delaware poultry into korea and across asia. on the former chrysler site, delawareans will be building bloom energy servers to provide clean energy where they once built suvs and tanks. we can shrink from these challenges or we can do as a business destined for industry leadership would do. and see in this moment an opportunity to change the game in our favor. the economic ground is shifting under everyone's feet. others are finding it difficult to adapt. they're pointing fingers rather than pulling together. they're holding each other back rather than lifting each other up. ore history and our culture demonstrate that we do better than that in delaware. but to take advantage of this moment and build a lasting, competitive edge for our state

and its people, we've got to do more than simply work with rather than against each other. together, we must act with confidence and imagination. we can't settle for an economy that's depends upon a handful of employers. we can't settle for schools that are just better funded versions of the schools that we remember from 20 years ago. we'll help the schools that will prepare our children for the jobs 20 years from now. we can't settle for the sick care system we inherited from our parents. we'll create a healthcare system that pays for performance and delivers quality care at a price that families and taxpayers can afford.

i thank each of you, the people of delaware, and the state employees who served them, for your support over these past three difficult years. working together, we have kept delaware moving forward. and now it's time that we forge ahead. with our own hard work as elected leaders, guided by sound judgments and god's blessings, we can secure a better future for our citizens. we can win in the turns. this is our time. to look ahead, to leap ahead, to lead. thank you.

thank you. now we go to indiana, where governor mitch daniels gave his final state of the state address. he talked about education, infrastructure spending and the right to work legislation on union rights. his remarks are about 30 minutes. >> -- when governor rockefeller was shouted down. i saw it in minneapolis when governor wallace was heckled into silence. it happened to me in philadelphia. we must give notice to this violent few. there are millions of decent americans who are willing to sacrifice or the change.

but they want to do it without being threatened. and they want to do it peacefully. they are the nonviolent majority. black and white, who are for change without violence. these are the people whose voice i want to be. >> as candidates campaign for president this year, we look back at 14 men who ran for the office and lost. go to our website, c-span.org/the confenders to see the videos who had a lasting impact on american politics. >> our ancestors came across in a ship you wouldn't go across a lake in. they built their little cabins and they did it with neighbors helping when one another and not with labor grants. they came here because they wanted to be free, and they wanted to practice the religion of their choice. after 200 years, too many of us take those privileges for

granted. >> c-span.org, the contenders. we go to indiana where mitch daniels gave his final state of the state address. he talked about education, infrastructure spending and the union rights. his remarks are about 30 minutes.

>> thank you. thank you very much.

members of the general assembly, honored guest, fellow citizens, for an eighth time and the final time, you afford me the unrivaled privilege of this podium as it's my last such chance to express my appreciation for the public service you each perform and the hoosiers for hiring me twice so i could try to perform my own. i'll start with the heart felt thank you. but the time for reminiscing will come later. much later. tonight, and all nights in today's indiana must be about the future. where we are and where we're going. a reporter asked recently, what keeps you up at night? i replied, i generally sleep well, but if i ever do have trouble, i don't have to count sheep.

i count all the states i'm glad i'm not the governor of. by the time i first took office, a radio caller expressed a fairly common sentiment. i like what you say what you stand for, but republicans, democrats, nothing ever changes. nothing's ever different. i recall responding, sir, i'm careful not to promise, what i'm not sure can be delivered but i'll promise you one thing. in a few years you place did agree with the decisions we made or actions we have taken, but you will not think nothing's different. i'm pretty sure that good man would agree tonight that things are very different in indiana now. then we were broke and other states were flush. tonight, while states elsewhere twist in financial agony, indiana has an honestly balanced

budget, a strong, protective reserve in our savings account and the first aaa rating, a handful of one of the states left in america. our credit is better, imagine this, than the federal government's. another host of states raised taxes again last year, while hoosiers are taxed at the lowest levels in a long time thanks in part to the lowest property taxes in the nation. while other state governments

stiff their vendors, close parks, delay tax refunds and ignore unacceptably poor service levels, we're setting national standards for efficiency. tonight, hoosiers are served by provably the most productive government workers in america. indiana has the fewest state workers per capita in america and yet, our parks have never been in better shape, your tax refund comes back twice as quickly as it used to and the average customer got in and out of the license branch last month in under 14 minutes. i'm not the only one to notice. in a national survey last summer, 77% of hoosiers described their state government as efficient. far above most states in the

second highest rating in the nation. uniquely in public sector america, indiana now pays state workers on a performance basis so those doing the best job are properly rewarded for their superior efforts. but i know that the reward they value as much as money is simple recognition from the citizens they serve and i hope you'll show them right now that you value them and their hard work as much as i do. careful stewardship of the taxpayer's dollar and ceaseless efforts are matters of duty and basic good government. but they are not the fundamental goals of public life. they're just means to the real

goal. which is to make our state a place of opportunity and upward mobility and a better standard of living. a place where young people and people not so young know that they can start with nothing and make a good life. from our administration's first day, this has been the central objective around which everything else was organized. we have worked relentlessly to move indiana up the list of great places to do business. we set out to build the best sand box in america. a place where men and women of enterprise knew if they risk a buck on their idea or their dream, they would have the best possible chance to get it back with something left over they could use to hire the next hoosier. we have made steady progress, coming from nowhere to the top tier in every ranking. number six according to the nation's site elections. number six according to ceo magazine.

