[applause] thank you, thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Speaker, ma maam president , Lieutenant Governor earl sears, attorney general mijares, members of our General Assembly, chief Justice Goodwin and justices of our supreme court, members of my cabinet and my fellow virginians, what an honors the to be with you this afternoon. Today we gather in our Common Wealth capital, not as republicans, not as democrats but as virginians and what an honors the to welcome 54 members of the General Assembly that are in their new seats. [applause] and as we open the next chapter, we mark yet another trailblazing moment in the history of the Common Wealth in welcoming the new speaker of the House Speaker don scott. Not withstanding the esteemed body being described as a citizen legislature, we all know its a fulltime job and to serve is both privilege and responsibility, i want to personally thank you and i want to thank your families for the sacrifices that you all make and i particularly want to thank you our first ladies, susan youngkin. Her love for virginia and more so for the people across this great the Common Wealth inspires me each and every day. Thank you for your service and thank you for your grace. Two years ago we began a journey together. We gap a journey to ignite hope to inspire faith in our few uture and to make virginia the best place to live and the work and to raise a family. Our meeting today in the Great Chamber is boast acknowledgment of our progress made and charge to press ahead to greater strides and also to acknowledge that our journey together is only at half time. The state of our Common Wealth is strong, stronger than she has been in a very long time and we all of us should feel a great sense of accomplishment, the spirit of opportunity has expanded, the spirit of service of helping those in need has spread, the spirit of hope has been unleashed all because the collective spirit of virginia has been strengthened. 233,000 more virginia virginiane working today than two years ago. Yeah. [applause] more virginians are working today than ever before. We provided a record 5 billion in tax relief, particularly benefiting lowerincome virginians who need it most. We funded records amounts in education. We reestablished intensive tutoring and adopting the science of reading, launching lab schools and renewing the focus on career and technical education. We rebuilt the ranks of Law Enforcement with record investment and unwavering commitment that we back the blue. We launched historic efforts to transform, overwhelm the behavioral system our child care System Critical for working families, a foster care system that was failing too many and Developmental Disability waiver system that left so many unserved. We fostered an even business friendly ecosystem with investments in science, streamline and permitting regulations. We embraced innovation and common sense for our allamerican and all of the above Energy Future that will deliver reliable, affordable and yes, increasingly clean power. We regained our commitment to conserve gods great Natural Resources with significant progress to meet our Chesapeake Bay 2025 goals and we wasnt to work to make government run more efficiently and more effectively. All of these accomplishments Work Together for a better day in virginia. Yet while virginia is stronger than ever, she and we have major challenges. Virginia has a population migration problem, the data is irrefutable and even though the rate has declined this past year more people moved away rather than to virginia from the other 49 states for ten years now. We have future children in our k through 12 Public Schools than five years ago, fewer than 10 years ago. 3 out of 4 people leaving virginia make a hundred thousand dollars or more and the taxes they pay are leaving with them. Among the states there are winners and there are losers. Jobs and opportunity winners and lessors, taxes and talent winners and losers, transportation quality education Behavioral Health, Public Safety winners and losers. Virginia must be a winners and its up to us to make sure that she is. As we are nearing the 250th anniversary of this great we are reminded of the foundational pillars of rights and that pursuit is built upon protecting freedoms and inshrine principles of equality and opportunity so that all virginians and all americans can pursue their dreams. You see, i think we can agree that virginias story is americas story. It is our shared past and it will be our shared future. In the next chapter we must embrace the call to lead. Lets lead because virginians deserve it from the single mom in petersburg working two jobs so theyll be more opportunity for her child to the farmer who struggled through this years drought but never gave up to the first Generation Technology graduate forging new opportunities in a new country to the nurse in Washington County who just finished the night shift to the grandmother who moved here all the way from ohio to take care of her grandkids while her daughter is serving overseas to protect our freedoms. Ive met them all and so have you. We work very them. Every one of these virginians in addition the to 8. 