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Understanding 9/11tv Illinois Governor Delivers State of the State Address CSPAN April 13, 2024 1:40am-2:39am EDT
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>> members and guests, the honorable governor of this great state the honorable jb pritsker.
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[applause] [applause] >> thank you very much. thank you all very much speaker welch, president harmon, lieutenant governor straton, members to have 103rd general assembly, chief justice tice and, of course, all the members of the supreme court, honored guests, the first lady of illinois, my soulmate mk. [applause] >> and all the people of the great state of illinois, i am so grateful to be here today to deliver my sixth state of the state and budget address. i love my job, i love living in
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illinois and spending every day working to improve the lives of our residents in a world seemingly filled with chaos it's a privilege to be tasked with bringing stability and progress. we live in the state that's filled with people who exude decency and here in springfield one of the most interesting guys i know is ian hunt, head of acquisition at the abraham lincoln museum and if you ask ian, he will tell you one of my favorite stories, illinois owns an original version of lincoln's gettysburg address. it's known as the evert copy. one only five to have been handwritten by abraham lincoln
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himself. it's named after former massachusetts governor. at gets berg on november 19, 1863evertt was the other guy who spoke. he gave a two-hour speech that almost no one remembers. whenever it was finished lincoln got up and delivered two-minute speech that has never been forgotten. a life lesson for every politician. [laughter] >> the everett copy of linken gettysburg address remained in hands for almost 80 years and in 1943 where the world war raging across the globe word came to dwight green theoner to have everett copy had passed away.
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so his administration came to an agreement with the sell the other purchase it for $60,000. the problem was illinois didn't have $60,000 to spend on the gettysburg address in 1943 and governor greene knew this so he did something unusual. he enlisted the school children of illinois to collect pennies and nickels. there was skepticism that kids were going to come up with enough money to buy the gettysburg in the middle of a world war and at the heels of the great depression but no one should ever doubt the children of illinois.
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[applause] a few years ago a newspaper interviewed a springfield man named gene who noted that as young boy in 1943 he sacrificed saturday afternoon movie for a few months so that he could give his weekly allowance to donation drive. it took the children of illinois only 6 months to raise $40,000, marshalfield the third, grandson of famous department magnate helped with the rest. in 1944 almost exactly 80 years ago four school children presented the hand-written gettysburg address to the illinois state historical library and it has been our most valuable state artifact ever since. i love this story. it has everything, imagination, ingenuity, sacrifice, patriotism
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and elected officials that didn't stop at no and children with a vision beyond their years doing something important for our future. it's a story about how penny by penny illinoisans wasn't shaved something important. it's a story about our past but also a story about who we are today because penny by penny we are still working together saving important things for our state. 5 years ago when people said we couldn't do it, many of us went to work eliminating our buildback log and balancing 5 state budgets in a row, we created a 2 billion-dollar rainy day fund, we achieved nine credit upgrades and in the face of pandemic and high inflation we delivered historic tax relief provided record levels of rental and mortgage assistance and reduced interest cost by paying
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more than $11 billion in debt off. [applause] >> we've also grown illinois' economy to over $1 trillion, that's more than most nations. [applause] >> in 2023 alone we attracted billions of dollars in new business investments and created tens of thousands of new jobs. in fact, on average a new business moved to illinois or expanded here every single day last year. [applause] >> thanks to our bipartisan tax credit legislation illinois is now the world's fourth largest data center market and we broke an all-time record for film and
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tv production revenue, tourism is booming, last year's illinois hotel industry set record at $5.5 billion. [applause] >> in the midwest we are now the number one state for workforce development, across all 50 states we are number 2 for infrastructure. number 2 for education, number 3 for power grid reliability, we have the number one and number two best business schools in the country and since 2018 we've moved a whopping 13 spots in cnbc's best state for business. [applause] >> these are the things that matter to businesses looking for a home where their workforce can live, work and play afford by and with world-class healthcare
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and education. now we have a lot of work left to do but we together have met this moment that we are in. do not let the doom drifters steal your optimism about what's ahead for illinois. our future is bright and opportunity lies ahead. [applause] >> last year we launched a groundbreaking multiyear plan called smart start to make illinois the best state in the nation for preschool, child care, early intervention and home visiting. [applause] it's already making a huge difference for young families across illinois. we thought we would be able to add 5,000 preschool seats by the end of year one, we exceeded that goal by 15%. we created 5,823 new preschool
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spots. [applause] >> all of which are options that parents didn't have before as a result right now we have over 82,000 publicly funded preschool classroom seats, the highest number in our state's history and staying onto the smart start plan we will achieve universal preschool by 2027. [applause] >> smart start also expanded access to early intervention and evidence-based home visiting home services for families with babies and young children by adding 26 more programs serving nearly 3,000 more kids and we established the nation leading early childhood workforce grant program thanks to initial investment of $130 million stabilizing and raising wages for workforce that is primarily women and people of color. that helps providers maintain and grow staffing while still
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delivering the quality care that illinois children deserve. smart start is having the desired benefit for working parents and their children, child care utilization rates are higher than ever before with 1,670,000 children receiving services. there was a real fear that our entire child care system might crumble in the wake of the pandemic, instead it's growing. heather andrade is a rochester parent and when i recently visited with her she said smart start changed her child's life and after tremendous difficult pregnancy heather brought natalia into this world, a healthy, happy little baby. but as natalia grew heather noticed that she was experiencing some delays in her development and in her speech. heather knew that she needed help.
