[a this is just under an his statee address before joint section gringo. He highlights education funding, homelessness, Health Insurance and Maternal Health care and addresses the influx of asylumseekers Texas Governor greg abbott requesting migrants to major cities all over the country without warning. This is just under an hour. [applause] [applause] pplause] [inaudible] [i■naible] [inaudible] members and guests, honorable governor of this great state the honorable jb■] pritsk. [applause] [applause] [applause] thank you very much, thank you all very much. Harmon, lieutenant k governor straton, members to have 103rd general assembly, chief justice tice mes of the supreme court, honored guests, the first lady of illinois, my soulmate mk. [applause] and all the people of the great state of illinois, i am so to be here today to deliver my sixth state of the state and budget address. I love my■r job, i love living n illinois and spending every day working to improve the lives of our residents in a world with cs a privilege to be tasked with bringing stability and progress. We live ins filled with people who exude defendecency and here in springd one of the most interesting guys i know is ian hunt, head of acquisition at the abraham lin museum and if you ask ian, he will tell you one of my favorite stories, illinois owns gettysburg address. Of lincoln its known as the evert copy. One only five to have been handwritten by Abraham Lincoln himself. Its named after former on nove, 1863evertt was the other guy wht almost no oners. Whenever it was finished lincoln got up and delivered twominute speech that has never been forgotten. A lif for every politician. [laughter] the everett copy of linken gettysburgn hands for almost 80 years and in 1943 where the world war raging across the■ came to dwight green theoner to have■s. So his administration came to an agreement with the sell the other purchase it for 60,000. T have 60,000 to spend on the gettysburg address in 1943 and govern did something unusual. He enlisted the School Children of illinois to collect pennies and nickels. There was skepticism that kids were going to come up the gettysburg in the middle of a world war and at the heels of e great d should ever doubt the children of illinois. [applause] a few years ago a newspaper interviewed a springfield mansd8 named gene who noted that as young boy in 1943 he sacrificed saturday afternoon movie for a few months so that he cou■6ld gn drive. It took the children of illinois only 6 months to rse 40,000, marshalfield the third, grandson of Famous Department magnate helped with the rest. In exactly 80 years ago four School Children presented the handwritten gettysburg address to the y and it has been our most valuable state artifact ever since. I love t story. It has everything, imagination,m and elected officials that didnt stop at no and children with a vision beyond their years our future. Its a story about how penny by penny illinsa shaved something important. Its a story about our past but also a story about who we today because penny by penny we are still working together 5 years ago when people said we couldnt do it, many of us went to work eliminating our buildback log and balancing 5 state budgets i a row, we created a 2 billiondollar rainy day fund, we achieved nine credit upgrades and in the face of;■de inflation we delivered historic tax relief provided record levels of rental and mortgage assistance and reduce paying more than 11 billion in debt off. [applause] weve also grown illinois economy to over thats more than most nations. [applause] attracted billions of dollars in new Business Investments and created tens of thousands of new jobs. ■rt in fact, on average a new business moved to illinois or expanded here every single day last year. [applause] our bipartisan tax credit legislation illinois is now the worlds fourth Largest Data Center market and we broke an alltime for film and tv production revenue, tourism is booming, last years Illinois Hotel industry set recordau■ at 5. 5 billion. [applause] in the midwest we are now the development, across all 50 states we are number 2 for infrastructure. ■r 3 for power grid reliability, we have the number one and number two best Business Schools in the country and since 2018 weve moved a whopping 13 spots in cnbcs best state for business. [applause] these are the things that matter to businesses looking for a home where their workforce can live, work and play afford by and witht worldclass healthcare and education. Now we have a lot of work left to do but we together have met this moment that we are in. Do not let the doom drifters steal your optimism about whats ahead for illinois. Opportunity lies ahead. [applause] last year we launched a groundbreaking multiyear plan called smart start to make illinois the best state in the nation for preschool, care, Early Intervention and Home Visiting. [appe] huge difference for young families across illinois. We thought we would be able to add 5,000 preschool seats by thd that goal by 15 . We created 5,823 new spots. [applause] all of which are options that parents dnt result right now we have over 82,000 publicly funded preschool classroom seats, the highest number iur States History and staying onto the smart start plan we will achieve universal preschool by 2027. [applause] smart start also expanded access to Early Intervention and evencebased htom vervices forh babies and Young Children by adding 