typically a consumer collector can only charge the cost of collecting that debt. the actual you know, so if it -- whatever that cost is, in the case of a government debt collector in florida for example, they can tack on 40% on top of what is already owed including interest and penalties. a flat 40%. regardless of what they're doing to collect that. if they're sending a letter or pursuing someone in court. in toll cases we have seen where it can go over 100% effectively. we spoke to one man in texas who could have been a consumer collector. he said i never could have charged these if i was a consumer collector.

>> you're on with blake and melanie. >> caller: hi, good morning. the issue that i have is photo 2r56k tickets. i have a photo traffic ticket and i failed to appear, and then they suspended my license and jeopardized my livelihood to get to work. and both tickets are unconstitutional because there's no officer that can vouch in court that you violated a traffic violation. so if i can get you to explain how a city government can coordinate with the dmv to suspend my license for a traffic ticket that's unconstitutional, because no officers were there present when the photo was taken. >> you want to take a photo traffic ticket? >> this is a great story to

bring up we have heard this from a lot of the people we talked to they go into the dmv and they can't get their license renewed because they have these outstanding tickets, a lot of people we talk to, they see the picture that was taken and one guy named john wright said that he was sent a picture of a bmw, and said that he ran some toll or got a parking ticket. and he said he had never even owned a bmw and had never been driving in the place that they said he had been driving in. and in most cases the only way that we've heard of these people getting the issues resolved is going directly to the dmv, when they -- when you go to the debt collector, they say, this is what we were told from the local government or the dmv, there's nothing we can do about it. >> washington journal airs live every morning on c-span. we're going live now to

wilmington ohio, governor john kasich will deliver his state of the state address. state of the state addresses are traditionally held in the state capitol. but the governor has made a practice of moving his addresses out of columbus. this is his first address out of southwest ohio. >> i'm so blessed. we're so blessed to have each of you here today to have this great event in the cityjf of wilmington. thank you for hosting, thank you for sharing your story, your example, thank you for sharing what you do. god bless you, i will always love you. thank you for the opportunity to represent you. and i look forward to continuing. before we get started any further, i want to take the moment to recognize those that are most important to every one of us, if you're a military veteran, a firefighter or police

officer, if you're an ems personnel personnel, please rise and be recognized to this chamber. [ applause ] >> we represent the people of the 91st district and he represents those of the 17th senate district. i have a great partner in the leadership role. it's my great privilege to introduce a man that doesn't follow populous doesn't follow polls, does what's right for the people of ohio, to ensure our number one priority is a great quality of life. please welcome the president of the senate.

>> the chair recognizes president protem. is a quarum of the house present present? a quarum of the 131st general assembly being present. this joint session will come to order order. i invite everyone to stand for the presentation of colors for the memorial color guard unit. please remain standing thereafter for the pledge of allegiance. >> ten hut. present arms.

>> halt. left face. move forward. present arms.

>> i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america. and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, individual with liberty and justice for all. >> left face. forward march. >> please be seated.

>> ladies and gentlemen, it is my distinct honor and pleasure to present the governor of the great state of ohio, governor john casey. [ applause ]

[ applause ]

>> ladies and gentlemen, governor john kasich. >> thank you. thank you mr. president. thank you, mr. speaker. a little nervous tonight? first time. give him a great round of applause, our brand new speaker. [ applause ] >> i want to thank you, members of the general assembly. thanks for coming here tonight. i want to thank the members of my cabinet who had a fantastic day in wilmington. i'm told over 80 meetings including a meeting with 200

veterans at a job's fair that's why we do this so we can come into the community and help. and my staff. my captain and my staff god bless you. i'm just one person that gets to direct but without you. we can't do it, so i want to thank you. and, of course my wife karen. karen, would you stand and recognize you. [ applause ] >> that's right, she has to live with me. that's worth that standing

ovation. we are so thrilled to be here. some of you asked why i asked the general assembly to come to wilmington tonight. i reallien watt to tell you why i am here. a lot would think it's because of cliff. and i love cliff. i'll tell you a little bit about cliff and wilmington and me a little further along. i came here to wilmington during my campaign in 2010. i saw the devastation that this town had suffered it was written on the faces of the people of wilmington. and these are people who had played by the rules. they didn't do anything wrong. so much reminds me of stories across the country. including my old hometown. they worked hard. but one day the rug was pulled from under them.

people lost their savings, people lost their home ss. many people were only to feed their families thanks to the good work of the people at food pantrys like sugar tree ministries. what a great operation it was. yes, you can applaud for sugar tree ministries. [ applause ] >> in 2010 i visited sugar tree with my staff and wife. we left the pantry and we got back on the bus. and i was getting pretty emotional. i turned to the people who were with me. the people who were on my campaign staff many of whom had been with me for many years. and i said you better

understand, this is not just another political campaign. did you see what was happening in that pantry? did you see the pain, the anguish on their faces? you know i told them that day our mission is to help fix this community. and to restore some hope. our mission is to help get people back on their feet in places like wilmington. and you know, folks i have very good news to report. the state of the state is getting stronger and we have regained our footing but we must act decisively now to seize the greater opportunities that await all of us. we are better today than we were, and we are rising.

wilmington is in many ways a reflection of ohio. we are doing better. think about this, 89 cents in our rainy day fund, and at $8 billion budget shortfall, to a balanced budget today. and a $1.5 billion surplus from 89 cents and 8 billion in the hole to a bald budget and a $1.5 billion surplus. and we are looking forward to adding another 400 million dollars to that piggybank, to that surplus for ohio. and i have to tell you, not half, but nearly half the states are not structurally balanced.

they're struggling now to try to figure out how to bring their looks in line. you know what that's like when you have to go and do major surgery? when you don't know how you're going to put it all together, and it happened because we've all agreed to use conservative economics and act like a good old ohio family that says we've got to be conservative with the money that we have. we've gone from losing, the records are frankly amazing that we all should feel proud of. we went from losing 350,000 jobs. that's 3 and a half times ohio stadium, to where we are up almost 300,000 new private sector jobs over the period of the last four years. it's amazing. [ applause ] we've gone from very high taxes across the board, to the largest

tax cuts in america including tax cuts for the working poor, which is a very important part of our philosophy. we're seeing wages grow faster than the national average and the unemployment rate has dropped to the lowest level in more than a decade. that is something for all of us to feel good about, and to share with our friends and neighbors across ohio. this is all really great stuff. but if i were to leave this hall tonight and say that our mission is accomplished there's no way i would be doing my job. we haven't finished our mission. we have a lot more battles to wage. and i cannot wage them without you, my colleagues in the general assembly. i can't do it unless we all work together. earlier this month, i proposed the budget for the next two years. and while people may think budgets are about numbers and

dollars, it's not really it, i've been working on budgets since i was just a kid. they were never just about numbers. they are about people. budgets are about vision. they're about economic growth. 21st century education system. and not leaving anybody behind, particularly those people who live in the shadows. we're starting to get a glimpse of where our vision can take ohio, where we work hard and we make the tough and right choices. but we have more work to do. we need to win more battles against the status quo. we can't drift, folks we cannot drift. we have to continue to win battles against the status quo if we want to take ohio where we want it to be. where we need to be. and that means we have to

continue to battle special interests that want to lock us in where we are today. the plan of my administration is laid out provides a path that i believe will propel us higher and higher. i'm proud of what we've done so far, and i'm grateful we've had a chance to serve alongside leaders with vision. and a certain sense of toughness, because leadership is the willingness to walk a lonely path leadership is not a finger in the air to figure out who's going to be with you, it's not about who likes you, it's about using your judgment to deliver the best results. and i've been able to serve with leaders just like this. two i want to mention senate and former senate president tom knee house. he's in the audience tonight. is he here i would like him to stand. is he here? way in the back. give him a round of applause.

