[applause]

[cheers and applause] c oh come on. good morning. thank you for that warm welcome and thank you for being in person all the people watching on line or listening remotely we say thank you for joining us for the 2024 state of the state. you've all been thoroughly welcomed this morning but i want to give a special shout out to a few people in the course i've got to start with first lady catherine and her family members she spirit their sister julie and her cousin lisa and watching on line to the rest of our rest of our extended families and their sons joe and tom and her daughter jesse and their extended families. when you serve your family serves with you so i want to be sure to at this time thank them for all their support in the seven years in today's a special

day because it's jesse's birthday and so we need on a one, two, three everybody to yell happy birthday jesse. it will be the largest group to ever yell her birthday at the same time. one, 23, happy birthday jesse [applause] way to go. you guys did fantastic. [applause] you saw her here on stage but to have such an outstanding partner in the tammy miller. she's an asset for the state of north dakota and we have a historic year in terms of milestones in progress but her background in finance private-sector leadership is the ceo of a company with over 4000 people operating in 29 states you rarely get people like that delete the private-sector and the lieutenant governors made a huge difference to transform

government. i want to give her womb were welcome. say thank you for your great leadership. [applause] and kicking us off today after the great music we had and thank you for hosting us and seen a lot of clever ways to impress the legislature that we need more money for improvements. pulling the plug as we were getting here i think president east end that was brilliant. and for legislators you may want to look at the lector back here. there probably are some upgrades that could be made but here we are at the auditorium's namesake. as you know this is the name, she was the second rough rider award winner in the state of north dakota and one of the states highest honor people in

1951. her success is there success though it's an honor to be in the stage and hollow named after one of our rough riders. the stark county commissioners the whole group fantastic job legislature kicking us off today senator david hogue are majority leader in our minority leaders you've all been recognized for thank you all for your important leadership in the course they are busy working in d.c. but i do want to say hello important are resisting this hoeven senator cramer and congressman armstrong three people in strong and powerful positions in d.c.. they are good at their jobs as legislators and to help push back the federal government so let's say thanks right now. [applause]

and we have our supreme court chief justice jensen and the other justices and districtwide justices. we have three great branches of government in our state and we weren't allowed in time in seven years in office the demographics of retirement is the major reason that we have set a record. i've had the honor of appointing 20 different district judges and supreme court judges. sometimes you go back in history and sometimes the governor in 40 years in office might appoint two to four. we have done 20. the process has been an important one. we'll talk about behavior health later but i want to share right now as part of appointing judges to get to interview 75 different people that have come up through the judicial system in one of the questions i always ask is how much of your job as a judge

advocate in a prosecutor and defender working in her system and north dakota or in the private-sector working with criminal defense how much of your work would go away if we eliminate behavioral health and addiction. i've never heard an answer. think of what is the state and a nation in our judicial system dealing with the problems of something we can work to fix so keep that in the back of your mind when we are talking about behavior health. we do a nice job on the back in but i do want to say are administered yours also around third judicial area they were carefully behind the scene that they never get recognized. they run it efficiently and effectively. let's say thank you to the frontline workers. [applause]

since this is a day for reflection it's the duty and honor and after a appoint them everyone calls them your honor. due to legislative budget cuts in the governor's office i ride all my own jolts. that's all you're going to get. dad jolts but i learned last week how do you know what a joke becomes a bad joke? it becomes apparent. [laughter] we are done here. [applause] we have a lot of gratitude for the toughest elected job and north dakota of any elected officials. we have great tribal chairs and

tribal council spirit lake standing rock chairman janet of veteran turtle mountain chippewa leader chairman hill incredible folks and we have made so much progress together. one of our top on the objective has been state travel. the collaboration we have had historic tax revenue sharing which senator cook was in the service last friday. they came to his prayer service for the work that he did on making sure we had fairness and equity. the gaming contacts which we issued last year that had been

going on for 20 years and agreement that improved our ability to respond and to work with the tribes on cybersecurity because their tribes are being attacked to ransomware through foreign entities. we look forward to building on all of the partners in the five tribal nations. i remind everyone guess they are enrolled members of tribes that are sovereign nations that every single one is a north dakota system and it's our responsibility and duty to serve alongside with them. from the government to government stamp what i would say encourage all of you to join in our strengthening government to government relationships. our tribal conference you are all invited every agency. i just want to say when we had federal partners to be a part of that they say this is the best government to government tribal state conference in the country.

don't miss it. it's coming up in june gill learned a lot and you'll make great relationships. there's economic opportunities as well. we are also grateful for the tremendous dedicated cabinet leaders that we have. it's so important when you are leading in the credit sometimes goes to the governor and lieutenant governor but you can get any of these things done unless you have people that are driving in the same direction. it's been an honor to work with these cabinet leaders of the haves and they have five he was joined in the last year who are looking forward to working with. she's off to strong start in one of the commitments we have in 2024 from our office is we are digging in as hard as ever in a strategic planning process with all of you. over 75 agencies will be there in the budget process that follows it. we are committed in delivering. albeit delivering the budget address next december before the

end of my term. we have three to 27 days left. we will be delivering the best budget the state is ever received and that means it will be better than the last one we did. we are super committed to that process to make sure you have the best starting point in the legislature to make smart investments to take their state forward. the director has been on the ground and running. this is a huge challenge. we have massive transportation things going on in want to tell him thank you for his collaboration and three new commissioners that started last week when it was an external player and two there were internal. the commissioners here the deputy of texas a much larger job in hhh says our largest agency in terms of budgets and people affairs director bret hawke is taking over and congratulations to director kobe

bryant. he has time here in new englund. he knows her system and he'll be fantastic. again for those by people let's give them a hand and say thank you. [applause] we have a small but mighty governor's office team all told about 16 people. we we are not a big agency but we get a lot done because the people we have work around-the-clock seven days a week. they are all amazing and everyone of them like me will be coasting to the finish line so getting ready for four things helping announce that aren't even being announced today. we are going to keep driving our agenda forward. we did make story progress working with all of you tribes in the legislation and leaders and some the things we have accomplished are the long-standing practical issues

and identified and implemented commonsense solutions. these are benefiting us. some of you in this room do that. take one that we didn't even talk about last year during the session because we solved it. protecting over 25% of their health care 25% of our k-12 students and the entire university of the state owns over $60 billion in property value protected was completely stalled and stopped by the state of for 53 reasons. they said here's a 53 seat -- reasons you can't get a permit. but we work together and got it done in salt it with the joint process with minnesota and it's being billed and by 2027 we are going to have 250,000 people who don't have the worry about it anymore and that will help the economic growth continue in that

market. pension reform. mike devore was appearing in its been tried and tried and it happened this year. $1.9 billion we met the obligations completely about 53,000 current members and retirees. now we have a 401(k) style plan that will allow us and their leaders to recruit young people to work for the state of north dakota. good job. [applause] the primary seatbelt has been tried since 2000. we lose more than 100 people every year to otter deaths are conjuring up a goal of saying there's no acceptable number other than zero. it's not like we got it down to 75 because 75 is still a son and a daughter and niece or nephew.

one is to many of the work we can do with d.o.t. human services and a lot of these are impaired driving issues but it took a legislator like dean rommel who helped to drive it and to have the courage to say with and we got a past. we are one of the last states to have a primary seatbelt law. i'm a freedom of liberty guy but i'm also a guy that guess what there's nothing in the constitution that says you can drive could you have to have a license to be qualified and you need to not be impaired and you have to be qualified to do it. it's not like the right to vote. that's something you apply for and you get the skill to that. if you want to be doing that you have to achieve something so good job. we got it done. corporate farming we had the most outdated corporate farming laws in america. we killed animal agriculture and i mean killed.

we are still doing -- and almost no sheep herds and the stated we had less, 12,000 dairy cattle in our state. we were importing milk and of the state. we had one north dakota entity running at darion oregon where they could do animal agriculture and they had 35,000 dairy in oregon. we and our whole state of 12,000 so i say we ran into the ground. we carved out and said animal agriculture we will protect family farming that the strongest protections for family farmers in the nation. corporations can own land here and if you and i want to start a farm together and you're related to me, we couldn't start a farm

together here so we have the tightest protections for family farmers. we can save our tradition and open up the door for cattle and since the law passed we have several, 12,000 dairy firms to want to build on our side of the river instead of the minnesota side or the celtic of the site. we are bringing cattle back which will save our communities. so that's fantastic in the course interest rates are super high right now. guess what, we have smart leaders and a couple of years ago we said wow maybe we could borrow some money and take some of these big projects like the diversion like the minot floods the money that would flow into our spending like water infrastructure would compete with all the smaller sized megaprojects on the table. 680 million-dollar bonding package and 2021 to support

infrastructure upgrades took advantage of historic low interest rates. that would not have happened without senator rich warden sitting in the front pushing through that bill. thank you. [applause] this last year record 550 million-dollar income or property tax relief with the prime sponsor who's always been a champion. he and i are completely alike. we still need to get north dakota down to zero income tax and we'll talk more about that later. thank you craig for being such a strong proponent of lower taxes and her stay. that's just a few of the things in aikido on and on. other than that we have so much work to get them could be a big challenges that lie ahead in the biggest challenge we face in her state is the workforce. we have made significant headway last session to tackle one of the biggest barriers to