26 more programs serving established the nation leading Early ChildhoodWorkforce Grant Program thanks to initial investment of 130 million stabilizing and raising wages for workforce that is primarily women and people of color. That helps providers and grow staffing while still delivering the quality care that illinois children deserve. Smart start is having theking parents and their children, child care utilization rates are higher than ever before with 1,670,000 children receiving services. There was a real fear that our entire child care system might crumble in the wake of the pandemic, instead its growing. Heather andrade is parent and when i recently visited with her she said smart start changed her childs life and after tremendous difficult pregnancy heather brought natalia into this world, a healthy, happy little baby. Natr noticed that she was experiencing some delays in her development and in her speech. Heather knew that she needed help. Thanks to smart start rochester elementary was able to open a full they Program Offering care including Early InterventionServices Like speech therapy, since natalias first y in t her progress has been nothing short of remarkable. She can spell her name, she can her name. Once nonverbal natalia now talks so much that theyre even considering pulling h speech therapy. Natalia is on track to thrive when she enters kindergarten and ■8r path brighter. Heathers Success Story as a mom stands as a testimonial. It reminds us of all the u justa little extra help to give their kids that smart start. He ather h asked you to give her a big round of applause. [applause] its with heather and kelly get in mind i propose we by 150 million in year two to three, 5000 more preschool seeds, continue growing childcare and reach thousands more family quick critical Early Childhood services. Budget we bn the first phase consolidating the government, Early Childhood programs into one agency called the department of Early Childhood. [applause] wi investment from parents and providers would have a onestop shop of resources and programs providing childcare and preschool accessing block grants and daycare licenses. Nearly every study shows investing in early cldhood is just about the childs five years its paving the way for success in their k12 educati b. Every single year ive been governor, weve increased our investment in education quality education is the foundation of a good life and cornerstone of a strong society. Education has been central of all budgets i proposed. There are some handout champions among you like senator capital along with representatives davis and stewart have spent their entire careers fighting for our pu. Number two in the nation and college readiness. Cnbc ranked illinois number two overal for education. We notched our highest Graduation Rate in 13 years and Teacher Retention was the highest ever on record. [applaus] the rate of ninth graders o gras prepandemic levels. Chronic absenteeism is turning around and]f proficiency i b english Language Arts and math caincreased dramatically. We can draw a direct line from these results to last years our 45 milliondollar teacher pipeline Grant Program brought 5384 new teachers field. Reaching more than 700 30,000 students and 170 districts with the highesteed. Teachers are the single most important investment we can make in our schools. [applause] seven oh, i propose we invest in the 45 million. [applause] the evidencebased funding model is working. My Budget Proposal followed the recommendation increasing it again by three had a we will fully fund the special education continue increasing funds by 30 million. Higher education continues as tremendous upward trajectory for the second year in a row at thee system c celebrated historic headcounts. Marking the second largest increase in enrollmentinum higher far higher than the rest of the United States. [applause] more illinois students are taking advantage of our Great Colleges and universities with a we scholarship programs. The net tuition costs for most illinois students illinois schools continues to decline. Our Higher Education institutions are on there rise d it is important that year in and year out, even in lean budget years we demonstrate a commitment to these institutions. Which is my Budget Proposal than increase direct operating support for public Higher Education institution. Investments that we are making through rebuild illinois. [applause] improving Educational Attainment is assisting private industry to overcome the illinois workforce shortage. Its having a similar effect on state government. We are finally moving closer to achieving the Staffing Levels that we■ our work. The departments on agent, human services, healthcare and family services, every social surgeon agency has improved hiring to fill out its a budgeted headcount. Dcfs for example has achieved its highest staffing■s than 50 years the recombination of funding, ingenuity and sheer hard worker. Dcfs is more focused than ever on how to best protect illinois children. C today, nearly every call to the abuse and neglect hotline is that is up from only 50 back in 2019. Of the more than 94525 investigations conducted last year by dcfs, 99. 