we had to address $1.5 billion deficit that demanded tough decisions, and i appreciate all the shared sacrifices that people made. michigan is just like a family, in tough times we have to find ways to live within our means. working together, though, we stopped the practices of using budget gimmicks or taking short term actions that actually would harm us long-term. even in these difficult times, with he made payments toward michigan's long-term liability costs, in addition we made the first deposit to michigan's rainy day fund since 2004. the fund had run down to a balance that would only operate state government for 30 minutes. and the last thing is, this was the last, the fastest budget

process in the last 30 years, which was a tremendous help to our local governments and schools, so thank you so much for that hard work. and i really appreciate the extra support of ourio shares, kan and representative moss, thank you. next was tax reform. a good tax system has three basic elements, simple, fair and efficient. our system failed on all three of these principles for both business and individuals. so working together we eliminated the michigan business tax.

as many of you have heard me say the michigan business tax was just plain dumb. in addition to failing all three principles it was a job killer that imposed an unfair double tax burden on our best job creators, our small and medium-sized business people. although it didn't disappear until the end of 2011, many businesspeople have already gained confidence in our future and have taken action, and i want to recognize one example, one example is neiman's family markets based in alpena, in representative battalia's district and hal neiman is with us tonight. hal, stand up, please. they've already added five employees and expect to hire 100 more because of these reforms. thank you, hal.

and on the michigan business tax i want to give one special note of recognition to lieutenant govern cally who helped lead the way and work tirelessly on the tax reform situation. we also completed a major reform over individual income tax system. we changed the personal tax system to one defined by fairness, one that doesn't treat anyone better than anyone else. we've levelled the playing field to give all michiganders a fair shake for the long-term. we've made major improvements with local government forms that encourage more transparentally, better health care costs and

service sharing between communities. for example we now have 435 jurisdictions doing dashboards. we created a $5 million pool to fund innovative collaborations between governments and the first award out of this pool was to grand rapids, flint and lansing to joint process their income tax returns. the $550,000 award they received resulted in over $2 million of savings over the next nine years. this exercise was due in great partnership of the legislature and i especially thank representative mark lemette for his effort on this. we completed much of our education reform package, as i said earlier, our current standing of only having 17% of our students being college ready is unacceptable. our children are our future, and

we need to make sure they are not just college ready, but career ready. we need to start an early childhood and finish with lifelong learning, whether it's college or vocational training. we launched the office of great start to focus on our youngest children. i want to thank the foundation committee for helping championship early childhood education. teacher tenure reform was accomplished. now we have a better system to support our teachers, recognize their critical role and create an environment that supports their success. we provide our students and parents with more school choice by removing the cap on charter schools.

now we need to make sure we're raising the performance bar on all schools. we have worked to complete. i encourage the legislature to finish the work on dual enrollment and cyber learning and also i'd appreciate your support on legislation for the educational achievement authority, which is our initiative to turn around our poorest performing schools. our goal is to have the educational achievement authority, educating children by this september. in september, i gave a special message on health and wellness. as i mentioned in the dashboard, we have much to improve. again the most important item would be responsibility for our own wellness, as you know, i signed up for my own personal commitment. i'm six pounds toward my goal of

losing ten pounds but still have some work to go. michiganders t join me in this effort. this isn't about who is the biggest loser. this is a how we can all win together. i asked the legislature to continue the work on autism and the michigan health marketplace. there are now medically proven treatments for autism. 27 other states already require insurance to cover evidence-based therapies for autism. the human and financial cost of autism are too high. let's address this important topic. the michigan health marketplace is our effort to give people the tools they need to make informed

decisions on selecting high quality and affordable care. it's the health care equivalent of travelocity are orbitz. when was the last time you called five airlines to book an airplane ticket? if we fail to act in a timely basis we are on a path to have a federally imposed system defined by people who don't live or work in our state. i urge the legislature to seize the opportunity for michigan citizens. tonight i'm pleased to announce a new program, pure michigan fit. it groceries association and the michigan health and hospital association, to address childhood obesity.