workforce participation. the legislature came to understand the thing that was holding us back when we have 30,000 jobs open in our state in every restaurant in every manufacture and every farmer and certainly every oil company in the state does not have enough workers and we don't have enough teachers. we need to make sure we were investing in workforce infrastructure. what is the workforce infrastructure look like today? one of them as childcare. if you have too educated parents that are here are too educated parents want to move here we had the legislature last year that told me personally they finally got the spot or both of their kids were career folks living in south dakota and they would come home starting a family and they wanted to be close to their grandparents and they were coming back to their hometown. they couldn't find it childcare slots and so they move back

home. we have made progress on childcare and housing. this will be another big lift. that's not the governments job. workforce infrastructure we have to create the incentives for the private-sector to bring n. to solve these problems. we have to continue to work as one across all of state government to cabinet leaders are getting so good at right now. and what we have done on the drilling and waters usa and 20 rules that are currently being jammed by the federal government and i say rule of pages. you don't understand the amount of time and energy the ags office in our office and the land board, we are to defend sovereign state license board because these rules are trying to take the power of the state

to move it towards unelected bureaucrats in d.c.. we have got to keep fighting back on that and we will do that. we have made great progress in attracting capitol investment into our state and that's how we grow and investment investment in the workforce. we do that for the things we are doing right now reducing taxes cutting red tape. this legislature passed 50 added that 51 red tape reduction bills we sent them last year and that's fantastic and we are building healthy and vibrant community so we can compete against every other state. every one of job titles i talked about if you're a teacher or nurse or work in manufacturing, if you can do anything even drive a combine if you can work there you can get a job anywhere in this country because they have jobs open in virtually every industry. we are in a competition like never before. their 10 million jobs open in america, 10 million some people

move to states because it's warm. we have been quite sold that yet in our state but we had to compete in other ways but one of the ways we compete is on innovation or regulation. in our office we get together and innovation and not regulation. we need a rule to stop some person from from doing that and i say how bout have innovation so we never had to do it in the first place. we want to unleash her states full potential. innovation in the forward-looking. renovation is looking. but you get a federal role in place by the time they get in pretty soon you're like who's going to monitor that to make sure that company is following that rule? the federal government as we have to stop this issue. we have a government and agent with a clipboard driving around western north dakota trying to make sure that someone is following it and it takes the federal government eight years to go from an idea to implementation to enforcement?

we have ripped through four evolutions of moore's law with a computer chip that half the price and by the time you get out there and drive around in your pickup to do some monitoring we could be tracking all that electronically. digitally and remotely. satellite internet upload whatever you want data that's collected automatically that's accurate fast fast remote and. data is collected by humans that the high cost in and inaccurate but the regulation not only when you make the rule but the downstream costs raises the cost of almost every product in america. our state needs to hold high innovation not regulation of that's part of her past. opportunities have never been greater. with ai and the power of natural language computing it is unbelievable what we can do to transform the way we think about

it. it's a super exciting with to do a better job. one of the things that catherine and i learned this last year when we are traveling around the country sharing the amazing story of north dakota at such an honor to represent the state and the rest of the nation does not understand us. it's not like they don't understand us like they have never met anybody from her state before and probably because of our brand literally because we are in north dakota for the one thing for sure that will be brought up will talk about how cold it is and yes it's super freezing. when we were kids we all froze walking to school uphill both ways 50 below windchill and all of these things are frozen your you brought it in and fought it

out. we just play into it when we do that but here's the thing. we understand more than ever in my lifetime i've worked with people from 120 countries who didn't have the right to vote the buchter free speech or the right to assemble in the customers and team members working around the 50 states. we had a good thing going on here but when you see what's happened in the rest of her country and what's going on here in north dakota we have the best of america right here. [applause] we feed the world. we are the top producer. we should make sure that every k-12 student and every

university student in our system understands and can recite this list because if they go what you do in north dakota? how bout we feed the world as the top producer of a dozen commodities in the top five of another eight commodities. and soybeans were shooting up. soybeans county was the largest soybean producing county in america a couple of years ago. that wasn't possible when i was a kid and now just during this last administration of hours we have gone through processing plants with one open into more on the way. that's close to a billion dollars of capitol investment and value-added around one product soy beans and now we see what's going on with corn and ethanol in the future that has never been brighter. that's fantastic and energy. i've met people that live in

north dakota, you guys are an energy state? they didn't know we were in energy state. how can we have people in america who drive an american heat their homes and not know the ones who are providing a big chunk of that. the number three oil producing state. how many school kids would say how many oil wells we have in north dakota would anybody answer we have 18,733 wells? that's a record and it's going up every month. the permits we are getting when i hear people say we have to ban drilling on federal land i've heard people that said that they get an image of the 1950s rock hudson movie in black and white with oil flying all over and everybody is covered with oil spewing out on the ground and they are like if you do that on federal land we will bring everything. i tell them three-quarters of the well permits we are offering

right now north dakota the traditional talk and well is two miles down into miles over. 75% of the new permits are two miles down in three mouse over. we can drill drill and land three miles away sending a check to the federal government to reduce the deficit and no one would step foot on the land. we had to tell her story. we had to tell her story to the oil industry of today so efficient and so effective in so safe and so smart and so environmentally friendly compared to any other nation. north dakota does it better than anyone and we are losing the battle or hats nationally losing the battle. some people people say we are the bad bad guys. you have fossil fuels? we are helping stabilize the world so we don't have to buy energy from iran and iraq and russia and venezuela. we didn't use that oil money to support terrorism. we have to tell our story here

and some people how many people knew in november we set a record for north dakota. $3.5 billion not million, billion cubic feet per day. 3.5 billion cubic feet per day. unbelievable. and what we can do is clean natural gas to heat homes and create electricity create fertilizer about the things we can do these patrolling projects are amazing things that they can do and we always been an all of the the above electricity state. we are all driving towards carbon sequestration and zero co2. that power will help save the nation because every other state is shutting down their base load prematurely at a time when the demand for electricity goes up-and-up.

it won't be because of electric cars. it will go up for everything else including, including demand for data services. all of the stuff with ai and ability to transform every job in every company and industry to ai requires power to run those data centers and we should be building building more of those in north dakota. biofuels and what's happening here in dickerson of banal renewable fuels hydro from the dam. all of the above energy strategies or wind portfolio. we are providing energy cheaper than anyone else and what a surprise interview with so much that was going on in north dakota and tell someone we have the lowest average price of electricity in the nation to customers for all segments in north dakota better, cheaper and faster here more reliable than anyplace else. energy leader of america right here, north dakota. [applause]

and how about our military? american should know our air force bases in north dakota schnoor air force bases in the north dakota national guard play a role in protecting our nation's freedom. we have allowed people that say we don't really know what's going on up there. how about the fact that we are operating at minot two of the three legs of the nuclear triad. we have a missile wing in a bomber wing. how about the fact that you and me, not you and me. grand forks air force base and there's a lot of conjunction with you and me. at the air force base they have a new mission for the global hawks are flying and all being refurbished there. it's $4 billion they are refurbishing with the largest unmanned aircraft in the world. they have 83-foot wing spans. they fly for 24 hours. they leap and forks and flights of the pacific and fly back.

that's exciting and interesting. we are such a leader in unmanned aerial systems both commercially and otherwise. the city of minot winning the trophy for going above and beyond supporting airmen and their families. i had a trick question this last year with a national reporter and talking about the nuclear triad. he asked me hey with the three legs of the nuclear triad and which was your favorite? we underestimate north dakota and this guy guy probably does it know i'm talking about so i'm going to embarrass him on a national program. i said we are the only state that has two of the three but i also said my favorite might be the third uss north dakota one of the largest nuclear submarines in the world and we have this lake that so big. if we can get them back and forth will have all three legs

in the nuclear triad. [applause] that would be fun. catherine and i had a chance to be on that incredible boat and i do chance in september 2 change the command that is such an honor for state to be connected with that one piece of the u.s. navy and a great relationship between that boat and i know many legislators say we should keep that relationship growing. natural resources wow. a gift that we have been given. if you want to get up every day and be grateful for something be grateful for what has given us through natural resources. we have been so richly blessed with the soil that we have across our state and all that agriculture. that only happens because of the rich land we have been given. record amounts of oil and gas production is their geology and

we have so many other things we could do here. we have diverse land and stunning sunsets and i think people ought to know the fact that our sunsets are the best in america. we don't have pesky buildings that block the thing. there's no trees that are blocking your view of the sunset and i don't need minnesota. minnesota has five cities with statues of paul bunyan and you can barely see the guy because there are so many trees. he did all of his best work in north dakota and we are so humbled we don't even have a statue for him. we are just like gone, finished the job done. but with that and i'm sure it's the sunsets but how cool is this? over the majority of my lifetime and for some people even more in the 1930s lived up until this

last decade you would have virtually your entire life is the only state in the nation that was a losing population. 49 states grew between 1930 and 2005 and one shrank in north dakota. we had less population in early 2000 then at the end of the depression and you say how did that happen? it was a keen effort. i was helping in the 1980s with some other people but here we are and what they are natural resources with innovation and a private-sector investment in the western part of our state where we least expected if that's what drove us and the revenue coming up at the oil and gas administration which is a massive input which affects their health care our education our roads are water projects we have been able to leverage that industry in every corner

thursday. there is no school kid a living person in our state that hasn't benefited from the oil and gas industry and because of that people are saying wow they have the infrastructure and great schools and great cities and maybe all move there. maybe i will move home. we have young people that are staying. we went from having one of the most -- lowest birthrates to one of the highest. we set an all-time high record in population this past year. we broke through now we are at 784,000 with an all-time record high population. let's keep that going and if you guys have kids and grandkids that are raising families tell them to keep it up, way to go. ..

