[cheering]

i do solemnly swear that i will bear true faith and allegiance to the commonwealth of massachusetts and will support the constitution thereof so help me god. i do solemnly swear and affirm that i will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as governor according to the best of my abilities and understanding agreeably to the rules and regulations of the constitution and the walls of

the commonwealth so help me god. i do solemnly swear that i will support the constitution of the united states. congratulations. >> thank you. [applause]

[cheering] [applause] [cheering] thank you very much. thank you. david. let's see if they are still

clapping at the end. mr. speaker, madame speaker, thanks for joining us. [applause] members of the house and senate, fellow constitutional officers, members of the governors come, congratulation. members of the judiciary, members of the cabinet and our administration, mr. mayor, thank you for letting us hang out in your city. sheriff, district attorney, local officials, reverend clergy, distinguished guests i want to start by saying to the lieutenant governor, my partner leading this administration but i want to extend our gratitude on behalf of all of us here today to the commitment on this endeavor and the sacrifices made by your family on your behalf.

thank you. [applause] members of my family that are here today my brothers are hanging out there in the balcony. [applause] my dad the best and smartest guy i know. [applause]

my wife, lauren, they v. off -- [applause] my fellow citizens i have four more years to serve them we both remember election night of 2014 it was so close it didn't end until the next day. we have a lot to prove to the people of massachusetts about our vision for the commonwealth, our approach to governing the priority is, our work ethics and capacity to get things done.

we would work to build a state government that was thrifty, hard-working and creative as the people of the great state, and we are grateful for your continued faith in us. to the lawmakers returning to the chamber, we say welcome back and we look forward to building up a part or should we've established in the progress that we've made. and i want to get a special welcome to those of you that are embarking on a new journey. i am quite sure you've heard about all the good work that goes on up here as well as those areas in which we fall short. we strive to build a community of hope and possibility to ensure people are heard. my advice, spend time outside of the state house. lead with your head and heart

and make the best decisions for those you serve and in the spirit of staff chat, facebook, put down and smack down i ask all of you to remember the good public policy about perseverance and collaboration. we were relentlessly pursuing enabling you to think about the commonwealth leadership of national issues. we have done walls and a story that was also written across the legislative session it was almost always done on a bipartisan basis. we have a k-12 education system despite its limitations that is

the envy of the country. the story was written by the readers and contributors across decades of the litigation action and as we approach the decade of the century we are engaged in a number of difficult policy issues. if incumbent on us to pursue these tasks with foresight, intelligence and commitment so that we can rest assured when our time is done those who come after us will be able to build on the foundation that we've established. they no longer have a structural budget deficit. the house last year ended with a major budget surplus deposited over $650 million in the stabilization fund and

anticipate making another major deposited fund at the end of this year. [applause] [cheering] and we did it without raising taxes. [applause] we took up the annual growth rate in spendin spending with de digits. dramatically reducing what fun

is available to support other enforced programs. today it is growing at a rate more in line with the state spending. we added 4,000 seats to the superb vocational technical schools and invested $50 million in capital grants to upgrade equipment and expand programs in high demand fields. with your help in th, the depart of children and families have made major progress serving some of the commonwealth coast at-risk children and families. caseload, we are at his record lows and old social workers -- and all social workers. [applause] i'm pretty sure i'm the only governor that sucked about the registry of motor vehicles in not just one but two inaugural

addresses the registry implemented a technology platform at the same time they implemented the real id program. [applause] no state is more committed than serving and delivering for its veterans in the commonwealth of massachusetts. [applause]

the funding to the education system and reduce the use of hotels and motels by over 95%. [applause] it would lead to 50% of the electricity being generated by clean resources and then delivered a process that came in

far below the price anybody anticipated. i want you to think about this for a minute we have a huge environmental benefit for lower energy prices and everybody in the country wants to duplicate what we pulled off that is a huge win for anybody that cares about the environment. [applause] allowing for small businesses to become more competitive and in a dynamic economy and to ge get stuffed on the approach that we take in public-private worships and economic development and advanced manufacturing and smart materials create jobs and opportunities across the

commonwealth. [applause] i just want to ask you to stay standing thanks to the hard work of so many many of whom are in the room.

