The governors remarks in progress. This is just under 40 minutes. In 2016, wyoming is ranked first in Mountain Region for Work Force Development and was also rated third for new business startup activity and sixth best state for business. Despite being the most difficult budget year in my time in office, wyoming stayed proactive and forward looking. With the tap tal construction project w the important work of renovating and modernizing our state facilities like the wyoming state hospital, the wyoming life resource center, and the wyoming veterans home. We had Ground Breaking a of the the university of wyoming for the mcmurray High AltitudePerformance Center and the Education Research building last fall and the Ground Breaking for the Integrative Test Center last spring. At the university of wyoming in addition to new facility starts we opened the stem facility in march 2016 in the High Bay Research facility is opening soon. We have had incredible opportunities wealth created by our many businesses great citizens. We are grateful for so many partnerships. We are grateful for the partnerships we have with eastern show shoney and northern arap ho tribes. We are partners and friend to each other and i look forward to continued good relations with the tribes. Sergio mall danault the tribe liaison for the arap ho tribe is here today. Leslie has agreed to continue as tribal liaison in an informal capacity until a new leader is chosen. We appreciate the work which appreciate ties and increase communication. If all the tribal members here and the liaisons would please stand, we would like to welcome you to the state of the state. [ applause ] none of the prosperity we have enjoyed would be fully realized without the safety and security provided by our Law Enforcement and First Responders. What we see nationally sometimes Law Enforcement getting painted with a broad brush, and they are often vilified. In wyoming we dont do that. We continue to be extremely proud of our Law Enforcement and First Responders. Its time wyoming, as we continually do, to once again thank Law Enforcement and First Responders for the incredible work they do. [ applause ] we know firsthand, and we would not have a wyoming quality of life without the men and women who serve in the guard. Our guard helps fight the global war on terrorism and assists here at home with firefightering, flood control, and storm damage. Last year our guard performed evacuation missions in afghanistan, helped fight wildfires in idaho, filled sandbags in sar towing re and hudson. Helped prevent a wildfire in the Big Horn Mountains from becoming a much larger wildfire. Thats just a few of the things the guard did in one year. The general of wyoming is here today representing the guard. Thank you general. We are gratedful for your service and the service of all guard ems in. General, please stand so you may be recognized. [ applause ] luke, its great to have you here. As always you look very sharp in that uniform, sir. Thank you for being here. As we celebrated our guard members we remain grateful for all military members. Our veterans and those who serve our veterans. Ive asked today for two distinguished veterans to be here with us. Lee is vice chairman of the wyoming Veterans Commission and larry is the director. Both, unfortunately, have indicated they are going to be retiring early in 2017. Lee is a wyoming native and graduate of the university of wyoming. 1967, he went to vietnam as an army lieutenant. His list of military decorations include the distinguished service cross, the soldiers medal. The silver star, the bronze star, two air medals, two purple hearts, and the vietnamese cross of gallantry. He was nominated for our nations highest award, the medal of honor. Upon his return from vietnam, he was hailed as wyomings oddy murphy alluding to the highly decorated world war ii vet. Lee was helpful in reshaping the Veterans Commission so that it serves all generations of our veterans. His leadership ensured the commissions work is professional. He previously served as chairman of the commission and served ten years in all. Lees book has been used by countless vets and their families to better understand how they can adjust to life after serving in combat. Colonel bart bort took the oath of an army rotc scholarship cadet in 1975. His military and Government Service spanning more than 40 years began then. He served on active duty with the Fourth Infantry Division for five years, was collective for the active guard and reserve program for the wyoming army guard in 1985, and retired in 2000. He was recalled to active duty in 2000 serving as army guard chief of staff and was responsible for Airport Security augmentation for ten wyoming airports during following the 9 11 attack. He retired from the army again in 2004. Became director of the wyoming commission in 2007 and worked tirelessly since then for veterans. In my budget message i discuss one benefit the veterans tuition waver which suffered from last years session cuts, to address the issue in the interim i moved money to fix the program during the enter period but its just a shortterm fix. I favor a long term to those who join the guard when the promise of Tuition Assistance was in place. I also favor some form of support for new recruits. I hope you will favorably consider these matters. We, and