Transcripts For CSPAN3 Idaho State Of The State Address 2018

CSPAN3 Idaho State Of The State Address February 10, 2018

The joint session will be in order and gentlemen from 13. Thank you, mr. Speaker, the Committee Appointed to the state of idaho has reported and will report. Please step forward and make your report. Mr. Speaker, my honor and privilege to introduce the governor of the great state of idaho. The honorable c. L. Butch otter. Thank you. Thank you. Good luck. [ applause ] jerry, how are you . Go get em, man. Good luck to you. Bobby. [ applause ] thank you. Hi, david. Richard. How are you getting along . Are they still putting up with you . How are you doing . Great to see you. Thank you. [ applause ] mr. Speaker. Tim . Secretary, i always used to say i dont anymore. Governor, on behalf of the joint session we welcome you to the house chambers and we look forward to your remarks. Sir, the time and the floor is yours. Please tack yoke your seats. Thank you. Mr. Speaker, mr. President , honorable legislators, my fellow constitutional officers and distinguished jurors, friends, my family and our first lady and my fellow idahoans. It is my high honor and distinct privilege to stand before you today to deliver my 12th and my final state of the state budget address. It is my Great Fortune to be able to report to you that the state of idaho is prosperous, positive and poised for even better times ahead. Our growing population is growing fast. Our citizens are striving for a future with more opportunities and even brighter prospects and our State Government is leaner, more fiscally responsible, more transparent, more responsive and better prepared than ever to help idahoans achieve their own best potential. Our books are balanced. Our fiscal obligations are being met. Our credit is strong. We are planning wisely, working collaboratively and investing sustainably. Our National Politics often is dysfunctional, but in idaho, our government processes are sound. Our policies and our priorities reflect the will of the people that we serve. Of course, theres always room for improvement. As with all things human, there are short comings and frailties in our government that could benefit from thoughtful change, just as certainly any change could be difficult or painful to achieve in a state as prudently conservative as idaho especially when it comes to the question of governments proper role in our lives. Yet it is my firm belief that over the last 11 years of overcoming natural disasters, stubborn political divisions, man made challenges, and devastating economic recession. Together, we have constructed a stronger, more Durable Foundation on which we and the people of idaho can build. [ applause ] and build we will and grow and keep changing for the better not because of any particular ideology or due to our wellintelephononed leadership, but because of the creative genius, the entrepreneurial spirit and the selfreliance of our citizens, they are the source of idahos greatness. As State Government we benefit enormously from tapping into that deep well of sage advice and counsel. I hear it at the coffee shop in star and Walking Around downtown boise or anywhere, i hear it each month at nearly 100 capitals for a day that weve held at every corner of the state since i became governor. More formally there are 8,000 idaho citizens, volunteers who are serving at any given time at our state oversight and Advisory Boards and commissions. From accountancy and aging to Water Resources and workforce. They are and will remain an indispensable ingredient of our success, working quietly and tirelessly to ensure that all voices are heard in the counsels of government. They deserve our support and our thanks. I want to express our gratitude to state employees whose hard work and dedication helped us all succeed. So let me begin by saying that my executive budget for fiscal 2019 includes a 3 pay increase for the men and women who make our State Government one of the best run in america. Allow me [ applause ] i wasnt about to give up that 3 . I have a leaky eye and my wife says i am so conservative i only cry out of my right eye. But anyway, allow me also to express my thanks to Major General gary sailor. Health and welfare director dick armstrong, commerce director, megan gronk. Idaho state Police Colonel ralph powell, court of appeals judge, judge malancy, warren jones and many others who left state service in the past year. Now please join me in welcoming new and newly elevated members of the official state idaho family. General Michael Garshack and health and welfare director russ baron. Commerce director bobby joe newman and idaho state police, colonel ted wells, state director of labor melinda smizer. Tax commissioner, janet trujillo, drug policy administrator Nicole Fitzgerald and the court of appeals judge, Jessica Lorello and Supreme Court justice, richard bivens. [ applause ] thank you. I knew you would greet them with all of the warmth and congeniality of comrades in arms because they are our partners in this government. We also are blessed to have back among us gavin. Gavin suffered a terrible accident last winter and a difficult recovery to resume his responsibilities at the division of finance. Thanks for joining us again, gavin. Keep fighting the good fight. I know you will. [ applause ] now despite the talent and the experience contained in this august joint session. I am sure many of you share my feelings about starting a legislative session without the able assistance of former Senate Majority leader