and, of course former speaker of the house is here tonight as well. where is bill, bill stand and be recognize ed recognized. you know i'm grateful to serve with someone like keith. keith and i are buddies. you know, that's a really wonderful thing when you can cross the line from the colleague and you can tease and you can kid. and keith's my brududdy. and, you know, what can i say about cliff. i first understood the passion that burns inside of cliff rosenberger when he came to see me about the things we needed to do to get wilmington on its feet. always thinking differently, always thinking outside the box inside the box with such great passion, to the people of

wilmington. to the people of clinton county. but most particularly here in wilmington, you could not have a better friend than cliff rosenberger, he is heart and soul committed to you. where is bob peterson? he's a great leader here. i said i'm proud about what we are doing. it's balanced budgets, it's surpluses, it's smart management, common sense regulation, thank you mary taylor for all of your work on common sense regulations, it's tax cuts. give mary a round of applause, she's terrific.

these are the ideas that are producing economic growth which are making so many of the other things possible. these accomplishments are sending a message to job creators around the state, the country, the globe that ohio is open for business, and let me tell you i talk to them all the time. when i tell them we were 8 billion in the hole and now we're 2 billion in the black, that we've got $3 billion worth of tax cuts, that we've got a private sector entity that can reresponded to them quickly, when it comes to the need to give them answers on the opportunities for job growth. i talk to them all the time. every week almost every day. it's hard for them to believe. >> but now we're starting to get a reputation because what we celebrate here tonight is for real. and particularly when compared to others it's impressive. from here we're now poised to take what i believe are major leaps forward so we can begin

locking in the progress we've made and preparing for the challenges that are looming all too close on the horizon. challenges like the aging of our workforce as baby boomers retire. we're getting older in ohio. understand the implications of not being able to refill those jobs with the young people. we face the inevitable next economic downturn. one minute we're up, the next minute we're down. just look at the stock market. they always seem to strike when we least expect it. i believe the most important thing that we can do to plan ahead is to continue strengthening ohio's economy by further cutting taxes, and that

means we must restrain government spending. we need to cut taxes and we need to restrain the growth of government. i'm proposing we cut taxes by $500 million on top of the 3 billion tax cuts we already made. high income taxes punish risk taking, high income taxes punish risk taking. investment and job creation, and they drive some of our best and brightest to other states in search of lower taxes and better opportunities. and you all know what i mean. i don't care what part of ohio you come from you know that some of our best and brightest and most successful they leave. those are our jewels. and yet they go other places. so we've got to continue to do the things we need to do to cut their taxes. the budget i propose holds

growth to below historic inflation. it's only 2% the first year, and 2% the next -- two and a half% the next year. think about this, we want to restrain the growth in government spending and it is critical that we grow at a level where we can meet our priorities, but at the same time we can have the space for tax cuts. that doesn't mean we don't invest in some priorities like education. but we're always looking for ways to innovate and improve and redugs, because our administration has been successful in doing that. we've been able to keep growth in check, so that there's money to give back to ohioans in the form of a $500 million tax cut, because we have restrained ourselves, we're able to give 500 -- a half a billion dollars back to the people of this state. [ applause ] now we're going to have a little

bit of an explanation of all this. so to make sure we're all on the same page let's remember what tax cuts do to strengthen ohio. when people get to keep more of their money, the money they earn, they have more control over their lives. when they get to keep more, they've got more control. they have more power to decide their futures, more flexibility to respond to changes in their lives. or changes in the economy. folks, it's note1 the government's money that we let them keep it's ohioans money. it's our money and we want them to keep as much of it as possible because what they do they will always know how to spend it better than government ever could. in other words, they are going to do a better job of exercising choice than any government will ever do for them. don't forget that.

[ applause ] >> but here's another thing you need to understand. low taxes signal to job creators, that ohio is an attractive place to invest. when you're looking at investing. you want to go where things are solid, where budgets are balanced. where you know that government is being restrained. and you also know that that is a government, or a group of leaders who understand the philosophy of reducing taxes and empowering people from the bottom up. it sends you a signal of strength, and that's exactly what we want to do. let's take a small business owner for example. a small business that has more money can hire more people. they can buy more machinery and therefore have a better chance to this live. small businesses get healthier, they can hire they can be strother. this is not a republican philosophy, this is just simple

fact. high taxes discourage it. high taxes especially the income tax punish a small business owner's willingness to take the risk to hire more people. to invest in improvements and work harder to be successful. lower taxes incentivize all of those things and when small businesses across this state take risks, when they invest and expand, it echos throughout our economy. it's called growth. it's called job creation and it lifts ohio. that's one reason why we look so hard to cut worker's compensation premiums by 12%, and 409 million in savings and we have given employers $1.75 billion back in rebates and worker's comp, while investing in worker's safety, you think that doesn't free up money? call your small business and ask them. it's also why i want to eliminate income taxes for virtually every small business

in our state to help fuel and accelerate growth. i want to send a message that if you want to start a small businessxwq!ruz income taxes on a small business up to $2 million, if you want to start a small business, if you want to be an entrepreneur if you're a young person coming out of college, do it in ohio. do it in ohio, come here. stay here or come here because we're going to give you the help you need to open the doors. that helps us with the population drain that we've seen in this state. we see similar -- right, exactly right, tim. we see similar things happen when families get to keep more of their own money they have more power, and control over their own lives, they have the freedom to direct their own futures. they can save for a rainy day or

for college education or they can make needed home repairs. maybe they can go into business or maybe take a special trip, like my mom and dad used to take us when they had a little bit more money in their pockets. i want to give families this kind of power over their own lives. and that's why i'm proposing to cut the income tax rates by 23%. we've already cut ohio's tax rate from 5.9 to 5.33%, our budget will take it all the way down to 4.1% over the next two years. i want you to think about it and i want you to support it. let's keep going and let the common sense strategy do more to strength ohio. don't forget. many of our most successful job creators entrepreneurs ceo's

and innovators leavea ohio!u and they take their good ideases with them. let me put this in simple terms. so you work a whole lifetime maybe you build a business you become successful, my dad carried mail on his back. i used to say, dad how do we feel about the rich? he said we don't hate the rich we want to be one of them. punishing success will drive people out. so these folks, many of whom we all know whether we live in steubenville youngstown, whether we live in cleveland toledo, cincinnati or columbus somebody has an opportunity to cash in what they earned.ñr they wantt( to sell some stock. i want you all to think about this for a second. they want to sell some stock.ñi if they go to florida and live they pay the federal capital

gains rate, 20%. theyñi don't pay anything else. if they live in ohio they pay the federal capital gains rate plus an$x additional 5.3%. now, what would you rather pay. 25.3% injf taxes or 20%. and for many of these people who are successful, it's a large amount of money. so that's why, when you go to nape els and you drive around downc there, you keep into ohioens, because they've all moved and with the savings they make by not payingp, ohio's income tax they can buy anothere1 house down there. this is not é@complicated. we can't not lose our best and< iññ brightest. i'm justñ pleading with you to% understand that we drive them out. and they go down there, andm- they go down there to florida, they're building a new performing arts center in nape els, you know,s7 they're down there hanging out, they're creating jobs down ñthere, i w&vu

centers in wilmington ohio, not down in nape els florida. i want to keep them here. [ applause ] úw3 that's the easy part of it you can debate about how you want to do it. that 500 million gets paid for by the savings that we've been u able to generate. i have to tell you about something that frankly i think is almost as important. i believe we can even -- we can achieve even more if we start fundamentally changing the way that ohio's tax system works so that taxes have less of a drag on the private economy. lookzv no tax is great but some are worse than others. i don't know if you -- if you've ever studied)ñgthat some taxes have a greater drag on economic growth than other taxes.%qñ so if we're going to rauñt taxes or we're going to have taxes let's have the taxes that have the least negative impact on the

