his speech is about half an hour. [ applause ] >> thank you. thank you very much. [ applause ] thank you. thank you very much. oh, my goodness. thank you. thank you all. please be seated. lieutenant governor kegel, speaker ralston, speaker pro tem shaffer and speaker pro tem jones, members of this great general assembly, constitutional officers, members of the consulate corps, and my fellow georgians, in 1944, georgia's own johnny mercer wrote the lyrics of a song titled "accentuate the positive." the most memorable lines from that song are, you've got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative, don't mess around with mr. in between. now, that was great advice for our nation as world war ii was drawing to a close. and it's great advice for all of us today. for the past six years, i've had the opportunity to report to you on the state of our state. and i do so again today. the first year was 2011, and i was just entering the office of governor. our state was still in the grip of the great recession, businesses were going bankrupt, homes were being foreclosed upon, jobs were being lost. our unemployment rate was 10.4%. some states that were facing similar circumstances resorted to raising taxes on their citizens. with your support, georgia didn't do that. instead, really without knowing it, we followed johnny mercer's advice from another verse of his song which said, you've got to spread joy up to the maximum, gloom down to the minimum, have faith our pandemoniums liable to walk upon the scene. the result, that 10.4% unemployment rate has now dropped to 5.3%. [ applause ] >> a rainy day fund has increased to approximately $2,33 million, with prudent budgeting, we have set a new record in trade, film production and tourism. we have laid the groundwork to improve our transportation and infrastructure dramatically over the next ten years. we have made our communities safer and have offered hope to those with addiction or behavioral disabilities through our accountability course. we have reduced the rate of recidivism and we've saved taxpayers of our state millions of dollars. a great example. eliminating a negative. new private sector jobs have reached more than 575,000, and for four con sec tef years georgia has been named the best state in the nation for business. now, why did this happen? because we had faith and we accentuated the positive. so this year, the budget and the legislation that will bring to you will continue to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negatives. the budget for fiscal 2018 is based on projected revenue growth of over 3.6% over the amended 2017 budget. it will allow us to sustain the important programs that are currently in place as well as address new areas that require attention. in september of this past year, we had a prime opportunity to accentuate the positive, by announcing a 20% pay raise for state level law enforcement. [ applause ] these brave men and women don a badge and vest every day as they go to the uncertainty of their shifts and service to protect all of us in georgia. they protect our lives and our property, and it is only fitting that they should be paid a competitive salary. i am told that in the month following this announcement, the georgia state patrol had more trooper applications than they had received in the entire previous year. that's a good example of latching on to the affirmative. [ applause ] i received a letter from the wife of one of our state troopers who told me just how much that announcement had meant to her and to her family. she told me that her husband worked three jobs to make ends meet for their family, and that because of that, he wasn't able to go to their children's ball games. now that the raises have taken effect, no longer does he have to miss those special moments with his children, and that is the moments that can never be recaptured. the second component of the announcement was the expansion of training or de-escalating violence, community policing and alternatives to deadly force, as well as providing access to local law enforcement for crisis intervention training, which provides instructions on how to safely handle someone who has mental impairments. selfless public service and dedication are not, however, confined to any one agency in state government. they are replete in our state work force. including the division of family and children services. like the story of michelle doris, who is with us today, she's a dfax case manager who was recently assigned to a home with an ailing infant. upon further examination, miss doris found the child to be in distress and immediately arranged for a medical visit. the appointment, however, was 35 miles away. when it became clear that transportation was an issue, she offered to drive the family to the doctor's office. on the way to the appointment, the infant began to aspirate and stopped breathing. she stopped the car, tended to the child, cleared her airway, and began performing cpr until paramedics arrived. the infant then thrived in the hospital and later in a foster care home, with the appropriate care and nutrition being provided. i'm happy to say that that child has no lasting physical issues from her difficult beginning in life and even more importantly, she still has life because of the actions of miss doris and her fellow colleagues. [ applause ] this is the type of meaningful impact that case workers have on those that they serve. these are the types of challenges that they face. in light of that fact, my