carney governor of the state of delaware and a joint session of the 122nd general assembly. >> good afternoon governor please join us. [applause] [applause] >> thank you very much. >> please be seated. >> senator huxtable thank you for getting my name correctly. i mentioned beforehand just to try to make sure we had it right and you did a great job. thank you to the committee. lieutenant governor mr. president pro tiem mr. speaker members of the 152nd general assembly and other elected officials statewide members of my cabinet distinguished members of the judiciary invited guests and my fellow delawarians madam president mr. president pro tiem mr. speaker thank you for inviting me into the chamber today. before i get started i'd like to do something i think is really important to recognize general mike ferry and the army and air national guard. these men and women have done an incredible job for the last three years. at this time last year as you may remember we had a few hundred guard members and long-term care facilities across the state. i don't know what we would have done without them. just last week we had another deployment ceremony overseas for 150 army national guardsmen and women from the 160th engineering company assisting with the federal military mission there. never before has their national guard done this much first aid in their country at the same time then these men and women have. please join me in recognizing the delaware army and national guard. [applause] i can't tell you how proud we are to men and women almost boys and girls literally 18, 1920, very young and doing incredible work. i'd also like to take a moment to recognize two supreme court justices who are with us this afternoon who deserve special recognition. justice jim vaughn who retired this may after nine years on the delaware court. he has served since 1998 on the delaware superior court and their supreme court. justice von thank you for your service to our state. [applause] and justice montgomery read the two i nominated to our supreme court in 2019 last month as most most of you justice reed was confirmed by the united states senate to serve on the third circuit court of appeals. senator said before his vote delaware's loss is our country's gain. recognizing justice for reed. [applause] [applause] after three long years it's great to be here in person with the full house once again and before i start at like to take another moment of personal privilege if i may direct nice my wife tracy for all her hard work and the work she's been doing on behalf of delaware's children over the past six years. and to thank her -- [applause] and maybe more partly to thank her for all the support she has given me over my 20 years as an elected official. i know it hasn't been easy so tracy thank you for being with me along the way. somewhere here i have two of my sisters lives and clear. they are in the back. the representing the carney plan and my mother, she was not able to be with us. she is doing well and thank you for your prayers and representing her and the rest of the. we have my sisters here as well. [applause] first and foremost i want to thank every member of the general assembly for stepping up and agreeing to serve. in 2019 i stood in this chamber and said that never before has the general assembly better reflected the people of our great state. that's even more true today. i'd like to offer warm welcome to the newcomers. [applause] that's a big group and all delawarians will benefit from your perspective. welcome to the legislature. we look forward to working with you. it's a special privilege to represent the people of our state and i know that you all agree. something that i've learned in your something i've learned my 20 years. it's been made even clearer over the past 2.5 years. the people of delaware want us to work together. they want us to focus on the work and not clinical in fighting or distractions. they want us to put their taxpayer dollars to use in the best possible way. i know you've all knocked on doors and attended the dance and i'm sure you've heard the same thing. delawarians want to support the issues that matter in their everyday lives sesta good jobs, excellent public schools, is safe and affordable place to live and vibrant communities where they can raise their children. we have a long tradition in delaware upsetting politics aside and working together for the people we serve. it's a tradition that we should all embrace. standing here today i've never been more confident about where we are headed as a state, working together over the past six years. we have taken steps to lay a strong foundation for the future to strengthen our economy and add good-paying jobs, to make real investments in our public schools, to protect our natural environment and responsibly manage taxpayer dollars and to make sure delaware remains a great place to live and raise a family. let's build on that work together. [applause] every year i come before this body to present my priorities for the year ahead. i know you have heard me say this before because i've said it every year. i believe that our success as a state must start with building a strong and growing economy. we know that a good job solves a lot of problems and that's just not a little -- let's consider the story. years ago seaford had a strong local economy driven by industrial manufacturing. it was known as the nylon capital of the world. manufacturing jobs put food on the table for thousands of families. as represented short and senator richardson know these were good jobs that help families afford a home and raise a family but they funded college tuition and promised a secure retirement. the plan brought skilled tradesmen and women and other highly trained workers to the county and attracted nurses and doctors at the hospital and good teacher to the public schools. by the mid-1980s though thing started to decline. the workforce of 4500 began to dwindle. airing my first term as lieutenant governor in the early 2000 there were fewer than 700 jobs. in a town of roughly 8000 that's a heavy blow. the loss of economic opportunity has ripple effects fewer good-paying jobs lead to a lack of investment in the