sustain jobs, build renewable energy, make greenhouse gases, reach an agreement on a plan to fix the delta, improve our schools, reform our pensions and make sure the prison realignment is working to protect public safety and reduce recidivism. last year i appointed a top adviser with an impressive record in the private sector and asked him to find out what doesn't work in this state and how to fix it. what he heard consistently was business needs a champion to overcome laws which can stimulate job creation. we restructured our office of business development and placed it in the governor's office. under the name gobiz, we now have a point of contact at the highest level for businesses large and small. more than that, the gobiz office is staffed with people who

understand what it's like to be in business, and they stand ready to intervene and give real help to get businesses open and projects off the ground. already california is leading the nation in creating jobs in renewable energy and design construction of more efficient buildings and new technologies. our state keeps demanding more efficient structures, cars, machines and electric devices. we do that because we understand that fossil fuels, particularly foreign oil, creates ever rising costs to our economy and to our health. it's true that the real energy sector is small relative to the overall economy, but it pays good wages and will only grow bigger as oil prices increase and the effects of climate change become more obvious and expensive. i set a goal of 20,000 megawatts of renewable energy by 2020. you've laid the foundation by adopting the requirement that one-third of our electricity

come from renewable sources by that date. this morning i can tell you we're on track to meet that goal and substantially exceed it. in the last two years alone, california has permitted over 16,000 megawatts of solar, wind, and geothermal energy projects. [ applause ] >> in the beginning of the computer industry, jobs were numbered in the thousands. now they're in the millions. the same thing will happen with green jobs, and california is positioned perfectly to reap the economic benefits that will inevitably flow. california also leads the nation in cleaning up the air, in providing electric vehicles and reducing pollution to greenhouse gases. they have now been adopted by the federal government for the rest of the country. california stepped out and

crafted a bull plan to deal with climate change and foreign oil dependency. the plan will require less carbon in our fuels, more efficient technologies across a broad swath of businesses, and the carefully designed cap and trade system that uses marketing incentives instead of prescriptive man datdates. as a result, california is gaining thousands of dollars in investments. in 2007, only 40% of such investments were made in california, making our state the leader not only in the nation but in the entire world. [ applause ] >> my commitment is to continue these innovative programs and build on them in the coming year in every way i can. now, just as bold is our plan to build a high-speed rail system

connecting the northern and southern part of our state. this is not a new idea. last time i signed legislation to discover the concept. now 30 years later, within weeks of a revised business plan that will enable us to begin construction before the year is out. president obama strongly supports the project and has provided the majority of funds for the first phase. it is now your decision to evaluate the plan and decide what action to take. without hesitation, i heard your approval. [ applause ] >> if you believe that california will continue to grow as i do and that millions more people will be living in our state, this is a wide investment. building new runways and expanding our airports and highways is the only alternative. that is not cheaper and will face even more political

opposition. those who believe california is in decline will naturally shrink back from such a strenuous undertaking. i understand that feeling, but i don't share it, because i know the state and the spirit of the people that chose to live here. california is still the gold mountain that chinese immigrants in 1848 came across the pacific to find. the wealth is different derived not from mining the sierras, but from those who build and generate the ideas that drive our economy forward. real projects a bound as they often do when something of this magnitude is proposed. during the 1930s, the central valley water project was called a fantastic dream that will not work. the master plan for the interstate highway system in 1939 was derided as new deal

jitterbug economics. in 1966, then mayor johnson of berkeley called bart a billion-dollar potential fiasco. similarly, the panama canal was for years thought to be impractical. well, the critics were wrong then and they're wrong now. [ applause ] >> we're going to build the first phase so that it, in and of itself, is worth the $2 billion the state has to invest. the other issue we have to tackle is water. last week ken salazar met here in sacramento along with the administration who are working to finish the delta conservation plan. together we agreed that by this

summer we should have the basic elements of the project we need to build. this is something my father worked on and that i worked on as well, decades ago. we know more now and a community is going to restore our deca system and ensure a renewed water supply. this is an enormous project. it will ensure water for 25 million californians and millions of acres of farmland, as well as hundreds of thousands of acres for spawning new fish and wild life. getting it done will require time, political will, and countless permits from state and federal agencies. i invite your collaboration and constructive engagement. next i want to say something about our schools. they consume more tax dollars than any other government

activity, and rightly so as they have a profound effect on our future. since everyone goes to school, everyone thinks they know something about education. in a sense, they do. but that doesn't stop experts and academics and foundation consultants from offering their ideas, usually labeled reform and regularly changing at ten-year intervals on how to get kids learning more and better. it's salutory, and even edifying that so much is being done in the u.s. 300,000 teachers, deep economic divisions and 100 different languages, some humility is called for. in that spirit -- [ applause ] >> in that spirit, i offer these