7 million i didnt mention deserve not only gods blessing but also our leadership through service. If we lead together opportunity will abound. We know that a future filled with opportunity begins in the classroom. Coming out of the pandemic it was clear after prolonged and Unnecessary School closures, our students experienced catastrophic learning loss and we risked losing an entire generation. Together the we responded and i would particularly like to thank senators lucas and locke and delegate knight. We introduced the all virginia plan providing math and reading tutoring in the foundational years of eighth grade. The mother received a letter in the mail saying her 8yearold daughter was way behind and she could benefit from all in tutoring. So chloe went to math tutoring and greeted by a smiling teacher with a hug and a snack. Here are the results. In september, chloe scored in second percentile and in november the 50th percentile and in december she scored in 80th percentile in math. And theyre both here with us. Thank you for your hard work and thank you for blazing a new trail in virginia. As of last month im proud to announce that every Single School division is all in, so many more will benefit and virginia is leading. I have proposed again the largest education budget in virginias history, 20. 2 billion over the bianium heading into this next fiscal year annual state funding would have increased 2. 1 billion over 2021 levels. A 27 increase including 17 increases for teacher raises, record funding for facilities and even more support for student services. Yeah. This has been a tremendous effort on behalf of all of you, thank you because we have been able to fund our schools at a unprecedented level. I would like to caution us, i would caution us from drawing strong opinions you out of date facts that perceive this great work this all of you facilitated. Even as we made great progress, i know that we can all agree that we can do so much better than the current soq funding form whether she. My administration is committed to working with you and our great superintendents across the Common Wealth. We sat together to deliver a plan to replace soq system with a system that puts students first. While we know the Younger Generation fell behind much of the strain was placed on parents especially virginias moms who struggled to return to the workforce after the pandemic. I was proud to announce Building Blocks for virginia families last month which will ensure that working families especially those with limited means have the opportunity to choose quality care that meets the needs of their families. By innovating with a digital wallet ensuring no working family loses access, prioritizing Parent Choice and cutting red tape for families and providers, we are delivering a best inclass model for Early Learning and child care and these are the buildings blocks that are at the center of the future of the Common Wealth. Critically we must always support mothers including at the very beginning so they will choose to bring life into this world, let me tell you about someone who has committed her life to Maternal Health in helping mothers succeed. Shes the founder of urban beginnings and i was proud to stand beside her early last year to celebrate our first Maternal Health hub opening in petersburg as part of our Strong Partnership with the great city of petersburg urban baby beginnings helps women access prenatal whether thats finding doctor or a dulla lathe providing support that new mothers often need and all the while navigating an incredibly complex system. You see there are many moms who face this the challenge. In 2021, 283 expecting mothers signed up for medicaid coverage in petersburg but less than 20 accessed prenatal care. That is why urban baby beginnings is so important, Stephanie Spencer is here with us today. Stephanie, thank you for your heart, thank you for your love and thank you for making sure we have healthy women and babies in the Common Wealth. [applause] virginia leading also means we tackle the cost of living. We tackle the cost of living to create opportunities to virginians can keep more of their hardearned money, have great jobs and stop moving away. Let me just remind you, virginians are moving away, families, Small Businesses, entrepreneurs, job creators and the Young Professionals and on top of that, the taxes that they pay to fund our schools, our Behavioral Health care and other essential services are moving away too. In order to the address these issues over the past two years virginians have received 5 billion in tax relief which equates to about 2,200 for the typical virginia family and 4,500 for our veterans. In the second half together we need to structurally reform our tax code. We can do this by cutting taxes across the board 12 and paying for almost 80 of this by modernizing our tax code which includes closing the tech tax loophole and increasing the sales in yaws tax by 0. 9 . For lowincome virginians we are including an expansion of the earned income tax credit. Now theres one topic not included in my budget submission last month but that i challenge all of us to take up and resolve and that is to eliminate the single most hated tax in virginia, the locally imposed personal car tax. [applause] we can eliminate the car tax, provide real tax relieve and keep our localities whole and this is a package deal and im only interested in a plan that reduces taxes for virginians, our neighbors have lower taxes or starting their journey to lower taxes and they are winning the opportunity sweep stakes and our neighbors to the north are losing the population, fiscal growth and opportunity contest. Our message must be clear, we are going to compete and win and ensure virginians keep more of their hardearned money and to do this we must lead. [applause] as i stated in my first hours as governor at the heart of opportunity and jobs is the fundamental right to work. Please, please dont bring me a bill that impacts virginians right to work as it will [applause] it will meet the business end of my veto pen. Lets spend our time on advancing our great workforce, building on our new Workforce DevelopmentAdvancement Agency and making easier for people to get licensed or certified to start their career by expanding universal licensing. Making it easier for people to move to virginia to