Travel chairman, distinguished guests, friends, fellow nebraskans and of course my lovely wife, suzanne, good morning. [ applause ] i understand kitty, it is your 70th, birthday, is that right . Give her a rauound of applause. [ applause ] i will spare you my rendition of happy birthday. Everybody is happy about that too. Congratulations of the commencement of the 105th Nebraska Legislature. I want to thank each and every one of you for your willingness to serve our fellow citizens. I also want to highlight that you are beginning a historic year. The 150th of our state hood which we will celebrate on march 1st. [ applause ] i am honored to be with you here in the peoples house. We all appreciate the unique nature. Nebraska consistently passes a balanced budget on time. Not every state can say that. In our system every bill gets a hearing and every senator a priority bill. Senators can have an impact with legislation regardless of party or seniority. Debate happens right here on the floor sent out to advocate. George norris was a man with vision. He had initiative. He persevered. He was tenacious. He had grit. It is characterist of our people. They have a firmness of character and they show resill yans and fort constitute. Nebraska is what america is supposed to be. We are blessed like the men and women in nebraskas law enforcement. They risk much to keep us safe. We are also grateful for our servicemen and women in the Nebraska National guard and their families. Another great example of true nebraska grit is don. He grew up in red cloud during the great depression. He was in the news a few weeks ago during the 75th anniversary of pearl harbor. On that fateful sunday morning in 1941 a japanese dive bomber caused an explosion that engulfed the u. S. S. Arizona. They were trapped being scorched alive. Finally a serviceman threw a rope. With burns covering 65 of his body he peeled loose skin from his arms so he could climb across 75 feet of rope. In excruciating pain dodging japanese pilots fire and suspended 45 feet above flaming oil. He made it. It is with that same spirit and determination that we must approach the work before us. Our families, our friends and our neighbors are relying on us. Whats more, we have a chance to give a voice to the voiceless, to improve peoples lives and to craft policy that is build a Brighter Future for generations to come. I am excite today serd to serve and every one of you. Speaker, congratulations on your election. Thank you for your dedication. [ applause ] a firefighter and a teacher your diversity of experience will enrich the body and reflects our people. I look forward to what we will be able to accomplish working together. In this 105th Nebraska Legislature and the 150th year of our statehood you are all a part of our unique nebraska history. Your first legislative session provides an opportunity for Decisive Action that will shape our state in years to come. I am half way through my four year term as service as your governor. This morning i am going to highlight some of our accomplishments, discuss our efforts to grow nebraska. I will detail my plan. I will also share with you our plans to deliver much needed tax money to hard working families. By identifying our mission to create opportunity through more customer focus we have made progress towards a vision of drawing nebraska. We are making government work for the people. That thinking is contagious. The department of Environmental Quality has launched online applications for storm water permits that has reduced wait times. Health and Human Services once under investigation is now establishing their mission of improving peoples lives. Access nebraska has improved staff afterly Case Processing and saved the state 17 million. There are more efficiencies we can bring together. Earlier this week chairman and i announced a merger of our division of veterans homes and our department of veterans affairs. We will provide streamline services to them all under one roof. Thank you director john hillgert to provide Better Services to our veterans. [ applause ] among other things we will be able to find efficiencies that will allow us to put more money into runways without sacrificing jobs. Thanks to director Ronnie Mitchell for their work on this merger. [ applause ] this dedicated bunch is working to deliver Better Services at a lower cost. Thank you for everything you do for the people of nebraska. [ applause ] this year we get rid of unnecessary regulations, to empower everyone from car sales people, barbers and cosmetologists to idealologists and massage therapists. We will help people get to work more quickly. Thank you to senators albright, larson, lindstrom for all of your work to introduce these bills to cut red tape. [ applause ] the state of the state is strong. We also know we have challenges. Farm income has gone from 7. 5 million down to 4. 5 million in 2015 and closer to 4 million last year. As a result we face reduced tax. Our revenues were 95 million below. The forecasting board cut another 172 million out of the current fiscal year. The next will require continued expense control. As nebraskans we dont spend money we dont have. We balance our budgets. At the state level we have maintained a healthy cash reserve to set spending products like education, Public Safety and infrastructure. This common sense approach has put us in a financial situation where even a budget challenge can be managed. In a year when we have to make difficult budget decisions we have to favor the tax cut. Special interests can hire lobbyists. As elected officials we have a duty to be advocates for the citizens and a voice of the people. This is an opportunity to put ours to work. Lets roll up our sleeves and do what needs to be done to set a course for future prosperity. [ applause ] it is easy to view next to agencies and programs. Behind the numbers are peoples lives. The dollars that fund our budgets are dollars that are earned by hard working nebraskans. Our agencies and programs are designed to serve our citizens and many of them are people in need. My proposal provides more resources for child and family services, invests in education, protects, informs and balances the budget without raising taxes. [ applause ] as Ronald Reagan said simple fairness dictates the government must not raise taxes on families struggling to pay their bills. I urge you to take up the budget by the first week of february because there are less than 6 months left in this fiscal year. The work we do is critical to finish this budget to set the foundation for the next budget. I appreciate the work thon. Today apresei present to do you principa principals. The revenue gap must be closed without increasing taxes. Taxing food and groceries would be bad for our economy. The budget must be balanced. Third, we must produce government expenditures. It is so we are in good position to address future uncertainty. Now, having said that will have certain priorities we must continue to fund. Thats why we proposed increasing communication i am proposing increase. Thats a 5. 