private economy, so we can create jobs.q certain level of taxes of course, is inevitable to pave the roads, to pay for schools, care for the needy.ñi governments got to make that money go as far as it tú÷.ñx;hxbyn generated in the least harmful way, this means ohio's traditional overreliance onli income taxes. let me finish this, i think we should lean less on income taxes, which punishn&b the investment and the growth we all seek, and lean more on consumption taxes. hey, the states that have followed that çóformula, they're going faster than we are. they're younger than we are. where are fáthey? florida, texas look at what's happening in tennessee i have to compete against those states when i make these calls to the ceo's, the fact is, the states that have had either lower or no income tax nevada, people are moving -- playing with fire out

there, may raise taxes. people are moving from california to nevada, this is happening.xíñ because money flows tofá thelp place thatxd has the lower taxes. ouri)(áát taxes are av drag on economic growth. they punish those who go out and work harder, we're supposed to celebrate hard work, we want more of it more hard work.ca. f1 o we all say that we want to jobs and we want to bolster family incomes it can't happen without growing,kçoñi thriving businesses and they can't grow and they can't thrive without new investment. this is just really simple stuff. investments should be nourished, not discouraged. by cutting income taxes we're freeing up more capital to be invested in businesses so they can grow and create more good paying jobs. new jobs, needs new businesses. think about what's happening over there in steubenville. new jobs need new businesses and new businesses need new

investments, and let's encourage investment by cutting taxes. it's common sense, it's a process, it begins with investment, it ends with higher family incomes.( folks, this isn't this isn't democrat. it's at( lot of what we've been trying to do over the last four years. and look at our results. so it's not like, stop let's do more of it more of it, so we can have more jobs. so we can secure our place here in america. if in addition to keeping our spending in check, we also move away from income taxes and more both encouraging hard work. and we're giving people more control over the amount of taxes they ultimately pay. you see, in a! consumption tax model, you're in control. you only pay taxes on the purchases you choose to make, you're the one who decides what you buy, and how much you spend. and for the poorest ohioans we're providing additional income tax relief so they're

not disproportionately impacted by the change in consumption tachs. our philosophy is bring the top rate down and help people who are the working poor. that's why we created for the first time in ohio the earned income tax credit it's not refundable but breathtaking when we -- ien wot say breathtaking, but it's certainly new. never happened before the communities that repr%&ç9qthe it, we created it. and now we're significantly increasing the personal exemptions, so that the working poor can( ve incentives have you to remember, the best help for at( low incomeá=ñ ohioan, is a better job which they have a better chance of getting when we improve ohio's tax climate. >> the single biggest cure for @+ poverty, a job.ñi and when we are growing jobs -- [ applause ] >> okay, so we're talking aboutt( not just saving money in

government spending, but we're talking about tax reform. some things go up, other things go down. but to provide the incentive for the least negative impact on the private economy. severance taxes that's another place where we need tax reform. the reason is simple. our current system doesn't reflect our current reality. ohio severance tax was created decades ago long before ohio shale boom was envisioned. it's current low rate 20 cents on a barrel of oil. i don't know anybody who lives in ohio, who would not like to sign up for this 20 cents on a barrel of oil. it's unconscionable as far as i'm concerned. it's not right it isn't fair to ohioans, because these resources are being depleted, they're never coming back, ohio's beingcqzi &háhp &hc% made poorer, as a result of the

depletion of our resources. it's like oil and gas itself, much of the wealth the shale boom is generating is being shipped out of our state, being shipped out of ohio. we need to change that, while at the same time making sure that áj ohio's long time small drillers the ones who have been around for years. the ones who don't make -- make very little money. we want to get rid of their taxes, their income taxes all together. but we also want to make sureñp @r(t&háhp &hc% that local governments are supported when they're cost for first responders or infrastructure and other essential services are forced to go up because of oil and gas activeity activity. okay? all of it. [ applause ] >> this is not just for part of ohio, but for all of ohio

because it makes possible the income tax cuts that provide an economic boost statewide. i'm disappointed by those who say the tax reformxd will kill the industry. that's a joke. that'sw3 a big fat joke because i've talked to them in private. and i'll tell you what our severance taxes will be competitive with other energy rich states. let's reform the severance tax so all ohioans can have higher income taxes. that's what it should be all about. i want to tell you a story. i'm out in wyoming i meet with the governor in wyoming. i said, who's the greatest governor in wyoming, well, maybe the greatest one is governor hathaway. i said, why is that? he was an oil and gas guy. really? >> yeah, he was an oil and gas guy. he showed up one day and said, we need to have a severance tax

we need to make sure we capture the loss that we're experiencing here because some day we won't5a have those minerals and now they're running these big kind of surpluses in this fund. this special mineral fund. so what happened? oil and gas guy, he goes to an event with a bunch of the oil and gas people. they say to him, well we supported you in your campaign. he reached into his pocket and pulled out his checkbook and said, how much do i owe you, boys, because we're going to have a severance tax in the state of wyoming. he's gone down now as one of the greatest governors in the history of wyoming. let's learn from governor hathaway, okay? and what the people of this state want. leawá talk about the cap tax you don't do that by the way you won't get the reduction in these other taxes. it won't happen. you're either for more economic growth for these lower taxes or getting stuck on the status quo.

these are not easy decisions, i understand it. i used to be in office where people come around and beat on me, and say this and that, and -- you know, let's talk about the cap tax, it was created ten years ago.&ñ it's been a huge benefit to large companies, especially manufacturing companies. of course we want to see them succeed. but we also want ohio's small enterprises to succeed as well, because they're the real engines of economic growth. they're like fighter jets of ohio's economy. small, nimble able to respond on a dime to changes in the marketplace. it's time for these small businesses to receive the same kind of shot in the arm that big businesses received 10 years ago, let's reform the cap tax and eliminate small business income taxes all together. now, that's a very interesting proposal, and a very interesting thought i get that any change to

tax policy is hard, it's like barnacles laying up on a pier in the ocean, the special interest cling to the status quo and any change at all is disruptive to them. ironically, even change that improves their overall situations. like the tax cuts and the tax reforms in our budget.ú but the special interest, they're inherently short sided. please keep in mind the basics we have a larger mission than just making some special interest group happy. our mission is to lift ohio. now, taken as an integrated package, all of these changes help us continue to diversify ohio's economy. and achieve a cross-over of sorts, where we can maintain a vibrant manufacturing climate. we want to continue to do the steal, the cars, we want to do

all those things. and a little bit of change in the cap tax, and small businesses and the suppliers grow and flourish and letter, and small businesses, by the way, they're the ones that will take a chance on people who others consider marginal workers. we can maintain a vibrant manufacturing company, but we can spark a fire for the cutting edge companies and the disruptive technologies that have the greatest potential for job growth. there was an article today i read online, the biggest businesses in america less employees. look at the ones that are really skyrocketing in this country. cloud computing. 3d printing. 3d printing. have you ever seen it? it's amazing what it means, what it can mean. telemedicine and the medical devices that make it possible. logistics, financialé@ services i.t. services. these are the cutting edge

industries, we must have in ohio. they just can't be somewhere else. and then we continue to be known as the rust belt. the only person that i think likes to be called -- have a little rust on them, is bill bathshelter because he's been around for 100 years. no one likes rust, we need the new industries, the new economy in this state, as our population ages and more and more baby boomers retire you know what happens, these kinds of cutting edge jobs help us keep our young people, and help us attract new ones. and when combined with the cool factor we're seeing created in our cities, as well as our state's low cost of living we can truly take our state to the next level with better, more exciting opportunities for everyone. we have to do the heavy lifting and make these bold brave choices. you don't have to do everything i want here, and i'm sure you won't. here's what i'm going to tell