art davis. Our new u. S. Attorney for the district of idaho served for 19 years embodying great legal scholarship, incredible legislative talent and unfailing statesmanship. Barts absence from these proceedings will be apparent, but we can all be grateful for his long service and his consistent civic virtue. Some of you join me and thousands of others last august in saying farewell to the late governor cecil andres who gave even more state of the state speeches than me. The outpouring of fond remembrances for ses was a welcome throwback to an unpolitical time. In pack, one of the great qualities i most admired about the governor was a message they internalized when i was serving in the United States congress. Simply saying no is not enough. When the people of idaho give us authority to act on their behalf, we must govern. Republican and democrat majority and minority, executive and legislature together. To do less or to dither rather than to decide is to shirk our duty and to betray the public trust. With the aging of our population, health care has led idahos employment growth since i took office in 2007. Its added 26,300 Jobs Accounting for 46 of the overall growth and 13 of the total employment in idaho. That illustrates two important questions that will be at the forefront of public approximately see debates for the next few decades. How do we make healthcare more accessible and affordable and how do we ensure that employers have an educated, trained and skilled workers to meet the needs of idahos growing economy. Whether its in health care or s. T. E. M. Fields. Lets start with education. Most Idaho Children who were in the first grade when i became governor are now starting their last session of their senior year in high school. Every program, initiative and investment that i mentioned here today is focused on providing those young men and women, and career opportunities. To ensure that we have effective teachers leading that effort in every idaho classroom, my executive budget calls for providing nearly 42 million in fiscal year 2019 for the fourth year of implementing our career ladder system for education. Shifting how we Fund Teachers salaries from years in service and Education Credits to student outcomes, represents a significant ongoing investment in human capital, supporting Teachers Professional Development while establishing longterm blueprint for teacher recruitment and retention. For all of us, literacy is essential to develop the skills needed to advance successfully through life. Thousands of Idaho Children start that educational children already reading below grade level. That leaves many of them struggling through their school years and beyond while requiring educators to employ more costly programs. Your help we implemented an Early Intervention Program Three years ago. From kindergarten through third grades who face severe reading challenges. That program addressed only those at the lowest level of reading skills. There are thousands more who are not yet proficient. So i am asking today for 6. 5 million in fiscal year 2019 to expand our literacy intervention efforts. We must provide for the children before they move from the fundamental skill of reading to the applied skill of reading to learn. [ applause ] am also seeking an additional 5 million a year for college and career advising. That is intended to ensure that all districts can implement effective programs for helping students plan for life after high school. Whether for college or technical training, improving students or parents access to information about careers in postsecondary opportunities is an essential step in providing for idahos future and our workforce needs. So as responsibly putting modern learning tools in every idaho classroom. My budget recommendation calls for investing an additional 10 million in School Technology starting next year, bringing our total annual investment in technology for students and teachers to 36 million. That will require the districts and Charter Schools have welldeveloped plans for sustainably integrating technology into their curricula. An even more fundamental change in the classroom is idahos ongoing shift to masterybased education. The effort benefited from an initial investment in 19 incubator schools. Those schools have worked during the past two years to establish a network of support and best practices and to identify barriers to implementation. By investing another 1. 4 million per year we can continue developing and implementing the statewide plan by expanding the number of schools participating in masterybased education network. Ladies and gentlemen, our fiveyear plan for improving schools is a watershed investment for idaho and its a creative achievement. With stake holder involvement and with buyins from patrons and policymakers and with your continued leadership and support, idaho will keep building a worldclass education system. That includes such local efforts as bonnville county voters, turning Eastern Idaho Technical College into the college of Eastern Idaho with your help of 5 million in startup money and i appreciate it. You did a great job. [ applause ] so my congratulations to the people of Eastern Idaho for creating this great new opportunity. For more of the citizens to affordably take the Education Beyond High School much closer to home. As you know, theres a robust debate in bonnville county and beyond about the costs and the benefits associated with creating the college of Eastern Idaho, and thats a good thing. Thats as it should be. An open