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thanks to smart start rochester elementary was able to open a full they program offering early childhood education and child care including early intervention services like speech therapy, since natalia's first day in that program her progress has been nothing short of remarkable. she can spell her name, she can write her name. once nonverbal natalia now talks so much that they're even considering pulling her out of speech therapy. natalia is on track to thrive when she enters kindergarten and her path ahead couldn't be brighter. heather's success story as a mom stands as a testimonial. it reminds us of all the parents throughout who need just a little extra help to give their kids that smart start. heather is here today and i ask you to give her a big round of
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applause. [applause] >> it's with heather and natalia in plan that we increase our plan and start funding by $150 million in year 2 to create 5,000 new preschool seats and continue growing child care and reach thousands more families with critical early childhood services and i also ask that in this budget we begin the first phase of consolidating state governments early childhood programs into one agency called the department of early childhood. [applause] >> with the 13 million-dollar investment parents and providers will have a one-stop shop for
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resources and programs from finding child care and preschool to accessing early childhood block grants and day care licensing. nearly every study shows that investing in early childhood isn't just about child's first five years but paving the way in the k-12 education and beyond. every single year increase our investments in education because a quality education is the foundation of a good life and strong society. like majority leader lightferd and senator along with representatives davis and steward who have spent their entire careers fighting for our public schools all while weighing the tough choices to keep our budget in balance.
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our plan to see in 2023 u.s. news ranked illinois high school students number 2 in the nation in college readiness and cnbc ranked illinois number 2 overall for education. we notched our highest graduation rate in 13 years and teacher retention was the highest ever on record. [applause] >> the rate of ninth graders on track to graduate now exceeds pre-pandemic levels. chronic absenteeism is turning around and proficiency in english language arts and math increased drum atically. we can draw a direct line from these results to last year's budget. our 45 million-dollar teacher pipeline grant program brought
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5,384 new teachers into the field reaching more than 730,000 students in 170 districts with the highest need. teachers are the single most important investment we can make in our schools. [applause] so i propose that we invest another $45 million in the teacher pipeline program bringing thousands more educators into the field. [applause] the evidence-based funding model is working so my budget proposal follows the ebf law's recommendation increasing it again by $350 million and we will fully fund special education and continue increasing funds for school
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transportation by $30 million. [applause] higher education continues its tremendous upward trajectory for the second year in a row the illinois community college system celebrated historic head counts marking the second largest increase in enrollment numbers in the last 30 years and far higher than the rest of the united states. more illinois students are taking advantage of our great colleges and universities with well-funded map grant and aim high scholarship programs. [applause] so the net tuition cost for most illinois students attending illinois schools continues to decline. our higher education institutions are on the rise and it's important that year in and year out even in lean budget years we demonstrate a commitment to these institutions
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which is why why my budget proposal includes more than 30 million-dollar increase in direct operating support for public education institutions and that's on on top of continuing record capital investments that we are making through rebuild illinois. [applause] >> improving attainment and retention is assisting private industry to overcome the illinois workforce shortage and it's also having a similar effect on state government. we are finally moving closer to achieving the staffing levels that we need to support our work. the department on aging, human services, health care and family services, receiver social agency has improved hiring to improve head count and dcf, for example, has achieved highest staffing in more than 15 years through a combination of funding, ingenuity and sheer hard work.