you. most of it is going to be -- most of it, if it's based on a good logical argument, i'm fine. here's what i'm going to suggest to you, if we look back on ohio and we are only big heavy manufacturing, and we forget the cloud computing where we now have a billion dollar investment, the data analytics that ibm brought to our state. the medical device companies the medical imaging companies. the new i.t. services the new financial services that's where the jobs are, folks. that's where the world is going. you want to keep young people in this state when they graduate if they can get an exciting new job, they're not going anywhere. we got cool cities, we got low cost of living. we just have to give them the jobs, so they don't have to go somewhere else to get excited about their life. that's what this is really all about. so i want you to think about

this carefully, please. i ask you to think about it carefully. because i believe the future of our state is at risk. this isn't about john kasich, this is about this precious state and how i think it will look, in 20 years, the decisions we make now are the decisions that really affect us further down the road. you know another critical part of our economic revival is education. our colleges and universities understand this, and i have to tell you, they have been heroic, i don't think there is another state in america where the presidents of our universities and community colleges have a better relationship with the governor. we work together hand in glove and i got to tell you, it's pretty stunning, because i ask him to do things that they don't do in any other state. you remember when we did our capital bill i said look, we're not going to spread the peanut butter across the whole slice of bread.

we'll do a capital bill if you will agree that we will help those people who need help while not taking stuff for yourself. so you know what happened in stark state? you know what happened in zane state? they got to build these new centers, this new technology so people could learn the oil and gas industry, it never would have happened before, and they agreed to do it? how about our funding formula. i tell people about our funding formula and they believe it. we will not take one single dime of public money. not one single dime of public money, until a student completes a course gets a certificate or graduates. that's unbelievable. and that helps our kids to get through school, our students get through school quicker to have more attention placed on them when they're in school. and all these folks have gone along with, now we're telling them, we're going to have this big task force and we're going to get into your costs. my friend keith. he feels about this as passionately as i do i want to

give him a chance. we're going to have this study, and we're going to look at everything that drives the costs up at our universities. now, across this state, this has really touched a nerve. all of the newspapers have editorialized in favor of this plan, you know what they say? we will join kasich in favor. and we will join rosenberger as well, and we will slice these opportunities, if they do not come back, and get this mission accomplished over the period of the next year, and some of them are here tonight. and give them a round of applause for their leadership at these universities. [ applause ] >> you know, they're going along with this idea of two year schools being able to award a bachelor's degree. and they're going to adopt new online competency based courses. if you are a nurse and you want

a bigger certificate, you will be able to go online and get that done. you don't have to sit in a classroom. it's sort of what we did with the you're a veteran and drive a truck from kabul to kapdz harndahar, you can test your way out and get ahead. here's the other thing we're talking about. we want the insurance companies to go online and post curriculum. they all want people. you're working at mcdonald's, you think you're stuck. you go down to public library and if you pass you get a job working at the insurance company or you can also get a certificate and a credential for the fact that you now have a skill. we need to make sure we give hope to people who think they are stuck. and that's exactly what these universities are cooperateing with us on so let's see how it goes and, keith, i promise you

and i'm promises sing you here tonight if they don't come back with a plan we'll sit down and it'll be a tough day for them but we'll work together and i hope you'll be a major part of it. with lower costs a cap and freeze on tuition more students can afford college hopefully finish without the same kind of huge debts. we have $120 million in this student debt relief fund. honestly i think it's probably like a thimble in the ocean when we look at the massive debt but we want to send a signal that we know how tough it is. we know you have a lot of debt and want to do something to help you and could be related to the fact if you take an in-demand job and stay in ohio we'll give you the help you want. we think it's critical. the strategy of embracing change and thriving from it that our colleges are adopting, it is a model for the country. it is also a model for our k through 12 leaders who all too

often struggle to improve and innovate. hard for them. i don't understand all the reasons, i understand some of them. it's not fair to ohio's children and it's not fair to the dedicated teachers who teach. when the innovations are not brought, we've made our education system a priority and think about this we're going to government, 2, 2.5%. we put a billion dollars into k through 12 funding. a billion dollars. now we're going to stick 700 million more into k through 12 education. i checked on this randy. $1.7 billion investment over these four years, the largest investment in education in the history of the state of ohio. because we consider education and k through 12 education to be a top priority and i hope you agree with that. [ applause ]

let me tell you what the underlying philosophy is and, look, i'm the governor, right. i don't represent a district so i got to figure out how to take this money and allocate it across the state in the fairest way possible. so what are we saying? if you can do more for yourself you should. because there are others who are worse off and need more help. we can't take from schools that are worse off, let me repeat. we cannot take from schools that are worse off and give it to those who have more. we often do that today. it's not fair. we got to do better than that. it's about capacity to help yourself. and we say that if you are poor in property taxes and poor in income and have more students we

ought to do more to help you but if you're wealthier in property taxes and wealthier in income and maybe you're losing students, we can't do much for you, you can do more to help yourself. you know education fund something not about buildings, equipment or adults. one other thing it's not about it's not about a state printout. it's not about getting some state printout to look whether you got a minus or a plus. it's about distributing precious resources as best as we can to be in a position where kids can all have an equal chance. somebody said, you know we pay all these texasaxes in the suburban area and look at all the money they have in cleveland. 25% of the students in cleveland have so many challenges. you group in a family where

you -- where the family is not strong, let me say that. you grew up in a neighborhood. you hear gunshots at night. they deserve a chance too. and so the bottom line for me is let's help those that cannot help themselves and let's have some personal responsibility in those areas where they can. now, look, this formula, you know, we monkeyed around with this for so long, there's some things in here that i'm not even thrilled with but we're looking at it and we're working at it but i would ask you as members of the legislature keep the principle, keep the fundamental principle. it's good for our state, it's good for our kids, it's good for our educators. and i believe it can work. now, we've done some fantastic things. this third grade reading guarantee. remember the hassle we had

through that. that thing is going great. now we're getting kids who can read and we're not getting them into sixth or seventh grade and then we find out they can't read. that's a rip-off. we can't do that so the third grade reading guarantee is turing out to be a very significant success. how about the straight "a" fund? it's another thing we took -- got to give them incentives to think about new ways to do things so i went through the rotunda the other day and they had a gathering of all these straight "a" fund kids and i had these girls, three of them 12, 11 and 10 and they came up to me and they say, mr. governor, can you take a look at my 3d printing project? i couldn't believe it. this little 10-year-old girl is like grabbing me by my cuffs. come over here and look because i'm excited about learning because i'm excited about being in school.

