this past georgia, the revenue reserve fund torain any day fund as it is commonly known had only enough money to fund state operations for less than two days. meaning that essential functions of government were at risk if even the slightest hiccup were to occur. one year later, with your help, we have begun restoring the rainy day fund. the balance today is $328 million, and increase of 183%. [ applause ] i am committed to continuing to build up this strategic reserve by keeping our spending in check. when we met last year, we faced a difficult budget situation in which the low-hanging fruit and

the easy fixes were gone. and yet we work together to pass structurally balanced budgets that fund the essential service upon which georgians depend. and we did it without new taxes. we have delivered common sense conservative budgets free of gimmicks and one-time gains. for that reason, we are now one of only eight states with a aaa rating from the three major rating agencies. [ applause ] when compared with our aa peers, this credential of credit worthiness saved georgia taxpayers $11 million over the life of bonds that were sold last year alone.

this also provides was a powerful tool for economic development. when a business considers locating in georgia, it helps to be able to show them that they are partnering with a state government that has its house in order. so that end, beginning this year, we will implement zero-based budgeting in 10% of all programs. [ applause ] through zero-based budgeting, we will bring a new level of accountability to state government and verify that taxpayer dollars are being spent to meet the priorities of georgians. when we met last year, we faced a federal district court ruling that threatened to cut off up to 85% of metro atlanta's water supply. this evening with the benefit of an 11th circuit appeals court ruling overturning that decision, we are in a much

stronger decision to reach a lasting agreement with our peers in alabama and florida on an issue that is critical to our state in terms of its ability to attract investment and create new jobs. one year ago hope, arguably the nation's most generous merit-based higher education scholarship program was on the unsustainable course and faced complete deplosion of reserves as early as fiscal year 2013. this evening we can proclaim a piece of legislation that preserves hope for future generations. and for every student who earns hope, my budget for next year maintains the same award amount as was received this year. [ applause ]

also, we will begin appropriate $20 million for the needs-based program, 1% loan program for needing students. because this is a burden that sometimes faces students and they have nowhere to turn. this year more than half of these newly appropriated funds went to students who had no assistance from their families. together we've done something else over the last year. and while it is more general in nature, it is perhaps even more important to our ability to governor well and to the long-term prospects of our great state. together we have ushered in a new era of cooperation. last january we faced a

mountain. together we climbed it. thank you for your partnership and thank you for all that you do to serve georgians. but this evening as we embark on a new year, we have other mountains to climb, and it will require our best collective efforts this year and beyond. recalling the great explorers who look to the night skies in their search for new lands, the first star in our constellation is education. our schools are the front line in our effort to create prosperity. it is here that would r we make our most strategic investment in the future. the amended and fiscal year 2013 budgets that i prepared take advantage of the stabilization in revenues and appropriate an additional $146.6 million to

fully fund enrollment growth in our k through 12 schools. [ applause ] likewise, in both the technical college and university systems, i'm calling for an additional $111.3 million to fund anticipated enrollment growth. also in keeping with the recommendations of the education finance study commission, and because we believe they are vital ingredients in the educational experience we provide young georgians, my budget calls for $3.7 million in additional funds for school nurses. [ applause ] this along with the school

nutrition program and transportation fund willing be moved into the quality basic education funding formula. these funds will be al le indicated using the same formula for local districts to which they are accustomed. but they will have the complete flexibility in how they spend them. better than me or anyone else under this gold dome, i believe local school leaders know how to spend funds within their district in order to provide the greatest outcomes for their students. [ applause ] my proposed budget calls for an additional $55.8 billion to fund salary increases for teachers based on training and experience. unlike the past, there are no reductions in qbe, equalization grants, state schools, or other enrollment-driven programs. within education, i've called

for a new focus on our youngest learners. the budget i'm proposing increases the pre-k school year for 84,000 students by ten days, bringing it to 170 days. [ applause ] i'm proud to say that this will begin the process of restoring pre-k teacher salaries. certainly something that needs to be done. we must make a concerted effort to increase the percentage of children reading at grade level by the completion of the third grade. the best evidence tells us that children not meeting this standard often fail to catch up and are more likely to drop out of school, go to prison, and have higher unemployment rates later in life than their reading proficient peers.