community ended economy. for many years many of us have looked for ways to turn things around. mayor have put a hyperfocused on putting -- bringing good new jobs to seaford and that includes attracting the seaford industrial park. together we have made real investments in the development district something new and improved under governor martel's tenure just last month the mayor and senator richardson announced a major redevelopment project along the capitol shopping center there. the project has been a long time coming but it will build on the hard work of officials in recent years. i want to recognize him and understand the somewhere here in the back corner for his hard work. [applause] the point is good jobs matter for families, for communities and for everything else that we do is a city from education to health care. six years ago my first full day in office i signed an executive order to change the way we attract new jobs and business to delaware and to support the businesses that are already here. within the department of state we created a division of small business to put a hyperfocused on smaller home-grown companies and entrepreneurs, companies like age as innovation. h.s. is a movement analytics company that i recently visited in wilmington. up bon is an assistant professor at delaware state university. they use software to analyze muscle and joint activity the cutting-edge technology allows sports teams to reduce injuries and improve performance. bonin nicole are with us in the gallery. please stand up and be recognized. [applause] mayor i don't know how good we could have been if we had that kind of technology. we also partnered with business leaders in our state to create the delaware prosperity partnership, what we call the dpp. the results are visible and communities across the state. in middletown we had a 190-acre pharmaceutical manufacturing campus. over the next several years the company will invest more than half a million dollars creating hundreds of good paying construction jobs along the way and when the plant opened the expect to hire 400 full-time jobs. there will also anchor industrial -- where the town has added hundreds of jobs. this hasn't happened by accident. a good friend mayor kenny brac for the architect of much of this is with us today. the mayor and i have worked together over many years and i appreciate his friendship. please help me in recognizing mayor for his long service for state. [applause] another 500 million-dollar transformation is underway along 141. this will be a science and technology campus anchored by dupont prelude therapeutics. together we are building delaware's future economy in tpp led by curt gorman and his talented team is leading the way. i'd also like to thank members of the general assembly who serve on the board of the dpp senators jack walls represented bill bush and linda -- please stand up and be congratulated for your service to the dpp. [applause] we do have economic challenges ahead for sure. unlike anything i've seen during my term in public service. today the biggest challenge we have is filling the job openings that are out there. for my entire career in public service we have been focused first on creating jobs. there've always been more people looking for work then jobs available. today it's just the opposite. we have thousands more job openings than we have people looking for work. let me say that again in a different way. employers have 37,000 job openings in the state of delaware and error are just 21,000 delawarians looking for a job. i've never seen a situation like this before. their state government sees these challenges every day. they tell us about the palms are facing. across executive agencies we have 200 job openings and is harder than ever to find candidates. this is not just a rip problem unique to delaware. fact every state in the country is facing similar challenges. our ability to compete will depend on success building in attracting the highest skilled workforce. our college and university have never been more important. consider this. i'm told there are more people working on the university of delaware stark campus today than when chrysler closed its manufacturing facility in 2008. it's hard to believe and it says a heck of a lot about where our economy is more than 3000 people work there every day and that includes more than 300 scientists and researchers at the research and discovery health. the universities partnership allows students to train in industry researchers and scientists. it also includes the staff at the national institute for innovation manufacturing by a farmer girl -- biotechnology and pharmaceutical. critical to bring the fda here. lieutenant governor serves and i want to thank her for promoting science and technology in our state. [applause] i'm trying to find her university president. there we are, the victory. at delaware state university president allen and his team recently received the largest research grant in the university's history. [applause] the 18 million-dollar grant for nih will fund research to health disparities in minority communities and it will also attract top talent to dover to expose students and train our next generation of public health scientists. our role -- our goal is to keep more and more students graduating from delaware stayed here in delaware. president brainerd and his team continue to work on the frontlines of job training in our state. last year we opened the mcdowell student success named after our good friend and former senator mcdowell providing resources for students to help delaware tech the number one institution for job paying and workforce development. i'd like to thank all three of them for everything you do for the state of delaware. thank you very much. [applause] and thanks to president biden and their congressional delegation who couldn't be here today. the president of the united states has been in this chamber before. i saw it myself. we have also seen a significant influx of federal dollars that would help us build on this project with the support of the american rescue plan we are building a clinical lab at our state university and allied health center in wilmington and the