Guestsies and gentlemen, the governor of oklahoma, mary fallin. [applause] governor fallin thank you. Lieutenant governor, statewide elected officials, speaker mccall, president pro tem shelves, members of the court, honorable senators and representatives, cabinet members, tribal leaders, guests and citizens of the state of oklahoma, it is my pleasure to be with you today as we discussed the state of our state. Im joined by my husband, wade christiansen, our wonderful children, christina, adam and elizabeth. Welcome, guys. [applause] i look forward to working with our new legislative leaders and continue to work with leader sparks and the House Minority leader. I want to thank our legislators for their dedication and leadership. I especially appreciate the second bond issue an active to renovate this irreplaceable building in which we now gather. You might have heard a little construction noise. Its 100thlebrate birthday on june 30 and we have found a great celebration planned. This is my seventh year that i had it pleasure of delivering the state of the state message and we have accomplished a lot. I plan to be just as productive in my remaining two years. Leadership, it is written rate leaders are never satisfied with the current levels of performance. They are relentlessly driven by possibilities and potential achievement. Those who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who do nothing and succeed. About whatnt to talk we can accomplish to give hope to our state and to chart a course for a better future. There is no question the germanic downturn in our Energy Sectors and an increase loss in our sales tax revenue has affected both our state and our private and public sectors. Resilient state, made of strong people with a long history of facing challenges and coming out in a better place. We love our families and strive to improve our economy. Ourre patriotic and respect Law Enforcement officers and veterans. We value our freedoms and liberties. In preparing this speech, its not about our strength, which i just mentioned, along with our weaknesses and opportunities. Oklahoma will continue to struggle if we dont fix hours structural deficits in our budget. [applause] a wellrespected ceo of american paraphrasingnd of a quote attributed to napoleon. Leaders define reality and provide hope. States top leaders, lets focus on the reality of our state budget deficit. For decades, we have attended to balance our budget for too long with the use of one time funding resources. Cannot afford to pass another budget using a large amount of nonrecurring revenue. It is important to provide to meet theevenues responsibilities our government owes its citizens. [applause] here they are educating our children. [applause] ensuring health and Public Safety for our people. [applause] preserving and improving our infrastructure. [applause] one can argue that these are not fundamental state services and our ability to provide them to oklahomans reliably and efficiently is not cutting it. Government in and of itself does it should jobs, but provide the right environment to grow the economy through a free market system unfettered by burdensome regulation. It is our responsibility to prepare a plan in a workable budget for longterm solutions to the challenges our state faces. We must deliver services that work for the people and what people over politics. [applause] the continued uncertainty affects not only the services we provide to our citizens but also affect the effectiveness of our government. Together to get the job done to ensure the best outcomes for our people. To do so, she needs to invest in oklahoma plus future. What do we do about it . Im proposing a series of bold reforms to stabilize our state regarding both our recurring revenues and repairing the structural deficit of our budget. We must put oklahoma on a Solid Foundation for its teacher. Modernizations a of oklahoma tax laws that will assure new growth for years to come so that we will have the flexibility to prioritize spending on new emerging needs. Eliminates the most regressive tax on the books today, the state sales tax on groceries. [applause] this will benefit all oklahomans. Eliminate the state sales tax on toceries and it is expected result in an annual savings somewhere between 350 to 676 for a family of four. Also gets rid of one of the most volatile sources of revenue the Corporate Income tax. [applause] it will work to reduce the paperwork and red tape burden of many Small Businesses in our state and boost economic development. This tax provides more transparency as it also eliminates the need for this legislature to pick winners and losers with specific tax credits. Third, sales tax modernization. When thedecades Legislature First contemplated the sales tax law to boost revenues we did complicated, by the way. Sometimes it comes out, what you are really thinking on your mind. [laughter] right, justices . Lets start that back again. When the Legislature First contemplated the sales tax laws for these revenues, the economy depend upon the manufacture and sales of goods. The economy has shifted from a manufacturingbased economy to a servicebased economy, the way we impose taxes and collect revenues no longer reflects our current economy. System has outdated not changed much. By expanding the sales tax base, this allows us to elevate the state sales tax on groceries in and it mayncome tax be possible in the future to further lower the sales tax rate. [applause] two improve the health of our stay, im asking you to raise our cigarette tax. [applause] smoking remains the number one cause of preventable deaths in oklahoma. Our state 1. 