Nebraska governor pete delivered the fourth and final state of the state address of the current term. It highlighted progress in tax reform, creation of new jobs and balancing the budget. Governor will seek reelection this year. This is half hour. Members of the legislator, chairman, distinguished guest, fellow nebraskans, friends and of course, our first lady, my lovely wife, suzanne. [applause] she always gets better applause than i do. Before i begin i want to recognize your newest member, senator teresa from omaha. She is a Small Business owner and involved in Early Childhood education and her background and experience will make a great contribution to this body. Welcome senator, i look forward to working with you. [applause] and to all of our senators congratulations on the commencement of the second session of the 100 and nebraskan legislator. Working together is in our dna and the hallmark of nebraskas nonpartisan legislator. In fact, leadership in working together is what has helped build this great state. We know this from our history. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the end of world war i. During world war i nebraskans came together to raise private dollars to form a Field Hospital and to take care of wounded shoulders returning from the front. Many were gravely injured they were treated at the little nebraska hospital. That spirit is alive and well today. When hurricanes harvey and irma battered our coast from florida to texas Nebraska National guard members into the call and came to the aid of families and communities in need. Nebraska National Guard members not only serve to their fellow citizens but also on the line of the war on terror. Last month i visited the four of our National Guard soldiers at guantanamo bay, cuba for helping to detain enemy combatants. Twentyfive years ago new enlistees do not expect to be deployed overseas. Today, the men and women who join the Nebraska National guard not only expect to be deployed but want to take the fight to the enemy. I am incredibly proud of them and we salute them for their service and their sacrifice back nebraskans have a long tradition of pulling together to help each other out in good times and in bad. We have built those stories right here into our state Capital Building as a source of inspiration. In the spirit of cooperation we come together each year to accomplish the priorities in a manner that matters to most nebraskans. Our work is helping to grow our state and to keep nebraska the best place in the world to live, work and raise a family. It is not always easy but it is important. Working together last year we accomplished many great things and under speaker shears leadership you passed a bill that protects the ability of our teachers to exercise religious freedom. With chairmans help we worked on and enacted an unprecedented two budgets so that the state could live within its means. The senator delivered to my desk the first prolife legislation in several years with a choose life license plate. Two other senators were plus to streamline State Government and merge state agencies. Two other senators led successful efforts to form occupational licenses. Senator championed a bill protecting First Responders from losing their health care insurance. Other senators passed legislation that allowed the department of transportation to assume responsibility for environmental reviews. We helped on the practice of allowing people to their jobs in turn around and claim unemployment insurance. Nebraska is one of the last states to make this change. Mrs. The state of the state is strong and growing. [applause] last year, nebraska one the governors conference for the most Economic Development per capita for anything in the country. In fact, nebraska had more qualified projects then north dakota, south dakota and kansas combined. Forbes ranked nebraska the Fourth Estate overall for business. We moved up seven spots and chief executive magazines ranking of the best states for business. Folks, this matters because when Companies Move here and invest, they create Job Opportunities for people. This past year, we continue to achieved record levels of employment with over 1 million nonfarm jobs and the lowest Unemployment Rate in our state since 1999 at 2. 7 . And our population hit a record 1. 92 Million People for the first time ever. These achievements are no coincidence. Senators in this chamber in the teammates in my Administration Work each and every day to grow nebraska. Working with you, we will continue to bring new opportunities to nebraska. International partnerships are helping us to create these great paying Job Opportunities right here in our state. For example, we went to canada in august 2 recruit agrippina stix which has 20 new jobs in the city. A new investment solitaire 2015 visit. Japan is nebraskas largest threat for an investor and theres no better example of that than kawasaki, which just opened their first u. S. Aerospace division right here in lincoln. Our trade mission in 2015 supported this expanded. When we foster more investment by multinational businesses, and we hope nebraskans like eric jones. Eric is a longtime production worker for kawasaki and a great teammate who gets paid a good wage to support his wife and three kids. When kawasaki announced the Aerospace Six amgen, he volunteered and he earned a spot for the company flew him to japan for three months of training. Eric told me, kawasaki is great for lincoln. Besides the good paying jobs and investment, kawasaki also supports local charities and uses local vendors. Eric and his wife miranda