodys business. We have structural gap of 1. 23 billion. Now the structural gap is 165 million. So let me explain. They structural gap is simply the amount of money that a legislature wants to spend versus the amount of money they have available to spend. That is the differential. We have lowered. And i would think both sides here. Youve both done a very good job in helping me get this state in good financial order. [applause] right now the Rainy Day Fund is over 200 million. I will challenge you to look forward to getting it to 300 million because i believe the 300 milliondollar Rainy Day Fund the Budget Stabilization fund would yield a state of maine and aaa Credit Rating and will be in the top 10 states of america. [applause] this area than im talking about for a minute i take great pride in and they do take a lot of credit for it and i got the scars to show it. We have rightsided state workforce making it more efficient and more accountable. On the backs of our state workers. I promised i would not do that and i didnt. Eliminated for road days. We were stored increases, which this is 6 . We told the state employee that if you like the unions you can keep your unions, but we also told them if you dont want to come you dont have to join a union. [applause] nsi believes before the end of this year you will find the Supreme Court United States coming in and saying you do not have to pay extortion money to have a job. [applause] many of our state employee have left the union ranks. I think that the whole nation is moving away from seniority into performancebased employment. And i think that is the path of the 21st century. Because you know what the alternative is . The alternative is going to mcdonalds and you have a couple of keys in your food comes down and you never see a human being. That is the problem with overpowering the business community. They go to robots. They do what theyre told consistently. Its the downfall of society. I dont like it. I dont go to the bank. I cant see a person in front of me, i dont bank. I havent been to a bank in seven years. The sun is unmarried, i wont have to. I havent seen a check in 35 years. We really have made a lot of progress. All joking aside, we are moving ahead. This week there will be three major announcements for companies coming to maine. One i will make tonight. Just today, north carolinabased Company Announced it would build a timber facility at the four [inaudible] [applause] 28 million investment, 120 new jobs. Good paying jobs. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome. Your investment is welcome and we will appreciate you. [applause] i hope you will hear two more major investments. We have been working very hard at getting people here. You can make our job a little easier if you attack the high cost of energy because that is the single biggest issue. Our web tape we had in 2011 is under control. They like the consistency. They dont mind having tough regulations as long as we are consistent and reliable and we dont change them every three months. Energy however is a big problem, a really big problem. If we continue doing what we are doing, bring new companies then, revenues will be there. The revenues will be there. I just think we need to Work Together to make sure that we look. This weekend, oklahoma, and the state of oklahoma have pulled all their wins subsidies say theres no return. Its killing us. Dont think for a minute that im against wind or solar. Ladies and gentlemen, i am not. My Energy Policy is very simple. Its so simple its hard to understand. Lower the cost without hurting the environment. That is my Energy Policy. Do not raise rates above market. You only hurt your own people. That simple. Right now, youve all heard that massachusetts was trying to go through the golden path and go through New Hampshire. They rejected it. The people from New Hampshire were coming this week to see if we are serious about allowing our transmission line thats only about 40 miles that we need to connect into the rear for search or we are to have. So there is an opportunity. It is not over yet. [applause] i do want to think many of you in this audience. I will tell the Republican Caucus in the house. Without you, we would not be having the Financial Success we currently have. Im just telling you the way i see it. I want to thank the upswing, and heather serape were beaten path inconsistent and hard on appropriations. We needed you. [applause] i want to think john martin because they are the few democrats that had the courage to come down and work with me. And while we didnt get everything we worked on, we certainly had some good dialogue, good debates and we both moved in the right directions. Craig knows what im talking about here he moved me about a mile and i got about six inches. [applause] i want to thank rob for more, senator breaky in jackson. The senators never hesitated when they had a question to come down and sit down with me and talk. Believe me, i am the first one to know i am a tough negotiator, but they never faced them at all. They didnt hesitate to come down. We have been down and out on several issues. But we do agree on one thing. We do agree on one thing and we are both committed to it because maine people come first. [applause] were ready to close. This is an election year. This years vote will be especially important. Especially important to me because im leaving and i really feel i am leaving estate in good financial condition. They get the company they vote for. Think long and hard if we are going to vote for in here going to send back to the senate and to the house. Who will be voting to either protect maines Fiscal Health of that politicians run it back into the ground. Im not taking sides here. Im just telling you, these are the options. Youll be voting on whether to keep our taxes low and maintain the right side of the government or allow the special interest to raise government again. You will be voting whether to respect her young adult or exploit our youth and chase them out of state. You will vote on whether to keep growing your economy or stifle it once again. Now i want to tell you, im not speaking with the government now. They said the overwhelming majority of his life in this date when john reid passed away a few years ago, is the only elected official in the state of maine and speak of something ive experienced my whole life. Youll be voting whether to significant process. Policies now protect our most vulnerable while encouraging welfare to work if you are able. That is critical. I do not want to force somebody to work who is not able. If you are able then you have worked goes, you will find working will improve your life, your quality of life. [applause] im a Firm Believer in a hand up not a handout only because i live the American Dream here in maine because of some very compassionate and thoughtful people who cut me off the street and im very indebted to those people and i believe the ideology, that process of moving you forward and allowing you to learn to sew, so important for all leaders among americans. They all have to have an opportunity. And you know, most people im getting letters all the time of people who said i used to hate you years ago when youre first elected. Now we have a young lady whos working and she says i dont take anything for the state. I gave now. I pay that. Im really happy. My kids are part of me. I get my kids looking at going to college. Think about that. I really believe it not. We will be voting whether we continue the path we are on a revert back to where we were. In my natural address i made a pledge to put people before the politics. I think if you read the newspapers the last seven years, ive been rather successful on one of my pledges. The parents try to keep them make a better life for their kids. Retirees trying to hold onto their home on a fixed income. The College Graduate trying to find good paying job in maine. The entrepreneur with the courage to take a chance on an idea. The taxpayers tired of footing the bill for a establishment. Right now we are 11, eight. New hampshire we are considered like high unemployment. New hampshire is right where they should be at 9500. They are managing and making sure that the people you have her treated well, are compensated well and is given the proper resources that they need. This is one area to state needs to invest in misery and have better resources for employees and they can be become more efficient. [applause] so those are promises i made and those are promises i kept. And i will promise to all the people tonight that i will continue tonight until 11 59 a. M. On inauguration day. To all the hardworking maine out there, it has been a marvelous and the biggest honor to serve you. Be your governor. As a person whos born in a very difficult situation on the streets, homeless at 11, never once did i ever imagine that i would be living in this place. Never did i imagine i would be invited to the white house. We will both tell you you are in our thoughts and prayers every day. We absolutely love you. Your prosperity is paramount to maines success and we will fight for prosperity for the rest of the way. I fought for every day. I made some good decisions, bad decisions and sometimes i drive myself crazy. But i will tell you, there is not one day or one second in the last seven years as your governor that every decision that i tried to make was not for the betterment of the state of maine. I will leave you with a quote president reagan attributed to abraham lincoln. And i firmly believe this with all my heart. And that is how it tried to govern. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging risk. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot further the brotherhood of mankind by inciting class. You cannot note character and courage by taking away Peoples Initiative and independence. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them what they could and should be doing for themselves. God bless the state of maine. God bless all of you and god bless america. [applause] [applause] [applause] [applause] coming up in 15 minutes here on cspan2, a conversation with iraqs ambassador to the u. S. About the future of his country. That is life in the hudson and get in washington at noon eastern. Until then, some of this mornings washington journal. Host join us for the next 45 minutes or so, former Energy Secretary of the obama administration, earnest money is coming out of a chair and ceo of the nuclear press initiative. Secretary moniz, thk