thank you for that straight "a" fund and there will be more. more school choice giving families more control over how and where to educate their kids including more options in student careers and technical vocational education. parents, technical and vocational education is okay. it's good. okay, it's good. [ applause ] and did you know that we have individual education plans. if you're a kid and say you want to be a newspaper reporter you can make a deal with your school board where you can work at the wilmington paper, the clement dispatch for two three hours on a monday morning and get fired up about what education is about and what a career is about. individual education plans. and our budget builds on these important steps forward with new approaches to areas like raising up guidance counselors with standards in training so they can better help our kids

understand their abilities, assess their interests explain what careers are available and help get on a path to achieve their potential. our guidance counselors not be a set of extra hand that spend their time guarding the lunch room or rolling the basketball out in the gym. they are critical people for our children in k through 12 and in college. [ applause ] give you another one, the college credit plus. i want everybody to know that we're putting more money into train teachers so they can administer college level courses. if you take that in high school they cost you nothing. did you also know that when -- that a student can get this college credit plus in any school in this state and do you know there's a lot of parents totally unaware of this. this is not right. get out in your districts an tell people that if they want to get a start on college, at no

cost college credit plus and don't take noñ from your school when they say we can't do it. that's the situation. call my office. we'll help you out, okay. [ applause ] peggy laner, peggy laner, early childhood education. back in 2011, 575700 preschool slots were going to 17,000 preschool slots for kids. they'll be better prepared for school. hey, we're cutting testing hours by 18%. and we'll give the districts more flexibility on teacher evaluations, cutback red tape and regulations for high performing schools. keith, you wanted it. if we got high performing schools let's not hassling them. let's give them freedom to do what it is they need to do. now, our work together is

demonstrated a strong commitment to education choices and charter schools. okay. we need charter schools. we need them, okay. [ applause ] yeah. we need them. but at times ohio hasn't provided enough guidance and oversight for charters. we're changing that by cracking down on sponsors who turn a blind eye to their failing schools. for the worst we'll give them the better sponsors and ban them from sponsoring new schools if they're not doing the job. for those who struggle but show promise we'll incentivize them with facility upgrades. >> if you're not loving kids, we don't want you. you loving kids, you're trying your best, we want you. dick ross, the greatest superintendent in modern ohio history because he loves children, he loves kids, is going to write these rules. you got opinions on them, tell us what your ideas are. we want to hear them.

but i also want to say to you that just because a charter school is not producing great results in grades it doesn't mean they're failing. some of these charter schools have kids that if they weren't in that charter school they'd be out on the streets. so mr. leader we've got to figure out a way to make sure that we give everybody a chance. no situation here we're not loving our kids but let's not judge somebody as not doing their job because they've inherited a group of students that are just struggling and we'll help them to get up. plain and simple. you know, all these ideas we got to get away from the old system like you sit in a classroom, the way they did it a hundred years ago everybody learns the same way. we got to break free of that model and it's hard to do and i'd love for you to help me do

it so we can individualize education like that 10-year-old who was so excited about her 3d printing and turn education into an idea where kids just can't wait to go to school. this tri rivers technical vocational school have to lock the doors because the kids are trying to get in all hours of the day and night because they're so excited about learning. that's what we want to do in our state. i think we can -- i think we can probably get that done. look at what we've done in cleveland and by the way those cleveland schools, they're turning it around. i want to thank you will at people that were involved in the cleveland school reform and if you know any other school district in this state that wants to innovate and change you come see us because we're all about getting kids the opportunity that they deserve and that they need. look, i said in my inaugural address economic growth is not an end in itself. this has got people's attention.

what does that mean? well we got to make sure when we are prosperous we share it so we're taking on infant fortality. we started it back in my first state of the state. we haven't done well enough on this frankly. i mean i've been demanding my folks let's do more. we're getting community lead attorneys make sure those who are most at risk get the help they need to have healthy babies. if you live in a zone, a zone of acute problems you're automatically qualified but we've got to have the people in the community giving credibility to those who live in the community to make sure they get the services. we'll gain on this. we're raising up people with mental illness and developmental disabilities. i'd say that the entity of developmental disabilities i think is getting the largest raise in this budget because what we want to do is get them in a setting where they can prosper. some of them are in their homes where parents are under unbelievable stress.

we want to get them in a home. some are institutions, we'd like to get them in a home. if they want to tay in the institution, leave them there but what we find is most of them once out and in the community setting do far better and we want to do that. and with meant ago health, of course, we've come a long wray but we need better care coordination and we're doing it through managed care stronger housing supports, we've hollowed out those services when times were tough and trying to rebuild them. and i never want to read a story in ohio like with the terrible story in virginia where the dad couldn't get his son a bed and that next morning a disaster happened. a tragedy happened so tracy is working hard to open up more space and more beds. we got to keep doing what we're doing with the mentally ill. you know what i think i think because the good lord has given some of our people great brains to figure out how to deal with

the chemical imbalances we'll get better and better on this where somebody with bipolar disease with lead a normal life and many do. we got to keep pushing, the lord wants us to do that let's talk about the public assistance. we want to get people back on their feet. we have a commonsense approach. we want to begin to treat everybody in a holistic manner. go in the welfare office and stand in three lines, you go to this building or that line, then you got caseworkers, you can't -- we can't figure it out. news the government can't figure out how to do it and we got somebody on public assistance and we're running them around and all too often we never say to them why are you here? what's your problem? why are you in poverty? so what we want to do through the leadership of doug lumpkin and cynthia dungy is awesome. break down the silos.

here's what it should look like. we'll give you help. food stamps relief and want to know what is the problem? what do you need? we're not going to train you for underwater basket weaving but for a job that exists in the community so you can have satisfaction and get up on your feet because welfare must not be a way of life, it should be a way station to get you up on your feet and you can become independent and a fantastic role model for your kids. that's what it's all about. [ applause ] it's not easy. i'm down in cincinnati where they're doing a pretty good job done there. they're working hard. we think they can make more improvement. they're doing great so i meet natasha. she didn't live up to the rules when she was on welfare, sanctioned, lost her money. she is now working as a

caseworker. she has i think she said 300, 400 people took her nine years to get off. i'd love to tell you that it's going to be simple. but i believe that by changing welfare and, by the way if you make more money in your job we're not going to take away your day care. you'll be able to have your child care because we don't want to penalize you for get ago head. that's another thing we need to do. we all should love this. and i think we all do. even the -- these folks that work in the social service jobs they work hard. a lot of bureaucracy. it's hard, casework they're excited about this. that's what i'm told. another place we can't fail ohioans is in our law enforcement and justice systems. when we see and hear entire sections and mike dewine shares this with me when we see large

sections of our population say they don't think their voices are being heard or that something as important as our justice system really doesn't ever work for them, we better pay attention. that's why we acted swiftly last year to create the only statewide effort, the only one we know of to examine the relationship between communities and police that serve them. we're holding listening sessions, across ohio so the people in communities who have stories to tell who have concerns, pain, anger they deserve to be heard. they can be heard and we want to turn those voices into action now and to turn the best ideas for community and police partnerships into action plans that any community in this state can put in place right away to strengthen the fabric of who they are and be safer and more inclusive. plain and simple.

[ applause ] >> alicia reese, last time i checked, democrat, sondra williams, democrat. and nina turner. john borne is your co-chairman head of public safety. former head of the highway patrol. they're working together beautifully. tonight i want to salute nine that turn -- nina turner. she's done a fantastic job on this commission. she has done a fantastic. what's so funny you praise a democrat or have an idea about police commission and people are like, why are you doing that for? you know, that's not republican. who cares? we're not here to serve a party or ideology. we're here to solve problems and that's exactly what we're trying

to do. [ applause ] okay. so now the time has come to honor some people who have real courage because when we see them hopefully it gives us some more courage so i was at nationwide children's hospital visiting some friends who have a daughter who had some sort of tumor in her brain. they think they got it all and i went to see her not because i'm a great guy but i just wanted to see her because maybe i could do something that would be good. i met the nurse. amazing. amazing. you ever been to icu?

you ever been on the oncology floor? these people are unbelievable, these nurses. you know i hugged that nurse in my friend's daughter's room. you know i'm choking up and i'm saying god bless you god bless what you're doing. think about the way they visit with us when our families are in distress or when we're in distress. just think about what that's like and then how about the public health nurses? i mean we find out we may ebola and the nurses have to go in at risk to themselves or this lady who is here with us tonight, her name is jackie fletcher. she's from the knox county public health department she worked with the amish community to overcome last year's measles outbreak. you wouldn't believe what she had to go through to get this fixed. she's going to represent all the

nurses. i'm just -- you go into keep serving us so, jackie you'll represent all the nurses in ohio because we love you. we love the nurses in ohio. don't we, ladies and gentlemen? [ applause ] and we want to give them a courage award.