are here with us today. Lets give a warm welcome and thank us. [applause] i shouldve mentioned erics mom is here as well. Though she missed him a lot when he was in japan. In nebraska, we export over 8 billion. Our work in china over the yeare door for nebraska beef for the first time in 14 years. Beef from a Nebraska Company was the first to arrive in china last summer and im excited to report that over half the american beef in china right now comes from nebraska. [applause] [applause] over the past 12 months and wouldve also seen argentina reopen their market to american pork through bulgaria signed new soybean deals with nebraskans. Vietnam opened their doors in japan is set to open their marketplace to american methanol. These successes would a possible without the Great International teams in the department of agriculture and the department of Economic Development. Our teams are working together to grow Market Access and develop new partnerships. They are with us here today. Please somebody thank them for their great work. [applause] we also work hard to recruit u. S. Citizens. The Silicon Prairie has continued to thrive. In 201619 and i traveled to menlo park, california to southie spoke on nebraska. Last year, facebook broke ground on a 970,000 squarefoot campus, which will create hundreds of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars investment. Costco selected fremont as a home for their firstever chicken processing operation. A team effort close that deal with the help of state agencies, Business Leaders and local officials. Other Major Investments have come from companies such as title, cargo and ethanol producers. These are just a few of the over 200 projects that state, regional and Developers Work on in our efforts to grow nebraska last year. These they helped their family and so many other families have the opportunity to work hard and invest in their communities. We recruit businesses because we have a great story to tell our team works each and every day to run at the speed of business. By making it more effective, more efficient and more customer focused. We are working estate agencies to eliminate and speed up service. With this philosophy, we are turning around environmental permits in a single day, reducing the backlog for tax credit applications and more. Faster so we can connect medical professionals here in our state. For example, we reduce the nurse licensing processing time per 96 days in november 2015 to an average of 30 days in December December 2017. Changes like this are helping nebraska put people to work more quickly. Shea lee shannon recently moved here to bellevue with her has been in the air force. She applied for a nurse licensing december and received it in just 15 days. [applause] this is just one of the many great examples that we have power in proving our services. Running an operationally Excellent Organization is the team after. Please help me recognize the center of Operational Excellence team for all their great work. They are here with us today. [applause] to complement the work we are doing in the area of process improvement, i agencies are also cutting red tape. In july, we launched a review aimed at cutting unnecessary regulation to streamline State Government. In november, state agencies came back with initial recommendations. Today, senator murawski is introducing legislation that my request, which will help eliminate unnecessary red tape. Thank you, senator bronte. [applause] all of the great work weve done together set the tone that nebraska is open for business for manufacturing, technology, agriculture. But we also have challenges. The first of which is working on the budget. This is our top priority. In october, the nebraska Economic ForecastingAdvisory Board reduced the revenue forecast while her state economy once again has the wind at its back, revenues continue to fall short of the boards expectations. Weve been preparing for this. We reduce our state courts by 500 or about 4 . Weve eliminated 1500 open positions in preparation for budget cuts. We reduced agency allotments by about 2 over the last two quarters of the year. Last year, working together, we balanced the budget without raising taxes. They feared [applause] this year, we need to do the same again. [applause] i am proposing acrosstheboard reductions of 2 in this fiscal year and 4 in the next. Consistent with our work, i have designated priorities for funding in the budget like k12 education, corrections and services to help the developmentally disabled. I am also asking you to make new targeted investment. We have seen a significant increase in the number of children coming to the states Child Welfare system. Annually we are up about 9 or about 480 5k of. Folks, that is heartbreaking. In this budget, and recommending an additional 35 million for Child Welfare and public assistance for this year and next. [applause] we must take care of her kids. Dhs reports that for the first seven months of 2017, one out of every three children who are removed from their homes were moved because methamphetamines was affected. We have to get to the bottom of this disturbing trend in all the other contributing factors and that is why it will be forming a new Child Welfare task force to determine the root causes. We must also continue to invest in nebraskas department of corrections. Im recommending expanding the number of professional officers as well as investing or reinvesting 6 million in funds that were unspent and invest in us back into our prisons. This will help us expand our capacity. Additionally, thinks elections taken by