students must learn to read in order to be able to read to learn. and when we fail to invest in our youngest students, we are forced to spend money on remediation for the remainder of their academic careers. to this end, my budget includes $1.6 million for a reading mentors program. this program will assist schools and teachers as they work to help more young georgians achieve this strategic benchmark, reading at grade level by the completion of the third grade. [ applause ] you've heard me talk about moving beyond the status quo in education. and that requires a more intense focus on innovation in the classroom. in particular, we need to put in place strategies that provide

students with opportunities to practice and apply what they are learning in a high quality real world environment. this is one reason we allotted nearly $20 million of our race to the top money for the creation of an innovation fund. this initiative asks schools to partner with businesses, nonprofits, and post secondary institutions. and places a primary focus on developing applied learning opportunities. we've already seen positive results. and tomorrow i'll announce the winners of round two in that process. to spur innovation i'm also recommending $8.7 million in supplemental grants in the amended budget and next year's budget for state chartered special schools affected by the georgia supreme court ruling on charter schools. these schools are key to

georgia's educational success. and without these additional dollars, they would be forced to operate on approximately half of the funds of other public schools. however, this is not the long-term solution. and i am looking forward to working with you to ensure that charter schools can thrive in georgia. well can do this, and with your help we will. further, we must clarify the mission of our schools. let me state this very clearly. i believe students graduating from our high schools, these young men and women who have done everything we've asked of them in our k through 12 system should be fully ready for post secondary study or a job. going forward, we will reclaim that mission by ensuring that there is a more seamless

transition from high school to further study, and from post secondary study to the workforce. when our young people facing a difficult job market and stiff global competition for good jobs, we must do everything in our power to ensure that our education system provides graduates with real opportunity. our post secondary institutions must maintain an intense focus on employability and creating job opportunities. and in today's competitive global environment where technology is constantly reshaping the economy, that means abandoning the ivory tower model and adapting to meet the needs of business. the focus on practical education is why i'm announcing go bill georgia this evening. go bill is a public/private initiative that will round out our workforce development

program by educating young people and the public at large about the skilled trades. already the business community is unable to fill many positions calling for highly skilled industrial and commercial construction professionals. jobs that on average pay 27% more than the average georgian currently earns. and with an aging workforce in this area, we are on track to replace only one of every four retirees. today in america with more than 13 million people unemployed and seeking work, there are 1.3 million open positions in skilled trade industries for which companies are unable to find qualified applicants. right here in metro atlanta, siemens has been unable to fill approximately 200 skilled trade

positions in the fields of manufacturing automation, health care technology, transportation systems, and technical service. it is time we begin work to boost our pipeline. we must work together to ensure that our state has the craft professionals to meet present and forecasted demand. this is something we can do. and with your help, we will. here in georgia -- [ applause ] here in georgia we are blessed with world class university and technical college systems that provide opportunity for every young georgian, and provide business with a pipeline of talented workers. as we seek to continue improving higher education i want to commend chuck huckabee and the board of regents along with commissioner ron jackson and the

technical college board for performing a strategic consolidation of institutions. in this age of doing more with less, you are delivering a better return on investment without compromising service to students. before leaving the topic of higher education, i want to announce two ambitious goals. georgians deserve a world class medical university. and it will be a priority of this administration to have a medical college among the top 50 nationally. this is something we can do. and with your help, we will. [ applause ] also within this push the georgia health sciences university will seek to become

the state's second national cancer institute designated cancer center alongside the winship cancer center at emory. as of today, georgians' annual death rate from cancer exceeds the national average. but i believe we have all of the ingredients necessary for a determination for it to be a destination for cancer research and a resource for every family battling this disease. this designation would mean greater access to research dollars and enhance our ability to recruit top cancer specialists. even more, it will place georgians battling this horrific disease first in line for newest and most promising therapies and clinical trials. to support this goal of a second georgia-based cancer center, my budget proposal includes an investment of $5 million. this is something we can do.

and with your help, we will [ applause ] in order to address the need for additional health professionals in georgia, we've been investing in the expansion of undergrd watt medical education for several years. we must now take the next step in this process by increasing the number of graduate residency slots. my budget funds 400 new residency slots in hospitals across the state. presently because we lack adequate residency program capacity, georgia taxpayers help fund a promising young georgian in pre-k, k through 12, post secondary, and medical education, only to see them perform their residency outside of our state and never return.

that doesn't provide value for georgians paying taxes. it doesn't make sense for georgians needing care. and it isn't fair to young georgians looking to begin medical careers. we must ensure that no doctor trained in georgia is forced to leave the state to complete his or her medical education. this is something we can do, and with your help, we will. [ applause ] another primary responsibility of government is providing infrastructure. and because it is a key building block of job creation, it is a star that will guide our course forward. in a global economy in which commerce is increasingly long distance and reliant on cutting-edge logistics, we need a bigger, smarter transportation

network to move people and products in the most efficient way possible. that means roads on which traffic and freight move freely, ports that handle bigger ships, and airports that process people and packages more efficiently. to reduce traffic congestion in metro atlanta along georgia 400, we will be working with the d.o.t. to implement innovative traffic solutions. we will modify the existing southbound lanes from mcfarland road to the chattahoochee river allowing an additional southbound through-lane. from the chattahoochee river to 285, we will implement flex shoulders in each direction. these improvements will allow us to better facilitate traffic during peak rush hours of accommodating the explosive growth that the northern suburbs have experienced. we called a h