budget proposal includes on average a 19% pay raise for case workers so -- [ applause ] the purpose is to make sure we can ensure a competitive salary for those who fill these vital roles and so that we can recruit and retain the best possible candidates to look after the safety of our youngest and most vulnerable citizens. that same desire to attract and maintain quality public servants extends throughout the state which is why i recommended that this body, and this body did approve last year, a 3% allocation for a merit and retention pay increase for state employees in this current budget cycle. my fiscal year 2018 budget proposal also accentuates the positive with another increase of 2% in our allocations for state workers. with these improvements, we aim to serve georgia citizens more efficiently and effectively. our efforts to eliminate the negative and accentuate the positive do not stop there, however. we will soon complete the three-year plan to bring georgia's physician reimbursement rates in line with medicare rates. i would point out that we are not mandated to do so, but have chosen to take these steps because we want the best qualified health care for our citizens. without adequate funding for our physicians we will not be able to maintain the quality of providers on our medicaid program. in keeping with the desire to meet the health care needs of georgians, i will work with the members of this legislative body to enhance medicaid and the state health benefit coverage for treatment of those who are diagnosed with autism up to the age of 21. i want to thank senate chairman rene hunterman, house chairman sharon cooper and house subcommittee chairman katie dempsey for working with us to ensure we move forward in the proper manner on this very important issue as we take a deliberate and meaningful approach to a matter which touches the hearts of so many. i would also like to thank chairman stephanie blank and her fellow members of the child welfare reform council, who have so ably advocated for an expansion of behavioral and mental health coverage for children between birth and age 4. currently, community behavioral health services are offered only to medicaid and peach care members age 4 and up, because of their diligent work in educating all of us on the importance of this early examination and treatment, my budget proposes including roughly $2.5 million dedicated to covering the full child care population of medicaid and peach care for children with behavioral and mental health issues. stephanie blank is with us today and we want to thank her and the members of the child welfare reform council for their good work. miss blank, would you please stand. [ applause ] i'm also asking that this legislature remove barriers to mental health services for our veterans. there are approximately 61,298 -- 88 active military personnel, 27,233 reservists, and 752,000 veterans currently in georgia. they have given of themselves to protect us. i believe it is only fitting that we should protect them in kind. nearly one in four active military members shows signs of some mental health condition. in light of this, the budget proposal i submit to you will include funding to train existing employees on services provided by the state and federal governments to better serve our veterans. i have also allocated for a women veterans coordinator position who will work with female veterans that have suffered military trauma, sexual trauma, and offering them counsel and assistance with veterans' claims and appeals. these measures will complement the $3 million in bonds included in the current year's fiscal budget for a subacute rehabilitation facility, which will help provide behavioral health services to veterans who have traumatic brain injuries or post-traumatic stress disorder. an additional $3 million in bonds is included in my budget for this next fiscal year to fully fund the construction of that facility. during this recession, we had yet another opportunity to accentuate the positive in regards to the hospital medicaid program, more common floly know the fee. as you may know, the authority will sunset this year unless this body takes action. if we fail to act, we will not be eliminating a negative. we will be inviting it. the medicaid program for our state is this next fiscal year will cost over $10.5 billion. that translates into more than $1,020 of tax dollars for every person in our state. one of the funding sources for our medicaid program comes from the fee paid by hospitals, amounting to roughly $311 million annually. that is money that the state uses to leverage over $600 million from the federal government. this authority will expire unless you reauthorize the dch board to collect that fee. if that authority is not renewed, more than $900 million that are now available to us for our medicaid program will have to be made up from somewhere else in our budget allocations. therefore, i encourage you to reauthorize the fee expeditiously so that we do not have to take away from other important portions of our budget. while we are on the subject of federal mandates, i want to take a moment to caution against using -- taking giant steps on health care policy until we know what congress and the incoming administration is going to do. we are very fortunate that former georgia state senator and congressman tom price is nominated to become the secretary of health and human services. hopefully very soon, the authority to make decisions regarding our state medicaid