[ applause ] >> okay jackie thank you. now, one fall evening not long ago a man and a woman came upon the scene of a single car accident in huntington township in lorraine county. who is here from lorraine county tonight? you guys come on up here. i never did this before. i do everything like let's do something different here. okay? who else?

this wasn't a fender bender. it wasn't a fender bender. the car had broken into flame but despite that brittany and her then fianceeif i anfiance shane robinson. you got brittany to say yes, they stopped. they got out and checked for passengers in the car, inside they found a man and woman critically injured and unconscious. brittany called 911. shane pried open the passenger door and pulled the woman away from danger and then went back to remove the man as fire began to literally consume the passenger compartment. shane and brittany if you hadn't done this, those people wouldn't have survived. had you ever heard about the good samaritan? huh? the good samaritan goes all the way, transcends history you're great, good samaritans.

you could have driven by. but you didn't. you stopped and risked your own life for somebody else. god bless you. come and get a courage award. [ applause ] [ applause ] >> the final courage award this year is actually not an ohioan but someone whose story and

touched and inspired many in our state and across the nation. she was a student at mountain st. joseph university in cincinnati. but can't go anymore because she's too sick. she has incurable, inoperable brain cancer. let's watch the video. ♪ sflifs told that it was inoperable brain tumor. she said two years at best. i remember it hitting home like, wow, two years. two christmases. today means something so much bigger than what i can even

understand. to me it means my first college game, not my last one. my first college game. [ applause ] >> 5'11" freshman, from indiana number 22. lauren -- [ applause ] >> lauren sets high. the screen comes the ball goes down to lauryn hill and the layup is good. a layup for lauren. >> today was the best day i've had probably in my entire life. today i wanted to play

basketball and that's what i did. she played in four games and raised nearly $1.5 million for the cure starts now and tonight in a private ceremony lauren received an honorary doctorate at her university. >> next on the checklist giving her homecoming queen crown away this month. there's valentine's day to celebrate then the completion of the new gym where her 22 jerry will hang. >> i want to see that gym finished because i feel like i've done god's work, what he sent me here to do. and i feel like maybe i'm not done yet. maybe that's why i'm still here.

>> one, shgs two shgs, two, three. >> lady hawks. [ applause ] >> well, i talked to lauren today and her mother lisa and she said i hope i'm being a good role model. i hope i'm a good example. can you imagine that? i said, sweetheart the lord is going to honor you, you are going to wear one of the biggest crowns because of your courage, because of the fact that you are

just such a special woman and such a special angel. with us is rick murck with cincinnati's the cure starts now foundation for which lauren has raised over $1.4 million. i don't know if lauren is watching. she may be. i promise you her mother is watching. so i'm going to give this medal to rick but maybe lauren could hear us from this place in wilmington tonight to her hospital room. god bless you, lauren hill. [ applause ] [ applause ]

[ applause ] >> so, you know i hope -- well you can't help you be inspired by these people but because of their courage and they take matters foo their own hands rolling up their sleeves and making things happen. we need to follow their example and rededicate ourselves to citizenship. start talking. do you all know about this, got a lot of new members here. if a young person hears, do not do drugs there is a 50% less chance they will do it. in your districts you can spread

it. i know last time i checked over 26,000 kids. we've got teachers involved and, ladies and gentlemen, that are here in wilmington i don't care where you are, you're in a restaurant, you walk over there and you see those kids, you stay off the drugs. cliff will tell you the tsunami of trouble we have because of addiction. we need to be in our schools communities, synagogues, need to be in our churches everywhere, don't leave it to somebody else. community connectors we got -- we've got proposals coming in. every child needs a mentor. i don't care whether they're poor whether they're middle or rich. community connectors allows to us work with the business, a faith-based or value-based organization in our communities to go into the schools and what do we do when we're there?

we say we love you. we care about you. you can be something special. down this natty at the cincinnati collaborative in a school district that struggles to graduate this is not unusual in an urban district try their best, they have a 63% graduation rate but in a high school where mentors go in for one hour a week for a year the graduation rate is 97%. that's what we want to do in this state. our efforts on infant mortality, community leaders, any of the things in the front lines that our neighborhoods are calling us to do. sometimes government can get so big that we just don't think there is a place for us. well, or somebody else will do it or the government will do it. government can be a very blunt instrument. government can crown out charity if we're not careful. so we need to be partners.

sometimes we don't need any government to go and care and help and change and change the world. like that one great leader vaclav havel used to say, so there's always a need to get involved to practice the values we live by and recommit ourselves to them. in our inaugural address i think i talked about the ones that matter the most, personal responsibility empathy resilience, fighting back, teamwork, we need that in our legislature. republicans and democrats, family, boy, we need family we need to strengthen the family. it is so important in faith which means that at the end of the day that we need we've been given a great opportunity to change the world. values are what guide the choices we make and the way we live. and we only make ourselves and our state and our nation better when we live by them. is ohio better? no question. there's no denying we're doing better and it would be easy to

drift. look, i've got all this but i'm going to tell you this we're on the move. we're rising. we're creating jobs. people are more hopeful. and you know what's really great, no one is being left out. no one. if you're poor, if you're sick, if you're addicted, we want to help you. if you're in the prison gary moore will give you a path that you can have a second chance. but it all starts with a strong economy. if we're not creating jobs, ladies and gentlemen, all the other good things don't happen. they just don't happen. and what i'm asking all of you to do is to think down deep of changing the very way in which we do business in this state. we can talk about it we can change some of it but do not miss the opportunity to create a

new ohio, an exciting new ohio into this 21st century. the people want it. oh sometimes you're going to get carping and sometimes have people pounding on your door and all this other stuff but what i've we've learned overs last four years, follow the plan, the plan that we know works and everybody in ohio will be lifted. isn't that our job? it's our job to make sure that everyone in this great state feels a part of the buckeye family. i'm optimistic about what we can achieve. and i'm going to be here working with you, shoulder to shoulder, okay. i'm here to serve. i'm here to lead but i am here to serve. and i know at the end of the day if we go together we will look back and they will say, wow. what a generation of leaders that shined up ohio, that saved ohio, that moved ohio strongly into the 21st century.

you know, this tie i wear this gold tie whenever i come to wilmington because in 2010 i said that the sun was going to come up again in wilmington. the sun is coming up again in wilmington, cliff, the sun is coming up in ohio. but it's not reached its zenith. it's not in that cloudless, bright blue sky shining for everyone to see. but we can push it there. we can help it to get there. if we do it together god bless ohio. god bless america and god bless you. thank you. [ applause ]

coming up on c-span3 sally jewell testifies about her department's 2016 budget request. then remarks by australian prime minister tony abbott on the december 2014 hostage situation that left two people dead. that's followed by governor john kasich delivering the ohio state of the state address. and later from the atlanta council cybersecurity coordinator michael daniel. interior secretary sally jewell testified before the senate energy and natural resources committee about her 2016 budget request that totals $13.2 billion, 8% increase over 2015. committee chair lisa murkowski has threatened to hold up the department's budget request over an administration plan to

protect large portions of the arctic national wildlife refuge. this hearing is 2 1/2 hours. >> call the hearing to order this morning. we're here this morning with secretary jewell and mr. connor, thank you both for being here. we're here to review the president's budget request for the department of the interior for fiscal year 2016.

i just want to make sure i got the chart. and i'm going to spend a little bit of my time here this morning in opening comments to talk about the many ways in which this administration and the actions are having impact, negative impact in hurting my state. secretary jewell, you and i have had many opportunities to visit one-on-one, as well as your trip to alaska which i appreciate you making last week and i don't want to make this personal, but the decisions from interior have lacked balance and instead of recognizing the many opportunities that alaska has with regard to resource production you have enabled an unprecedented attack on our act to responsibly bring these resources to market.