get to work and making sure that every High School Student has the opportunity to graduate with a diploma, diploma plus plus credential that would launch them into highpaying jobs. [applause] key the Economic Growth in virginia is the fact that virginias power demand is growing at a rate 5 times that of our neighbors. The simple fact is that if we dont build capacity right now, virginia will not grow. Invasion and base load power are key and are all the above, all american plan embraces everything. Americas largest offshore Wind Development project, solar, hydrogen, nuclear, Carbon Capture and natural gas. This is an issue that we cannot turn away from, so lets Work Together to keep costs down and keep the lights on. [applause] virginians are in charge of our destiny, no one else and that means we also put power where it belongs with the people. We must reject the current misguided law that the allows california to dictate our vehicle laws. [applause] not only does it defy common sense, virginians should decide for virginians and with this misguided law in place the regulator process is starting this year meaning more and more virginians will see higher costs and fewer choices. The fastest way to fix this is for virginias General Assembly allowing virginians to decide what car they drive. [applause] our Economic Activity has set record pace, lego, hilton, the list goes on and on. Over two years, weve welcomed companies committing nearly 71 billion in capital investments, more than 2 and a half times any other twoyear period. And just this past month we announced sports and entertainment vision unlike any in history. In partnership with the General Assembly, we can bring this opportunity to fruition, together we can welcome both a new nba team and nhl team and 30,000 new jobs. To be clear, all of this is accomplished with no up front cash commitment from the Common Wealth, no new taxes and a one of a kind Public Private partnership where virginia shares in the projects success. To those on the mai commission, thank you, thank you for your anonymous and bipartisan support, an opportunity of this magnitude out is both rare and complex and i am committed to working together to deliver this win for the Common Wealth. An entertainment venue unlike anything on the east coast right around the corner is good for business. Bill, thank you for showing us that when opportunity presents itself, virginia should seize it. Thank you for being one of the many thousands of Small Business owners that are lifting up the economy and are the lifeblood of virginias future. Thank you bill. [applause] [applause] the road to opportunity for many virginians will be cleared by it celebrating the transformation of our Behavioral Health system. A transformation desperately need give the clear Behavioral Health crisis that we face. While this is a three year journey we just celebrated the oneyear anniversary right help right now transformation. At this time last year we had hoped to have two new emergency room alternatives and today we have eight and there more to come in the month of november alone we received over 8000300 calls on 988 line. Virginia is one of the top of the nation into the scouts quickly restarted this journey 36 mobile crisis units with the goal of doubling them and i can tell you today we are 97 mobile crisis units across the commonwealth of virginia and we are still going. [applause] the transformation is working but we need to do more. I am committed to concluding the Settlement Agreement virginia entered with the department of justice 12 years ago. I have requested in my budget funds to completely eliminate the current backlog of 3544 virginians on the priority one waiting list. [applause] weight must ensure that these virginians have meaningful Living Options as well as other elements that meet the goals of the settlement. We must ensure it virginia it delivers for our youngest generation including the most vulnerable and for too long our foster care system has failed our young virginians. So we started this safe and sound task force to address this head on. One of the safe and sound of volunteers is here, and she joined by her husband stan their adopted son michael. Stan and angie have been pastoring in their church for 26 years when they welcomed their first foster child and it opened their eyes to the need ultimately they use the ministry in time to work towards bettering the entire system. In angies words, not everyone is called to foster. But everyone can play a part. Friends, children deserve families. They deserve supports. They deserve love it. Angie, stan, and michael, thank you for reminding us all of that. [applause] [applause] and now it is our turn. Lets do our part to make Virginia Home to every child by working together to extend kinship care. [applause] lets lead the support virginias families, just as i did last year i am asking you to send me a bill that empowers parents to protect their children and prohibit Tech Companies from selling the data of children under the age of 18. [applause] [applause] virginians suffer when we missed the opportunity to lead. Theres no greater reminder of this and the stark fact that on average five virginians die from fence at all poison every single day. Because of a weak drug laws to many drug dealers are not prosecuted. Send me a bill that will raise the penalty when that manufacturers distribute of illicit drugs and fentanyl causes of death. [applause] [applause] there is no doubt the ramification of addictive drugs and the infiltration of violent games is at an unprecedented level in our commonwealth. It has resulted in devastating violence. We know a majority of violence is related to drug and gang activity. We should also note virginias gun laws are already among the