program and how it is designed in a way this best benefits the needs of our citizens, those decisions hopefully will be returned to georgia. while these and other issues in the health care arena are determined by federal policy, there are those issues that we have an influence over at the state level. one such area of vital concern is an ongoing epidemic that ravages the hearts and minds not only of individuals, but also of the communities that they touch. it is an epidemic that hides in plain sight and ensnares its victims without regard to age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, neighborhood or station in life. i'm referring to the opioid addiction epidemic. to address this painful reality with which -- is present in many of our communities, and which many communities and individuals must now contend with, last month, i signed an executive order directing the department of public health to issue a standing order to allow noxylone, the emergency drug used to reverse opioid overdoses to be dispensed over the counter by pharmacists across the state. i requested that the georgia board of pharmacy approve an emergency rule removing noxylone from the dangerous drug list and reclassifying it as a schedule five drug which is exempt. they quickly fulfilled this request and because of that action, lives have already been saved. during this session, i ask that we not only codify that into law, but that the provisions of my executive order be strengthened and that our current prescription drug monitoring program also be strengthened and that more education on the physician community of the dangers of these powerful drugs take place. yet another area -- [ applause ] yet another area where we have endeavored to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative is education. our graduation rate, for example, has gone from 67.4% in 2011 to 79.2% today. a significant improvement that shows that we are headed in the right direction. i don't need to tell you how much we owe to the educators and how much progress they have made to make these numbers possible. those who are on the front lines of this field who mold young minds every day in the classroom and who answer such challenging calls are truly everyday heroes and they are what it takes to make a successful society. as the husband and son of former educators, i know the impact that such champions of knowledge have on the lives that they touch. but i think it would be better for me and for you to hear from an actual teacher. please direct your attention to the video which i'm sure you will soon recognize features representative amy carter, who will tell us what it means to be an educator in georgia. ♪ >> i am a teacher. it's a simple statement but the title comes with a multitude of roles, emotions and experiences. over the years i've come to realize teacher may be my job title, but the roles i play in my students' lives grow to be as unique as they are. and the great thing is, the moment they enter my classroom is just the beginning of a lifelong relationship. there's a huge sense of self-fulfillment in knowing what i do makes a difference. a deep, everlasting difference in this world. and because of that, every day, i wake up with a sense of purpose. i know what i do matters. it matters every single day. i am a teacher. [ applause ] thank you, representative carter, for chairing our teacher advisory committee during this past summer and fall, and for your continued leadership on education matters. i might just add that that is one of the recommendations from the teacher advisory committee was for us to have more public service announcements regarding the importance of teachers, which may very well help in our teacher recruitment effort so thank you very much for doing that. now, that's the quality of a person that chooses to spend a career imparting knowledge to the next generation. that is what an architect of our future looks like. that is an example of the generous and selfless character that we find in so many classrooms across our state. in recognition of the crucial roles that they play and the difficult challenges that they face in the course of their work, my budget proposal for this upcoming fiscal year includes a 2% salary increase built into the pay scale for all authorized state teacher positions. that is in addition to the 3% merit pay increase that is included in this present year's budget. now, as educators accentuate the positives in our children and eliminate the negatives, we should latch on to the affirmative and reward them for their invaluable service. but as we do so, we should also seek to eliminate whatever systemic negatives are preventing students and teachers alike from realizing their full potential. currently, the greatest negative in the education landscape of georgia is the number of children trapped in failing schools. two years ago, there were 127 chronically failing schools with roughly 68,000 enrolled students. now that we have the data from the last school year, we find that there were 153 schools that had failing scores for three consecutive years. those 153 chronically underperforming schools served almost 89,000 students last school year. over 20,000 more students than we were talking about last fall. almost 70% of the chronically failing schools, served elementary students. it should be abundantly clear to everyone, including those in the education community who so staunchly support the status quo, that this is unacceptable. if this pattern of escalation