Transcripts For CSPAN2 Utah 20240704

Cuts, homelessness, education and housing affordability. Governor cox was elected after eight years as lt. Governor. Hes seeking another term in 2024. His address is about 30 minutes. [applause], [applause] we will now hear the address delivered by our governor spencer j. Cox. Mr. Speaker, mr. President , by the way, this is not in the script, two of the best people on the planet. [applause] madam, lt. Governor, my best friend, abby, and to utahs Public Servants and my fellow utahans, welcome. I want to especially recognize baldry, representatives, congratulations on joining the best legislative body in the country. [applause] all right. Im glad we got the clapping out of the way. We have so much to cover in a short amount of time. Ill ask again like i did in previous years to please hold any applause until the end of the speech, no matter how difficult that may be, especially for mike mauer in the gallery. So in 1847 a group of peculiar people arrived in utah, what they found was a place that native americans already knew was quite different than anywhere else. Our mountains are taller, our snow is deeper, and our red rocks are other worldly. We have natural wonders, impossible to describe, like goblin valley, dead horse point, the coral pink sand dunes and pando the largest living organism in the world, am i right, representative stratten . [applause] the famed explorer, the people on tv have no idea what were talking about right now, but thats okay. The famed explorer John Wesley Powell described his travels in utah thusly, past these towering monuments, these billowing orange sandstone, oak set glens, past these ferndecked alcoves, these curves. We glide hour after hour as our attention is caught by wonder. The only thing weirder than that are the people who inhabit it. We have stranger spelled names for places and people. Many of us have a grandfather, lavarre or lavon, but we have sadie and extra es and is, will nilly. And play by our fire with fireworks from wyoming and we build boxes to send astronauts in space and once they arrive they can actually look back to see the utah mines, which produce the copper needed to send them there. And to work in that mine and many others across the state, immigrants came from all over the world, including our greekamerican friends who developed the incomparable pastrami burger, a utah original. We have a hawaiian ghost town in tawilla county. Hanksville built inside a mountain and i challenge you to find another store on the planet more eclectic than smith in ogden. We believe in the bear lake monster and some of you here tonight are delta rabbits and jordan beet diggers. Im sure this is all what our first territorial governor Brigham Young had in mind when he said this is the right place, but theres another way in which utah is different, and even a little weird. Despite being a small oddly shaped state out west, utah continues to dominate endless lists of national rankings. Utah was recently named the best state to start a business, most charitable state and with the most independent people. Named the number one state for trickortreating, this is true, but i know that wont stop the senators efforts to help us reach even higher heights. Probably my favorite ranking comes from u. S. News and world report they evaluated all 50 states using thousands of data points and more than 70 different metrics in eight categories, their goal to determine definitively which is the best state for the first time in 2023, utah was named the best state in the nation period. And while its surely fun to tout that ranking and i certainly have, im much more interested in why we are objectively the best state. And im most interested in how we keep it that way. Now, i think there are two more rankings that can help us answer those questions. The first comes from a Research Study on the American Dream which experts simplyfied into analysis of social mobility. Simply means if you work hard, you can get ahead. After looking at measures of social mobility, entrepreneurship, rules of law and the capital, the study concluded at that utah was the best state in the country for social mobility. The American Dream lives here. You see in utah we still care about our communities. We still care about our neighbors. We still believe that we can solve problems and help those who are struggling. We know that we have a duty to give back and lift others. Now, the second study is actually even more fascinating to me. In september of last year, the National Bureau of Economic Research released a robust study on zero sum thinking. And they defined zero sum thinking is the belief that gains for one individual or group tend to come at the cost of the others. So in other words, if you win, then i lose. Now, this type of thinking is deeply associated with a scarcity mentality. Not only is every person out for themselves, but so is every group or identity. And identities become paramount, race, religion, political party. My team can only win by tearing your team down. Now, this scarcity mentality also leads to false choices. You either care about the Great Salt Lake or you drive a john deere tractor. If you want to lower taxes you must hate public schools. If you have concerns with federal regulation then you want to drill for oil under delicate arch. Now, i promise you, it feels so good to fall into these traps. Theres no feeling more enjoyable in the shortterm than righteous indignation. Sadly, a majority of people in a majority of states are now acting that way as the study proved, zero sum thinkers with endless pity parties and complaints of victimhood. They are buying what the conflict entrepreneurs in our politics and media are selling, but not so much in utah. It turns out that utahans far more than people in any other state, reject zero sum thinking. Utah Still Believes in the winwin. We reject