laborforce participation. we have states we are competing with people are still on the silence of the pandemic. they're working two jobs people in north dakota know how to work. these rankings not only have we become younger and happier, we have also now become the second best state to raise a family. tell everybody you know, as part of this thing to tell people this is the best place, the best in america with safe cities, great schools you want to raise a family? do it here. guess what we were just recently named, thank you legislature, thank you state water commission, second-best infrastructure in the state and that includes of course our infrastructure related we have invested in our high-speed bandwidth and broadband we have amongst the best broadband infrastructure number two in education and childcare amazing. and a new and that just came

out, best estate for business friendliness. this is like one of the best places to do that. another thing along with the friendliest we also have name by forbes magazine's second year old best estate to start a business. best estate to start a business. i've been in business start ups in north dakota and i am telling us a lot better now than it was in the 1980s because we actually care and we got examples but we have a mentors and programs that help people. one of the reasons why it's a best place to start a business is our failure rate is lower three out of four new startups actually survived that's way higher than other states. so wait to go north dakota. thanks to conservative budgeting, efficient operations, strong revenues and a ton of investment by the private sector that creates all this wealth, guess what. our state this in the best financial shape it has ever ever been. [applause] yes. [applause]

on june 30 we closed out the 21 -- 23 biennial record general fund ending balance of nearly one and a half billion dollars for that's a billion with a b for people not familiar with the budgeting process, normally when you plan a budget you try to end the budgeting process with 58 million or 75 million. have a little cushion in there. 1.5 billion. that was our ending balance. we had an estimate it was going to be high. it ended up about 300 million higher than that. so when we were back in the special session -- mike you got this much cash round one of things you might say to yourself is hey, maybe we should give it back to tax payers through tax relief. try to in special session had a bill the got through one of the chambers 91 million ran into a roadblock. we did not get it done but we should keep going.

to be competitive and retaining an active workforce which is our number one job to keep her say growing and thriving to give our businesses open. to attract capitol. workforce used to follow capitol. they would be like the company as an ounce for opening a big plant here are from one would move there to get a job there. i've not been on the phone -- i was on that with the head they got 40000 employees and they operate in 80 different countries were just getting redding -- with the board's boardsapprove three to $50 millr soybean plant in jamestown. i'm like what got this deal forgets on the phone with him he is can we hire 75 people in jamestown? we have a plan for having a hard time hiring there. can we actually get workforce? capitol follows workforce it used to be exactly the other way around workforce will follow capitol we've got to solve the workforce problem every possible way we can we solve it for the energy industry. we have more fracking crews all

the numbers for the reserves assured it would be higher, a lot higher all of the companies that work in north dakota warily of 39 rigs operating right that we should have 60s workforce issue. we can celebrate the record high i want to make sure everyone understands we are not where we could be if we solve workforce we could be even higher. so to be competitive one of the simplest things we could do it without the money to do is get to zero income tax. why does that matter? part of it matters because were competing at states with zero income tax. these dollars and the ending fund balances think about like your checking account the end of the year we end up with more in our checking account than we thought. we have reserves think of those savings accounts and our reserves have never been higher. get this, the budget stabilization fund and the strategic investment and improvement fund which i affectionately called checking account to general fund to we will have a proposal to make the

whole thing go away and have the money going to the general fund we can get rid of the whole shift thing some people are plotting from the treasurer's office. this is dollars that just flow in but look at this. look at the scale of this compared to where we were we whenhe took office and this is a reflection. you go around too all the other reserves we have stacked up these are just a couple of them we have so much cash in so many different places its seven times more than when we took office. at in terms of trust funds because that slide right there and does not include trust funds including the legacy fund that did not exist 10 years ago. and now the legacy fund gets a giant check every month. 30% of our oil tax revenue goes into that. and remember oil taxes for those getting close attention -- be taken off the top. if you do not make income as an individual you don't pay income

tax if you are a farmer and don't have an income you don't pay income tax rate you are an oil company we have 10% of your revenue not 10% of your income. it is a revenue taxes what we are doing. as long as we are producing there's money coming in every month and growing and growing. on the next summer of the legacy fund the schools trust fund sits at 6.1 billion. last year we were kicking $5 million of payment out of that trust fund for common schools that goes out to help reduce property taxes. that just happens without anybody paying attention. we do so much to reduce property tax already in our budget. but anyway we projectable and the current budget cycle in jund general fund balance of 518 million. after six months, through december we are running one or 54 million ahead we are 11% had forecasters to the first six months. things are cooking along and that is great sprayed north

north dakota we are hiring. we found out this morning just in today we are tied with a maryland for the lowest unemployment rate in america 1.9%. thank you to all of our private sector folks who are hiring. [applause] we talked about new business startups and a great place to start a business. this is how the economy stays vibrant. 8000 new businesses registered to open and north dakota in 2023. we are going to continue to have demand. we know when we talk about jobs and officially there might be 14 or 15000 jobs in service. the number always doubles, we know that if you have your healthcare organizations with survey they might post five nursing positions and then leave it posted forever versus paying to post 100 position at my most might have 10 or 20 times more open than what they are posting.

so we have got this big workforce challenge. i'm going to the whole thing to bring it to this point this is for the state of the state is. i went there almost every other governor this is our state of the state we are stronger unbelievably strong. the state of our state is under estimate that the state of our state. we are so good at so many things. we have never been stronger financially, economically, people wise we've never been stronger. the state of the state's be under estimate by people externally. we have to change that. the way we get capitol and we get people to move your, people underestimate how beautiful it is. they underestimate we have great weather parade they .they underestimate everything about us. we have to tell our story differently because we are competing. we are competing with got to tell our story differently and better. we're going to shift gears right now. something we want to do is honor

those who served. we are honoring those americans we know in north dakota know that makes us best in americus we cherish our god-given freedoms we honor those who risk their lives and preserve our liberty we do that right now not everybody in the countries during that this past year we were reminded that sometimes that service demands ultimate sacrifice. the whole state of north dakota stood frozen when they saw the news on july 14 the fargo police officer jake was fatally shot. he was fatally shot when he was courageously taking action towards an assailant who had ambushed and critically injured two of his fellow officers andrew and tyler. who i have had the honor of meeting along with a bystander correlate because we could just move to north dakota three weeks earlier to get her phd. when one person shot and killed two people have taken multiple

gunshots down. we have a citizen that is injured seriously and officer zach robinson takes action, puts himself at risk to neutralize the shooter and saving countless other lives. the individual doing the shooting at 1300 rounds in his vehicle. the attorney general at wrigleyy knows all about this case. we came very close to having something that would put us on a much different level of national news. but in our state the best of america wow our men in blue responded. last month sadly mercer county was tragically killed by a vehicle crash when he was trying to protect his community from danger. if we moved to the military side is not a fatality but it's a tragedy. on christmas day and army pilot suffered eight serious serious head injury on a one-way drone

attack on a u.s. military base he was not flying the helicopter at that time he was at a base. taking incoming fire we are thankful has been transported back to the united states with that head injury he is breathing on his own he's opened his eyes i talk to his dad last night. he's there at walter reed with his wife and mother and other family members. was going to share with all of you today i just ask all of you join catherine and i and everybody and north dakota let's hold him in our prayers for a full recovery for these are people serving our country and fighting for our liberty. [applause] as wars erupt around the world we are reminded freedom is not free and we should be grateful not just on military honoring

days not on memorial day, veterans day peace officer remarked that we to a great job and all that. we got to make sure we are doing that every day. right now for anybody who has served any active military in the veterans anybody that's in law enforcement either past or present if you could stand right now and we want a chance to say thank you to you. [applause] [applause] >> have we have said in addition to our words and applause we want to make sure we are showing gratitude for law enforcement and military with our actions that is why the legislature this past year did such a great job. we are all in it together but we made huge strides towards reaching our goal in the most military friendly state in the nation. when you look at the percentage

of people in this audience it stood up that are also serving in here because you are an elected leader that makes my heart burst with pride for all of you for continuing to serve in the way you are serving. we have taken steps over the last few years we've exempted military state income tax have expanded tuition assistance for guard members. we have cut red tape for military childcare providers at their dod license work they job to reapply redundantly and north dakota. and contributing to our community north dakota is home to 13000 active guard and reserve service members who with their families make countless positive contributions to our communities. the national guard and north dakota the model says always ready, always there. they are there when we need them in a crisis high performing high-performingorganizations ony have high-performing leadership. we are very, very fortunate leading our north dakota national guard these past eight years major general doorman. whether it is soldier serving at

the southern border who i have had the honor to our serving overseas. the leadership make sure they are well-trained and well well l prepared for their mission. generals here and it went to see if i can see him and say thank you if you are here. go ahead and stand up sir thank you so much. [applause] our dedication to the military's unwavering progress could not have been accomplished without the work of task force in mind military issues and north dakota shared by none other than lieutenant governor tammy miller. there's still more work to be done. we want to give the soldiers on top of our mind in the coming months we want to double down the months to be at the most military friendly state for our soldiers and families but also want to keep driving across other issues. we want to establish a cross

agency military friendly working group here at work with north dakota national guard to support the task force mind developing proposal related to healthcare, childcare, licensure and more to have those ready for the next legislative session so we can keep moving towards being the most military friendly state in the nation. we will leave no doubt north dakota is and will forever be the place where this is the best place to be a military member. but one thing we have to do is we have to take care of the members after they are out of the military. this is 2024. who want to make sure we are doing the right thing. we've got a lot of work to do on the post traumatic things that happen. every year, and our country, suicide completed suicides take the lives of over 6000 veterans and military members of the united states.