the p-3 project for the northwest corridor. while there were many reasons for doing so, one of the most important ones that i can think of was that i was, am and will be opposed to contracting away georgia's sovereignty for a period of 60 to 70 years on a transportation corridor that is so vital to the future of our state. [ applause ] >> i remain committed to improving the northwest corridor, but there is a better way forward. investment in transportation infrastructure is indeed an investment in our future. i applaud this legislature's creation of a transparent bottom-up approach to identifying critical

transportation projects throughout georgia. the regional referendums on this year's ballots will give voters the opportunity to fund a slate of projects with a sales tax when they deem the proposed investment provides value. over the last several decades, our capacity has fallen behind due to underinvestment in transportation. we must seize this opportunity to invest in our future. we can do this and with your help we will. we're continuing to work towards the completion of the savannah harbor expansion project, a project that is imperative to our state's competitiveness and with the bigger ships traversing an enlarged panama canal in 2014, my budget for next year includes 46.7 million in bonds to continue the deepening project at the harbor. building on the more than $136

million that has already been approved for the harbor deepening project over the past three years. also within infrastructure, we're working to ensure that every georgia community has depentdable water supplies. while we await the army corps of engineers' decision regarding the impact of water diverse versions from lake lanier, we're moving forward with plafrns to enhance water supply and security around the state. last year we took definitive action to get the ball rolling. my budget for next year proposes $45.7 million for water supply projects, the second installment in a four-year plan calling for $300 million of new investment in water supply. [ applause ] today the georgia environmental finance authority has issued the solicitation and application forms for the water supply

program, and local governments can now apply for the low interest loans and state direct investment as detailed in the recent approved state water supply plan. i want to commend our water task force for creating a thorough, forward looking plan that makes sense for georgia communities both big and small. with our state's population projected to grow by an estimated 4.6 million people over the next two decades, it is imperative that we expand water supply across our state. we must stop being so dependent on the federal government for our water. we must seize our own destiny. this is something we can do and with your help we will. [ applause ]

this evening i've talked about our duty as elected officials to do the long-term work of ensuring our state charts a course forward that leads to a reach environment of opportunity for every georgian. when these traditional building blocks fail, more and more citizens drift into the criminal justice arena. and here in georgia, entrance into our criminal justice system has been a dead-end for far too many. last year, faced with one of the most incarcerated populations in the nation, low rehabilitation rates and high recidivism, you joined me in passing legislation to create the criminal justice reform council. since that time, the council has taken a comprehensive look at what changes are needed to increase the effectiveness of our correctional efforts. i want to commend the council for their work that they have

done. and my budget recommendations reflect their findings. to start, my budget proposes $1.4 million to fund additional pa roll officers at the state boards of pardons and paroles. these officers would provide supervision to offenders who would otherwise serve their sentence and be released in our communities without any supervision. unless we provide the appropriate tools of supervision that facilitate a successful reentry into society, history has shown us that defenders simply return to the prison population. right now in georgia, nearly one in three leaving our prisons are reconvicted within three years. we must shut that revolving door. this is something that we can do and with your help we will.

[ applause ] i am also recommending $35.2 million for additional prison beds for those that propose a threat for our citizens. to residential substance abuse treatment centers at a cost of $5.7 million. we must make this investment. if we fail to treat the addict's drug addiction, we haven't taken the first step in breaking the cycle of crime, a cycle that destroys lives and wastes taxpayer resources. this is something we can do and with your help we will. [ applause ] because we are seeing an increased need for resources to work with violent youth

offenders within our juvenile justice system, my budget includes funding to open a new youth detention center as well as funding for two security management and response teams. i am also recommending $10 million in next year's budget for the creation of new accountability courts, drug, dui, mental health and veteran's courts, all of which have proven to be both cheaper and more effective than traditional courts for those low risk offenders falling under their jurisdiction. in fact, drug courts around the nation have proven to reduce recidivism by as much as 35%. this evening i want to tell you about a typical case that finds its way into a drug court. sarah was a drug addict. the drug use that began as recreation resulted in a

destructive cocaine and methamphetamine addiction. it took control of her life. at one point she had no means of transportation. she lost custody of her little girl. she wound up homeless. but i mentioned sarah tonight because she exemplifies many of the goals that we hold for our correction system. under the supervision of a drug court, piece by piece she began rebuilding her life. with help, she beat her she won back daughter, and she is now a sponsor helping other women who face the same trials. and because she provides a powerful example of hope and redemption, i've asked her to join us in this chamber tonight. sarah and her daughter are here, and i would be honored if you

would give her a round of applause. [ applause ] >> sarah was given a shot at a better life, and she took it. her story is not an exception. it is playing out all across georgia as people reclaim their lives through the work of accountability courts. while these reforms