62 billion in health care costs. The revenue raised by this can be spent by other Current Health care needs. Next, for decades, we talked about how gasoline and diesel taxes should go to roads and bridges. Plan does just that. My plan will ensure taxes associated with roads and ridges are associated with the roads and bridges, period. [applause] what this does is it returns the individual income taxes to the general revenue fund. Impact. N does not it will stay in cap. 40ahoma currently ranks eighth in diesel tax in the nation and 49th in gasoline tax. Im proposing a new revenue stream by increasing our gas and diesel taxes to the Regional State average but below the national average. By trading out the use of income tax dedicated to roads and bridges, this legit change dramatically improves the percentage of revenue collections this legislature will be able to control. As we have discussed for decades, lets put fuel taxes to roads and bridges. [applause] by working together, by avoiding distractions, we can solve todays problems and let oklahoma grow and prosper. To improve the workforce and education, one to talk about that. There were more than 71,000 open jobs in the state of oklahoma. Almost 18,000 of what we call critical occupations such as engineers, teachers, chemists, accountants and truck drivers. Therefore, in my budget, im providing 20 million for Higher Education programs for critical occupation. [applause] a thriving, prosperous economy must have a skilled, educated workforce and that starts with good teachers in the classroom, providing our children with a quality education five days a week. [applause] my budget provides for both. [applause] i hosted with some major Site Companies and an executive asked me how he could persuade businesses to come to oklahoma with some of our schools with fourday education weeks. We must have five day school weeks. [applause] act on a permit pay raise for Public School teachers. [applause] it is what the public wants and it is what our families need. Need to be phased and it may be targeted, but it must be done. However, we also know that a pay thee alone will not improve outcome. We need to make sure more dollars are reaching that fast room by tackling administrative inefficiencies had on. [applause] we have a very topheavy system that needs to be reformed to provide teachers and students more resources. A number of services where school could voluntarily take advantage of the same money such as i. T. Services or purchasing and bonding assistance. Imddition to that, creating a task force to review the state Education Funding formula to evaluate Funding Sources and analyze the k12 as we footprint, chest must fix our states budget structural issues, we must do the same for our k12 educational system. [applause] our Education System must be focused on creating the best outcomes. To do so, we must make sure more money goes to the classrooms and to the teachers. Students ander teachers by giving them more choices so they can best address their own needs. [applause] we must be accountable to taxpayers on how we spend our education dollars. Second, Public Safety. [applause] [laughter] [applause] did i wake you up, commissioner . [laughter] liked that part, didnt he. Hes awake. Im just teasing him. He has been ringing off my phone. Here we go. This is your part. Public safety we need to keep our families and communities safe. Last fall, a dangerous man traveled across oklahoma on a deadly crimes brief for a week. Law enforcement was desperate to find him and stop him. He was spotted in a rural area in western oklahoma. 230 miles allth the way from eastern oklahoma to help. Driving at a high rate of speed, the trooper chased him down a dark come a rural road, blowing out his patrol cars own windshield while exchanging gunshots with vance who had an ak47. Im sure youve seen the video. It is pretty incredible. The trooper along with others helped pursue and apprehend vance are here. Troopers Chris Hanover i want to ask these guys to stand as i call their names. Chris hanover Brandon Stewart come Mike Whittington and helicopter pilots Brian Sturgill and cold patterson along with trooper brian to stanza please stand and let us thank you. [applause] thank you to all of our Law Enforcement officers and their families who make sacrifices to keep us all safe. We appreciate you. Fireximately 26 of our troll troopers are eligible for retirement. We must prepare for the future and fund a trooper academy. [applause] while we are at it, no trooper should be furloughed or restricted to drive 100 miles a day because of lack of funding. [applause] my budget accommodates these issues. Addressing Public Safety is not t about addressing investing in highway patrol. Its about investing in ways to be smarter on climate smarter on crime and tough on true criminals. [applause] our prisoncret population is in a crisis with over 61,000 people under the jurisdictions of corrections. Prisons are way overcapacity and our prison population is expected to grow by 25 over the next 10 years. Oklahoma costs overall incarceration rate is the second highest in the country. The nation in female incarceration, incarcerating women at two and half times the national average. To what some of you may think, oklahoma women are not meaner. [laughter] without reform, oklahoma must build three new prisons, and expensive proposition even in the best times. We need to new prisons immediately without further reform this year. Thes why i created Oklahoma Task force to find datadriven crime policies to focus on improving Public Safety. [applause] 75 of our new admissions are nonviolent offenders. Drug offenders are no has more than doubled in five years. My budget includes new money for corrections and treatment which includes a 50 million bond issue to build wings on a men for substanceison abuse offenders and rehabilitation. [applause] there is unprecedented conservative support for issues like the American Conservative Union and Law Enforcement leaders to reduce crime and incarceration. Conservative states such as texas, utah, georgia, kentucky, and south dakota are already headed in this direction. Outcomes byc safety pursuing these kinds of reforms. As the president and ceo of the Greater Oklahoma city chamber of oklahomarecently said, money withouth positive outcomes, locking of lowlevel, nonviolent people. [applause] the Business Community support for governors efforts and encourages the