4 increase. I recommend 3 increase in the special education fund. This is significantly more than the overall state budget is growing and possible within our resources. Now, you all will be lobbying that this budget does not fully fund education. That is not true. That statement is based upon a flawed formula that encourages them. It allows schools to grow their budgets at 12 . What i have proposed respect it is taxpayers with a significant increase amounting to a historic high of over a billion dollars per year in general fund support. In addition to providing basic needs for more than 5,300 inmates they launched an automated sentence Calculation Program and implyemented the first ever Risk Assessment tour. They created Mission Specific housing. They have developed an Inmate Health care plan while addressing pay and quality of life issues for our corrections officers. With this Budget Proposal we will reduce vacancy rates. We will upgrade technology and improve the corrections. I want to thank director scott and members of his team who are with us here today. They put themselves in harms way to keep us safe and worked to transform the culture of this agency. Please join me in thanking them. These are reductions that can be made without effecting operations. In the end our first fiscal year increase is 1. 5 followed by a 1. 9 increase for a two year average of 1. 7 increase in spending. This is in liechb with my current year. As i have traveled the state i hear almost universally that they are taxed too much. So i am proposing both property and income tax reform. Property taxes are too high. Between 2003 and 2013 property taxes have risen 137 . As cattle and crop prices decline it is important that assessments drop as well. Taxes should correlate with income. This year we have a chance to achieve lasting, fair and structural reform by changing the way that we value ag land. It changes the methodology for assessing Property Value from a market based system. Income potential is much more fair and will slow the growth of ag land evaluations. If this system were in place in 2017 it will reduce by 2. 2 billion. Income property tax is used in north dakota, kansas, iowa, wisconsin, illinois, indiana and ohio. This method is much more fair across ag states. Which is why a number of producers suggested it to me. It gives plenty of time to prepare in the past nebraska is a by putting more money to the school aid formula. It has proved to be a failed policy additional spending, additional aid without spending restraint has only resulted in add digtsal spending and higher property taxes. Its not just lincoln reaching into their pockets, its washington d. C. We cant control what goes on but we cant here in lincoln. Only one of our bordering rates is iowa. South dakota and wyoming have more income tax. They all have lower tax rates. Our high tax rate hampers our ability to grow our economy over the long term. It discourages investment and chases away great people. If we want to out pace other midwestern states we have to be more competitive. Do you know its been 20 years since middle class nebraskans have seen a cut in their income tax rate . In effect we will have a trigger when we hit 3. 5 growth to take that income tax rate from 6. 84 down a little each year until we get it under 6 . If our revenue doesnt grow fast enough the tax rate doesnt come down. Its that simple. It is caught in this highest tax bracket. Folks, 29,831 is rich. It is middle class. For married couples taking 59,661 they are also caught in this top tax bract et and thats more than half of them. Nebraskans look at us and wonder why its so hard for us to keep more of their money. The only way to have Sustainable Tax relief is controlling spending. It is fundamentally the difference between spending restraint and revenue growth. Controlling spending must come first. The trackers of this tax ban will point to other states that have reduced taxes join me in middle class working families. Lets make nebraska working families looking to relocate. Lets do it the nebraska way. Reductions we make to continue to spending control will allow us to cut taxes and grow nebraska. [ applause ] it will require nebraska grit. One thing i didnt tell you about, after several months of surgeries he was sent home. After several more months. He had to convince them to take him back into service. He made it. He went back to the pacific theater. He was assigned to a destroyer where he protected u. S. Marines in the invasion. U. S. Forces took and don nearly fatally injured in the First American battle of world war ii played an Important Role in one of the last battles of that war. He finished the war now its our job to finish the work in front of us. We can position our state for future longterm growth. We can balance the budget, set Spending Priorities all without raising taxes on nebraska families. By controlling spending we can set ourselves up for future tax relief. That is the nebraska way. This is our opportunity. The sky is the limit. I look forward to working with each and every one of you to live, work and raise a family. God bless you all for your bles the great state of nebraska. Thank you. [ applause ] sunday a live discussion with adams. Well be taking your call and facebook questions during the program. By far and away the greatest country in the history of the world. He is the author of america, the greatest and retaking america, crushing political correctness. Mr. Adams is also the founder of foundation for liberty and american greatness, an organization to promoting and combatting american worldwide. Watch it from noon to 3 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan2. Now Alaska Governor bill walker delivers his state of the state address in juneau. This is 45 minutes. Member of the cabinet and my fellow alaskans, good evening. Thank you for this opportunity to address you this evening. I would like to introduce donna walker who has been at my side for every year for the last 40
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