fu number five according to real estate decisionmakers. it was our ironic bad luck to create a on the economic climate just as the nation plunged into its worst modern recession and business investments slowed to a crawl. we became the prettiest girl in school the year they called off the prom. despite these head winds our recently strong state revenues show that something positive is happening to hoosier incomes. in 2010, the most recent data we have, indiana incomes grew at the eighth fastest rate in the country. here's another encouraging sign. more people are moving in to indiana than moving out. our population is growing at the fastest rate from iowa to maine. maybe best of all, thousands of college graduates moved into our state last year more than moved out.

there was no better indicator of economic promise in today's world than success at attracting top talent and we are. we are not where we want to be. nowhere close. but with a welcoming business climate, enormous investments in new public infrastructure and a stable fiscal picture, we are poised for more progress and better days. beyond the statistics lies a basic difference in the indiana of today. we are now indisputably seen as a leader. in hundreds of articles about fiscal prudence, economics, transportation, correction, child protection and so on, we are cited constantly as an example for others to examine. from cleveland, ohio should follow indiana's lead and dive

in. from detroit, indiana has many of the answers as seen in indiana, it certainly is possible. from north carolina, fortunately, there's no need to speculate about how a state might proceed. indiana has already done it. it's more than words. we now experience the sincerest flattery all the time. our economic development corporations has been copied by ohio, wisconsin, michigan, and others. our corrections program by oregon, our employer healthcare by oklahoma, missouri and florida. our performance based by wyoming and air quality by kentucky and south carolina. our online university wgu indiana by texas and by washington. and at every governor's meeting, someone says if only we could pull off a deal half as good as indiana did with its toll road.

the latest realm in which indiana is now a leader is perhaps the most important. from coast to coast, others are praising our reforms of public education. one national magazine wrote that indiana has gone from the back waters of education reform in america to the front. the fordham institute said no one has been more successful in providing a comprehensive reform plan for a system that's failing america's children. then this from even further away the daily telegraph of london wrote that in education, quote, england would do well to follow indiana's lead. the days when education debates started and stopped at dollar signs are over and high time. from president obama down,

everyone recognizes that leaders in education are defined not by what they put in, but what they get out. just for the record and despite frequent misrepresentations to the contrary, indiana is a leader in what we put in. with this year's spending increases, plus the additional funds we requested for full day kindergarten, k-12 spending is now 56% of the entire state budget, the highest percentage of any state in the nation. no state anywhere devotes more of its state funds to education. but that's not why others are following indiana. it's our new commitment to rewarding the best teachers, liberating principals and superintendents and providing low and middle income parents the same choices as their wealthier neighbors. that's what's caught the world's

attention. this year when we end the cruel defeatist practice of passing children who cannot read into fourth grade, and when our most diligent students begin to graduate from high school in 11 years and get a head start on college costs through their hard work, others will take notice of indiana yet again. there are few subjects more studied or more intriguing their leadership. leaders come in many forms and often from unexpected directions. but some qualities are common among them and one is that leaders never loaf. they never slip into complace y complacency, settle for things as they are, or stop pursuing innovation or excellence of result. if they do, leadership will pass and new leaders surpass. leaders who loaf aren't leaders for long. along with all the accolades, indiana now bears this burden of

leadersh leadership, the duty to keep pressing ahead. this administration will not loaf. we have made out self-assignments for our eighth and final year. our economic development corporation captured a record 219 new jobs transactions. we will press hard to accelerate further ahead of schedule, underbudget delivery of the major moves transportation program. in 2012 we'll invest $1.2 billion in road and bridge construction, the sixth straight record-setting year. the last contract on the hoosier heartland corridor will be

started next summer. the last contracts from south bend from kokomo will be let this year and we have accelerated completion of the entire corridor accelerated completion of the entire corridor into 2015. i-69 will be open to traffic from evansville to crane as will the entire port to port highway in northeast indiana. [ applause ] the sherman minton bridge will be rebuilt and reopened by march, and upriver an agreement on a new bridge from utica to louisville will be in place, cementing indiana's place at the forefront of the public/private partnership movement. we will build the state's 3,000th mile of bike and hiking trails and reach our goal of a trail within 15 minutes of every hoosier. unknown to most citizens, the air and water of indiana is now the cleanest in living memory. in 2011, every indiana community met all national air quality standards for the first time in the history of the clean air act.