congress, my budget recommends new steps to protect unborn life by ensuring that title x wait until i get to the finish of it, ensuring federal title x dollars are not used to fund abortion. Nebraska is a prolife state and our budget should reflect our values. [applause] i look forward to working with chairmans, senators and the entire Appropriations Committee on balancing the committee. Our next challenge has to do with taxes. Cutting and reforming taxes is key to growing. Over the years weve done the hard work needed to hold the line on taxes, but nebraskans need and expect more. If we are going to remain competitive and grow into the future, we must continue our efforts no matter how hard. The Tax Foundation ranks the property taxes as the 11th highest in the nation, which is the worst among our surrounding states. While we have provided over 840 million in Property Tax Relief over four years, weve all heard the stories about how high property taxes are hurting nebraskans. This fall a farmer came up to me at one of my events and he let me know that his high property taxes had driven in to sell his farm, weve nebraska and moved to missouri. That is terrible. Stories like this that have inspired me to continue making Property Tax Relief a top priority. [applause] its an urgent need. We must help our farmers and ranchers with crushing property tax bills. We must help all nebraskans keep all of their hard earned money and attract more people to come to ours date. Our neighboring states are making themselves more competitive. The only surrounding state with a higher income tax than ours is iowa and right now, governor kim reynolds and their legislature is working to lower their taxes. Misery just lower their tax rate this month. My team has been working tirelessly with you and with a variety of groups throughout the state come in the summer and fall and we have to show our taxpayers that we get the message. They want tax relief. [applause] that is why today, senator smith is introducing the nebraska property tax cut and opportunity act. This legislation will serve as a framework for delivering tax relief this session. Our proposal has three major components. First, he restructures existing property tax credit as a new refundable credit on state taxes, which insures the nebraskans received the credits. It also provides additional relief in future years when our revenue is growing. Over the next 10 years, we expect this would provide over 4 billion in Property Tax Relief for acts producers and homeowners and focuses relief on the average nebraska homeowner. Second, in todays Global Economy coming young people graduating from our colleges, skilled workers and even longtime residents cannot been moved to lower tax states. We have the jobs in the great communities. Lets also work towards an income tax system that is just as welcoming. [applause] our proposal uses existing tax credits to achieve a permanent reduction in the state uncompetitive individual and Corporate Income tax rate. This will provide relief for families and Small Businesses. Right now, 90 of the individual income taxes paid by nebraskans are paid at the top individual rate and 90 of Nebraska Businesses pay at the top individual rate. Finally, our proposal calls for an additional 10 million over two years for workforce development. Folks, we can bring relief to nebraskas family and businesses and help continue to grow our state. It is critical bless you. It is critical to get the job done on tax relief this session. Senator smith and i will continue to work with senators and other groups seeking tax relief, but we all need to be open to compromise. Tax relief will need to be a bipartisan effort. [applause] and there will be some pain that we all do together for the good of our entire state. Lets roll up our sleeves and get the job done. We have our work cut out for us. But i have no doubt we are up to the challenge. When we are here with the state taxes, lets do whats right for the hardworking people for eric and amanda jones, to make that happen, we have to remain laser focused on growing nebraska. This session, that means cutting red tape, and balancing the budget in delivering tax relief. The nebraskans expect results. [applause] as demonstrated during time of war, in the midst of natural disasters and on the walls of ours a capital, the character of our people is to work together. In doing so, we will continue to make nebraska the best place in the world to live, work and raise a family. It is hard to believe that this will be the last session for several of our most experienced members who are term limited a retired. They have collectively made significant contributions to the state. Please join me in recognizing senator baker, braasch, horror, chris, larsen, shoemaker and smith for all their work over the last several years. [applause] when the university of nebraska named scott frost as the next head football coach. He knew i had to go there, right . He offered a formula for winning that applies here. A lot of good people that care about this place working really hard, its toughness, dedication, work ethic and that is what nebraska is. That is what the people of nebraska are. Those words are valuable to our service here in the capital. As we turn the page and over the next chapter, and there will almost certainly be principled disagreements in heated debates. For over 150 years, nebraskans have always come together for a cause bigger than themselves. We will draw upon their string this year to address the priorities of the people of our great day. God bless you all in your work. God