two actual combat. as often reminds us the veterans are often left without the behavioral health and medical support services they need to manage invisible but real scars. we signed a proclamation declaring 2024 is the veteran and military suicide prevention and awareness year for this proclamation is inspired by developed in conjunction with the american legion, be the one program. it clearly connect with veterans are struggling with the thought of suicide. we are honored to have here today with as leaders of the north dakota american legion commander clarence carol. vice commander jacob and don. they are here along with other members of the three of you could please stand to be recognized. thank you for all the work you are doing. [applause]

we are looking forward to collaborate with the american legion building up the governor's challenge led by north dakota carrots and partnering with all military veteran organizations to leave no veteran behind. these individuals have answered the call for their country when they served the north dakota we know -- and if we need to know each veteran will know the citizens of our state and our government in this state is behind them and that we have their backs. one thing we could all do right now to immediately start raising awareness for our veterans and our citizens alike because we have issues with non- metairie behavioral health and suicide as aswell we need to expand the marketing of that night 88 suicide crisis like this the bible, accessible free resource can be called or text at any time. effective immediately but we are doing across the governor's office and every cabinet agency we have in-state we are going to display the 988 icon on the front page of those webpages that will link people to the resources they need so we can have awareness everywhere. people know what to do an

emergency to call 91 people do not yet know 988 is the place you call if you know someone who is in need for behavioral health issue. even if you have an inkling of a concern you can call this number. we want to encourage state agencies government entities in the private sector to followed suit to proudly display the 988 icon because it is going to share that you care about the people, you care about our veterans to help raise awareness around suicide. let's indeed stigmatize the fear of asking for mental health support that's one of the problems we have her on the behavioral health side the challenge of behavioral health is prevalent in all of society not just the veterans population that's why we made behavioral health and addiction from the start seven years ago one of our five strategic initiatives. who knew that when we started that seven years ago that now we would be facing a crisis of mammoth proportions that did not exist then. we haven't lost -- in the last three years under joe biden's administration features but a new record of overdose deaths

and now we have passed well past the three and a thousand mark in a nation. we have lost the equivalent of five vietnam's to overdose deaths in the last three years is over one or 200,002,023. it's over three to people a day that we are losing. it is just unbelievable. but what we are focusing on and north dakota, one of the things we have focused on his recovery. it is a substantial increase recovery support services or individuals that got involved with the criminal justice system. we talked about the early it's the most extensive way to treat behavioral health problem with incarceration. sometimes it's necessary for violent crime but if there are times that we need to be doing is having the services upfront that keep people from getting in the situation where they have got to conduct property crimes to pay for their addiction. this program that we have right now freedom recovery has 1700 participants in and served nearly 6003 unit individuals through 57 share coordinated

providers but with this is doing is reducing recidivism. if we get people related to addiction we get them out and keep them out and help them get a job, get a place to live, get a drivers license socially determines a health food we keep them out now we've got more people in the workforce. we've got more people connect with the family and their kids we are spending less money on the backend. on incarcerations with the win for everybody. substance abuse disorder vouchers, 7000 individuals have access the substance abuse vouchers program thank you legislature 18 million to help support this. this is a drop in the bucket compared to what we pay on the backend for all of the county cy and city jails around the state and our whole justice system could be 75% related to addiction and behavioral health we did not have enough providers in our state we have rural areas or is not anywhere close to enough providers the program that came up was let's take

people's lived experience who can help others attain and stay and recovery and now have 1000's. support specialists. over half of them have criminal justice interaction. they are likely a felon. these are people who might've been unemployable who are now working and have a job keeping other people sober. keeping other people in recovery and keeping other people out of an expensive solution which is back in criminal justice recovery housing is another issue one thing you can do in this country we say no discrimination. you've got a felony while we can discriminate where you work we can discriminate where you live. there is no such thing as i have served my time and i've paid my debt to society if you have a felony and about 30 or 40% more things today are felony than they were when i was a kid. you can get a felony pretty easy today in a lot of ways to end up with this thing give stigmatize your whole life. 670 bump and surf the recovery

housing assistance is may 22. we've got 11 providers 30 recovery homes. again this is working to help keep people in productive way to beat better neighbors is supposed or trying to make better prisoners behavior health workforce we made great strides to access and services to people facing addiction. when our states hit behavioral health providers are increasingly challenged by workforce shortages. in addition too. support specialist program were working the coming months work with university leaders the healthcare system private sector to help solve the critical issue for the office of recovery reinvented in partnership with north dakota hhs. it will be helped by facilitating conversations and strategic planning efforts across the state regarding behavioral health workforce specifically. expect legislatures to see more at legislation to help solve the particular problem. recovery reinvented unbelievable what this is done it has made

great strides to limit the shame and stigma of addiction and north dakota. wheat survey addiction and north dakota and stigma addiction we know as we made progress. more than 21000 people have participated in recovery reinvented of events over the past seven years. joining this movement to help individuals find hope and recovery. and now it is time to ensure people seek help they've got the workforce in place to help them. that goes back to the workforce piece but there is one person who has made a huge difference for this somebody who had the courage to stand up and share her story to people across the state and across the nation. and when she tells her story it moves people but i have watched it. i know she has saved lives and change lives by doing that. she's going to be sold march 22 year in recovery after decades before that of struggling with the disease of addiction. but her incredible work to drive a policy and create better solutions for folks has been

amazing. so again, if you could please help me welcome the most courageous first lady in america catherine. [applause] [applause] quick pseudo- diction does not discriminate. it affects every family, every community, every sector of government. especially law enforcement officers deal the far-reaching impacts of addiction on every single shift. just ask anyone over highway patrol ask anybody who is in blue this is what they are dealing with it's the same as with the courts. it is important we support the men and women in uniform who protect our communities be back at the blue with our words but again backing with her actions we did that by expanding worker's comp. provider and the retention bonuses from exempt to law enforcement retirement pay from state income tax we have

helped offset the cost of routine medical exams. our efforts are not going to end there because in addition to law enforcement we've got other people in our state and our rural state we want to bring forth a plan to support all of our law enforcement officials across north dakota. making this the premier place to work at law enforcement were law enforcement is respected. other parts of the country are defunding their police. let's be the place but we respect law and order and we respect those people that do it and let's get those people to come and go to work here. let's create a profession that is respected for it every time someone in my family see someone working at law enforcement we say one thing. thank you. thank you for your service. every time we see them we got to thank them. think about that. think about fargo at last year's summit might've thanked them the next day they are not going to be around to think. they really are the thin blue line we've got to extend this to our emergency responders, our firefighters or emt, are peace officers and others we have

neighbors every day north dakota who put on their firefighting gear they drive and ambience buckle up in a squad car they all deserve our gratitude and north dakota so much as volunteer we have over 3500 licensed emergency medical services personnel. a lot of them work in the rural locations for free. they are volunteers nearly 7000 volunteer firefighters in a rural firefighting. 7000 of six and 85 full-time firefighters in the state. we have 10 times as many people who volunteer to go help save their neighbors if you are a firefighter these days most of your calls are not buyers most of your calls are ems related. sometimes as high as 80% is medical related for the firefighters. we are grateful for their service. there are people here today, there's ems personnel, there are firefighters if you have today or before it volunteered for local fire department stand up and let's just say thanks to any

of you. i am sure that are some who are here. [applause] [applause] here in stark county we had what it is incredible individuals who sort of the best of america kind of guy. joe served as chief of the gladstone fire department for 45 years. forty-five years of volunteering, serving the citizens of this community and surrounding communities and putting others. risking himself to put other safety head of his own. but as with many heroes like joe he did not stop there he was active in local homeless coalition eagles club, knights of columbus other local and state organizations. sadly his family and his community lost joke to a battle of brain cancer last july. not before he received the stark county spirit of excellence

award. we note show is with us in spirit today we are honored to have here with us back in the center of the auditorium we've got joe's wife rene, two of their three children jeremy and allison buried their families, joe's mother ruth, they are all here in the audience today. symbolically not only for joe and his family for being here inhis incredible service to gladstone, but this kind of story happens over and over and over in our state this is the best of america. thank you, thank you joe, thank you all the volunteers, let's give them a hand. [applause] we want to turn actions into ideas that's been the theme of this whole section. if you are a first responder or if you are related to one or no one some family member if there's a better way for us and i say us the state government,

the state legislature if there's a better way for us to support men and women in uniform whether it is law enforcement, firefighters, first responders please call, e-mail, rate the governor's office. we are going to take your ideas will share them with our legislative partners will turn them into legislation we are going to keep doing what we have been doing will cut red tape. we will get rid of the restrictions you need will pass laws that help support what all of you are doing. so keep those ideas coming. we want to support workers not only for the physical health but also for the safety of the overall health and the community one of the ways we do that of course is with assessable affordable childcare at the strong balance sheet put us in a position to make these incredible strategic investments. one of the business the biggest obstacles which i talked about earlier and still remains childcare availability, affordability and quality. 66 million alongside the federal funds went to north dakota childcare initiative.