7 ted and initn 24 hours. And within seven days and 96 of children have been seen by ann . N with the additional 14 million in funding in fy 25 dcfs will reach a head count time in moren two decades. [applause] as always, there is more to do dcfs is committed to doing it. I want to thank outgoing director years of the states most difficult job. I also want to welcome incoming who served to gubernatorial administrations as a pioneering head the department of juvenile justice. Visited mar my time and office and it is impossible to ignore the trust and admiration the states and merable children have for her. We are lucky to capture. [applause] the people to work at dcfs are witness to trauma, heartbreak ever s day. They are rarely allotted for their assesses most often a convenient punching bag for ■lla issues. They worked long hours and on occasion these heroic workers have been the subject of threats and violence. I wanted them to know that i see you then. And that i see their work. And that i and incredibly grateful for their service. I ask each of you in this chamber to offer them your gratitude to theiron. [applause] [applause] the safety net has been a goal of mine from the nvery beginning. But to do so we have had to work ■v after so many years of neglect begun to turn things around by reducing the price of gsprescription drugs. Immation enacting a lower cost state based Health Insurance marketplace. I want to particularly thank se holmes, and the gillespie glorifying as well asw leader robin and gable for thebr groundbreaking work on healthcare reform over the last [applause] is a time we take anr giant leap forward this legislative session im introducing a curb predatory insurance practices. Putting the power back into the hands of patients and their doctors. [applause] it is called the Healthcare Consumer access and protection act. Ro it has three parts. Ts the called utilization manageme. What is utilization management . Thats insurance speak for denying coverage. Allows Insurance Companies to boost profits by rick requiring consumers getey receive care. It will not surprise you to know those requests are frequently denied. One method of utilization refera prior authorization. A consumer must get permission from the Insurance Company to get treatment from their own doctor. Their own doctor hasas deemed medically necessary. Another method of utilization is step to try a less effective treatment and have that fail fore hav care their doctors said they needed in the first place. Any dr. Will tell you howt hctis and how often they are used to deny patients the medication and treatments they desperately ■8z[■e almost everyone has a horror story about prior authorizations and step therapy. Lest you think i am exaggerating, let me share one story. One of our state employees was diagnosed by his cardiologist with a serious Heart Disease and open heart surgery. Three days before the procedure, which take a month to schedule the Health Insurer deniedizatio. The Insurance Company made the decision without consulting the persons dr. Heart surgery was leaving the employee to cover the cost outofpocket or not get treated. It was only after my office got involved at the request of this individuals family, who was afraid he could die the prior authorization is granted. That is simply unacceptable. Doctors and their patients should make decisions about pa care. [applause]■un< there should never be an instance where an Insurance Company employee can deny coverage for something as serious as open heart surgery. We should never, ever, ever leave these decisions to insurance executives whose focus is alw line. The only bottomline that really matters is what needs to be done to keep the legislation i am proposing would totally ban step therapy and illinois force Insurance Companies to use definition of medical necessity that doctors use. [applause] among the other feature the firt to ban authorizations for inpatient adult and Childrens Mental Health car■n [applause] [applause] means publicly post l treatment require prior authorization making compare plans on their shopping for coverage. [applause] also prohibit shortterm plans also known as junk insurance. These are plans that seem enticing they offer■i lower premiums to bridge gaps in Insurance Coverage but in reality these plans failed to meet the minimum standards of the Affordable Care act. They do not cover preexisting conditions. They do not cover Maternal Healthcare. They do not cover Mental Health and substce prescription drugs. Like a 12 other states in this nation it is time for illinois. [applause] the second part of this legislation covers network the e Companies Must meet to ensure there is enough in Network Doctors to treat consumers when it where they need healthcare. In recent years weve seen a rise of Ghost Network and Network Directory shows doctors and when in reality either arent accepting new patients, arent in network or dont exist at all. Health insan consumers get qualy care. Not tricking them. Were going to require Insurance Network to the actual ability of healthcare. We are going to punish them if they dont. [applause] prevents Insurance Companies from unfairly increasing rates on consumers. Last year, my Administration War proud to work with members of and other stakeholders to end on check rate increases. For small group insurance. Those of folks are the ones who cover Small Businesses and individuals. This year were going to require large group insurancearriers the same it. Im haunted by the reality they are illinois and who are suffering and in some cases have died because they lost a battle with an Insurance Company. I have talked to people who have just given up be