[ applause ] last year we wiped out the last of a 550-case backlog of old and, therefore, less strict environmental permits and are now the only state completely current. our goal for 2012 is to maintain this status. and if national limits are lowered yet again, to find a way to meet those standards, too. we'll complete our successful overhaul of what was once america's worst welfare system when in february, the tenth and final region is converted to our reformed public/private system. backlogs have been slashed by 80%. timeliness and accuracy have soared above national averages. and last october the program earned a cash bonus and an award for most improved in the nation. we've set high targets for continued improvement in 2012.

[ applause ] the same is true of our campaign to conserve indiana's natural heritage. the last seven years have seen new records for protection of wetlands and habitats. 50,000 acres by the end of this year. highlighted by the largest such project ever at goose pond. in 2011, we launched new waterways conservation projects the size of three goose ponds in the bottoms and five goose ponds along the wabash corridor. before long hoosiers will be able to travel over 100 miles down our state's signature river and never leave a protected wetlands. [ applause ]

our coming bicentennial gives us an ideal opportunity to extend this historic era of reverence for the beauty god bestowed on indiana. i've appointed a commission of a dozen illustrious citizens led by my partner becky skillman, by the legendary congressman lee hamilton to guide the great celebrations to come. as a first initiative, i've asked them to oversee a bicentennial nature trust. a statewide project to protect still more of our most precious natural spaces. on our 100th birthday, indiana launched its state park system. a statewide conservation initiative is a fitting sequel, and a bequest from our second century to our third. we've identified state funding within existing resources of $20 million, but that must be just the beginning. the trust is intended to inspire others and to match their donations of land or dollars in a continuing statewide surge of conservation.

the commission joins me in challenging citizens, businesses and, in particular, our unique network of commu lal projects that will safeguard places of beauty for future generations. [ applause ] in this assembly, too, you must set big goals. we should, at long last, enact a law to protect workers and patrons across indiana from the hazards of secondhand smoke. public support has grown and so has the evidence of health risk to workers. it's time to move this long-sought objective to the finish line. [ applause ] >> we should -- no, we must strengthen our laws against the

horrid practice of human trafficking and must do it in time for the super bowl. the kind of event -- [ applause ] we should assist students with -- the kind of event at which the cost of higher education by the exploitation of young women empowering our higher ed is rampant in the absence of such a tough law. commission to limit the credit creep which unduly increases both time to graduation and student expense. undoubtedly, some degrees will continue to justify more than the traditional 120 credit hours. but schools requiring 126 hours for a degree in sociology or 138 hours in special education, or 141 hours in music education should have to explain why all that time and student expense is necessary. especially when other colleges offer high quality programs in less time and cost. we should deepen the state's response to the terrible tragedy that befell so many at last summer's indiana state fair.

a catastrophe so singular merits unique treatment. and i hope you will augment the amounts already provided to victims and their families by the state and private donors. [ applause ] and we should trust the people of central indiana with the decision whether to raise local dollars for mass transit if they believe it crucial to their future quality of life. within weeks, one of the great public careers and, perhaps, the greatest judicial career our state has known will come to a close. chief justice randy shepard, let tonight be one of many occasions on which a grateful and fortunate state thanks you for a quarter century of fairness, firmness and farsightedness on our highest bench. [ applause ]

[ applause ] part of justice shepard's legacy will be the landmark report that he and former governor joe kernan co-authored producing overdue modernization of our pioneer days structures of local government. one way to honor this great public servant will be to advance more of the sensible and needed reforms set forth by the kernan/shepard commission. i ask this -- [ applause ] i ask this assembly to do so on their own merits, but also in

recognition of this historic public servant. because economic opportunity and building america's best home for jobs is the central goal of all we do, every year should include a bold stroke to enhance it. this year, the choice of actions has become obvious. in survey after survey, but by margins of 2 to 1 or more, hoosiers support the principle known as right to work. after a year of studying the proposal, i agree. the idea that no worker should be forced to pay union dues as a condition of keeping a job is simple and just. but the benefits in new jobs would be large. a third or more growing or relocating businesses will not consider a state that does not provide workers this protection. almost half our fellow states have right to work laws. as a group, they're adding jobs faster, growing worker income faster, and enjoying lower

unemployment rates than those of us without such a law. in those ratings of business attractiveness i mentioned, the only states ahead of us are right to work states. what every economic development expert has testified to, we have learned from firsthand experience over seven years and well over 1,000 job competitions, we found that when indiana gets a chance to compete, we win. two out of three times. but too often we never get that chance because a right to work law is a requirement. especially in this poor national economy, a state needs every edge it can get. everyone knows that among the minority favoring the status quo, passion on this issue is strong. and i respect that. i did not come lightly or quickly to the stance i take now.