[applause] putting the public interest ahead of partisan politics, he made it a better place to live for residents but there's always more left to do. 25 years ago massachusetts sent a national leader in public education but since then we have achieved success by working together in a series of education reforms and as a result, massachusetts scored number one on the national assessment of education progress exams in english and math through much of the past decade and finished first on the exams as well. before the urban and suburban school districts we can and must do better. the foundation formula needs to

be updated and we will propose updates when we filed the budget later this month. [applause] the progress here since just about money. education commissioner riley proved during his time progress can be made improving school performance by changing the way the schools operate. but before that he transformed to the school in boston from the lowest performing middle school in the city into one of the best

in the proven best practices like acceleration academies, professional development programs and afterschool enrichment initiatives and leadership development programs. [applause] to succeed in the 21st century economy it is up to us to come together to seize the opportunity and lay the groundwork for the future success. surprisingly there's much to give them transportation. predicting the future when there's so much possibility they do great work and i want to highlight some of the recommendations.

[applause] this is an area that they sat on their hands for too many years and we are playing catch-up and paying the price. over the course of the next few years, they spent over $8 billion on infrastructure much of which will be invested in the court system. this is more than twice that of urban spend in any five-year period of time. [applause] this will be no small task.

it updates seven days a week and the constant talk disrupting the system to get it better is a big challenge if we are to succeed in delivering on the $8 billion objective. with the roots and pricing and to modernize operation to better serve customers and create a truly customer focused transportation infrastructure.

to thrive here in the commonwealth getting thi of gets right will require unprecedented collaboration with local government as well as innovative partnerships in the private sector. the work with the northeast and mid-atlantic partners should produce a cap in the investment system for transportation that mirrors a successful model for energy. [applause]

it's how they get from one to the other. i've spoken more than anyone can remember about the housing crisis. we have limited inventory and the inventory we have gets priced out of sight when it comes to the market forcing people to live further and further away from where they were. it is a strong step in the right direction to deal with this and respected the need for the communities to plan for themselves that created incentives that tied them closely to the overarching strategy to the land-use policy generally. it was too much for some but not enough for others. we shouldn't let the perfect become the enemy of the good gon this one. [applause]

there's more successful commonwealth fund several pillars but one of the most important is delivering a big increase in housing production. we absolutely positively must get this one done in this session. [applause] we make progress on criminal justice and three years ago we enacted legislation that prohibited sending women who have been committed due to an

addiction to prison. [applause] two years ago we brought the curtain down on 30 years of shame and reform the operations of the bridgewater state hospital. [applause] and last year we worked together on a comprehensive criminal justice reform package one dot among other things gives us tools to help the men and women who will someday return to the community to get the training, life skills and support they need to succeed upon their release. but our work here is not done. [applause]

in deciding whether or not it makes sense to hold a hearing current law requires the judge to ignore any previous history and focus only on the crime before the court. in addition to the list of crimes for which prosecutors are allowed to make that request is very narrow. too often they are arrested for me to be released as soon as they appear in court. this sort of revolving door serves to undermine people's faith in law enforcement and the courts and it's a threat to public safety. nobody wants to see somebody's life ruined over a small time lapse of judgment and above all that we worked on together last year addresses many of these issues and we need a common sense approach to the system of

inability and violent history to come before the court. sergeant shawn gannon and michael chaska, ron. tina and state trooper thomas all gave their lives carrying out their sworn duty protecting the people and the commonwealth. by chief fredrickson, richard grimes, police chief -- auburn police chief and superintendent of the massachusetts state police. [applause]

for law enforcement and the citizen to ensure we are doing all we can to keep dangerous people off the streets. [applause] massachusetts is a national leader in healthcare. one of the healthiest state in the nation we have th with the e of health care coverage. health care collectors economically and clinically it's constantly delivering solutions to some of the most challenging and complicated problems facing patients and their families. the flipside is the price we pay tpay. small business is on the highest health-insurance costs in the country. the price of the medical service is as much as 300% depending on