legislature to seriously consider these recommendations. And then went on to say, doing nothing means taxpayers must spend billions more to incarcerate more people or risk problematic federal intervention in our system. Im talking about Public Safety. Send me a bill to fix the real id licenses. [applause] we have 4 months to solve this issue. Lets get it done. Third, health as i said in my second inaugural speech, Health Outcomes are anding us act as a state, the status quo is not acceptable. As a result, i convened a group of Health Care Leaders from throughout the Health Care Industry and State Government to ensure that we are improving Health Outcomes and quality of health care and controlling costs. There are too many issues to contend with a health care, and obamacare created additional problems we must address Health Care Premiums are increasing at a dramatic rate. Deductibles are so high that people can scarcely afford their Insurance Coverage you have purchased. And the regulations that have been handed down from the federal government are creating added costs with very limited benefits. So with the help of our local Health Care Leaders, we are developing a plan that we will submit to the new administration to fix the problems we have seen in oklahoma. We hope to reduce regulations, to create lowercost insurance plan, encourage investment in private Health Accounts so people can direct their health care purchases and utilize successful local problems programs to provide health Insurance Coverage that works forfor oklahoma. While we are fixing our broken health care system, we can never take our attention away from preventing illnesses in the place. Lets not forget that too. [applause] fourth, we can continue to ignore our states crumbling infrastructure. In my budget i have identified our states most pressing urgent needs, along with a proposal to address them. They include a new department of health, so we dont lose our national accreditation, and improving facilities like corrections, mental health, just to name a few. In my budget i have identified what ive outlined today is a realistic, responsible way to put our state on a successful path. By investing in our state we create a stronger business climate, a place for people who want to live and work and raise their family, but this cant happen unless we roll up our sleeves and do the tough work and make tough decisions. So on your desk, you will find a pact that contains three budgets. A packet that contains three budgets. A red, yellow, and green. The red budget cuts 668 million which reflects our current shortfall. Thats approximately an 11 cut to all agencies, and by the way, some which have already taken cuts of 20, 30, 40, 50, and even one with a 66 cut over the last many, many years. Your yellow budget drains almost all about half of the remaining balance of our Rainy Day Fund and it also still makes substantial cuts. These budgets would be detrimental to our state and i dont recommend we consider either one of them. But the green budget presents a path forward stabilizing our budget structural challenges while investing in core essential services. It actually basically mirror ours 2003 budget adjusted for inflation but is still less than the 2009 fiscal year budget which was the highest watermark when adjusted for inflation. We must note also that our student population has grown by 48,000 students since 2009 and our states population has grown from 3 1 2 million to just under four million in population. So im going to show you a chart here on both sides, as you can see on this chart, if we do these things i have outlined, this will give our legislators more control and direct in directing how money can be spent on the states most pressing needs. If you look at this chart, in the 2017 fiscal year, legislators have control of just a little bit more than 44 centings of every dollar. Cents of every dollar. By making the changes i have outlined we can bump that amount up to 62 , 62 cents, or 62 of every dollar by the year 2020, the fiscal year. That means you have more control as legislators to prioritize our spending on the states most pressing needs. Just think what we could accomplish if we were able to structurally change our budget. We can chart a new, brighter course for the state of oklahoma. As the bible says, without a vision, people will perish. We have to have a vision. As henry ford said, coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. And working together is success. So lets Work Together for success. To all of you, i want to say i look forward to having a productive legislative session. Lets get to work investing in our states quality of life. God bless you and god bless the state of oklahoma. Thank you. [applause] and all these years, ive never seen a case with the snowden case where so uncritically journalists have accepted information from a single source, edward snowden, who is in moscow under the control of the russian government. Investigative journalist edward j. Epstein on his book, how america lost its secrets. Snowden, the man and the. He did enormous damage. I dont even know it his supporters say he did no damage. They say he did enormous good. Thats their view. And maybe he did some good. And he opened up a subject of interest. Trump isink where certainly right, is where this man has not faced justice and he deserves to face justice. At 8 00 eastern on q a. S on tuesday, Vice President mike pence officiated at the swearingin ceremony for education secretary betsy devos. The Vice President cast the tiebreaking vote on her confirmation. A final vote was 51 50 with two republican senators, Lisa Murkowski of alaska and Susan Collins from maine, voting no on her nomination. Ladies and gentlemen, the Vice President of the United States. At evening, everyone. I bring greetings from the president of the United States on behalf of president donald trumptrump, it will be my great privilege to administer the oath of office for the next secretary of education for the United States of america, betsy devos. Betsy,