process and meaningful, Public Engagement are necessary for crafting sound, Public Policy and thats especially true on issues as complex and controversial as allocating limited resources and priorities. The success of the k12 task force for improving education, i believe, bears that out. So id like to thank the 36 members of my Higher Education task force who worked during the past year to assess how we can achieve that moon shot goal of ensuring that 60 of the young adults have a postsecondary Academic Degree or professional, technical credential. Their assessment is sobering and their solution is bold. But i believe implementing it is necessary not only for our student, but for idahos economy. The task force concluded that we will never achieve the 60 goal the way Higher Education in idaho is structured today. So its 12 recommendations focus on dramatically changing the way that our system works to make it more integrated, consolidated and student centric. Therefore, my budget request includes funding for state board of education to hire an executive officer to coordinate the work of all Higher Education institutions. The executive officer will also manage the system wide consolidation of Higher Education and support operations and the back room operations and the boards continuing policy functions. Theres no doubt that these changes will up end the status quo. They will mean less working from isolated silos and more rowing in the same direction. And they will result [ applause ] and they will result in tens of millions of dollars in e fesh enzis, savings that now can be used for scholarships and new initiatives, lowering the price of education. That includes in creating a statewide digital campus to better keep pace with continuing change with what we need our Higher Education system to deliver. I want to emphasize that were not talking about a chancellor system here. With schools becoming campuses of a single university. I agree with the task force finding that such a change would be overly disruptive, but theres no doubt about the advantages and the necessity of adopting an executive officer model if we are serious about making and keeping idaho economically competitive. Heres a staggering metric. The Task Force Found that state income Tax Collections in idaho would increase by 500 million a year with no change in population when the state reaches its 60 achievement goal compared with todays 42 . This is not a reflection of our state board of education members or the leadership of our institutions. The system itself is slow to adapt, too good at perpetuating the status quo, and it simply is not equipped or empowered to make the big Management Changes needed to achieve our 60 goal. Without these changes, we very likely will make no more progress toward that goal in the next ten years than we have in the past seven. We still must better define the scope of work required to achieve the consolidation that we need. As a first step, i am seeking your support for the Task Force Recommendation that we implement a statewide degree oddity and data analytic system. That will enable all our secondary institutions to identify students early on who need Additional Support or guidance and then track their progress toward degree completion anywhere in our system. To address access and affordability the tack force recommended and i am requesting an additional 5 million for the Opportunity Scholarship Program which is helping students like boises holland godby. It enabled her to go to college full time and work parttime without going deep into student loan debt. Holland, thanks for being with us today. Holland, would you please stand . [ applause ] holland is using her scholarship to attend Boise State University in hopes of everyoning the highdemand field of physical therapy. Holland was one of more than 1500 idaho students who received an opportunity scholarship for their first year of college. But that was less than half of the more than 3,300 who were eligible, but got no assistance. We can and should do more, and by the way, as a proud father, i would tell you that hollands instructor at boise state is my daughter kimberly. [ applause ] my executive budget calls for dedicating a portion of the 5 million to providing adult completion scholarships. Thats not a program for subsidizing dropouts. Its about creating the workforce that idaho employers need. Its about closing our skills gap by bringing students with some College Credits back to our Certificate Associates and Bachelor Degree Programs to finish what they started, and its about also about preserving the value of investment already made in partially completed studies. Folks, the adult completion Scholarship Program is like finding money. So lets get it found. Creating a homegrown pipeline of educated, trained workers is also the mission of the industrydriven Workforce Development task force. My budget reflects the Task Force Recommendations that we invest in expanding the capacity at our postsecondary Technical Schools and providing additional incentive funding for high school, career technical programs and expanding the cte offerings to the seventh and eighth grade. I am also calling for the development of more online, kr te classes and increased support for the workforce training centers. In the meantime, i have implemented the Task Force Recommendations aimed at ensuring employers have a more meaningful role in making the statewide workforce training efforts more responsive and adaptive to the in

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