thoughts. first, responsibility must be clearly delyineated between the various levels of power that have a stake in our system. what most needs to be avoided is concentrating more and more decision making at the federal or state level. for better or worse, we depend on elected school boards and the principals and teachers they hire. to me we should set broad goals and have a good accountability system, leaving the real work to those closest to the students. [ applause ] >> yes, we should demand continuous improvement in meeting our state standards, but we should not impose excessive or detailed mandates. my budget pro poises to replace categorical programs with a new student formula that provides basic level of spending with

money for disadvantaged students and those struggling to learn english. this will give more authority to local school districts to fashion the kind of programs they see their students need. it will also create transparency, reduce bureaucracy and simplify complex funding streams. given education in recent years, it's imperative that california devote more tax dollars to its most basic of public services. [ applause [ applause ] >> if we're successful in passing the temporary taxes that i propose and the economy continues to expand, schools will be in a much stronger position. no system, however, works without accountability. in california, we have detailed state standards and lots of tests. unfortunately, the resulting data is not provided until after the school is over. even today, as i speak to you, the ranking of schools based on tests taken in april and may of

2011 is not available. i believe it's time to reduce the number of tests and get the results that teachers, principals and superintendents in weeks, not months. [ applause ] >> with timely data, principals and superintendents can better mentor and guide teachers as well as make sound evaluations of their performance. i believe we also need a qualitative system of assessments such as a site visitation program where each classroom is visited, observed and evaluated. i will work with the state board of education to develop this proposal. the house of education is divided by powerful forces and strong emotions. my role as governor is not to choose sides but to listen, to engage, and to lead.

i'll do that. i embrace both reform and tradition but not complacency. my hunch is that principals and teachers know the most, but i'll take good ideas from wherever they come. as for pensions, i put forth my 12-point proposal. examine it, improve it, but please take up the issue and do something real. [ applause ] >> i'm committed to pension reform because i believe there is a real problem. three times as many people are retiring as are entering the work force. this arithmetic doesn't add up. in addition, benefits, contributions and the age of retirement all have to balance. i don't believe they do today. start tomorrow, if you work for 30 years, will you live to 80, 90, 110? how much is that? how many people are retired?

how many people are working? how many people are coming along? how does it all work out? if anybody tells you you feel absolutely confident that 40 or 50 years from now, things will all be paid for, you're not looking at the numbers and the other comparable investments. as for prison realignment, we're just at the beginning. the combination of sheriffs, police chiefs, probation officers, district attorneys and local officials have been remarkable. but we have much to do to increase public safety and recidivism, and together we'll get it done. it's one thing to pass a law, it's quite another to implement and make it work. as i see it, that's my job as governor and as chief executive. make the operations of government work efficiently, honestly in the people's interest. with your help, that's what we'll do in 2012 and prove once again that the decline about

california are wrong. we're on the move, we're on the mend, let's get it done. thank you. [ applause ] >> this weekend, watch our live coverage of the national governors association 2012 winter meeting being held here in washington, d.c. our coverage gets under way at 10:00 a.m. eastern tomorrow with an opening news conference. later in the day, a couple breakout sessions looking at state economies. and our coverage continues on sunday with a look at education and childhood hunger as well as homeland security and the role of the national guard. live coverage of the annual national governors association winter meeting, this weekend on cspan.

one year after taking office, wisconsin governor scott walker delivered his second state of the state address in january. he focuses on progress made this year, including reforms that helped keep property taxes stable and his efforts to address waste, fraud and abuse in state programs. here's governor walker from the capital building in madison. >> all right, settle down, kids. it's my honor to introduce the governor of the state of wisconsin, scott walker. [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you.

thank you, all. speaker fitzgerald, speaker tim cramer, ellis, minority leader barka, members of the wisconsin supreme court, constitutional officers, tribal leaders, members of the cabinet, distinguished guests, members of the legislature, my wife and our family, lynette walker and part of our family there. [ applause ]

>> and moss importat importantl citizens of the great state of wisconsin, it is an honor to appear before you tonight. next to my wife, is the admiral general of wisconsin, major general john dunbar. [ applause ] >> i want to thank him and the more than 10,000 strong members of the wisconsin national guard. tonight with him are the members of the 724th engineer battalion. stand up, gentlemen. [ applause ]

>> i first spoke with them more than a year ago when they were deployed in iraq, i greeted them in the cold when they returned home, and i saw many of them again this summer as they responded to the massive damage caused by storms in northwestern wisconsin. their dedication to their country, to the state, ask yes, to their communities is a prime example of what we all know as the spirit of wisconsin. we thank them and all of the other men and women in uniform who have served both past and present for theirank you, gentl. [ applause ]

>> before we begin our conversation, let us take a moment to remember a member of our state government family who is not with us here tonight. representative tamara grigsby is fighting a brave battle. like so many of you, tanette and i continue to send our thoughts ask prayers to her and her family. and i know we all look forward to seeing her in this chamber again soon. [ applause ] >> tonight we come together to discuss the state of our state. to do so, we need to remember where we were two years ago. what we accomplished over the

past year, and most importantly, where we are headed in the year to had suffered through three years of 150,000 of our fellow citizens losing their jobs. the unemployment rate was 7.5%, and after years of tax increases and budget increase, wisconsin faced one of the largest budget deficits in the country. [ shouting ] now our unemployment rate is down from a year ago. in fact, it's the lowest it's been since 2008. [ applause ] we're turning things around. we're headed in the right direction.