i mean our state, our nearly 5,000 vets and all those who work with the commission, including me, will miss larry and lee. Our communities, our state, our country are better places because of men like larry and lee who step up to serve in the u. S. Military and keep on serving in a civilian capacity. With their work and their outstanding work of this wyoming legislature, wyoming is recognized as one of the very best states for veterans to retire in. Larry, lee, we couldnt thank you enough for all the service you provided to state and country. Please stand so we can recognize both of you. Thank you. [ applause ] here in wyoming, we are enriched by our great ag, tourism, and of course minerals. We know for those industries to remain strong we need the university of wyoming to be great. A Great University starts with great leadership. And we have a great leader in Lorie Nicholls uws 26th president. She started in may, 2016. She came at a challenging time. Its hard enough to be a University President let alone during a time of budget cuts. Its great to have her at the helm. We are proud of the new facilities at the university of wyoming which will strengthen wyomings reputation as a leader in education, technology and innovation. We proud of the Academic Research and athletic achievements at uw, speaking of which, how about that Cowboy Football Team . [ applause ] they gave us some great memories, and we appreciate that. And lorie, we thank you for your leadership at a critical time. And thank you for being here today. Please stand so we may recognize you and the university of wyoming. [ applause ] we are keeping in the competitive edge. And thats a wise thing to do at all times, especially during a time of constrained revenue. In 2016, we pressed on with efforts to promote and diversify our economy. Ill give a few examples. We are now and shall always be a proud ag state. Ag puts food on the table. Ag provides great open spaces. We have great wildlife in wyoming. We have Great Respect for the second amendment. And when you combine all these assets together, it is no surprise that hunting, firearms and shooting sports are part of wyomings history and heritage. We want to keep these traditions and pass them on to future generations. And then we want to share enjoyment of sporting life with others. With this in mind, i announce a new initiative for public shooting ranges and shooting competitions including the first annual mag pool sponsored governors match scheduled for some summer. A charge state parks with convening and Recreation Task force, the task force held first meeting in december and will provide recommendations to me, this year, on how to further expand the growing outdoor industry. Thanks to atlas carbon, tungsten, mcginley orthopedics, 2016 was a year of expansion for manufacturing. The wyoming firearms industry, important component of manufacturing continues to grow. Our World Class Companies manufacture handguns, precision rifles, silencers, optics, sights and other firearms accessories. Take, for example, mag pool, recently selected by the United States marines as the exclusive supplier of magazines for combat use. Isnt that incredible news for a wyoming company to supply our u. S. Marines . [ applause ] now, while there were doubters, i believe now more than ever we can continue to build on a robust fire arms industry in wyoming. You all are aware of my focus on the technology sector. With the unified network, and broadband and Global Technology summits, recruiting efforts and natural advantages like cool climate, energy availability, technology continues to emerge as a viable economic sector. I truly believe it can be a fourth largest sector and we must continue to build upon it. Last spring, with more than threequarters of the initiatives, the original Energy Strategy complete, we updated the strategy to include 11 new initiatives. Among those initiatives were working to make changes in dangerous species act. Endangered species act was passed in 1973. Since 1973, all the species listed, little over just 1 , have ever been delisted. It needs help. As chairman of the western governors association, my initiative was to get the western states on board to change and improve the endangered species act. And as you can be aware, all western states dont have the same politics as wyoming. While we worked together with outdoor groups, with environmental groups, we put together a proposal and im pleased to say in june last year western governors voted unanimously for improvements to the endangered species act. Were now going to take it through the National Association and take it to congress. It is time to make improvements to the endangered species act. [ applause ] we continue with the Energy Strategy, with review of recly nation rules, carbon innovation. I greatly appreciate the Legislature Support of the Energy Strategy, which helped with implementation. We want to be the energy state in terms of innovation and we can be. The Carbon Initiative looks at building an industry around co2. This means investing in advance Energy Technologies and innovation. The integrated test center under construction now at the dry forks station in gillette is part of this effort. The relationships we fostered with exprize has put together a 10 million prize for the team that can figure out how to