tv [untitled] February 23, 2012 7:00pm-7:30pm EST
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we have the need. we have the know how. we have the confidence. we have the credibility. we have the talent. we have the relationship. and we're going to deliver for this great state the best is yet to be. they ain't seen nothing yet. 2012 is the year that we're going to make the empire state the empire state once again. and we're going to make the dreams of this state a reality. thank you, and god bless you. [ cheers and applause ] [ applause ]
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the nations governors are headed to washington d.c. this weekend to attend the winter meeting of the governors association. our coverage begins saturday at 10:00. we will show you a discussion on growing state economies and we will hear from the economic development and commerce committees. sunday, our coverage starts at 9:30 a.m. eastern with a look at education and early childhood issues. we will talk about hunger and the changing role of the national guard. we will wrap up on monday at 9:00 eastern with the closing session with dave heineman. the winter meetings on saturday, sunday and monday on c-span. join us later from american history tv. the focus is george washington and his lasting impact on american life. historian richard norton smith lectures from washington's home in virginia.
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american history tv gets under way tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span 3. we got started because there are a lot of conservative think tanks. there have been no progressive organizations or progressive thinking that works on economic policy or national security. >> neera tanden on the mission of the washington d.c. think tank. >> you know, we think there is often an ideology behind the washington thinking with little facts behind them. our job is to make the arguments and factual arguments behind our own views. i do think that sometimes when the facts don't argue for our position, we reexamine those positions because we
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unfundamentally believe the most important thing is to be right about your views. >> a look at the center for american progress sunday night at 8:00 eastern and pacific on c-span's q& a. michigan's governor rick snyder delivered his state of the state address outlining his plans for 2012. he spoke about the jobs, economy and education and tax reform. the remarks from lansing are about an hour. >> thank you. thank you. [ applause ] thank you. thank you. thank you very much. please, be seated. thank you. appreciate it. please have a seat. thank you.
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well, thank you. it's an honor to be here tonight. i would like to start by thanking several individuals and groups. first of all i want to thank the speaker of the house, jace bolger. [ applause ] second i would like to thank my partner in this endeavor, lieutenant governor calley. [ applause ] he's still speaking to me tonight after last night. i'd like to thank another key part of our team and success, senate majority leader richard ville. [ applause ] i'd like to thank senate majority leader witmer. minority leader.
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[ applause ] minority leader, sorry about that. [ laughter ] i'd like to thank house democratic leader hamel, who is feeling better. [ applause ] the members of the supreme court, welcome. [ applause ] attorney general schuti. [ applause ] secretary of state johnson. [ applause ] i'd like to thank all the members of my cabinet. thank you for being with us. [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen of the legislature, thank you for being here and thank you so much. [ applause ] and i'd like to thank all of my fellow public servants. public service is a special
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thing so thank you for your service to our state. i'm happy to see several representatives here tonight. i want to give thanks to the men and women of our state of michigan for serving in our armed forces. [ cheers and applause ] thank you for your service. it is truly something special. and i want to thank all the citizens of michigan. last but not least i want to give special thanks to my family. [ applause ]
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in my first state of the state address i spoke about the need to reinvent michigan, with job one being jobs. tonight is a continuation of that journey. in the 1800s, we had the natural resources era, michigan 1.0. in the 1900s, we had the industrial era, michigan 2.0. this century, it is time for the era of innovation, michigan 3.0. [ applause ] we are on that path. we're getting it right and we're getting it done. to reaffirm the need to reinvent michigan let's briefly look back at the last. michigan had been in decline for several decades with the last decade being particularly
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difficult. we were essentially tired and broken. in 2011, we made large strides to make michigan a great state again. we came together and worked with relentless positive passion at a dog year's pace. while we should be proud of the progress, much remains to be done, so with that, let me get started. first, let's review a number of key measures on the state dashboard. there are 25 measures in five different areas. don't panic, i won't do all 25 of them, but i did want to highlight five of them. and for those at home, you can find the entire dashboard at www.michigan.gov/midashboard.
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number one is an exciting one. our unemployment in the last 12 months has dropped from 11.1% to 9.3%. [ cheers and applause ] in november we dropped below 10% for the first time in three years. in fact, we added nearly 80,000 private sector jobs during 2011. we've shown faster improvement than the united states average. and in particular i'd mention the jobs we've added have been higher paying than the average for the rest of the united states. [ applause ] now number two is one we haven't done as well, obesity in our state has increased one percentage point to 32% of our population. this is a disturbing trend.
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everyone knows that health care costs are exploding and unsustainable in addition to the human damage from obesity. the key to the solution, though, is not government, but personal responsibility. we as michiganders need to work together to do a better job on obesity. [ applause ] number three, college readiness, increased from 16% to 17%. while it's a 1% increase, this is unacceptable. we need to be 100% college and career ready for our young people. number four, our bond rating. our actual ratings didn't change but we're moving in a positive direction. one of the bond rating agencies has increased our outlook from neutral to positive, a good sign that we're heading in the right direction.
