The states attorney general purpose is about an hour. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Please be seated. I appreciate everyone being here. Mr. Speaker, mr. President , my fellow south carolinians, we are here tonight to address successes, challenges and opportunities, but first as in prior years i would like to recognize those in uniform home we lost in the line of duty in 2023. Sergeant ricky green junior of the South Carolina department of corrections. Deputy jacob eric solomon of Richland County sheriffs office. Officer Matthew Logan hill of the Easley PoliceDepartment Lieutenant michael charleswood of the Newberry Police department. Specialist jason read haven South Carolina national guard. Firefighter James Michael mueller of the fire department. Canine agent rico with the state Law Enforcement division. I attended that funeral and many others that i can, and when rico had his funeral, i have never seen so many people from the police academy. There wasnt a dry eye in the place. We have a great state. So, to the families and loved ones of these brave south carolinians, we all get our condolences. We are eternally grateful for their service. We have once again with us tonight our first lady, my right, arson and you im delighted to have with us once again tonight, our first later lady my bride peggy. Our son henry junior, stand when i call you. My wife peggy will start. [laughter] ou i enappreciate that. I will cal them all again. Our son henry junior and his wife virginia. Their 16 month old daughter, our granddaughter, margo gray is at home and our daughter mary rogers and her husband Sam Herskovitz is here. Sam is from san francisco, but fortunately, they moved to columbia and into charleston. It is okay. There 19 oh son james darvin is at home. We are glad you are here. By the way, i told those children their , and i know where those babies come from and we are waiting on some more right now. I hope so. No pressure. Lieutenant governor pamela and her husband david are here tonight with our state constitutional office. Please stand and be recognized. Thank you, and finally, will the members of the best cabinet in the nation, South Carolina, please stand and be recognized . Cabinet members. If you are looking for the ateam, there it is, right there. Also, i would like to acknowledge members of our Supreme Court in attendance tonight including chief justice beatty, who will retire this summer after more than seven years as chief justice of our Supreme Court. Over 30 years of service to our state. We look forward to working with our next chief justice, john kittredge. We thank you for your presence. We thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, i believe there is no higher honor on earth than being selected by the people who know you best to serve in positions like this. I thank you and i will not let you down. We will continue to act boldly, think big and continue building on our success. My question, what are our priorities now and what will our magnificent date look like in 100 years from now . The world knows South Carolina has great people. Our quality of life and cultural heritage, abundant Natural Resources and prosperous economy make us unique and offer an enormous opportunity. Our booming economy in 2023 once again created a record Budget Surplus over 1. 64 billion with over 9. 21 billion in Capital Investment and 14,120 dobbs jobs. 2022 was equally grand with over 10 billion in Capital Investment. Since 2017, we have announced over 36. 4 billion in new investments and 86,000 new jobs. South carolina led the nation in population growth last year. Also, according to the bureau of economic analysts, our personal Income Growth rate ranked second in the country at 4. 9 through the Third Quarter of 2023. We are firing on all cylinders. South carolina Tourism Industry continue to thrive in 2023 needing or exceeding the record breaking tourism growth of earlier years. South carolina was named as one of the top five golf destinations in the world and best in the country for 2023. According to the International Association of golf, travel, operators. Ours is the only state in the United States to make this list sharing recognition with cyprus, dubai, los cabos and thailand. This reputation was enhanced in 2023 by the announcement of a new pga tour tournament, the myrtle beach classic, which will debut in may joining the prestigious rbc heritage tournament held a month before. Since 1950, darlington raceway, the track too tough to tame, has provided generations of nascar fans with spectacular memories, breathtaking finishes, and a lifetime of stories to be told and retold. The mothers day and labor day nascar cup races are South Carolinas largest professional sporting events generating over 118 million in Economic Impact to the state. You have to see it to believe it. Once again, charleston was named the number one city in the south by readers of Southern Living in 2023 and the number one city in the United States by travel and leisure readers for the 11th i say 11th year in a row. Hilton head island was named the number one island in this years travel readers choice, rankings of the best islands in america. Unity park was recognized by Readers Digest magazine as one of the nicest places in america. No surprise to us. I would like to recognize that several of the businesses which announce their confidence in our people. By their substantial Capital Investment in 2023. If leaders will please stand as i name your company, we will respond when you are all standing. Scout motors will revitalize an iconic american browned as an all electric nextgeneration truck and rugged suv with a 2 billion investment and 4000 jobs, president and ceo, mr. Scott keough, please stand. Hold it hold it. They love you, scott, they cant help it. In charleston county, alma Mater Corporation will invest 1. 3 billion with more than 300 jobs for a lithium hydroxide processing facility. Ceo, mr. Kent masters, will you please stand. Stay standing, please. Thank you. In Sumter County, Sumter County , Sumter County, event magnetics investment of more than half 1 billion and creation of 300 jobs will produce rare earth Permanent Magnets and will help secure the United States domestic pipeline for these rare earth magnets. The only such facility in the western hemisphere. Ceo mr. Eric edition, please stand. In lawrence county, Zf Transmissions Gray Court is expanding its operation for the growing and evolving mobility industry with a 500 Million Investment and 400 jobs, Vice President and plant manager, mr. Tobias bruegger, please stand, sir. In york county, politest, is relocating its Corporate Headquarters and Semiconductor Manufacturing operations to South Carolina with a 443 Million Investment and 405 new jobs. Vice president of global facilities, mr. Gerald knowles, please stand. Thank you. And Richland County, Service Solutions will build a stateof theart flagship operation to produce lithium ion Battery Materials with more than 300 new jobs and more than 300 million in investment. Ceo mr. David classkick, please stand. In spartanburg county, milos t company, family owned Beverage Company will establish operations with a 130 Million Investment and 103 new jobs. Ceo miss tricia woolworth will you please stand . Also, our secretary of commerce, harry and his remarkable team, which