pleasure to present the honorable john carney, governor to the state of delaware to this joint session of the 122nd general assembly. >> good afternoon, governor. please join us here on the restroom. >> thank you very much. >> please be seated. >> senator hawks double. it is always good to start with your name correctly. i mentioned it to him beforehand, just to try to make sure that we had it right. he did a great job. thank you to the committee there to come and get me. lieutenant governor, mister president pro tem, mister speaker. members of the 152nd general assembly, other elected officials. statewide and nationwide. members of my cabinet. distinguished members of the judiciary, invited guests, and my fellow delawareans. madam president, mr. president pro tem, mister speaker, thank you for inviting me into the chamber today. before i get started, i would like to do something that i think is really important. which is to recognize general mike up berry and the army national guard. these men and women have done an incredible job for us over the last three years. this time last year, as you may remember, we had a few hundred members deployed to hospitals at long-term care facilities across the state. i don't know what we would have done without them. just last week, we had another deployment ceremony overseas for more than 150 army national guard men and women from the 168 engineering company. there is sistine with the federal military mission there in southwest louisiana. never before has our national guard been called on to do as much for our state and country at the same time than these men women have over the past several years. please join me in recognizing them and thank the men and women of the delaware army national guard. [applause] general barry, i cannot tell you how proud we are of these men and women. almost boys and girls, literally, 18, 19, 20. very young but just doing incredible work. i would also like to take a moment to recognize two supreme court justices who are with us this afternoon who deserves special recognition. justice jim of on, who retired dismay after nine years in the world's highest court. he has served since 1998 on the delaware supreme court -- justice vaughn, thank you for your service to our state. [applause] and justice to micah montgomery reeves, but i was proud to nominate to our supreme court in 2019. last month, as most of you know, justice montgomery reeve was confirmed by the united states senate to serve on the third circuit court of appeals. senator carper said before his vote, delaware losses our countries gain. please join me in recognizing justice montgomery reeves. [applause] good luck. after three long years it is great to be here in person with a full room, a full house, once again. for a star i would like to take another moment of personal privilege, if i may, to recognize my wife tracy for all of her hard work. the work that she has been doing on behalf of delaware if children over the past six years. to thank her -- [applause] and maybe more importantly to thank her for all of the support she has given me over my 20 years as an elected official. i know it hasn't been easy, tracey. thank you for being with me along the way. some were here i have two of my sisters, liz and clare. clare's husband, rob. they are in the back. they are representing the carney clan today. my mother, i know, many of you wanted to see my mother she was unable to be with us. she is doing well. thank you for your players. representing her and the rest of the klan. i have my sister claire, liz, and brother-in-law rob. thank you for being here. first and foremost, i want to thank every member of the general assembly for stepping up and agreeing to serve. in 2019, i stood in this chamber and said that never before has the general summary better reflected the people of our great state that's even more true today. i'd like to offer a warm welcome to the newcomers rocks hawks double, buxton in the senate. he shot o'neill, sophie phillips, cindy roemer, pucker selby, korea harris, jeff sokolowski in the house. that is a big group! all delawareans a benefit from here in new ideas and you're fresh perspectives. welcome to legislature hall. we look forward to working with each of you. it is a special privilege to represent the people of our state. i know that you all agree. it is something that i have learned, here is something i've learned in my 20 years in public office. it has been made even clearer over the past two and a half years. the people of delaware wanted to work together. they want us to focus on the work. not political infighting and distractions. they want us to put their taxpayer dollars to use in a responsible way. i know you've all knocked on doors and attended events in your districts. i'm sure you've heard the same thing. delawareans want us to focus on the issues that matter in their everyday lives. access to good jobs, excellent public schools, the a safe and affordable place to live. vibrant communities where they can raise their children. we have a long tradition in delaware of setting politics aside and working together for the people that we serve. it is a tradition that we should all embrace. standing here today i've never been more confident about where we are headed as a state. working together over the past six years we have taken steps to lay a strong foundation for the future. to strengthen our economy and had good paying jobs, to make real investments in our public schools, to protect our natural environment, to responsibly manage taxpayer dollars, and to make sure delaware remains a great place to live and raise a family. let's build on that work together. [applause] >> every year i come before this body, not a full house the last couple of years, to present my priorities for the year i had. i know you have heard me say this before because i say it every year, i believe our success as a state must start with building a strong and growing economy. we know that a good job solves a lot of problems, that is not just political rhetoric. let's consider the story of the city of seaford. years ago seaford had a strong local autonomy driven by industrial manufacturing. it was known as the nylon capital of the world. manufacturing jobs put food on the table for thousands of families. as representative short and senator richardson no, these were good jobs that helped families afford a home and raise a family. they funded college tuition and promised a secure retirement. the plant also brought engineers and skilled trades men and women and other highly trained workers to sussex county. it attracted