state-of-the-art laboratory on the side of the mckinley lab at the university of delaware. over the course of the next year the funding will help rehabilitate properties on the east side of wilmington working with the mayor and his team. we hope to reenergize bennu bankrupt school to help more families find a safe place to live and call home. i thank you for your partnership there. [applause] the wilmington delegation. they will make similar investments in communities across our state and their housing director is leading the effort. please stand up. [applause] my budget next week will build on these investments federal funds in affordable housing and i look forward to working with senator lachman and tell but in others to make other issues a priority. we look forward to working with you. ultimately we want to expand economic opportunities and build a competitive workforce we need to start in the schools. we all know this and we all know a quality education start with the committed experienced teacher. right now the competition for the best teachers in the region is more intense than ever. we need to pay our teachers more to win the competition in surrounding states. [applause] so i know you have heard this already but when i introduced my budget next week we will propose a significant increase in pay for our teachers. this will be a down payment on the work of the public education compensation committee. the committee is now studying the issue of pay and will present the recommendation in november but we need to act before that like to thank the legislature serving on a committee senator sturgeon representative williams and smith. thank you for your work on that committee. [applause] i would also like to recognize and thank her education secretary dr. mark -- who is ably chairing the committee. [applause] i want all of you to know we are committed to working with you on the issue of teacher pay. we can get it done if we work together. all delaware children will benefit if we can attract the best teachers are stating keep them working here. that is important. my goals for delaware students have been consistent from the start of my administration. all children should be able to read at grade level by third grade, be proficient in math by middle school and graduate high school ready for college or a career. if we meet those targets are students will be better off in the long run and their state will be stronger. here's the uncomfortable truth. too many students are behind. that's especially true among her most vulnerable students and that's just not acceptable for any of us. we need everyone to lean into this issue. we can all agree on this. all our children deserve a good education. my budget proposal next week will also include more than $50 million for opportunity funding. that's on top of the more than $100 billion of changes we party may put opportunity funding provides direct support for low-income children. i visited schools across our state in all three counties and watched this investment action then i encourage you to do the same. this is goals in your district and see the tailored needs of each community for talk to the educators and teachers about what's working and what's not working and let us know we can -- what we can do more of that lesson. the budget will increase our investment in the wilmington learning collaborative. many of you were there at the wilmington library back in november when we signed an agreement to the w. l. c. but bn other states of voluntary network of schools in the three districts that serve students in the city. our goal is to empower teachers and school leaders to improve the outcomes for children in the state. we have been debating how to help these children for the past 30 years. in the months leading up to the w al maxie we have knocked on doors across the city and every neighborhood across the city. everyone we talked at a different idea about what the priority was going to be. everyone had the same hopes for our children to improve outcomes and help them succeed. .. who works with the students every day. [applause] thank you, and to all of our partners who worked hard for this change, we appreciate your work. my wife, tracy, has been a partner in education efforts with our children. she has shown a tireless dedication to early literacy, the well building of our young children. over the past year, tracy has continued her efforts to help given telework children what they call a first chance to succeed. get them early and do the work that has to be done. she has worked in lockstep with family services council to address the challenges of these children. tracy it has also accorded a work around childhood hunger. she's focused on shining a light on trauma among children and delaware and nationally. [applause] [applause] with support from the casey family programs and the american academy of pediatrics, tracy helped organize youth mental health in washington, d.c. print and wondered where she was that weekend. young people from around the country had a chance to speak directly with leaders. and of course one of the great highlights of the last year, tracy and i welcomed dolly pardon to the wilmington a library. [applause] i know many of you are there especially secretary nicole who is a big dolly parton fan. if there was any doubt all delaware ian's love dolly. more important, more than 26000 delaware children are currently enrolled in the dolly pardon imagination library receiving free books each month from birth to age five. that is an incredible number, an incredible program. we want to push that number even higher. please join me in thanking tracy and offer partners for their hard work. supporting our youngest learners and their families has to be a top priority for all of us. that's what my budget next week will increase estate investments in early childhood education. we will propose an increase in the purchase of care which helps low-income families access quality childcare. we will double funding for early childhood assistance program, these programs serve many of the most vulnerable three and four -year-olds in our state. [applause] and with the help of an $8 million federal grant we will develop a