the president has withdrawn over 22 million more acres of alaska from energy production just in recent weeks and that has occurred on top of many other restrictions and regulations being imposed on us. it's occurred despite the tremendous energy opportunity and potential in those areas, despite our no more clause, despite the pressing need to refill our pipeline and despite strong opposition from most alaskans. the map that i have behind us is one that my colleagues are going to become familiar with because i'm going to be pointing it out quite frequently. the colors on the map represent those areas that are withdrawn from any development opportunity whatsoever. some are in fact, proposed critical habitat areas and so

they are not fully withdrawn at this point in time. but we have the anwar new wilderness proposal the mpra withdrawal onshore. north allusion basin offshore and critical habitat the wilderness already in place the national parks areas as well as the federal lands. i just remind my colleagues this is one-fifth the size of the united states of america and so when you take off all of these areas for any development at all, how do your states -- how do your states operate? what do you do? what do you do? so i have expressed my frustration, privately and in public and i will continue to express my frustration and try try to achieve some positive

results for the people of alaska and really for the good of the country because as an energy producing state, this is what we do. we share these resources with the rest of the country. i want to be very clear today that it's not just me that is banging the table. i don't think that i am overreacting. i think i am speak g speaking clearly and articulating the concerns of most alaskans. we had an opportunity last week to be in a northwestern community and the second joined us. the entire alaska delegation, all three of us, the governor, the lieutenant governor, the leadership of the house and of the senate numerous native leaders and it was very clear that there is no daylight amongst the elected leaders in

terms of how they are viewing these decisions coming out of the administration. so i just want to make again very clearly enunciate very clearly that i oppose this administration's decision on anwr and offshore and i oppose its costly restricts and endless decisions within the mpra and oppose what it's doing to our plaster miners and timber industry and many other resource producers ready to provide good jobs to hard-working alaskans.ster miners and timber industry and many other resource producers ready to provide good jobs to hard-working alaskans.er miners and timber industry and many other resource producers ready to provide good jobs to hard-working alaskans. the state of alaska was actively ignored. the north slope bureau alaska native corporations and many alaskans all of whom asked for an oil and gas alternative in interior's anwr plan by claiming that it requires an act of congress even though an act of

wilderness requires the very same. the actions from this administration seem destined to shut down our trans-alaska pipeline weakening our economy forcing our state to make steep budget cuts and really violating the promises that were made to us at statehood and then since then. now, madam secretary i hoped interior's budget would not make this situation worse but it fails to clear even that low bar and violates the budget control act, ignoring the statutory caps and proposing new spending as if we'd already lifted sequestration. but i think that amounts to wishful thinking age not responsible governance rans and would impose billions of dollars worth of new fees and higher taxes on oil, gas, coal and mineral production and eliminate offshore revenue sharing which many of us believe should be expanded.

the department did not identify realistic offsets for its spending requests and proposed no serious reforms. i personally was stunned to see interior's request increase by almost $1 billion on a net basis with to funding dedicated to cleaning up abandoned legacy wells which were drilled by the federal government. they walk add way from it and walk add way from the mess and responsibility and we've been trying now for decades to get that cleaned up. beyond energy, there's king cove, still totally unresolved. yesterday marked 14 -- 14 months since this road was rejected and yet again we see nothing in this request to help those whose lives are in danger. i see a request for $40 million for adaptation projects for tribal communities but my

calculation, that's about 12 times less funding than was requested for international adaptation projects just this year alone so what i can't figure out why the needs of americans are coming second. their decisions are hurting alaskans you're depriving us of jobs, security revenue and prosperity but alaskans aren't alone in this and i want my colleagues to understand that i think what we're seeing in alaska is a warning for those in the west and the fact is almost every other western state already has multiple legitimate complainses against the interior. in wyoming it's the sage groce. colorado interior's refusal to develop shale and arizona, new copper mines. alaska, no production on federal

lands, the significant decline in apds and oil wells drilled on our federal lands. this administration is actively impeding many of the best economic opportunities in the west. it's depriving thousands who live in our states the ability to find a good job, earn a good wage and live a good life. as chairman of the committee and the appropriations subcommittee with control over the interior budget i do want to work with you. i do. i want to work with others.interior. i want to work with others. my complaint, you hear from us but you don't actually hear us. and in looking at the request, i don't see a substantive effort to work with congress instead, what i'm see something a disregard for enacted law and i think that that has to change and the challenge really is to find common ground working

together. but what we have seen is very, very discouraging. with that, i will turn to the ranking member. >> thank you, madam chair and thank you for holding this hear. i'm pleased to see secretary jewell here and to be able to have a conversation with mr. connor, as well, on the president's proposed budget for the department of interior. in my view this represents a balanced and forward leaning proposal. it creates jobs and long-term economic opportunity it bills strong partnerships when it comes to managing our infrastructure and ecosystem and resources. it invests in public lands for the next generation of americans to enjoy. it probably no surprise that the chairwoman and i do have different views on a variety of issues being discussed here this morning. and many of those do relate to the administration's energy and conservation proposals and the art tick and, secretary jewell,

i know you have a tough job. you did have a background as an executive in the oil industry as an engineer. so it does involve striking an appropriate balance between increasing in energy's production both onshore anticipate offshore in the united states as well as being sensitive to environmental areas. so i have long supported the arctic national wildlife refuge and encephalopathy in the coastal plain and so the fish and wildlife service released a plan that takes an important step of recommending a significant portion of the refuge to be designated as wilderness so this plan required by law and had not been updated for a quarter century, the new plan is more an accurate reflection of the values of which the wildlife refuge was designated. there's been criticism in the new five-year leasing plan for the continental shelf for

excluding too many area from potential development and others have opposed this decision to open up areas that have been up until now offlimits where the environmental damage would be extreme so the secretary has done her best to balance these competing interests. likewise, the department's recent decision to approve oil and gas development in the national petroleum reserve was criticized on the one hand for approving development near an area that they proposed for pro- protection and requiring conoco phillips to require measurements for those. yes, you have a tough day job. protection of these ecological treasures sump as the anwr is of national importance. i thank you and the administration for making these decisions. as a while the president's number represents a 6% increase and proposes significant funding increases for many of the

programs including the lane and water conservation fund and national parks sen tem initiative both very important. i know there's many people on this committee that believe that protecting these lands are greatly important. america's public lands generate over $40 billion of recreation and use every year so whether you're visiting a national park or hunting or fishing the opportunity on these lands are important and can enjoy the protection of the national special places while still maintaining a high level of energy production. the president's plan, i'm pleased to see the department is renewing energy resources on public lands. i want to bring up something that is missing. secretary jewell is taking an important tip in proposing reviews on how royalties are collected on federal resources but i am concerned the discussion end there.

you can typically lease a lot of cool for $1 or less. the taxpayers get $1. then years later we have to deal with almost two tons of carbon dioxide from that one ton of cool coal and that will cost over $70 in damages so our fossil fuel leasing laws are passed long ago before we knew how bad the impacts were so i tend to follow up on this issue. i know my colleagues, senator wyden and murkowski, the gao, the interior specter, aim sorry, interior inte -- interior inspector general and i'm concerned we consider the real impacts of climate change on our public lands. in is not just important to places like washington and alaska, to many places in our country, than tacoma news

tribune pointed out many of the climate impacts at mt. rainier national park and in the past decades about glaciers melting and snowpack decreased as much as 18% between 2003 and 2009 so these are real issues everything from mud slurries to floods to repairing park infrastructure and we all know that historic drought conditions in california and the west have demonstrated climate-related change are present challenges to businesses, to the government, to families and because of this, i'm pleased that the budget includes a 15% increase for climate-related research. so i hope that this will help us bring bitter understandings about how to prepare for these issues similar wildfire impacts throughout the community, our state experienced one of our worst wildfire carlton complex which the destruction represents i think 7% of all wildfire destruction last year. in just this one fire.