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dcfs is more focused on how to best protect illinois children. today nearly every call to the abuse and negligent hotline is answered immediately. that's up from only 50% back in 2019. 99.7% were indicated and initiated within 24 hours. and within 7 days 96% of children have been seen by an investigator with the additional $14 million in funding in fy25 dcfs will reach head count of 4,000 staff for the first time in more than 2 decades. as always there's always more to do and dcfs is committed to doing it.
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i want to thank outgoing dcfs director for five years of service in the state east most difficult job and i also want to welcome incoming director heidi mueller who served two administrations as the pioneering head of the department of juvenile justice. i've visited many djj facilities over my time in office and it's impossible to ignore trust and admiration the state most vulnerable children have for her. we are lucky to have her in this new role. [applause] >> the people who work at dcfs are witness to trauma and heartbreak every single day. they're rarely lotted for their successes and most often used as punching bag for larger societal issues and they work long hours and on occasion the heroic
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workers have been subject of threat and violence. i want them to know that i see them and that i see their work and that i am incredibly grateful for their service and i ask each of you in this chamber to offer them your gratitude too. their dedication is worthy of recognition. [applause] .. .. a safety net is been a goal ofm. but to do so we have had to work on transforming our healthcare ecosystem. after so many years of neglect we have begun to turn things around by reducing the price of
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prescription drugs. implementing hospital transformation and enacting a lower-cost state based health insurance marketplace. i want to think fiddlers linda holmes, and westby as well as leader robin gable for their groundbreaking work on healthcare reform over the last few years. [applause] and now it is time we take another giant leap forward. this legislative session i'm introducing a bill to curb predatory insurance practices. putting the power back into the hands of patients and their doctors. [applause] it is called axis and protection act. it has three parts the first part targets a practice called utilization management. what is utilization management?
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that it's insurance speak for denying coverage. allows insurance companies to boost profits by requiring consumers that permission before they receive care but would not surprise you to know those requests are frequently denied. one method of utilization management is referred to as prior authorization. a consumer must get permission from the insurance company to get treatment from their own dr., their doctor has deemed medically necessary. and other was step therapy. a patient is forced to try a less effective treatment and have that fail before doing the actual quality care there doctor doctorsays they needed in the ft place. any dr. will tell you how much they low that these practices and how often they used to denyy
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patients that they desperately need. almost everyone has a horror story about prior authorization. lest you think i'm exaggerating let me share one such story. one of our state employees was diagnosed by his cardiologist with serious heart disease and scheduled open heart surgery. three days before the procedure, which take a month to schedule, the health insurer denied the prior authorization request. the insurance company without consulting the doctor of the tht surgery was unnecessary. or not get treated. my office got involved at the request of this individual's family was afraid he could die the prior authorization is granted. that is simply unacceptable.
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doctors and the patient to be making decisions patient care. [applause] [applause] there should never be an instance where an insurance company employee who can deny coverage for something as serious as open-heart surgery. we should never ever ever ever see these decisions to the winds of insurance executives whose focus is always on the bottom line. when it comes to patient care the only bottom line that matters is what needs to be done to keep people healthy. the legislation i am proposing would ban step therapy in illinois forced insurance companies to use the same definition of medical necessity that doctors use. [applause]
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among the other features of this bill illinois be the first state that he should to be in prior authorization adults and children mental health care. [applause] [applause] that means a patient suffering a mental health crisis can get the care they need without jumping through hoops designed to deny coverage. were going to make sure insurance pans publicly post all treatments that require prior authorization so consumers can compare plans when they are shopping for coverage. we are also going to prohibit insurance companies from selling short term limited duration
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plans. it's also called junk insurance. [applause] these are plans offered lower premiums to bridge gaps in insurance coverage. meet even the minimum standards of the affordable care act. just not covered maternal health care. healthcare. they do not cover mental health and substance abuse treatment for prescription drugs. but 12 other states in the nation is time for illinois to bay and junk insurance plans. [applause] the second part of the legislation covers adequacy. that is a standard insurance companies must meet to ensure there are enough in network doctors to treat consumers when and where they need healthcare. in recent years it's in the rise of ghost networks in directory
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shows doctors and specialists within reality are not accepting new patients, aren't in network or do not exist at all. health insurance company should be helping consumers not tricking them. to update their network directories of doctors to the actual ability of healthcare. we're going to punish them if they don't. [applause] the third piece of consumer access from unfairly increasing rates on consumers for last year might miss ray she was proud to work with members of the senate, the house and other stakeholders to end unchecked rate increases. for small group insurance those folks cover small businesses and individuals.