[ applause ] during the past year, we added thousands of jobs. we balanced the state budget without raising taxes, without massive layoffs and without budget tricks. all of which allowed us to put more than $1.2 billion of new state money into medicaid programs like badger care and family care. tonight, i want to share with you how we got here, and more importantly, i want to share our plan for helping the people of wisconsin create more jobs, keep a balanced budget and improve the education of our kids by working together. when i ran for governor, i talked a great deal about the core principles i call brown bag common sense. now, one of those principles is that people create job, not the government. [ applause ]

in the past, however, some thought the government did create jobs and that's how he justified raising taxes to pay for the expansion of the government. i think that might explain prior to taking office, we lost some 150,000 private sector jobs. in contrast, i believe that it is the people of the state who create jobs and not the government. [ applause ] with that in mind, i set out to improve the climate of small businesses in wisconsin. last year, we passed some of the most aggressive pro jobs legislation in the country and we did it with help from lawmakers in both political parties, because these aren't republican or democrat jobs. they're wisconsin jobs. [ applause ] tonight i'm happy to report

after three years of losing 150,000 jobs, wisconsin added new jobs in 2011. business formations are up by 2% and our unemployment rate is down from a year ago. in fact, wisconsin's unemployment rate is not only lower than the national average, it's actually much better to our neighbors in the south in illinois. [ applause ] most importantly, we improved the climate for job creators here in wisconsin the last year. today, 94% of our job creators believe wisconsin is headed in the right direction. that compares to just 10% who thought the same thing two years ago. and a majority of those employers say they're going to grow in 2012.

they'll join companies like uline or hudson, collaborative conning or shop go in green bay, city brewing in lacrosse, all of whom announced in uh jobs during the past year. i was in superior just a few weeks ago when they announced they're adding 600 new jobs. [ applause ] this was a great team effort. and, in fact is the major said that day to us it was the

largest jobs project in the region since world war ii. [ applause ] but the inspiring don't come from company owners or managers, they come from employees. sandy is one of those people who has one of those great stories. when the economy took a dive a few years ago, she took a pay cut. not long after that, she lost her job. but today, however, she's working at g3 industries. g3 is one of those companies that added jobs in the past year and now has plans to add even more in the future. now, the owner told me he's creating more jobs in wisconsin because he likes the way we're moving our state forward. that's important to remember, because without the positive changes, he told me he would not have had the confidence to grow his business here. you see, improving the business climate in this state is not only good for business owners,

it's good for people like sandy and her family. [ applause ] we need more stories like sandy's in wisconsin. so the lieutenant governor and i held small business round tables all over the state. from lacrosse to green bay, from milwaukee to eu claire, from madison to wausau, we listened. we heard small business owners say they have jobs but they can't find enough skilled workers to fill them. this is a problem that must be solved. [ applause ] with this in mind, we increased

the job fairs. and we added staff to double people looking for employment. we made it easier for job seekers to get the needed skills and did more to promote manufacturing. in addition, we are specifically targeting our veterans for full employment. it is unacceptable -- [ applause ] i think you'll agree with me on this, it is unacceptable to think that any man or woman that served our coin try would return home and not be able to find a job. i've made the full employment of our returning veterans a number one priority of the state department of veteran affairs. [ applause ]

you see, focusing on veterans is good for employers like monarch company in milwaukee who's looking to add machinists and welders. they told me they understand the benefits of employing veterans. our returning service members are good hires because they're well disciplined. and on top of that, they can get their training paperwork through the wisconsin g.i. bill that we fully restored last year. to create more jobs, employers told us they also need help cutting through the red tape of government. tonight, i'm announcing new members to the regulatory review board, which has the authority to review every rule in all of our state agencies. i'll direct our agencies to work with them, to remove antequated and unnecessary regulations that pose a threat to creating new jobs. [ applause ]

employers also told us they need a 21st century structure to drive economic development. after the previous administration raided more than $1 billion out of the state transportation fund, i committed to restore good road, freight rail and strong ports. we know that a strong transportation system helps manufacturers and farmers get product to and from market and it keeps good people on the job building that infrastructure. [ applause ] >> there is another tremendous opportunity for job growth in this state. we can pass legislation that will streamline the process for safe and environmentally sound mining.