toughest in the nation and therefore i am asking you, allow us to hold accountable those criminals who commit crimes with guns by lengthening and make more severe the penalties in order to keep them off the streets. [applause] our brave men and women in Law Enforcement place based danger on a daily basis. And over these past two years 14 Law Enforcement officers and First Responders have fallen on the line of duty. I have attended way too many funerals. Heroes and Law Enforcement are all around us. One of those heroes is here with us today. On a day like any other he was on his shift, committed to his job and heard a woman in need. In the following moments he was shot and tragically paralyzed from the waist down. Officer bruce foster i would like that we stand and honor you. [applause] [applause] [applause] when i visited officer foster in the hospital i was incredibly moved by his unwavering desire to continue serving. Bruce said to me god has a plan and i want to continue to serve. And i am proud today, i am humbled today and i am honored today to offer officer bruce foster a chance to continue his career and his service with the Virginia State police when you are ready to come back and serve. [applause] [applause] i know Virginia StateUniversity President abdul and i might be in a bidding war for your services but we will settle that another day. Just as the Law Enforcement community has come around supporting bruce, we should come around that community that protects us. Our next budget lets double down on operation bold blue line and campusbased security. And lets continue to build trust between a Law Enforcement and the communities they represent with increased funding for bipartisan programs Like Operation ceasefire, the fire armed Violence Prevention Fund and safer communities. We must never stand and watch when evil itself presents in front of our very eyes. We must always be called to action. One step we took last year was to champion a bill on a bipartisan basis to define antisemitism so clearly that no one can argue that it doesnt still exist. On that day we signed the bill i remember it was cloudy. The sun burst through and the quiet words of one woman reverberate in my head still today. Eight is wrong. Love is right. Hate is wrong, love is right. Those were the words of helena zim a 96yearold holocaust survivor here with us today and joined by her family. [applause] [applause] [applause] [applause] i want to thank you. Thank you for reminding us to find the good. And i want to thank the entire General Assembly for taking a stand and i want to challenge us. I want to challenge all of us pass a bill that says the commonwealth of virginia will not do business with companies that boycott israel. [applause] [applause] passed the hate crime bill which ensures all forms of antisemitism not just religious bigotry, are treated as hate crimes under the law. When parents send their children to college, when a young family goes to the grocery store, one someone goes to friday prayer at a mosque or saturday at services at a temple or sunday morning worship at church, virginians should not worry about being the victim of a crime simply because of their religion, their race, or their creed. We are better than this, we are virginia. The first state to forage religious freedom and to the fabric of our nation with the statute for religious freedom with the timeless words that god created the mind free. We must lead and we must do the right thing. [applause] for generations these ideals, these liberties, these freedoms have been protected by our brave men and women in uniform. I want to take a moment and recognize virginiabased military Service Members both reserve and active duty and our amazing Virginia National guard and their families who serve with them here and across the globe in defense of freedom. [applause] [applause] [applause] among them are the norfolk base uss eisenhower and uss gerald ford. Supporting and defending our allies in the middle east. We say, may god bless you, may he keep you, and may he watch over you. And may he protect you and we collectively say thank you. [applause] my friends, we are at halftime and we havent accomplished an extraordinary amount on a bipartisan basis and we are just getting started. Our founders inscribed in the constitution a form of government that requires legislation to not only be passed by the General Assembly but to be signed by the governor. We must Work Together. There is a road, a road less traveled that we can choose to take together a road we stop accepting mediocrity and start winning comprehensively. A road we put down petty politics pick up the collective good of the commonwealth a road or work collaboratively solving problems rather than ignoring them. The road were operative opportunity is unleashed across the commonwealth approved a road where virginia leads. If we want to be on this road were more people call Virginia Home then we can come around the table to lower the cost of living for all virginians. We can raise the ceiling and the floor and education. Foster safe communities and protect our constitutional freedoms. We can empower people to not just choose life but you choose to build their life, their future here in virginia. If we want virginia to unleash opportunity the second half starts now. It is time to lead and it is time to lead together. To build a virginia that is overflowing with opportunity and arrive at her ultimate destination which is the proverbial shining city on the hill. And in order to get there we must do it together. Thank you. May god bless you. Make god bless the commonwealth of virginia and make god bless our new speaker. [cheering] [cheering] correct thank you. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] [applause]