in the number of failing schools does not change, its devastating effects on our state will grow with each passing school year. now, since the vast majority of these chronically failing schools serve elementary age children, our prospects for addressing this issue will place an emphasis on elementary schools. if we can reverse this alarming trend early on, if we can eliminate this negative that directly or indirectly affects all of us, we will see our reading comprehension scores, our math skills, our graduation rates, and the quality of our work force in general improve. to that end, my office is working closely with lieutenant governor, the speaker, the house chairman, representative kevin tanner, state chairman lindsey tippins, senator sims and others of you to craft legislation that will be presented to you during this session. i want to thank those and all of you who are working on these efforts, because if we are important for us to move forward, we must eliminate this negative so that our children's future will be brighter. our state's economic prospects will be more sure and our global reputation will be certainly more notable. for those who will contend that the real issue is lack of resources, let me remind them that we have increased k through 12 spending by $2,017,000000 including this year's fiscal '18 proposal. that translates into roughly 50% of all new growth in state revenue being dedicated to k through 12 public education. but it's not enough to simply pour more and more money on a problem and hope that it simply goes away. but by addressing this negative, the students of today will be prepared for the jobs of tomorrow. jobs quite frankly that are already on their way to our communities. in 2013, the united states army announced that it would build a new cybercommand headquarters alongside the national security agency facilities at ft. gordon in augusta, georgia. less than two months ago, military officials broke ground on those future headquarters that will cost approximately $2 billion. i am pleased to have as my guest in the gallery major general john b. morrison jr. and command sergeant major carlos simmons of the army cyber center of excellence. we also have colonel thomas toller, commander of the national security agency georgia and deputy commander brian goodman. gentlemen, we thank you for your service. we would like to recognize you if you will please stand. [ applause ] ft. gordon is already home to the cyber center of excellence, a training facility for cyberspace operations, and soon, we, the state of georgia, will begin construction on another tool in our arsenal for security and economic development in the form of the georgia cyberinnovation and training center. my proposed budget includes $50 million for this state-owned facility designed to promote modernization in cybersecurity and technology for both the private and the public industries, in conjunction with the department of defense and the nsa. this invaluable resource will put georgia at the pinnacle of efforts to enhance american cybersecurity in both of those public and private arenas, with a resource unlike any other in the country. this will solidify georgia's reputation as the silicon valley of the south. i want to take this opportunity to thank the other partners involved in this endeavor. the georgia national guard, the department of defense, the georgia technology authority, our technical college and university systems, the department of economic development, the georgia bureau of investigation and numerous other private sector entities. we will all work together to ensure that this facility is an effective education and training center at which all manner of state, local and private organizations can benefit. this initiative will be housed within our georgia technology authority and will in part serve as an incubator for startup companies, adding yet another tool for the department of economic development to attract businesses to georgia. we will also focus on research and development, tapping into the assets of our research universities and other institutions of higher learning. finally, we will create a cybercrime lab run by the gbi as we work with all state agencies and local governments to ensure that our citizens, employers and their digital information are protected. this is a state-wide initiative, one that will bring together all manner of public and private organizations to further our defense and our capabilities in this digital age. it will involve public utilities, health care providers, banking systems, software component companies, manufacturers and any other entity with a cyberinfrastructur according to a recent white paper on this subject, roughly 90% of businesses are vulnerable to at least one security breach, making a cyberattack in effect inevitable. georgia currently has over 290,000 establishments across 42 major industries, and all are vested in cybersecurity in some way, or could be considered cyberbusinesses in one form or another. with the cyberinitiative training center joining our already impressive array of cyber and technology facilities, georgia will truly be at the forefront of an issue that we see more and more on the front pages of every day's newspaper and on the nightly news. as we enter this new year, for this 2017 and this session of the georgia general assembly, i invite you to join with me as we continue to follow johnny mercer's advice from 72 years ago and accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative,ch