it's a nutrition bad caregivers the information they need to raise happy, healthy kids. we also took great strides this year to protect our most vulnerable citizens. old ear bus is the fastest growing crime in michigan. the senate passed bills which give vulnerable adults special witness protection against abusers, allow advocates to speak on their behalf when they are unable to and establish a senior alert program. i urge the house to move the pokage ofll michigan is home to nearly

700,000 men and women who have served this country. many have access to va health care but are unaware or choose not to use it because of a cumbersome process. today, only 19% of our vaeteran use va health care. we will continue to work with veterans groups and the federal government to ensure our veterans get the benefits they have earned and deserve. i'd like to thank the legislature for their support in this area, especially representative zorn, france and in thes colbeck and moliner. thank you. just as individuals cannot neglect their own health, the state cannot afford to neglect the health of our physical in a infrastructu infrastructure. shortly a bipartisan package of bills will be introduced to create a systems of roads and

bridges for the 21st century economy. one illustration of our current backward system is a road funding formula from 1951, over 60 years ago. even more important, studies have shown that we are underinvesting in our transportation infrastructure by upwards of $1.4 billion per year. now almost no one in michigan likes our road system. let's solve this problem. i urge the legislature to begin hearings on this important issue. now another persistent problem that we face is a lack of a truly regional transit system for southeastern michigan.

we are working in partnership with the city of detroit, with the four surrounding counties and the u.s. department of transportation to develop a new bus rapid transit system, a brt, to service the entire region. it's 40 years overdue. i encourage your support. now the final message of last year was on talent. this is truly a case of last but not least. our greatest asset is our talent, our people. now traditionally the public sector is focused on talent through workforce development. now this isn't good enough. we can minimize waste and add real results for people about better aligning where careers are and will be with our people and their skills that they have and that they need. we started this process in the

fall, with pure michigan talent connect. i encourage all of our young people and anyone looking for a job or career to go to mitalent.org. thisportal is to get our citizens better connected. there are nearly 70,000 jobs on this site. if we filled all these positions, our unemployment rate would drop by another 2% almost. and many of these are very good jobs, by the way, such as welder, accountant, or nurse. but again, this is more than simply a job site. it has tools for letting people look at their skills and the financial return that would be available for various careers. please, check it out. our talent agenda also emphasized the unemployment rate in michigan is far too high for our veterans, for our veterans

of iraq and afghanistan, our unemployment rate was approximately 29%. this isn't right. and we need to act. i encourage all employers to place a priority on hiring our veterans. we need help from our federal partners to create immigration opportunities for individuals who have advanced degrees for our entrepreneurs. having these individuals building businesses in michigan would create new jobs for our citizens. right here in michigan, we need to remember that immigrants were the founders of dow, myer, and masgow, and we're going to be working on this effort with support from michigan

universities, the michigan regional council of carpenters and millwrights, the operating engineers union and the teamsters. i appreciate all of their support and hope others will join us in this effort. in addition to the special messages, we took a number of other very important actions. first we began a dialogue on reducing taxes on industrial equipment, which needs to continue. michigan's been a world leader in manufacturing, and we want good job growth to happen in this important economic sector. now this conversation needs to be done in partnership with our local jurisdictions, since it's a critical part of the revenue. let's look for a long-term solution that generates more and better jobs while properly supporting our communities.

we accomplished major reforms of our state pension and retiree medical system. these reforms moved our benefits structure to bet ear line with the private sector, so that we'll remain a good place to work while at the same time reducing our long-term liabilities by more than $5 billion. while we focused on more and better jobs and financially sound government, we've also committed to helping the most in need. government always needs to consider the human side of

things. all children need a strong, loving network, especially those in state care. so we strengthen our commitment to children's services in michigan. of the children seeking an adoptive family last year, the department of human services was able to place 70% or more than 2,500 of these children with a permanent family. but more children become available every day for adoption. but now i'd like to recognize one family, the moreland family of canton is a wonderful example of the joys offami could stand up, please.

thank you. let me tell you about the moreland family. lamar and holly moreland already had two beautiful biological children, derek and hunter, judicial and legal system, lamar and holly knew they wanted to expand their family through adoption. last fall they were matched to the michigan adoption resource exchange after seeing photos of 12-year-old dexter and 7-year-old hayley. everything worked out. dexter and hayley have made the school. they have found their forever family. thank you.