where it is provided. the community hospitals continue to struggle and ironically some of the rules make it tough to practice modern medicine. later this year, we will file legislation to address these and other issues by expanding the use of medicine and rethinking some of the scope of practice guidelines and dealing with the issues that have negatively affected individuals and families dealing with mental health issues. [applause] we didn't get into this crisis overnight and we won't get out of it overnight either. the members have been true partners on this issue and acting two major bills that

build on the pillars of reform, prevention an, education, treatt and recovery. today we are one of the handfulf states that since they overdose deaths dropped in 2017 and the intervention of the changes that work and showed progress and we've also added an initiative by credentialed recovery coaches who will be coming online for about 2019 and beyond. [applause] dealing with opioid addiction is enormously difficult. relax as an inevitable part of the story. helping people to avoid becoming

addicted in the first place aiming to challenge. diffusing the presence of fentanyl which is now in 90% of all drug overdose deaths is a challenge. but on behalf of the people in the commonwealth, and especially the families and family members to deal with this addiction issue every single day, i want to thank you for all that you've done and we look forward to working with you going forward as we continue to battle this deadly disease. thank you. [applause] its resulting in one of the biggest disasters in the valley. dozens of house fires broke out across the region and one young

man tragically lost his life. fire and police team across massachusetts and new hampshire spread out across lawrence and andover putting out fires and redirecting traffic and worked closely with nonprofits, state officials and the leadership of the communities to get people safely out of their homes and if they had no place to go come into shelter. for the next 90 days there was an army of operators training first responders, inspectors to take local officials working throughout the communities to lay down 50 miles of pipe to replace thousands of service once iservicewhen some houses, , and to prepare or replace thousands of hot water heaters, stoves, dryers and boilers.

throughout this ordeal, homeowners, familiehomeowners, s affected by the disaster showed a tremendous amount of patience, resilience, flexibility and fortitude. there were hundreds of officials who went above and beyond the call on this one i want to give thanks to those that are with us today. the fire chief and police chief and over the town manager andrew flanagan and michael mansfield and the town manager, fire chief william mccarthy and police chief charles gray. these people delivered and we are honored to have them. [applause]

you know it is moments like that anyone remembers why the creative public-service matters but at the same time the day-to-day work will go on without much notice. the cities and towns in the commonwealth work on over 800 best practices and use the program to spread the word on the other smarter and better ways to deliver services doesn't make much news. the work we've done together to invest billions of dollars in the company and regional development and public-private partnerships in the communities in the commonwealth to 16,000 trees we planted and for thousands of led lights we've installed with our colleagues at the local government it's just

doing our job. each day the wheels turn. they build small communities can support schools, grow the economy, quee clean up the environment, promote justice and give people the chance. they create hope, opportunity and possibility. from one end of massachusetts to the other. [applause] sure there is noise. most of the time back and forth as positivin forthis positive aa point of view with heightened intelligence and a democracy that is designed to encourage it. it's rhetoric or character assassination and every time someone joins the course they steal time, attention and focus away from finding common ground

creating solutions and doing the work that matters. that is what it's all about. [applause] during the winter of 2015, we saw firsthand during the snowstorms how amazing the mutual aid programs between the states can be. other states bailed us out but it kept falling with no end in sight.

they dropped whatever they were doing and headed up there. it's amazing. over the past four years the lieutenant governor and i have heard time and time again the way we all work together is a model for the nation. people like our collaborative approach to governing and say they are proud to be from massachusetts. [applause] you know what, so am i.. [applause]

the state is bursting with talent, humor and peace and the, boldness and common sense, some debate coach patriotism and belonging has made us strong and carried us forward for almost 400 years. [applause] instead of the name-calling that dominates much of today's public debate wha but to build on the k of those that came before us and take our work about how we can

make this state better for the people who call this glorious place home. thank you. god bless the commonwealth and god bless the united states of america. [applause] [cheering]

this is the governor's third address since taking office. lieutenant governor, governor schaefer, mr. speaker, distinguished members of the 66th legislative assembly, chief justice of the supreme court, fellow elected officials, tribal leaders, cabinet members, first lady my children joe, jesse and tom, secondly, family and friends, simpsons welcome and thank you for joining us today. it's truly an honor for us to serve as citizens of north dakota. we are filled with gratitude to make aif