workforce infrastructure thank you legislature for doing that. what's happening with that investment now? more than 4800 working families have received helpful childcare costs just in the first six months. >> we have had in some cases for decades h2a like in south africa

like these guys come here to north dakota every harvest season and increase from just two years before they come back and work for the same family same farm families you talk to farmers we wouldn't have gotten the crop off if it weren't for the h2h people workers and have the got cdl they've got the equipment they know how to drive the big machinery. they're key to what we're doing in our state and commerce this last year established the office of legal immigration to help attraction international talent because we have a great pipeline of workers but we have to make sure we have a piece figured out and we have a pipeline of people coming -- that can help our farms particularly our ag workers on h20 so this office earned a coveted spot in the inclusion program, which provides technical assistance from international experts that's off to a great start career academies this is a big one fought hard for this stuff we kept our work in making sure

funding would be available to keep construction on trab for the 13 career academy where is students are able to pursue high demand careers and technology and one of the examples is right here, southwest area career, and technical education, students from 7 high schools around this region and dickinson state -- utilize this state the art facility that helps students identify interest and build skills to -- identify and enter the work force more we cannily. we have one of those here today, but lance senior at dickinson high enrolled in the c2 academy welding and diesel tech programs through these experience lances developed valuable skills and identified his career path, of becoming welder. which we need. we were shorter of those all over the state. last fall, he was placed with fisher industries in dickerson to earn credit while on the job -- he's still get his education but he's getting pay the and he's earning credit to be able to build that relationship with a local employer now he's gained

support to center to the north dakota state college of science to earn a degree in welding company so fisher willing to help pay hill to go get further education but it is working. these partnerships between companies -- and our education system filling that gap between k-12 and higher ed and i want to just say thank you for him being here, lance this year -- ct director they represent more than 25,000 students around the state that are taking advantage of these things, lance is right here let's gi him a hand stand up. where are you, lance? >> he's right there, okay. [applause] transforming education is our next topic. but what lance story shows us is that what teachers and educators

and use innovative approaches to create experiences outside the traditional classroom, students thrive, businesses win our economy wins and just over ten miles away, janice she was a music teacher at south public school for 18 years, but look ats her unconstrained innovation. her dedication to students and passion -- for her subject which happens to be music, she was just selected as one of the nationally one of 50 banding directors who make a difference by the school banding and orchestra magazine national magazine one of the things that she's done is brought together 300 students from over 13 different schools to trade a massive marching band, and i'll skim the story about me having to go to the music camp up at the border -- because i wanted to go to football camp and my mom wouldn't let me go to football camp unless i went to music camp save you that whole long thing but anyway there's a reason i'm

not playing trumpet solo anyway but she's a fierce advocate for students such a cool idea that she's done that to bring together -- all of these schools. she's here with us today -- where are you -- and congratulations on your go ahead and stand up national recognition -- [applause] we've got a task force that we put together for retention recruitment of teachers we know that these careerses are rewarding that people that teach change lives they make a difference but we also understand the challenges that teachers are facing. and that's results in work force shortage and last fall we created a teacher retention recruitment task force to bring proposals -- forward -- that's going ahead it is going to help support our -- you know support our leaders, support or teachers supports our students to help them develop and grow into the best versions of themselves so that's -- charging ahead and over the next several months, they're going keep going that task force is going to engage with experts

across educational landscape they're digging into data. our schools are the cornerstone of our communities, our teachers are critically important and so this task force has got an important thing because it is one thing to drive a teacher through education and get them into the school system teaching -- and then they teach for a year or two and drop out that's what we're losing we can get peel to retain a little longer then that can solve our long-term pipeline for teachers. so this task force way to go keep it up and then our who we just introduced in all of our innovative teachers such as the teacher of the year sheila peterson deserve our deep gratitude they are dedicating themselves to help drive our future. the students represent, you know, 20% of our population -- but they do represent 100% of our future, they're instrumental to our state success so if we have any teachers that are here today if you're a current or former educator if you've been teaching any level k-12 please stand up let us say thank you to all of our educators.

[applause] >> and my very first "state of the state" i talked about education innovation and how we have to change the status quo and progress has been made but there's more to do -- this week is school choice week in north dakota. and when we talk about innovation and almost goes hand in hand with competition the best innovation come qhs you're competing such as our first in the nation cybermadness competition for high school and middle school students. a grade innovation and as a fantastic experience that's going to continue expand. but school choice has become this debate a political debate about oh, it is about a public school versus a -- private school or religious school it shouldn't be centered around that at all. school choice and competition is about how to be centered around students and their experiences and personal learning goals and -- school choice could include

ideas like how do we expand ct programs that lance has been involved in how do we do that? we've set the table we have created a set of rules and ranges cut tape where every k-12 district in the state has an opportunity to innovate and rei invent learning environments for students we've done that. we have got schools like northern kas taken every bit of flexibility we've given them and driven innovation they won a half a billion -- and they have not adopted one of the pieces of flexibility that we've given them to during interim legislature is engaging in school choice study that's fantastic we support that. they're going to be looking at a full continue from open enrollment to educational savings to vouchers to look at everything and we look forward to working with that to bring a comprehensive proposal that puts innovation and students first -- to help make sure we can keep driving k-12 education forward in our state we'll have our govern summit on innovative

education on june 17th in business mark invite you to be there mark your calendars as it has been all of the years it's been incredible with keynoters and speakers great ideas have come out of that we would love to have more legislators join us not just the great order of education educators that come but shifting to higher education that's always been part of higher education students can decide where to go and tuition they're unrestricted do i want to go online and work on this thing stay home or go far away here across our university system guess what, every university in america is facing these unstoppable forces technology demographics culture, economics, which are blowing up the traditional business models and -- forcing campuses to become more economic, more inno vatsive more anymore to believe meet these demands is going to require not just alumni donors but partnerships between the private and public sector to identify where's the demanding for

graduates and if we create -- student opportunities that lead into careers, you're going bet more support from the private sector can't all just come from -- checks from the state of north dakota. state universities there's got to be a private sector component that north dakota career builders scholarships created in 2019 that happened, loan repayments to north dakota students who went on to fill high demanding careers that were identify as part of the program. and we encourage all employers to consider participating in the successful public private partnership. when we look ahead to future of higher education, one thing i've got to ask the legislature, i mean, we were joking earlier about maybe there's some infrastructure in this particular hall that we've got to focus on. but where the bulk of our additional money has done into higher ed it has gone into buildings 414 million dollars gone into buildings across our campus we have the money we did it. that alone is not going to drive

success but some of the places where we put 150 million enrollment is down new buildings aren't going to drive the success we need and university system has to continue working on their vision for 2035 we're urge each of the nine study groups to focus on -- future business models an how that's going to shift we focus on how we get more corroboration system ride to duplicate and make ourselves more competitive and make sure that we accept realities of the forces that are actually changing -- changing higher ed is not going to be back to where it was. the days of the students coming to a campus out of high school spending hours a day sitting in seats listening to lectures in auditorium those days over we need our institutions from the inside to drive new things -- speed the degree completion -- a nonstate university you marry, they're offering people come here -- play sports, and, and you're going to get not only undergrad degree but a masters in four

years that speed a degree and getting people more value for the same level of time they're there provide flexibility and schedule and ensure delivery models so we have to keep innovating in higher ed. one thing we need to do across our -- back k-12 all students maybe adults as well -- we have to ensure that our students are well versed in financial literacy there's a survey that survey students that attest that and we do not this is one area we're not best in america only 37% of north dakota adults feel confident in their own knowledge of their finances and today we're setting goal here of making north dakota the most financially literate state in the nation by 2027. that's a goal we're putting stake in the ground suggest of public instruction -- state treasure thomas beetle right down here in front leading this effort coordinating with the bank of north dakota a great entity to be working with also the governor's office, the