there were two new public acts in 2011 that stuck -- struck, excuse me, a special chord in my heart. one was the extension of foster care services to age 21 instead of age 18, for young adults who would otherwise have aged out of foster care. this change will make a big difference in their young s. and i want to give special recognition to western michigan university, which has already provided special support to 141 young adults in this age group through their sea to scholars program.

the second public act i was going to mention was the most es for me personally at the bill signing and that was the passage of the there's no excuse for bullying and after ten years of effort we took legislative action. as a person who was bullied when i say thank you. now, not all went well or smoothly in 2011. and i would mention two areas in particular. first, we the ahead with the ne international trade crossing. we need to our efforts

on this topic, since it's not a bridge issue, it's a jobs issue. one-third of the north american economy can be found by circling chicago to montreal. we are right in the middle. let's not let special interests hold back a great opportunity e since this project can be done without any michigan taxpayer dollars. second, numbers of our cities and schools second, a number of our cities and schools are suffering major financial distress, it's a new topic but it's one that we should fully address in12

we had six schools under emergency financial management when i took office and there are others that joined the list. the over riding common feature is that they lost population without a corresponding difference in their cost structure, the long-term answer is how to create a financially solid foundation so that growth can occur again. not how to cut costs. the state's role is to help jurisdictions solve their own problems, in that regard we passed the fiscal accountability act, it addressed two main issues missed by the predecessor, it heavilies communities identify and solve problems as soon as possible and prior to a emergency. second when there's a financial

emergency, it's intendo t probl the community can get back on a positive path. . some people may wonder what we are talking about when the term financial emergency is used. think about a situation where employees are not going to get their paychecks. suppliers are nopaid. bond payments are being missed or financial statements cannot be completed. these are critical problems. the new law is helping and tonight i want to let tt is str with their finances to know that we a we are committed at the state level to help you resolve your challenges. and i would like to recognize

mayorith us. mayor bing if youl it is important for all michiganders to understand ity -- it is important for all michigan residents to know that having a growing detroit is critical to all of us. [ applause ] >> detroit has many exciting developments going on and resolving the city's financial challeng

challenges would clear the path to a bright future. i want to thank the foundation community for their support of our office of urban initiatives. this office is interfacing with the cities. the last thing is regulatory reinvention, so far we have rescinded obsolete regulations. we need a regulatory environment that is conducive to job creation while we are properly protecting our citizens. now this year we are going to continue our regulatory re reinvention by eliminating rules that don't make sense.

i have three examples. first we have a rule mandating the size of a barbours wastebasket. second, we have a rule requiring child care providers to smile. >> finally and this should not be surprising and i appreciate our leadership today but the department of environmental quality has 28 separate requirements for out houses. including a requirement that the seat not be left up. i don't know about you but i have a hire authority at home. i don't need the state telling

me that. it's going to be an interesting evening. now, let's tal about 2012. 2012 will be a very different year from 2011. 2011 was focused on dramatic policy improvements of a broken model of the past. we set a bright course for the future. 2012 is about finishing that work, the work left over from 2011. tackling unaddressed challenges and really mayking this year about good government. it not about good or small government, it's about good government. government doing the right

things for the right reasons. let's fully implement what we already started in giving you, our citizens great customer service. i am going to do a special message in march, it will be on the topic of public safety. we need to improve. as i mentioned earlier, we have four of the top most violent cities in the united states. this message will have three key components, an increase in law enforceme enforcement, and improvements on how the criminal justice system operates. and second, in the fall, i'll give a special message on energy and the environment. we need to be more strategic by focusing to the inner section of job creation, affordability, science and sustainability.

we need to continue michigan's leadership in protecting the great lakes one of the world's greatest natural assets. third i would like to work with the legislature how to im third, i would like to work with the legislature on how to improve our laws with respect to lobbying, campaign finance for state and local fwompt. we should have better disclosure of campaign contributions and we should have rules that oversee people that negotiate state contracts while in government service. on the implementatio