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[ applause ] number five, our crime statistics statewide have improved, while this is good, we have four of the top ten cities on the most violent crime list for the united states, flint, saginaw, pontiac and detroit and in 2012 we're going to focus on this and resolve this issue. [ applause ] thank you. i'd also like to mention some non-dashboard indicators about our state. first the automotive industry has made a major comeback. last week i was at the north
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american auto show and i was proud to say that detroit is still the undisputed auto capital of the world. [ cheers and applause ] the next group i'm going to mention has been too often not talked about, and forgotten, but they're critically important. they've been the unsung heroes of our economy and that's the people in agriculture. over the last decade they've been one of the shining lights for our state, and we need to remember we're the second most diverse agricultural state in the nation and we're going to continue to grow and do better so i want to say thank you to everyone in the agriculture industry. [ applause ]
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finally tourism is on a positive path. pure michigan is working well. now we just need more snow. [ laughter ] as an extra note, i'm very excited about dropping the flag on thee week one of the premiere winter snowmobile competitions in the entire nation. [ applause ] and now i'd like to give special recognition, i'm pleased to say dan mussrue is here with us tonight in the audience. dan, stand up. [ applause ] most of us know dan's representing the grand hotel on
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mackinaw island, and we want to wish him happy birthday, 125 years and going strong. [ applause ] i also want to mention our team has been working with senator casperson and respective hookie among others on exciting opportunities in mining in the u.p. and the timber industry in northern michigan, so thank you. [ applause ] we are rebuilding michigan's image as a great place to do business. we had a very successful trade mission to asia. we're delivering on substance now so it's time to spread the message and that's why i'll be making trips to both europe and asia to talk about why michigan is the place to do business in the world.
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[ applause ] and i want to mention one other index that doesn't get mentioned often, the atlas van line moving index. for the past six years we had more people moving out of michigan than we had moving in. in 2011, we've stopped that trend. [ applause ] now tonight, i'm excited that captain john james of the united states army is among us who has chosen to call michigan home because they see a bright future here. captain james, where are you? stand up, please.
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[ applause ] now while captain james has traveled the world and been recently stationed in michigan, as he ends his military service this year, he's chosen michigan to stay to join the family business, a 40-year-old business, the james group international in detroit. the james group international is a very successful organization. it's already working with the detroit, wayne county port authority to be part of a port revitalization plan. because of this partnership, the company estimates it will create 50 new jobs this year, so we're pleased that captain james is here tonight, along with his dad, john, and his brother, loren. so thank you, gentlemen, for being with us. so now let's discuss 2011. both in terms of
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accomplishments, initiatives started that we need to finish, and challenges. 2011 was the year to attack our legacy problems and to change course from downward to upward. the key targets were to create an environment that encourages job creation and to create a financially sound state government. i truly want to thank my partners in the state legislature. through partnership, we accomplished a lot. overall, we passed 323 public acts in 2011, but more important than quantity was quality. thank you so much. [ applause ] working together we passed a financially sound budget. we had to address $1.5 billion
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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. [ applause ] even in these difficult times, we 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. [ applause ]
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and i really appreciate the extra support of our appropriation shares, senator kahn and representative moss, thank you. [ applause ] 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. [ applause ] as many of you have heard me say the michigan business tax was
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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. [ applause ] they've already added five employees and expect to hire 100 more because of these reforms. thank you, hal. [ applause ] and on the michigan business tax
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i want to give one special note of recognition to lieutenant governor calley 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. [ applause ] we've made major improvements with local government reforms that encourage more transparency, better health care costs and service sharing between communities. for example we now have 435 jurisdictions doing dashboards.
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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. [ applause ] this exercise was due in great partnership of the legislature and i would especially like to 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
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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. [ applause ] 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. [ applause ] 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. [ applause ]
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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. [ applause ] 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 taking personal 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. i ask all of michiganders to join me in this effort. this isn't about who is the biggest loser.
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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. [ applause ] 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.
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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 urhe the opportunity for michigan citizens. [ applause ] tonight i'm pleased to announce a new program, pure michigan fit. it's a partnership between gerber, the michigan groceries association and the michigan health and hospital association, to address childhood obesity. it's a nutrition based program to give parents and caregivers the information they need to
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raise happy, healthy kids. [ applause ] we also took great strides this year to protect our most vulnerable citizens. elder abuse 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 package of bills to my desk for signature. [ applause ] 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.
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today, only 19% of our veterans 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, franz and senators colbeck and moolenaar. thank you. [ applause ] just as individuals cannot neglect their own health, the state cannot afford to neglect the health of our physical 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
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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. [ applause ] 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
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