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it's going to require a large group insurance carriers do the same. [applause] i'm haunted by the reality there illinois and suffering and in some cases the loss of battle with an insurance company but i've talked to people who have just given up because of the mountains of paperwork or the endless search for an network doctor dozens of hours on the phone arguing with unsympathetic insurance company. getting to healthcare their need should not be this hard. now i know how hard the insurance industry will fight me on this. but let me be perfectly clear i am willing to send serious political capitol put my shoulder to the wheel to get this done. it will save lives at lower healthcare costs millions of illinoisans. [applause]
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it's also time to help those who've suffered financial harm. often through no fault of their own from past failures of a broken health insurance and healthcare billing system. treating a health emergency is not an optional expense. too many have had their credit ruined or have been pushed into bankruptcy when they had one unexpected accident or one prolonged illness. today i propose of the next four years we eliminate $4 billion of medical debt for over 1 million illinoisans. [applause] working with a national nonprofit called medical debt
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it's called on average 1 penny to buy back and eliminate every dollar of medical debt. we can start this year with a 10 million-dollar appropriation to relieve nearly $1 billion in medical debt for the first cohort of three and 40000 illinoisans. [applause] county board president who is already done this for a residence in cook county, let's make this a reality for all of illinois. [applause] in illinois a serious effort to reduce maternal mortality rates is long overdue. black women in our state are three times more likely to die from pregnancy -related causes than white women. it is imperative that we act now ensuring that as we do we also reduce and eliminate racial
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disparities. the current system is failing our most vulnerable women and babies. solution wise as it often does at the community level. jeanine valerie logan as a certified nurse midwife at the birth center pcc. the first freestanding birthing center to open in illinois. but in her home community on the south side of chicago notes such as center has ever existed. after years of immobilizing grant applications she finally is able to open chicago's south side birth center to meet her neighborhood needs offering full spectrum of reproductive care from contraception's screenings to prenatal birthing and postpartum care. [applause] it can be a model for how
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illinois can decrease black maternal mortality. because of the work of my administration is already done beginning this year's duelist, midwives and lactation consultants can now be recognized as an medicaid healthcare providers ensuring they can be fairly compensated. [applause] that will make more services more readily available to communities with the highest mortality rates and we could do even more. i intend to break down bureaucratic barriers and state government by coordinating work across agents to improve access to a full spectrum of reproductive health care services. [applause] our department of public health will provide grants to assist providers with the medicaid certification and licensing associate was starting and sustaining a community-based practice. we will also invest an
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additional $1 million dce oh capitol grants relating to the cost of opening the centers. dhs will invest $1 million in a pilot program to ensure new moms and babies have clean diapers. along with additional $5 million into home visiting for most vulnerable families to connect new moms and babies with the resources they need to be healthy and thrive during babies first year. my budget also proposes investing $12 million to create a child tax credit for families raising our youngest children. [applause] by targeting this investment low and middle income families with children under three we can put money back in the pockets of our newest parents who needed the most and make those early years
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just a little bit easier. altogether were making 23 million-dollar investment so put us on a path to birth equity a path and a destination that jeanine and her colleagues in the field can be proud of it. jeanine is here today and i would ask her to stand and be recognized. [applause] [cheering] [applause] one of my missions as governor is to make life easier for working families. establishing a child tax credit, eliminating medical debt lowering the cost of healthcare, making it easier to get a college education. bringing quality childcare closer to home so moms and dads can go to work. these are not esoteric policy proposals but actually do lift
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the burdens up away from everyday illinoisans. even though inflation continues to cool off folks are still feeling the squeeze every week at the grocery store. so there's just one more thing we ought to do for the good of our states working families let's a permanently eliminate the grocery tax. [applause] it is one more regressive tax that would just do not need. if it reduces inflation for families from four -- 3% even if it only puts a few hundred bucks back and families pockets it is the right thing to do. [applause]
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food access is far from the only necessity we are tackling. in 2020 when they signed executive order that launched home illinois a whole of government approach to prevent and owned end homelessness last year we put this plan into action investing $200 million into prevention crisis response, housing unit and staffing to ensure every person has a fighting chance. in a matter of months home illinois sustained and created thousands of new shelter beds for a long time illinois residents across the state. we provided housing and services to young adults aging out of foster care who are at risk of becoming on house we gave one one-time financial support to working illinoisans who, due to an acute crisis fell behind on their rent and risked losing their home or apartment.