securities team led by karen tyler cruz other state agencies announce a full plan in april of this federal literacy month but thomas, thanks for your leadership this is a fantastic program. but we -- need to keep driving prtdz on that. on the housing side question of to continue to grow work force as we've talked about to ensure everyone has access to safe and affordable housing like child care housing work force and competing with talent as i've said and housing market is fundamentally a private activity but there's gaps and hidden subsidies and personalities that are abilitying how communities are developed and if that affects families that affects comupghts it affects employers. and -- some priewngt public sector can make a difference in sthofg problem. to serve our citizens attract new residence again, i gave the example earlier about a family not moving back because --

because they couldn't find child care. we know at the state of north dakota we've given job offers to people to try to move -- here to our state to take a job with a state and part of their search is they come and they look around and say can i afford to get a house in this community and if they can't upgrade their houses might say no to a job. hey, the job pays ten or 20 grand but housing costs are higher i'm less better off than if i stay where i'm at and low interest mortgage getting home if i sell that and move to north dakota high interest rates now i can't move so it is causing some -- some -- stickiness but we have to make sure north dakota is a better place to work and play by addressing housing challenges that many of our communities face -- statewide housing needs assessment for 20 to 25 predicts we need 9,000 additional units of housing -- just through now -- through 2025. in the next ten years 9,000 more

units and fortunately we've already got a blueprint out there on how to address these issues and that blueprint is what we did to get to starting line on child care historic 66 million package that was as a result of 14 months of corroboration public and private stakeholders across the child care spectrum so what we're announcing here today is we're going to do the same thing we're going put together a series of listing sessions held across north dakota, and coming months it is going to be a platform for north dakota as individuals, employers are trying to recruit people from out of state -- it's going to be from developers, it is going from all people saying what are hurdles and solutions and focus on three pillars like in child care affordable can you find and stability can you keep it and hear from renters, developers and housing providerring anybody who has a future in -- the future of the economic

success of north dakota if we don't all create the right framework we're going sit here with no jobs and falling economy and following corroboration with state agencies like -- like our north dakota work force housing and all of the other agencies that we have working on this. we're going work diligently to create a strategy and then strategy we're going to bring to legislature if there's a component we need to be there but again vision is clear to ensure every north dakota has an opportunity -- whether old been here for generations or they want to move here. that they've got an opportunity to find safe affordable and a place to call home and raise a family. the best place to work live and play from the beginning on our main street initiative it was focused on supporting healthy vibrant communities with smart efficient infrastructure that sound like everything i'm talking about skilled health force effective infrastructure, yes, main street bring it is

altogether all of these polls come together and we're so fortunate that we've had such an up tick we have 107 different communities across the state that have participated in the mainl street program and engaged in visits from state agencies -- and they're engage in in supporg out their communities and success of the program demonstrated a potential for transformational change in all size communities especially in rural areas and we know that creating vibrant community only happen when is you have local leaders it is key when somebody grabs rings to mac sure it is a place where future generations want to grow or kids want to come back to you to raise their families and we've examples of that happening in western north dakota -- for sure we've got amazing sample right here in southwest -- door from south dakota she's making her mark on the state she's the leader -- of the bauman county cooperation done that for nearly 11 years el

bodies main street initiative whether it is hosting the fusion conference in bozeman or serve on statewide world development council we know that taryn is changing the directory not just of bauman but southwest north dakota with her passion and commitment it is leaders like taryn across the state that are attracting the next generation of north dakota their communities, and her efforts certainly deserve to be recognized taryn if you're here could you please stand and let us acknowledge everything that you're doing. thank you. great to see you. [applause] we'll be launching the office of community development rural prosperity that builds upon momentum of the initiative announcing that we're creating that -- making announcements today doing that within the department of commerce, and this office is going to pull together a number of things that's going to be a essential hub for communication and try to maximize the impact of all of the initiatives and focus specifically on --

on empowering rural communities to streamline efforts all allocate and rural communities who are supporting community development. but we won't be doing this thing alone. this new office is going to work with community organizations, businesses, local governments -- and other state agencies that develop comprehensive long-term strategies that are tailored to those communities. so excited about that as we're driving the msi further into rural areas. fun announcement we're moving ahead this is first time in a long time but we're creating new state park. in north dakota our newest one george one of north dakota most scenic treasures, if you've never been to the gorge i encourage you to get there and thank the legislature with 27 million dollars for maintenance and upgrades to infrastructure -- and the visitor experience across 14 state parks that saw near record visitation last year

saw the year before that, but still there's more work to be done to enhance amazing state assets -- and improve the quality of life and one of the ways that we can enhance them is with trails. trails is also -- a key of infrastructure and extensive and park thing they're doing first ever trail inventory and guessed there are over 2200 miles of trailings on name trails on this state. next phase that we want to pox on is last mile initiative because a lot of these trails are just connected and we can spend a little bit of money and connect trails to make them more efficient whether it is for walking and biking the summer snow mobiling in the winter but this is an opportunity and when we've got recreational opportunities -- as a part of life and north dakota hunting, fishing, camping whatever it is -- we know that also that brings us back to helping to attract work force. and so -- again, i want to thank north dakota game and fish north dakota parks and rec great

leadership there jeb cody everybody doing that and making great progress. destination development new -- initiative passed by the legislature, commerce awarded $25 million in matching grants to help create new attractions or expanding existing ones to help create destinations that would be answer the question -- what can i do in north dakota what are the things what can you do there? what are places to see in one of those is right here in dickinson dinosaur music got a one million dollar graduate from a new program. and again, if you haven't been there, he check it out. there's more than just like really, really really old bone there is. there's -- really exciting -- stuff. the theodore roosevelt presidential library this is an idea that started here on this campus of having a library, and come july 4th, 2026 on our nation's 250th birthday when the theodore presidential library

museum hopes and the liberal will be a global institution and rooted right here in north dakota inspiring people across the globe -- to get into the arena. just like tr was healed and inspired by the north dakota landscape in the way of life when he came here in the 1880s after losing his wife and his mother on the same day. people get confused when we say library and museum they might think of an old school model under glass that is not this and stuff gathering dust. it is going to be a cap the vasing digital experience for visitors -- it is going to be leaning heavily on immersive story telling new technologies you can count on the fact your kids and grand kids will drag you to the library and they want to come back again and again -- the tr library like t rrk incredible wife won't just be a place it is going to be an experience. and it is going to become a tourism power house in western north dakota.

roosevelt center has a strong connection to the library even forming and, of course, the tr center is key part of dickinson state university and therefore a part of higher education system. this is the place where they've been working for -- close to a decade digitizing copies of roosevelt writing newspaper and magazine articles speeches and photos and other materials -- and this is, you know, posing in on i'm sure close to 100,000 octobers that wrote more than any other president and wrote more letters than jefferson so the collection here has been digital and been amazing. but today -- there's an amazing announcement happening part of the mission of the tr presidential library -- easer partnering with academic institutions like dsu and tr center to advance study and understanding of tr the most comprehensive the most incredible collection of papers around that study -- is -- is now coming the theodore

roosevelt center is expansive collection of private research and roosevelt memorabilia from pulitzer prize winning historian edwin morris his wife and author sylvia morris those works transform the way we think about the 26th president -- is impressive collection 151 bankers acquired by presidential library housed at the center for the generosity and support of mark he's the owner chairman of the idaho forest group and wife vicky collection features expensive assortment of notes and audio and surrounding the three books that are among the most well known of the hundreds of books written, tr and rise of theodore roosevelt and more, and so -- right now this does not happen without dsu without the -- without the tr center, and without the theodore roosevelt library that working together that confidence led to the donation congratulations to all of those entities involved with

this. this is an amazing collection. coming it is not going to harvard or yale but coming to dsu. [applause] and looking forward when we think about economic opportunities here i want to just -- i know that people are getting charged up. you know, the construction is going all winter long, on the library thing, but whether you're in beach or bauman or dickinson, or watford city all of these present grateway stunts opportunities for us down in mount rushmore 3 million visitors year and you've all been there go take a picture and 45 minutes you're out of there and what are you doing next few days going to private sector tourism opportunities eating in restaurants taking in all of the other stuff. the opportunity for private sector investments surrounding the tr national park and the

library -- with that is anchor has never been greater get your hats on we need more hotel rooms with about more restaurants more everything in western north dakota more opportunities -- so go get them vibrant communities again world class communities amenities those are needed. we need that to make sure that we've got -- keep up with our burgeoning economy and a stable business environment and that is economic development and the last 30 years north dakota we've had leadership that understands -- the importance of building on our state's reputation when i say the last three years that's jack, we've had business leaders as governors who have understood how capital and talent come together to move to place ford and because talent as i said earlier now follows capital investment capital flows along path of least resistance the way you get capital flowing to our state is making sure that we remain laser focused on the

attract that talent and the success could be seen -- in our population growth of nearly 17% that we showed earlier 7 the fastest in the u.s. it also set a goal like we want to have the highest gdp in the nation how are we comingen that we've moved up in the top eight here but take a look at this list it might be small to read on the big screen. but every one the states on there is a -- is blue state we're only red state if you can use those words there. but -- new york -- wall street massachusetts biotech, washington, you know twitter, amazon microsoft, california, silicon valley, connecticut, delaware close to the the new york metro area, colorado, i don't know maybe that's legal marijuana i'm not sure -- [laughter] new jersey, close to new york, i mean so basically you've got tech and finance are the things that are driving these high gdps at the state level, we're the --