nurses and doctors to the hospital. good teachers to the public schools. by the mid 19 80s though things started to decline. the workforce of 4500 began to dwindle. during my first term as lieutenant governor in the early 2000s there were fewer than 700 jobs. in a town of roughly 8000, that is a heavy blow. the loss of economic opportunity had ripple effects through sussex county. fewer good paying jobs led to a lack of investment in the community and a dormant economy. for many years now many of us have looked for ways to turn things around. mayor david glenshaw and his team have put a hyper focus on bringing good new jobs to seaford. that includes attracting investment to the new western suffolk business campus in the seaford international park. together, we have also made real investments in seaford's downtown development district. something that was approved under governor martell's tenure. just last month, along signed representative short, mayor jen saw and representative richardson, we announce a major redevelopment project that included the capital shopping center there. the project had been a long time coming. it will build on the hard work of town officials and -- recent years. i want to recognize governor jen shaw, who i believe is here somewhere in the back corner, for his cooperation. the point is, good jobs matter, for families, for communities, and for everything out that we do as a state. from education to health care. six years ago, my first full day in office, i signed an executive order that changed the way we attract new jobs and business investment to delaware, and to support the businesses that are already here. within the department of state, we created a division of small business to put a hyper focused on smaller, homegrown, companies and entrepreneurs. companies like h ex innovation. h x is a movement and a little company that i recently visited in the chase house in wilmington. it is run by nicole and vaughn homer. vaughn is also an assistant professor at the delaware state university. they use software to analyze muscle and joint activity. they are cutting edge technology allows sports teams to monitor athletes, reduce injuries, and improve performance. vaughn and nicole are with us in the gallery. where are you, vaughn and nicole? please stand up and be recognized. [applause] mayor persichilli, i don't know how good we could've been if we had that kind of technology to chart our training. we also partnered with business leaders in our state to create the delaware prosperity partnership. what we call the deep ppe. the results are visible in communities across the strait. in middletown, fda broke down on a 190 acre pharmaceutical manufacturing campus recently. over the next several years, the company will best over $100 million in the psych creating hundreds of good paying construction jobs along the way. when the plant opens, they expect to open 500 full-time jobs. it will also anchor industrial redevelopment in western milltown. where the town has added hundreds of jobs in the past decade. this is not happen by accident. my good friend, mayor kenny brown, the architect of much of this is with us today. the mayor and i have worked together over many years. i appreciate his friendship. please help me and recognizing mayor brown or for his long service to his hometown and to our state. [applause] >> another 500 million dollar transformation is underway along the science park on 1:41. this will be a science and technology campus anchored by dupont prelude therapeutics. together we are building delaware future economy, and dpp, led by kirk foreman and his powerful team are leading the way. i would also like to think members of the general assembly who serve on the board of the dpp. senators jack walsh and bryan petty gantt representing bill bush and lynda -- please stand up and be recognized for your service to the dpp [applause] . we do have economic islanders ahead, for sure. unlike anything i've seen during my term in public service. today, the biggest challenge we have is filling the job openings that are out there. for my entire career in public service we've been focused, first, and creating jobs. there've always been more people looking for work than jobs available. today it's just the opposite. we have thousands more job openings than we have people looking for work. let me say that again, in a different way. employers have 37,000 job openings in the state of delaware and there are just 21,000 delawareans looking for a job. i've never seen a situation like this before. our state government sees the sounds every day. our cabinet secretaries tell me about the problems they are facing. across executive agencies we have 200 job openings. it is harder than ever to find candidates. this is not just a problem you need to delaware. in fact, every state in the countries facing similar challenges. our billet-y to compete will depend on our success building in attracting a highly skilled workforce. colleges and universities have never been more important in this work. consider this, how -- i am told there are more people working on the university of delaware star campus today them and chrysler closed its manufacturing facility added site in 2008. it is hard to believe, but it says a heck of a lot about where our economy is headed. more than 3000 people now work at the start campus every day. that includes more than 300 scientist and researchers at the more research and discovery hub. the university's partnership with comers allow students to train, right along industry researchers and scientists. it also includes a staff at the national institute for innovation in manufacturing biopharmaceuticals. it is built on our states strength and biotechnology. it was critical and bringing -- in middletown. our lieutenant governor serves as lieutenant governor and i want to thank her for promoting scientific gentile genus day. [applause] i'm trying to find our university president. there we are. the big three. at delaware state university, president allen and his team recently received the largest research grant in the university's history. [applause] the 18 million dollar grant from nih will help fund research to health disparities in minority communities and it will also track top talent to the dover campus. to expose students and to train our next generation of public health scientists. our goal is to keep more and more of those students graduating from u d and delaware state here in delaware. the delaware community college, president brainerd and his team continued to work on the front lines of job trading and -- last