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we kept thousands of illinoisans in their homes. people who might otherwise have been on house. take jasmine for example. jasmine was living in her car with her five children while she was eight months into a high-risk pregnancy. when jasmine was finally connected to housing ford a homeless agency they mutely took her in providing shelter and wraparound clinical services. while out housing forward rises center, jasmine gave birth to a healthy little baby, and rolled her kids in early childhood education, registered for a ged program and now jasmine is looking for employment. today she is on a path to permanent housing. there are many hundreds of people like jasmine all across the state in need of help. [applause]
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we know black individuals and families make up 61% of the un- housed while making up only 14% of the overall population. so, this year we create a racial equity roundtable on black homelessness for the only effort of this kind in the entire nation. to advance that work i am proposing an additional $50 million to attack the root causes of housing and security for black illinoisans. [applause] and all the while we will continue to serve other at risk populations like veterans and those who are medically vulnerable with the shelter and wraparound services they need. [applause] underlying home illinois is a
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belief this state values the dignity of human life in the universal right to a safe home. not so with all states. i would build a wall of steel a while as high as heaven against the admission of a single one of those southern europeans who never thought the thoughts or spoke the language of a democracy in their lives. those words were spoken 100 years ago by georgia governor clifford walker at a ku klux klan rally. but the reality as it could have been the social media post by donald trump last week. time might march forward but our society's worst impulses seem to never go away. i've spoken many time about my families refugee history. i will not during the course of people this country or in this chamber who eagerly looked to slam, shut in immigration door that was once open to our
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ancestors. [applause] over the last 18 months more than 35000 asylum-seekers have arrived in illinois. most of them landed here and buses sent by governor abbott of texas. abbott willfully plan the arrival of these individuals in locations and at times that would engender the maximum chaos for the city of chicago and for the asylum-seekers themselves. children, pregnant women and the elderly have been sent here in the dead of night far from our dozen welcome centers and freezing wearing flip-flops and t-shirts. think about that the next time a politician from texas was a lecturer you about being a good
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christian. [applause] [applause] [applause] our immigration system has been broken for a long time. no doubt the current migrant crisis is a problem of the federal government's making and i mean both political parties. i am sure when i leave the podium today there will be some who walk outside this chamber looking for a microphone things are yelling about sanctuary city and immigrants with our tax dollars. i hope the press covering the
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statements will ask these politicians one important question, did you or did you not support the federal immigration bill the white house agreed to a senate republicans? there is a chance to weeks ago for a breakthrough in immigration policy. the congressional democrats did with most voters said they want from leaders. they sat down at the table with republicans and negotiate a bipartisan compromise. the white house announced to build those supported by top republican leadership in the senate. within hours or public onto it helped write the legislation announced they were suddenly against the legislation. including most glaringly every single republican member of the illinois congressional delegation. why did this happen? when every single republican run away from something they claimed
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they desperately want because donald trump told him too. and they are afraid of him. why did trump tell them to reject the bill? he wondered she is the issue of immigration against president biden and the november elections. i am not making hyperbolic statements here. donald trump said that out loud. that bill would have helped illinois it would have provided money and resources we don't normally receive as a state far from the southern border. some republicans find it hard to put country over party but our obligations to the people really represent supersede the letter after our names. joe biden has been a very good president who has rescued the economy protected freedom but states and cities states and cities in the country's interior are not equipped alone to handle the rapid influx of new arrivals we have seen.