we're not tech. we're not silicon valley we're not finance. we're not in new york city here we are on the list way to go north dakota we're making this happen. we have an opportunity if we keep doing what we're doing -- keep driving forward -- with this private public partnerships and making smart investments we do that with industry we have in the state and with now 40 billion dollars of capital trying to come to north dakota -- for value add ag and energy project never a number like that in our history when we have that we have a chance to keep moving up on this list absolutely we do. so again, only happens with the private sector we have to keep leading with innovation -- and what's going happen in the spring -- here in our own gas industry we have to hit a huge milestone and produce our five billion -- barrel of oil since the early 2,000 sinced a vent horizontal drill was key thing that access to be able to get to that 30 foot strip of hard shale turn

into a liquid if you stack those barrels end to end $5 billion barrels it would go around the globe at the equator 110 times that's what five billion barrels is like. enormity of the entry act can't be overstated it is oil and gas activity generates over half -- you know half of the tax revenues that we come in and used to fund government from highway, education, of course, it provides -- we know that what it does that extraction production consumption is happening and consumer command you don't have to have an opinion or believe in climate change i can't explain to you why someone would buy organic milk for twice as of but there's demanding for it and premium for carbon products of every kind building materials, road materials, steel -- plastic, i mean, if you've got less carbon intensive product you're going sell more of it right now. the market is pushing for that.

north dakota has a secret recipe we talk about the gifts we've been given we were given all of the soil we're given all of the minerals also been given most unbelievable capability to deal and benefit with co2 storage and co2 utilization whether it is our coal plants, whether it is our coal plants or oil and gas we're the leader right now, we're leading in the nation so not a new thing we've been doing this for decades already in our state. carbon capture utilization and sequestration it is a process of capturing the c 2 in energy processing processes and then we can -- when we're making ethanol we're making coal we can store them underground or use them for value added resources. ....

12 and that is a granite table top that's cool. that is that manufactured a product 30% by weight of the countertop is embedded co2 in it. we can make better cinderblocks for building materials though it's co2 we could put asphalt on roads it's better and stronger than >> because part of it is so strong. you and a great lightweight strong product by a carbon bow and arrow every kid knows carbon fiber is strong and light they are working on stuff with the erc that's as thin as a human hair they can lift a piano. we want to continue to lead in this area because of all the

products that can come from this we been given a gift of having an up underground storage space to safely store co2 for the next 50 years. some people said we cannot store all the co2 we cannot grow crops was 50 billion tons of extra co2 being produced we can store some of it and 20 years from now these products we will be glad to have the extra co2. we have an advantage right now were one of the fused dates that's been granted to weld. us and wyoming there's a third so competition is coming we have been busy lieberman permitting them we are permitted six storage for so's total capacity of two and 72 million tons of co2. those six things encompass 43 square miles underground three thank you legislature you to find the space underground is owned by the land owners the land owned the land someone else might on the minerals but they only floorspace when some of these cases would over 90% of the landowner say yes getting a

check for co2 storage for we have companies doing enhanced oil recovery they built one or five mount pipeline implant and wyoming through montana onto and ontosouthwestern north dakod bowman county. they are bring input in the co2 they put it down ate well it spreads and pushes more oil up. they are seeing increases in their oil production 1980s vertical wells and bowman county they're getting back to 80% of the original production. and guess what. they put more co2 down there when you burn the barrel of oil when it comes up dampers production in north dakota's carbon neutral to coverage negative their greater event patagonia producing a barrel of oil that's a story we need a child to the nation before they try to sleep deeply on the agenda were to shut down the coal into the oil and gas industry that is the agenda of

the federal government it's not political something we face as a threat to our face. we got to tell our story how we can produce and ship cleaner, safer, smarter. quite simply the whole aspect of a carbon industry in our state was going to expand agriculture anyone has something to ethanol it will expand your markets if you care about electricity which is been the backbone of a central part of our state for decades and decades. it will save the coal industry. if you care about the fact oil and gas is a golden goose funding all the things that you care about, the oil and gas industry can extend ex-wife bite decades increase production and reduce carbon intensity. on top of that, on top that there's more stuff coming. the demand for energy is growing whether we have sarah on commit by trenton but it's pig come toe

central part of the state we could have the lowest carbon intensive product going into steel in the nation it is unbelievable what could happen. but energy transition there is no energy transition because what we need is energy addition. the world by 2050 is going to need a lot more energy than what we have now. all that renewables, the seller, the wind we want that's on top of what we are already doing to get to the demand we are going to happen if you don't meet the demand prices are going to go up will kill manufacturing. will outsource energy production to other countries who will do it less cleanly the environment will be worse. the best way to do it is have north dakota is the best opportunity of any state to preserve, grow, enhance a good paying jobs in the communities we serve in coal country oil and gas country and our firm communities. we have an opportunity to benefit more than anybody because of this and we will be doing that part will helping our nation become more secure and prosperous not becoming energy

dependent, energy dominant will help the environment will be done cleaner and safer here than anywhere else. since the beginning of our administration we have prioritize all above energy approach. last year marked a significant milestone. incredible heartland hydrogen hub selected for the largest grant north dakota's ever received the federal government. $925 million from the u.s. department of energy i signed out with three fellow governors across the northern tier we signed the mou committed to the velvet of the regional hub which can create jobs and help the carbonized regional supply chains. the drc is spearheading this effort with marathon and xl energy. advancing agriculture as our nation's demand for energy grows so does the demand for high-quality low-cost food produced increase in the tight labor market. we have a tight labor market will either increase workforce for the other way we address workforce issue is to increase

productivity will increase productivity is through automation. part of automation is a thomas. with opening reference dedicated soybean plant in spirit would a meddling following on the heels in grand forks we will soon be processing 75% state soybean production value added agriculture. the soy plant near jamestown was been shipped by rail to dickinson and turn into renewable diesel is a fantastic example we act and energy is never been greater. the soybean meal produced by these facilities it's going to help us get back into the game on animal agricultural comes off of that soybean meal is a fantastic input.

they could help us with art our modernized farming clauses legislature passed last time i track much more capitol. terms of u.s. again strengthening our status for u.s. we have invested as a state $130 million in the northern test site celebrate the tenth anniversary of the first in the nation. air traffic control for beyond a visual line of sight for unmanned aircraft. these transit into innovation high-quality jobs for our citizens and talent attraction from across the country. at tech we can be right behind that north dakota has been in a gtech. the major manufacturers and others that came to north dakota bought companies and invested here because they're interested in precision agriculture the

innovation was occurring here. moran farm think of grand farm is the next grand sky. these to the dust blowing the structures do not have drivers that they are autonomous tractors driving perfectly down the field we don't look beyond the skies are on the ground about diversifying our economy sometimes answers right under our feet. shifting the ev you cannot build tvs without batteries. that's where they are they are in our coal in north dakota. the current administration and prior administration wanted to stop developing economically we have the ability to extract the rare earth metals and set a big

reliant on foreign sources like china for 85% of the rare earth minerals that go into not just batteries for cars but your phone, or other electronic devices, lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, all these different. different supply for rare earth metals being mined in north dakota and abundantly. thanks to technology developed at college of engineering. we could have a domestic supply chain. we extract the rare earth metals late michael guess what, the coal burned cleaner. in her innovation versus. some people want to regulates out of business of the state let's innovate to reduce our dependence on foreign supply choices, create jobs here at home and did carbonized it so we can have stable bass boat and not have brown on blackout bills like our neighbor minnesota is passing. this project here at the rare

earth minerals will create new opportunities to locate your help natural resources develop a supply chain. all these things are amazing but north dakota could lead the way here again we are on the cusp of several other game changing projects multi- billion-dollar natural gas liquids plant near trenton. half-million dollar they're going to process nickel and other minerals for batteries for raw iron ore mined in minnesota. they're going to do that here. our economic future unbelievably bright. would we have that that we have the money to invest back into infrastructure. we need bottom infrastructure print we're going to continue to invest. four years ago the 2020 state of the state we said we are announcing tenure infrastructure up on the list of projects, never shrinks. we don't ever get it completed but i want you to know above the normal federal aid program.