capture that co2 and not only capture it, but use it to make a useful product. This is not only brought attention in wyoming to how we help further coal, but around the country. The governor of montana is asking his legislature to help participate in this. We have companies coming to wyoming to learn what they can do to participate in it. It is very exciting. Very important to be have that innovation here in wyoming. And Industrial Park project for value eddadded Energy Products part of the Carbon Initiative n 2014, this body appropriated 15 million for the itc and provided seed money to begin an Energy RelatedIndustrial Park project. Projects like these not only help wyomings number one industry, minerals, especially coal, they foster diversification. The itc is well on its way and we need to pursue the Industrial Park project this year. I hope youll consider a bill that provides for further implementation of the initiatives and Energy Strategy. We are proud that wyoming is the energy state and we are the energy state. In 2016, as part of that we continue to implement that which goes with energy, which is water. The state water strategy was issued two years ago. Water strategy contains ten initiatives. One of the initiatives is the ten and ten project. Which seeks to build ten new reservoirs in ten years. While i know it is ambitious, we have come a long ways and im pleased to say omnibus water bill youll consider this session has four of these ten in ten projects. The Big Sandy Reservoir enlargement and sublet and sweet county, the creek reservoir in big horn county, the levitt reservoir expansion in big horn county, water projects like these are funded separately from Government Operations, education and School Construction and maintenance. These funds generally come from water account three, which accumulated over the years and has the funding available. Together these projects would add over 31,000 acre feet of storage of our most precious Natural Resource that is water. Water is key to economic development, and Ag Production and more and Water Development must remain a priority. In 2016, the executive branch, we continue to streamline our rules and tighten our belts. For example, we put uniform rules in place for Public Record requests, this is in addition to my request two years ago to have all agencies reduce their rules by 30 . We have fewer rules. We are spending less. And were down positions from fiscal year 2011, my first year in office. We have in wyoming bucked the trend of so many governments that only grow. While being careful with the budget is critical, we can never forget we are more than counters of dollars. We are here for the citizens of wyoming. To be sure, we must remain aware of our inmate population, our disabled population, the health care we are providing or not providing to the citizens of wyoming, and always we think of our families, and the next generation, our children. In september, i sponsored the governor symposium on Suicide Prevention in casper. It is important to talk about suicide in ways it reduce suicide. People who are hurting need help. And we need to look for ways how we can better provide it. This will now become an annual symposium. In november i announced the Endow Initiative at the business forum. A longterm planning effort to Economic Diversification. The acronym stands for economically needed diversification options for wyoming. I seek 2. 5 million for this initiative in my supplemental Budget Proposal. Ill continue to work for Economic Diversification building on our successes during my last two years in office, however as a state we need a plan that goes beyond one governors time in office. We need a 20year plan. We do not diversify to displace energy, tourism and ag. We diverse to increase our Economic Opportunities in those areas to expand our nick base overall. As we diversify our industries, we must look at how we tax our industries. Diversification and a broadbased fair tax structure are required to stabilize our economy. Our revenue. We need to diversify not only to stabilize and grow our revenue, but equally important as that as equally important to that is we need to diversify to benefit our young people. We need to provide more options for our young people to give them as many reasons as possible to say yes to staying in wyoming as we can. As we look at our population, we know that at any given time period we lose between 60 of the age group between 18 and 25. Our future will never be as bright as it can be if we dont do all we can to keep young people home. Home in wyoming. The energy [ applause ] the energy bust and revenue fallout from reminds us where the Endow Initiative is imperative. I want to thank president b. Bout and speaker hershman for their leadership on moving endow forward. In december, we got some great news, the National ParkService Completed the purchase of the 640 acre flats, part of state trust land, located within grand teton National Park for 46 million. 23 million came from the federal government and 23 million came from over 5,000 private donations through the grand teton National Park foundation. I think all the donors who made this happen, the legislature for its support and, of course, we remember the late u. S. Senator craig thomas who got the ball rolling on this. [ applause ] not only is this good new