year, we opened the mcdowell student success center. it is named after my good friend and former state senator, harris mcdowell. providing resources for students will help keep deliver tech the number one institution for job training and workforce development in delaware. i would like to thank all three presidents, for everything you do for the state of delaware. thank you very much. [applause] thanks to president biden and our congressional delegation who couldn't be here today. but president of the united states has been in his chamber before. i saw him myself! we have also seen a significant influx of federal dollars that will help us build on this progress. with the support of the american rescue plan, we are building a clinical lab at delaware state university, allied health center in wilmington, and a state-of-the-art laboratory on the site of the mckinley lab at the university of delaware. over the course of the next year, arpa funding will help rehabilitate lighted homes and properties on the eastside wilmington. working with mayor first key enters team, we hope to reenergize the community around the new banker school to help more families find a safe place to live in call home. mayor christa keith, thank you for your partnership there. the wilmington delegation will make similar investigations in dover milford and similar investigations across the strait e. jean young has been leading the effort across the three eugene, stand up. [applause] my budget next week will build on these investments. federal funds and community development. i look forward to working with senator lockman, senator townsend, and others in this room to make housing a priority in this legislative session. we look forward to working with you. ultimately if we want to re-expand economic opportunity, and build a competitive workforce, we need to start in our schools. we all know this. we all know that a quality education starts with a committed, experienced, teacher. right now, the competition for the best features in the region it is more intense than ever. we need to pay our teachers more to win the competition with surrounding states. [applause] i know that you have heard this already, but when i introduce my budget next week, we will propose a significant increase in pay for our teachers. this will be a down payment on the work of the public education compensation committee. the committee is now studying the issue of educator pay and will present the recommendations in november. we need to act before that. i would like to thank the legislators working on that committee. representative williams and smith. thank you for your work on the committee. i also want to recognize and thank our education secretary, doctor mark holiday, who has a believe entering the committee. i want all of you to know we are committed to working with you on the issue of teacher pay. we can get it done every work together. all delaware children will benefit if we can attract the best teacher to our state and keep them working here. that is just as important. the goals for the other students have been consistent from the start of my menstruation. all children should be able to read a gray level by third grade. be proficient in math by middle school. graduate high school ready for college or for a career. if we meet those targets, our students will be better off in the long run. and our state will be stronger. here is the uncomfortable truth. too many students are behind. that's especially true among our most vulnerable students. that's just not acceptable for any of us. we need everyone to lean into this issue. we can all agree on this. all our children deserve a high quality education. my budget proposal next week will also include more than $50 million for opportunity funding. that's on top of the more than $100 million of investments that we have already made. as most people know, opportunity funding provides direct support for lower income children in delaware schools. i have visited schools across our state, and all three countries, and watch this investment in action. i encourage you to do the same. visit schools in your district. these investments are tailored to the needs of each school in each community. talk to our educators and teachers about what's working and what's not working. let us know what we can do more of, unless of. my budget will also increase our investment in the wilmington learning collaborative. many of you or there with us at wilmington library back in november when we signed this agreement creating the w. elsie. this is one that we've seen work in other states it is a voluntary network of schools in the three district that served students in the city. -- our goal is to empower teachers, school leaders, and parents to improve the outcomes of students in the city. we have been debating how to help these children for the past 30 years. in the months leading up to the votes on wlc, we knocked on doors across the city and talk to parents in every neighborhood. every neighborhood across the city. everyone we talk to have a different idea about what the priority ought to be. but everyone had the same hopes for our children. two in prove outcomes and help them succeed. i would like to recognize several people in the balcony who helped us create the wlc. freeman williams. where is freeman? your work at the wlc [applause] and karen eller, a dedicated teacher who works with her students every day. thank you. and to all of our partners who worked hard for this change we appreciate your work. my wife tracy has been a partner in these education efforts with our children. she has shown a tireless dedication to early literacy -- over the past year tracey have continued her efforts to help give delaware children, what they call, a first chance to succeed. get them early, and do the work that is needed to succeed. she has worked in lockstep with the family services council to address the challenges of these children. tracy has also coordinate work around childhood hunger. she is focused on shining a light on trauma among children, in delaware, and nationally. [applause] with support from the casey family programs and the american academy of pediatrics, tracy helped organize a fall summit on youth mental health and washington d.c.. i was wondering where she was that weekend. young people from around the country had a chance to speak directly with federal leaders. one of the great highlights of the last year, tracy and i welcomed dolly parton to the wilmington library. [applause] >>,,. , -- more than 26,000 delaware children are currently enrolled in the dolly parton imagina