false choices and help others succeed. We see abundance in place of scarcity. Utah, it turns out, is profoundly weird. Now, our prosperity and abundance mindset was on display in last years legislative session, told that we had to choose between reducing taxes and supporting our teachers, we rejected that false choice. Instead, we, you, all of us together, delivered both the largest tax cut ever by a huge margin and, and the largest increase in teacher salaries in our states history, even better, over the past three years, weve reduced taxes by over one billion dollars with a b, and for the first time the average utah teacher is now paid more than neighboring states like colorado, arizona, idaho, nevada and new mexico. But we went even further. We enhanced Career Pathways and apprenticeships, froze College Tuition and made School Choice available to all utahans. And by the way, utah is now the best state in the nation for providing more per pupil funding for higher poverty districts than low poverty ones. We were also faced with drought and water insecurity and we rejected the scarcity mindset that tells us we have to choose between prosperity or water security. Over the past two years, weve provided more than one billion dollars in Water Conservation and infrastructure funding. More importantly, the people of utah responded using less water. While its easier for people to conserve during the driest year, utahans, shocked last year, using less water in one of the wettest water years in our states history. That hasnt happened. In fact, in the driest part of our state despite a historic water year and 5 increase in service connections, our friends in Washington County decreased its total water use by 1. 2 billion gallons. This is proof of a paradigm shift. Utahans are doing the right thing without the heavy hand of state government. And the best news of all, our reservoirs currently sit at 82 , 24 above average. This provides us with a springboard for the ongoing implementation of conservation projects and it means that as we have promised, we will save the Great Salt Lake. Utahs ability to solve these problems has received more national attention, including when representatives, decided to take on the plague that social media has unleashed on our youth. In a rare display of national bipartisanship ive received messages from republicans and democrats in other states, members of congress, and the president himself, thanking us for leading the nation to save our kids. While we still have more to do on this issue, i am grateful for the courage of republicans and democrats in this room, who are willing to put these companies on notice that our Kids Mental Health is more important than their profits. Sometimes though politics is binary, its not always possible to find a winwin, but even then, how we win absolutely matters. Look, i know last session there were difficult and controversial bills, including a pause on transgender surgeries and puberty blockers for minors which i supported. I know there are people impacted who are angry and upset with me and with many of you gathered in this room. I want to thank senator kennedy for helping to navigate this debate with compassion. Every other state that has passed this law did it along partisan lines, end of story and yes, we did the same in utah. But thats not where the story ends and thats what makes us different. At the same time, we also unanimously passed a ban on conversion therapy and approved one Million Dollars in funding to provide additional talk therapy for our transgender youth with one primary goal to help those kids and let them know we want to keep you here. We want you to stay. Even when we disagree and disagree passionately, we must still love. And speaking of weird, at the bill signing banning conversion therapy, Equality Utah and the eagle forum stood side by side. Now, sadly, while almost every media outlet in the country talked about the controversial bill, this one got very little attention and yet, it shows at that we still have the ability to solve hard problems and Work Together in the utah way by disagreeing better. Thats something that as chair of the National Governors association ive been working on with my fellow governors. Theres a real desire across the nation to disagree better the utah way how to stand up with our own beliefs without demonizing and tearing down our opponents. Okay. Friends, we find ourselves at the beginning of another 45 day legislative session. 43 now, to be exact and i know were all counting. I wish i could report that weve solved every issue, but we know we have more to do. The most pressing challenges in our state today relate to growth. I was recently asked, is utah growing too fast . Now, this question implies zero sum thinking. I think the reporter was surprised by my response. I said the only way to not grow is to suck at being a state. Sorry, mom. [laughter] and im not interested in that. I want utah to be the best place to live in the nation. I want utah to be the best place to start a business. I want utah to be the best place to have a family and if that attracts people, well, we live in a free country and a free market. Now, dont get me wrong, you guys, i would love to build a wall around our state and get california to pay for it. [laughter] but i know that is not going to happen. And so, it is up to you and me and all of us to make sure that we grow in the right way. To that end, i believe the single greatest threat to our future prosperity is the price of housing, period. Housing attainability is a crisis in utah and every state in the country. But remember, remember, we arent like the rest of the country. No one has figured this out yet. And i truly believe that we can. For more than a century, Home Ownership has been the cornerstone of the American Dream. It is the key to Financial Independence and the ability to break away from