plan to strengthen the future of childcare and early education and delaware. i know this is a priority for lieutenant governor, senator gaye and many others in the chamber. we look forward to working with all of you. this is a real opportunity for us to do the hard work. to expand and improve childcare education for delaware families we have a lot of work to do. of course part of my job as governor to promote this in great state we all call home. delaware is a special place. we aren't the first state were home of the president of the united states of america. [applause] and so this year on delaware day i visited the indian museum and hillsboro. i spoke with chief carmine was here with us today in the balcony and the museum's coordinator sterling. the tribe is called the region home for over 10,000 years. the museum houses artifacts in precolonial times and pieces made by modern day artisans. if you have not been to this museum you need to go. then we went to visit the link and print the farm and spent the state and family for nearly 300 years. it is the current owner, he is the 12th generation to operate the farm and he is here with us in the chamber today and the balcony somewhere where i cannot see. there he is, thank you to you and your family. [applause] the family roots go deep. they acquired land three land grant issued by william penn in 1728. the form has been preserved for the gland preservation program and to gather with neighboring forms is a partial of 1000 acres that have been preserved. the farm is a great example of what we are trying to achieve with state investment in ad gland preservation. thank you for all your hard work there. [applause] we are the proud environmental heritage in delaware. protecting that heritage is a priority i know for many of us. the oath of office we all take as elected officials. we pledge to you and i quote respect the right of future generations to share the rich historical and natural heritage of delaware. but that natural heritage is under threat. we are the lowest lying state in the nation. the effects of climate change and sea level rise on delaware communities are real, we are seeing them every day. real and certain parts of our state than others. that is going to take action for with the help of federal infrastructure vending we will accelerate our efforts to build our electric vehicle charging infrastructure. we wrote restore investments in the trust to protect her waterways and drinking water. represent center hansen i know this is a high priority for both of you. let's work together to take on this existential threat. we will also continue to ask everyone to pitch in to do their part. we are determined to plant a tree for every delaware ian. that is a million trees secretary, that is a lot of trees. we've already planted 120,000. but as you can see we have a long ways to go to reach a million. we need your help to reach that goal so please join us and visit de.gov/ted i and record your tree plantings. help us get to that million tree goal. and by the way, we live into beautiful of an estate to put up the little problem we have here. you know by now. [applause] this is really important. you know by now how i feel about it. i cannot stand it. i often stop my car to pick up litter on the side of the road. it drives my passengers crazy. my security to don't like it very much. we should not have to rely on other people to pick up our trash. we should stop throwing out the window in the first place and that is our fundamental simple message. please join us to effort to keep de lynn are free. that is our slogan. [applause] protecting our state also means making sure delaware families feel safe in their homes and communities. we are working with the mayor in wilmington and dover to expand our group violence intervention program. to reduce gun violence in these communities. there is no more of an important issue. our collective efforts have shown good results recently. statewide shootings are down nearly 30% since last year. there is a lot more work to be done for sure. gun violence anywhere is unacceptable. we need everybody to make this a priority with us. i want to thank our attorney general law enforcement offices for their partnership and hard work. it doesn't happen without partnership and judiciary as well. there is the attorney general over there. thank you. [applause] we can't make any of these investments in education, economy, environmental protection and public safety if we don't have our fiscal house in order. over the past six years we have chartered responsible course together working with all of you and the j fc. we have protected taxpayer dollars and directed investments where they can have the greatest impact. i've talked to a lot of taxpayers over the years and i know you have as well. that is what they expect of us. when i took off for six years ago we were facing an almost foreign million dollar deficits. now we have $400 million more in reserves for when the economy turns down again which we know it will at some point. despite a global pandemic that ravaged our economy, we have turned a significant deficit and we have directed one time revenue into one-time projects that built our largest infrastructure program and delaware history two years in a row. we are repairing our roads and bridges across the state. we present the budget next week will stay the course and stay true to those principles. and i look forward to your support on all of those budgets. [applause] we have been through a lot together over the past six years. certainly feels like a many more years than that to me. especially the past three years feels like 10. it has not always been easy for sure. but, as i stand here today i can confidently say that because of the work we have done together the state of our state is strong it will only be stronger in the years ahead. if we continue working together, as we do and delaware better than any one else we will build a future worthy of the next generation. on thank the people of delaware for the privilege of serving as governor. we are on a roll again. may god bless you and may god bless this wonderful state. thank you very much. [applause] [cheering] [applause] [cheering]