most only get from the feds ours is a feds plus state. and that is make a huge impact of townships and counties we've invested over more than 3 billion throughout six and 55 million into bridges. this includes create the new flexible fund which supports state and local road networks. supporting infrastructure they have clearly made a difference north dakota we are being ranked number two for infrastructure. people look at the infrastructure ratings when they decide if they're going to buy capitol into a location pretty want to thank ron and everybody at dot for the great job they are doing their part on the water infrastructure side unbelievable because of the wealth we have we're investing back in our state again a partnership with we have invested two-point to billion dollars for critical water supply, flood protection general water management would not have been possible under the

resources of a great director. this state water commission post allocate 600 million more towards critical and high return water projects. further easing the burden on locals and making them more resilient. this is critical to one third of citizens. we are competing with water western states there's actually people let's stick a pipe and the missouri river and ship it to colorado goes in the colorado river goes all the way to california because they are running out of water. we have got to -- legislators we've got to complete -- and got to get water flowing out of them search the northern part of our state in the eastern part of the state. what's the project started in 1960. we are at the cusp of finally making that happen. but we need to finish those projects come secure the water rights and get them going before some other states decide they want to come in and put a giant

piped into the missouri river and start shipping out water west. got to take care of business here in north dakota. speaking of taking care of business may want to make sure our state is as friendly as possible when businesses interact with the states. citizens should not have to come to 100 different websites to find how to interact with each different agency. that is my work is begun on the business gateways first the kind initiative. rather than forcing users to log and separately here for business registration, different tax payments over here for license as a business gateway -- mckevitt businesses in north dakota have a single fine on that sign on once we know who they are, we know the address we know the contacts are. we'll be good don't the business gateway will do the same thing for citizen gateway so a citizen does not have to go to a different place for hunting license, a driver's license, a boat license pay their taxes and dozens of other things they do we want to make it a simple consumer expense for them as

possible. red tape production i said earlier 50 bills signed by the last legislature. now when to continue to keep tackling that and again we are launching encouraging innovation of the launch of red tape production 2.0 grade again citizens, if you are frustrated with how you are interacting with the state of north dakota and have got an idea how to improve the customer service experience there is redtape in a way for a family for a small business, for a student send us your ideas we want to know that will turn them into legislation the sledges that should they did a great job a pass than last year. of course winter protector citizens data we have a huge commitment to do that the moral obligation to do that. thanks the adoption of ai we have dramatically increased our cybersecurity operation center. it's for the most sophisticated in the country. they are responding this luster in 2023 to 4 billion attacks what is with a b4000000000

attacks automatically we cannot take care of all those but some of those, 50000 how to be handled with some manual interaction but ai helps speed through all of those. again to be great stewards on to make sure our team members and everyone we are working with we can make sure we have the privacy and security of the integrity of that data. to a better understand the risks and benefits of ai this saves the savesguenther partnership ae sector partners. more than 60 team member several agencies i've taken part in the program to grow their understanding of ai. also develop a list of viable projects that can be evaluate for deployment some are already under way this is a way we can reinvent government, cut red redtape, be more productive from the free ai that exist today some of the free tools to be 26 amateurs that they can code. sent agency said we do not go the ftes we want every state team member as a copilot they can sit next to them who could

write first drafts of reports, translate documents. and help do coding solutions of productivity and imagine that's all free. not only create better expenses for citizens to reduce the cost of government to help keep citizens dollars in their pockets by asking more efficient delivering services. we want to make it north dakota the most attractive place to live, work, play for all citizens. we know it's good for the pocket but weighs heavily on these. whether to relocate or stay here the legislature's been generous regarding property taxes if causally picked up the tab for decisions for local governments largely without restrictions. i just want to remind you because people sang property taxes are a problem the six state legislative assembly. in the state budget all the things we are to do the water, the roads, the county, the sewers, to billing goes k-12. $5.5 billion estates total budget was directed to where?

local political subdivisions that number continues to climb. on top of the 5.5 billion we passed the homestead tax credit which is very popular legislature could not fix north dakota i'm telling legislature cannot fix your local problem with a blanket approach to property taxes they are set at the local level they vary widely across the state. i don't time to put up a slide to show you but a mill and a one county at once it is wildly different than the value of 1 onemill in another place to sta. we cannot do one-size-fits-all thing because the wild disparities and a local. sump local school district, park district's and cities are growing like crazy in terms of their breath that they're getting whiter and bigger, faster than their population is growing. the increasing linear feet of infrastructure for other citizens and property taxes go up the solution is not to take

some else's tax dollars and send it to that city and to keep doing what you're doing. you don't give people more of something when they're doing something uneconomic you figure out a way to fix the constraints of current and past proposals that so-called eliminate property taxes are redistribution schemes there are some else's tax money to pay another group of taxpayers but the people who are paying do not get to make a decision. do we really think as a state we want to have a local political subdivision be able to order steak, lobster and champagne someone else comes and has to pick up one 100% of the chad question mike that's not north dakota that makes no sense. we've already begun discussions with legislatures they have taken upon themselves to enter committees and setting the issue but the issue is not a subsidy or a revenue transfer. the issue is joint to reduce the size of government you want to reduce the citizens tax bill designed cities and approaches that actually lower the costs. we cut income tax in our state

to reduce the amount of money that comes into government and government has to respond by getting smaller. when we sent $5.5 billion a local political subdivisions they got while in some cases we can raise our taxes we have people raising their taxes locally right now because they think their taxes might be frozen at a certain level. we have got perverse incentives people are raising the break now. innate property tax relief the state does should be targeted like one or 59 million-dollar homestead property tax made more affordable especially for senior citizens. if you have not already done so apply for the credit $500 or 2024 property tax. at the same time we should focus again what we can control we can control income taxes last right side over half a billion dollars of the combined income for tax and property tax relief includes the largest individual income tax tax relief in state history 358 million, fantastic that is

how much income taxpayers will save this it eliminates completely paying taxes for three out of five taxpayers in our state. this could help us recruit people that's rule relief it reduces you out of revenue collected by government. but guess what we are competing. you heard me say that. these incremental steps we've been going baby step sweep up the revenue. we've got the reserves. it is time for us to say goodbye once and for all. >> one tax collected by state controlled by the state, used by the state it does not vary by county come by district is not reliant on local assessments is not reliant on some of their subdivision deciding how much they're going to spend it. what the needs are. this is putting money directly

in someone's pocket not transferring money to potable subdivision. when you look at it wyoming, texas, alaska three states we compete directly for, for energy workers we compete with them. when you spent a level playing field without a fee of more energy workers would have more money coming in from all the other sources. one for us all think all of you. this has been longer than usual. but wow we cut half the people suggest we cut in this thing. we cut like a thousand words last three days. every agency this is like the amazing thing we are doing. i want to say thank you for listening through all of this. but also thank you to all the

people who submitted set that was amazing we did not have time for. i am closing and i went to sega north dakota is the best of america. the next time, i have something to ask of you. the next time you hear someone underestimate our state or sink implying we are too cold, we are too distant, we are to sparsely populated to make a difference. so if someone says that to you, we have to take a different approach. onset of stop playing along with false humility but torsos like they could never make it we are way tougher than them. [laughter] i don't need a coat it's only 20 below look at them for the best place to raise your family we are on that. our kids are never going to be wimps. camille stand up and be tough in the cold. we are so blessed the god-given resources.

the thing, the challenge i want to do for every north dakota and got to do more believing in ourselves. we have to believe more and ourselves. if you have the opportunity to see the looks around it is just not bravado. we are the best in america. eddie roosevelt said believe you can and you're halfway there. on these days of fact checking we think he said that. [laughter] it is the idea of belief. we are the place where neighbors help neighbors. we are the people were read back of the blue we support military. we secure our border. we pay our taxes. we help our communities. we approach life in a way everyone comes together. i'm got friends from slope county friends and family

matters think they are here today. robert hansen just short of 91 years of age passed away last spring who spent his whole life in the township and county and had an opportunity was invited to speak at his memorial service. think of the 90 years he saw living in a place there is not electricity's first growing up. to all of the innovation that he had seen over his lifetime. i was there they had a big crowd and half of swope county was there which is about 400 people. big turnout was there at the fairgrounds i look back i

thought women were preparing the food and recognize people neighbors who had been neighbors of roberts for their whole life lifein kids of neighbors and grandkids of kids. always multigenerational families. doing the work and coming together every spring to help each other out during branding. there is so much that goes on in our state there is no government solution required. it's just people who actually care about their neighbors. i get emotional like i am now i see those faces i recognize friends. i've had for most of my life going a while, this really is the best of america. we talked about the four values that we drive towards our administration is we do lead with gratitude. we are so much we are grateful.

all of the innovation only comes if we drive curiosity. we need to be today like a read something on the internet and i know for certain. no, we have to have curiosity. check your sources. if someone disagrees with you the talk of people do not agree with you. talk to about differently. turns out that's not true. we've got to have some that humility is got to come through right now. we've got to the state while ale that is not true. outsourcing our energy to our adversaries that you have vps the biggest polluters in the world with a grudge of comity curiosity come humility to have the courage for the have to have courage and are so many people this room that encouraged people looking on. courage to jump into the arena.

to be able to serve, to take risk, to run for office, to volunteer. it takes courage and the infamous words i don't to thank all of you for that. we think about the purpose statement seven years ago is one we really believe the get up every day and all the people people get up every day and cite sayour job as a state of north dakota is to make sure we are empowering people therefore inspiring our success. as thought a farewell i do and to save and count on us to keep chasing this purpose statement for the next three to 27 days for a note when we are working

together can empower people but we can improve lives we can inspire success. if we believe in ourselves and we learned to tell our story we will no longer be the blank spot on the map in people's minds. they will understand who we are and what we do and how we feed, fuel, protect the world. and how and our state freedom reigns in the innovation. not regulation is helping us achieve our fullest potential