government support. Home ownership is also the key to family and community. People who own homes care more about their mayor and school board. They care more about their neighbors. Home owners have more Financial Capital and social capital, and most importantly, home owners have kids, which, again, going back to that weird thing. It turns out that the late night communities who had fun of us for having so many kids . Guess what . Thats the number one reason our state is number one. That is why i have proposed the utah first homes program, with the audacious goal to build 35,000 starter homes in the next five years. While we need more of everything, my focus is on affordable, attainable, single family, Owner Occupied detached housing. Those of us grew up or started our own families in a 1300 square foot home. Our kids and grandkids are desperate for that same opportunity. The greatest generation did this after world war ii and we can do it again. The American Dream is alive in utah, but it will be dead soon if we dont get this right. Utah must lead the nation with bold and innovative solutions. Now, there is another troubling trend happening across our country, the growing crisis of homelessness. All across america in our most iconic cities, people are suffering and dying on the streets. Tents and camps metastasizing, assaults, shoplifting and vandalism skyrocketing. Citizens scared to walk down their streets or play with their kids in public parks. But there is nothing that requires us to be like the rest of the nation. I refuse to believe that our capitol city must suffer the same fate. Not on our watch. Zero sum thinking says that we must choose between compassion and accountability. We decline that offer. There is nothing compassionate about allowing people to suffer and die on our streets, and there is nothing compassionate about allowing laws to be flagrantly ignored and broken. We can provide help and demand accountability. Unsanctioned camping must end. We will provide help and services for those in need. And real consequences and jail for those who willingly break the law and civil commitment when absolutely necessary. Now, when i talk about accountability, im also referring to us as Public Servants, and the way these dollars are spent. You deserve to know the people of utah deserve to know where every single dollar is being spent and if it is actually working. If its not working, then we should move it to a place where it will or not spend it at all. Of course, there are many other issues that need utah weird solutions. This session, we have opportunities to continue supporting our teachers and improving education. We can work to remove unnecessary government regulation. We can significantly increase the number of licensed professionals to help those struggling with mental health. We can strengthen families better understanding the struggles of boys and men and providing more opportunities for women and girls. We can continue to close the divide between rural and urban communities, making sure that opportunity exists in every corner of our state and finally, i ask you to support the Service Initiatives i proposed this session, especially new paths for high school and College Students to give back. Now, i confess that i still beam with pride, probably more than i should, when i see the flagpole that i put up in our cemetery in fairview for my eagle scout project. The rootedness that comes from rolling up your sleeves to make the place you live better is a defining feature of our states culture and i want to preserve that for your individuals r kids and grandkids and mine. So on that note, i started this speech by talking about how weird we are. Im hoping youll permit me a little personal privilege to share a story about a remarkably weird person. His name was ivan roycox and he was my grandfathers brother. Ivan grew up in my small town of fairview. I thought he was a quirky old guy, a prosthetic arm and only Three Fingers on the other hand. At christmas, he would come to our house and sing Christmas Carols alone with a tape recorder of his own voice so he could harmonize with himself. [laughter] when i was 15 he passed away. It was at his funeral when i realized how truly unique he really was. You see, it turns out that ivan was the closest thing to a real life George Bailey from the film its a wonderful life, of anyone that ive ever met. I know that now. My great grandfather purchased the Fairview Telephone Company in 1919. In 1939, a terrible snowstorm came through and ivan bundled up to restore phone service. Unbeknownst to him, way down the line, a high voltage power line fell onto the telephone line so when he cut through the wire with a pair of old, uninsulated pliers, 6,000 volts of electricity shot through his body, as he lay smoldering in the snow, everyone assumed he was dead. Miraculously, he survived, but he lost his left arm and two fingers on his other hand. As people always do in fairview, the Community Rallied to help and support him. Later he would marry and celebrate the birth of his first child, a baby boy. Tragically, his wife died just a few months later. Again, the people of fairview rallied to help and support the young widower and his baby. Sorry. Several women in town volunteered to watch and care for this little boy, reading to him and helping him find family and normalcy. These two traumatic events would have shattered most people, but somehow ivan became Even Stronger and more determined. He figured out how to climb telephone poles with one arm and string wire with Three Fingers. He married an amazing woman and helped to raise her daughters. Took over the phone company and ran it for 40 years, but more than anything else, he spent the rest of his life giving back to the community that saved him. He volunteered to be the town scout master, learning how to swim with one arm and tying knots with his three