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the white house the federal government need to step up to coordinate and manage these asylum-seekers when they cross the border. [applause] they should not leave it to the governor of texas was no goal but to so payoff and destruction. maybe some of you think we should just say this is not our problem. we should let the migrant families starve our freeze to death. that is not decent midwesterners do. that is not what leaders do. we did not ask for this manufacture crisis but we must deal with the all the same. other partners in cook county and city of chicago my administration of comprehensive response plan over the next 12 months. we use the most reliable data available estimated what it
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would take to ensure the most basic human needs are met for asylum-seekers arriving in chicago. this plan includes continuing our efforts to divert as many people as possible away from temporary shelter to more permanent settlement wherever that may be. not because we are unwelcoming and immigrants. but because chicago shelter system is near capacity and it is dangerous if migrants have no shelter or support at all. to date with movement 9000 individuals through the process of arrival to temporary shelter to independent housing and self-sufficiency. thousands of others have moved on to find a family or sponsors. we have also helped thousands to the temporary protected status and authorization process. so they can legally work. private industry in illinois has expressed a strong desire to hire those who are authorized to
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work. i committed to the mayor of chicago cook county board president i would come to the general assembly and ask for funding for a little over 50% of the cost of this plan which comes to $181.7 million. we do not have any clear idea how long governor abbott intends to hold the nation hostage. but his the political stunt will eventually come to an end. select certified through afterst shelters can an opt or be converted to other productive uses as determined by the communities themselves. neighborhood clinics, committee centers, workforce training, housing, there's lots of good ideas i've heard from people. we have designated $5 million in this budget for shelter conversion grants. [applause]
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i won't pretend to any of this is easy but it would be irresponsible to do anything but come here, lay out the scope of the challenging time but i think we need to do and work with you to make it happen. personally i think each of us should follow the example set by the good people of our state. evanson's michael moyer is fixing up bicycles to donate to migrants. chicago's samantha list teaching english to our new neighbors on a basketball court and then there's oak park elaine pierce a retiree elaine opened her modest two-story three-bedroom home to seven new family members as she would say absorbing all of the costs on her own. mike, samantha and elaine are among the best of us in epitomizing what it means to be in illinois and through and through. let's thank them today.
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[applause] [applause] our fy 25 budget proposal make some hard choices. i wish we had big surpluses to work with this year to take on every one of the very real challenges that we face it. it is important to note that while this budget is tight this year, our fiscal house is in order and we are able to keep our communities and our commitments to those communities and to the people of illinois. this year's budget proposal is focused and disciplined and because of the responsible actions we took in the last few years of paying off state debt treating federal pandemic relief is one time a revenue we are not facing the budgetary challenges that others are big states are this year.
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california for example has a $38 billion deficit to contend with. meanwhile illinois budget is balanced that builds upon all the progress we have made paying our pensions and full hurt investing more in our public schools, social service agencies and health care while addressing the immediate and unique needs of the coming fiscal year. [applause] now i expect some of you will want to spend more. and some of you will claim that you want to spend less. i know this and i'm always open to good ideas that members of both parties have two more efficiently and effectively fulfill our obligations. my one line in the sand as i will only sign a budget that is responsibly balanced does not diminish or derail the improving credit standing we have achieved for the last five years.
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[applause] eighty years ago in the middle of a world war our state decided it wanted to preserve an important momento of our past. governor greene know illinoisans in every corner of the state were watching their family and friends and neighbors die half a world away fighting fascism. good leaders are practical but they also know the power of totems especially virtuous ones. it is poetic and prophetic that it was children who came to the rescue in 1943 to enable the acquisition of one of illinois true jewels. somehow it is always our kids who know how to contextualize the past while reaching for our future. i am struck by the words of jean ripley that springfield boy who gave up his movie money every
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week to donate to the gettysburg address efforts. he noted years later it meant something to us being apart of something like that. and it did mean something. that sparked a lifelong love of history. when he retired he works at the abraham lincoln museum give so much of themselves and return. that reciprocal investment is the essence of statesmanship and citizenship and what makes a society strong and what has made
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illinois great. thank you, god bless you and the great state of illinois and the united states of america. [applause] [cheering]
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