worked around the clock to produce these successes, please stand. Thank you. We thank you all. We thank you all. You have all made the right decision. We boomed in 2023 and we are going to bloom again in 2024. How about power . We need power. South carolina is a National Leader in the advanced manufacturing as we know. And now we are leading the way into new and Innovative Electric vehicle and battery manufacturing industries. We are home to for major electric Vehicle Manufacturers. Major international ev battery manufacturers, the nations largest ev Battery Recycling facility and many other industries and electric vehicle manufacturing supply chain. Our leadership is displayed in the south in the sc nexus for advanced Resilient Energy consortium. We call it sc nexus. It was developed by the department of commerce. This consortium was developed in collaboration with our research universities, Technical Colleges, state agencies, Savannah RiverNational Laboratory, Economic Development nonprofits and private businesses. It is the culmination of groundwork laid in prior years through collaborative, private, public initiatives. This cooperative spirit produced our ev working group, a onestop shop to recruit and assist with electric vehicles, investment, and manufacturing industry. It produced the power sc, Energy Resources and Economic Development interagency working group. This group please the effort to coordinate the states stakeholders to ensure that they have the energy necessary to meet the needs of our future. We know we need for. How much power will South Carolina need . Another is, how will it be produced and transmitted . Recently, South Carolina sc nexus won the u. S. Department of commerces Economic Development administrations designation as one of the Regional Technology and innovation hubs, which allows sc nexus to apply for federal funding. Out of over 400 applications, South Carolina was one of the 31 finalists selected as a federal tech hub sc nexus will compete for federal Grant Funding valued between 40 and 70 million annually. My executive budget, it includes 15 million to support sc nexus and serves as the state match required for this competition. We are going to win, and you will love this story. We put together a group that went to washington and met with senator graham and the rest of the delegation, senator scott. Everybody was there. With hardly fit into the rooms. We explained exactly to everyone , what we were doing. We had already started in this area of power as you know from what was discussed a moment ago. We thought we had to act together. We came back a couple of weeks later and we got a call from secretary raimondo, who was in charge of the department of commerce. His department of commerce will be making the decision. We were ready for the call when he was coming so we had to conference with secretary raimondo and on the other line was senator lindsey graham, congressman jim kleinman and yours truly. And so, we recited the facts. We explained all we were doing and how we anticipated this and we were way ahead of everybody else. At the end of the conversation, senator graham started cutting up and before long we were laughing and joking and just having a delightful time. And secretary mondo says this is quite unusual. I have never had a bipartisan conversation like this in my career. I said, thats the South Carolina way. We know the demand for trained ev workforces are outpacing the number of qualified applicants manufacturers like bmw, mercedesbenz, volvo cars and scout motors will need a highly specialized and trained workforce of almost 20,000 south carolinians. They will need them soon to meet this demand. My thicket of budget recommends 50 million to create specialized ev Training Institutes at our Technical College campuses, which by the way are the best technical competence campuses in the United States and Everybody Knows it. Less talk about unions for a moment. One thing we do not need is more labor unions in South Carolina. We have got where we are without them and we do not need them now. We are a right to work state. We have the lowest Union Membership in the country. We have worked hard and carefully through Education Training and Business Recruitment to earn our record prosperity and we will continue to preserve it and enhance it. However, our prosperity and that of generations of south carolinians to come face a clear and present danger from the big labor unions. They have crippled and distorted the progress and prosperity of industries and cities in other states. You are familiar with the rust belt. It has taken years but they have managed to do it and now their membership is at an all time low and failing. Now they are looking at us and other booming southeastern states, none of which want or need labor unions. In 2021, the International Association sued the maritime shipping carriers for calling on the port of charlestons stateoftheart leatherman terminal. Over the past two and half years, was started as a secondary boycott to force the state Ports Authority to seat longheld state jobs to union labor has devolved into a broader threat to our current and future prosperity. The cranes at that terminal and others are run by state employees. They cost over 10 million each and it takes years to learn how to run them. Thats why we have our people, our state employees running those grains. Secondary boycotts are illegal. The ila secondary boycott was initially rejected but later resurrected by president bidens appointees on the National Labor relations board. We have taken the fight all the way to the United StatesSupreme Court , which i believe will understand the dire implications of this conduct, uphold the law, and rule in our favor. Our aerospace Vehicle Manufacturers are no longer the sole targets for labor organizers. Oh no, our thriving hospitality and Tourism Industry along our coast now finds itself a target too. It seems that no business or employee in South Carolina is safe from the disingenuous campaigns and district of impacts of union infiltration. No one should bargain their prosperity under threats of union boycotts or coercive pressure campaigns. We will not let our state economy suffer or become collateral damage. As labor unions seek to consume new jobs and conscript new news paying members. We will not allow the Biden Administration to chip away at South Carolinas sovereign interest. We will fight. Ladies and gentlemen, we will fight all the way to the gaetz of and we will win this battle. Superior, we have the thank you. We are in good physical shape, superior. We have the largest Rainy Day Reserve Fund balance and lowest amount of general obligation debt than any other time in recent memory. Once again, im recommending General Assembly put additional funds into the states a rainy day fund. 554. 3 million, so that the fund maintains a balance of 1. 16 billion, which is equal to 10 of this years general appropriations act. Till a few years ago, South Carolina had the highest personal income tax in the southeast and the 12 highest in the nation. No more. Two years ago i signed into law the largest income tax cut in state history, which will cut the rate to 6 in the next few years. Accordingly, my executive budget recognizes this year is 99 million schedule cut to the income tax rate dropping it from 6. 4 to 6. 3 . The state boa