fingered hands and he bought a Station Wagon and learned to drive with his disability to take young men on camp outs. The lion Club Gathering donations for humanitarian projects all over the word, donating more than 1,000, even though he could never afford it. Ivan wanted to help local families buy their first home or car and there was no bank in fairview to lend them money and he sent out to recruit one and when Everyone Bank turned them down, he started a credit union and convince add bank to take a chance on a sleepy town. The company he ran was always on the verge of bankruptcy not because it didnt have potential, but because ivan was generous to a fault. He donated to every cause in town, whether the company was profitable or not. He refused to send delinquent accounts to collections, he knew what hard times felt like. And he was sure he didnt want to make them any harder. Ivan was also a man of deep faith. He believed there was a higher power that had saved his life and carried him through the darkest times. He believed that when youre in the service of your fellow beings, youre only in the service of god. He served three missions for his church and on the back of his Business Card now, remember, he ran a telephone company, read the words pray, call home often, its free. If a homeless stranger was passing through town, they stayed at ivans home. If someone was hitchhiking, he picked them up. When he noticed the elderly in town shrugling with loneliness he started the first Senior Citizens program. In his later years, i would often see him sweeping the sidewalks on main street just to make the town a little nicer. Talk about a weird guy. Now, ladies and gentlemen, i think we need more of this kind of weird today. I think we need to amplify and preserve this type of weirdness as if our states future depends on it. Im convinced it does. Theres a little park in fairview today where kids and families come to play, its appropriately called the ivan r. Cox lions park, i hope you get a chance to visit it. I want to recognize ivans son branch and his family with us here tonight for their incredible legacy. The truth is, the truth is that ivan didnt change the world, but he changed fairview. And ive come to believe that that is far more important. I was inspired in our one utah summit the pundit and author charles cook who said this, i often think that we give young people bad advice when it comes to politics. We teach them about the most important and pivotal moments in American History and we encourage them to go and change the world. For most people that actually isnt an especially useful goal. We would be in a better place as a country if people resolved to go and change their town, or their community or their local food bank. You see, while the world around us is staggering a bit from war, from loneliness, from contempt, there are ivan coxs in every community in this state, at least there used to be and we need them now more than ever. Fortunately, were in a room full of them tonight. People like greg buxton. Dan johnson, mark wheatley, robert spendlove. Susan, jay, marsha, and steve. All of you are following in the footsteps of ivan. For 45 days you and your families are sacrificing to better your communities and our state. I love you all for doing this. I really do. Even you, phil. [laughter] and you, too, brian. [laughter] i love you guys. Look, i only got to serve one year as a member of the legislature and abby will tell you that in my 20 years of Public Service as a city councilman, mayor, county commissioner, lt. Governor and governor, that one year in the house was my absolute favorite. My friends, the state of the state has never ever been stronger. And im convinced with every passing day, the source of our states strength is what for the longest time people told us was our weakness, were different. Were weird. The good kind of weird, the kind of weird the rest of the nation is desperate for right now. And i am praying, im praying we can keep it that way. So stay weird, utah. May god bless each of you and may god bless the great state of utah. Thank you. [applause] American History tv saturdays on cspan2 exploring the people and the events that tell the american story. At 7 p. M. Eastern, we continue with the series free to choose coproduced by Pulitzer Prize Winning Economist freedman and his wife rose friedman. And later, Texas Womens University history professor talking about the federal governments efforts to explore and control the American West from the early 1800s through the civil war. And 9 30 p. M. Eastern on the presidency, former polish president elect lek walensa on poland on the solidarity movement. And Historic Campaign speeches, first a speech by Hillary Clinton at a rally at california state university, followed by 2016 super tuesday speech by republican president ial candidate and florida senator marco rubio in miami. Exploring the american story. Watch American History tv saturdays on cspan2 and find a full schedule on your program guide. Well watch online at anytime, cspan. Org history. Two years ago democracy faced the greatest threat to the civil war and today though bruised our democracy remains unbowed and unbroken. Thursday march 7th President Biden delivers the annual state of the Union Address during a joint session of congress to outline priorities for our country. Watch our live coverage 8 p. M. Eastern with Preview Program followed by President Bidens state of the union speech and the republican response. Well take your comments, watch thursday, march 7th at 8 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Cspan now our free mobile video app or online at cspan. Org. Cspan is your unfiltered view of government. Who are funded by these Television Companies and more. Including sparklight. The greatest town on earth is the place you call home. 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