156,000 acres burned in 24 hours. so that's like aacres a second. again, the micro climates and changes are things that we're really starting to understand the grave imimpacts so my western colleagues have had in recent hearings brought up various stories i so i hope we can get though those but i strongly support the president's plan to get a mandatory funding stream beginning next year. something as i said many of our colleagues on the committee agree with but every year congress appropriates only a fraction of the authorized funding and right now the inappropriate balance is almost 20$20 billion so i hope that since this fund expires in september that we will -- we had a pretty good vote on the senate floor about in that we'll work together together in a bipartisan fashion to address these. when i get a chance to the "q" and "a" i'll ask you about the

yakima river basin watershed and the area to protect it. after years of negotiation, users of irrigated water such as farmers and ranchers along with tribes and conservation groups plan to utilize in a better fashion the resources of the yakima river watershed in a time of increased demand and growing scarcity. i believe this effort will be successful and i also believe that as a model for how other watersheds in the west are experiencing these challenges an how if they work together and we work with them, that we can have better resolution of these issues so i look forward to discussing these and many other issues when we get to the questions but, again i appreciate your commitment and the president's to creating jobs and building partnerships and investing in our lands for future generation,k >> thank you, senator cantwell. thank you and good morning. >> good morning. chairman murkowski,

representative can'ttwell, thank you for letting me testify. joining me mike connor who certainly is no stranger to this chamber or the senate. i've submitted a detailed statement for the record that discusses a number of investments we're proposing so i'll be relatively brief in these opening remarks. this is a forward-looking budget that provides targeted investments to grow our domestic energy portfolio creating jobs at home, to build climate resilience and revitalize our national parks as an approach to their 100th anniversary and investing in science to help us understand natural resources on a resource level and to manage our assets for the long term and helps fulfill ow nation's commitments including a much-needed and historic to improve education for indian children. our investments in the lanns and historic places that make our

nation proud and serve as economic engines. on the 00th anniversary of the fund act the budget proposes foul funding of $900 million for lwcf programs this. is dollar for dollar one of the most effective government programs that we have. next we are we mark another important milestone in our nation's history the national park service will celebrate its 100th anniversary and this budget makes investments to launch a historic effort to celebrate and revitalize national parks and public lands. the discretionary and mandatory portions include $100 million matching fund to leverage private donation parks and $859 million to provide critical maintenance in high priority acid sas assets. 43 million will support visitors during and after the centennial. third milestone we commemorate this year is the 50th

anniversary. voting rights act. we want them to highlight key sites that tell the story such as selma to montgomery. one of my top priorities is connecting young people to the great outdoors and our history and culture and engage the next generation to the stewards as 40% of the workforce is soon to be he will vrabeleligible to retire. it provides opportunities for our nation's youth to play, to learn, to serve and to work on public lands. we will accomplish this through cooperative work with youth conservation and schools and organizations like the ymca and enlightened private businesses supporting our efforts. next i want to talk point administration's continued commitment to tribal self-doo

determination and strengthening tribal communities and recently visited arizona. to give young people in indian country the opportunity to engage tour to give the young the opportunity to engage with cabinet members directly. my recent trip also include youth leadsers. agencyies are kmited to more effectively serve american ine indians and alaska natives. this holds the youth for education, for nate ef american communities through economic growth and social services and for improving the stewardship of trust resources. we're requesting to e $2.6 billion which includes funding to deliver direct services to tribal members. when it comes to powering our nation, the budget continues to

invest in both renewable and conventional energy so we can diversity, cut carbon pollution and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. the budget includes $94.8 million for conventional energy programs. this budget also invests in science and technology initiatives that will create economic opportunities and help communities build resill yebsience. the budget includes scientific observations of the earth to applied research to better understand problems such as erosion. it includes a total of $147 million.

finally, two specific areas that are impacted by changing climate. waterer and fire. first, as part of the 1.1 billion dlarsz budget to fund ecosystem restoration, healthy watersheds and sustainable pure water supplies, the water smart program would receive $858 million to prevent drought and a new funding framework for wildlife suppression. similar to how the costs for other natural disasters are met. this is a common sense proposal that would ensure that usda dunt have to rob our budgets to fight the nation's most catastrophic fires. so, in closing, this is a smart and balanced budget that enables the department to carry out these missions. i look forward to discussing

this with you and answering your questions. thaing. >> thank you, secretary. we will now go to a round of questions here. and i'll direct my first question madame secretary, relating to -- i'm frustrated i'm very frustrated with the delays, the denials the restrictions that we continue to see from the department of interior. when you came before us as a nominee back in march, of 23013 you made a specific kmitment to me. you said, and i'm going to quote you here, that we are supporting the desire that we disz cussed to continue to keep the alaska pipeline full. do you know where we are in terms of the max numb capacity of the transalaska pipeline,

versus what we're seeing go through the line on a daily basis? are you aware of that? i guess the question is pretty direct. do you believe that the actions that we've seen out of the department of interior, of late, are helping to keep the alaska pipeline full? when npra withdrawals have moved forward? when the direction in the end of january to put amwar in the 10-02 area and 98% 06 amwar into wilderness area with indefinite withdrawals in the ocs? do you think that that's consistent with trying the keep the transalaska oil pipeline

full? >> senator, i am fully committed to supporting the efforts in alaska to keep the transalaska pipeline full. as you know i worked on that pipeline. we have, as you know, the support of development of the natural petroleum reserve. offshore, 92% will be available. we took 25 miles off the table because of oil migration based

on a request from native communities. the hanna-schulla area, which has a handful of existing leases which will remain. the balance of it we took off the table because it is very, very sensitive, ecologically. and we took other areas in the barros canyon and off kaktobik because of village concerns about subsistence, largely whaling. >> but secretary u particularly as it related to the hanna-shull, in terms of consultation, most specifically with the whalers who use that area, that they saw no consultation there? that that is part of the fris ration? that it's more than just making access available. if access is denied it doesn't make any difference whether or not you have sold those leases.

it's all about being able to access them. let me move to a second question here. and this relates to my on going frustration on behalf of king cove. you made that decision to abandon the opportunity for a roughly 300 to 1 exchange to facilitate a 10-mile one-lane gravel road. you made that decision december 23rd of 2013. do you know when king cove saw its most recent medivac? >> i'm not aware of their most recent -- >> it was sunday. sunday night. do you know how many medivacs have been carried out so far? is there's been five.

do you know how many were carried out last year? there were 16. 16 were coast guard, ten were noncoast guard. do you know how many have been carried out? 21 medivacs. 7 coast guard, 14 non-coast guard. now, as you and i know, it's not the coast guard's mission to provide merks edivacs services. but they do so because they are the only ones able to get in. and the easiest and most direct way to help save these lives would be this one-lane gravel, non-commercial use, 10 mile road. that you continue to just ignore.

it is very difficult to move around that territory. i have worked with the corps of engineers such as helicopter

sfszs between cold bay and the end of the road, as you referenced. we are willing to work with the community on other water-based transportation methods to cover that six miles from the end of that road to cold bay. but, senator, to suggest that the eisenbeckh refuge is the same is inaccurate. >> 300 to 1. 300 to 1. and, madame secretary, and in all respect, to suggest that you're going to be able to count on the coast guard to establish some kind of a base there in cold bay is not realistic. it's not rational.