Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Governor Culver: "The Condition Of The State Is Strong!"
"Let’s ensure 2008 is a year in which our civility and our constituents are our focus."
(Des Moines) Today, Governor Chet Culver delivered his Condition of the State Address to the Iowa General Assembly, declaring, "The condition of our state is strong!"
The Governor cited Iowa's $600 million cash reserves, the largest in state history, as well as Iowa's booming bioeconomy as evidence of the strength of Iowa.
Keeping his promise to Iowans, Governor Culver stressed the importance of continuing to invest in the historic initiatives passed by the legislature and signed into law last session. "I believe our goals this session are simple -- protect our priorities, balance the budget, and address some unmet needs," said Governor Culver. "Our budget must reflect our commitment to protect the new initiatives we launched last session."
These priorities include: Maintaining our commitment to the newly-created Iowa Power Fund; continuing to invest in statewide, quality preschool for Iowa 4-year-olds; and paying our Iowa teachers what they deserve.
The Governor explained that delivering on these important priorities must be done in a fiscally responsible way, and will require making difficult decisions. "The only way we can be certain to fulfill these priorities is to keep our fiscal house in order," said Governor Culver. "Here's how we can do it: limit new spending, continue to live within our means, and protect our cash reserves.”
Future challenges, such as health care, the environment, tax fairness and the potential workforce shortage were also addressed in the speech. The Governor offered specific policy proposals do address these issues:
HEALTH CARE: Expand pooling options for associations, small businesses, and organizations in an effort to reduce the cost of group rates; allow parents to cover their adult children up to age 25; eliminate exclusions and waiting periods for people who are transitioning from group health plans to individual plans; and institute a new state wellness initiative to reduce health costs and keep state employees healthy.
ENVIRONMENT: Fully fund Iowa’s Resource Enhancement and Protection (REAP) program; commit sustainable funding towards Iowa’s environment by expanding the Bottle Bill to include water, tea and sport drink bottles and increase the bottle deposit to 10 cents and dedicating once cent towards REAP; create a new odor-management program; and require 25 percent of all energy produced in Iowa be from a renewable source by 2025.
TAX FAIRNESS: Level the playing field for Iowa small businesses by passing combined corporate reporting. This bill would close a tax loophole allowing multi-billion dollar corporations that do tens of millions of dollars of business in Iowa avoid paying Iowa income taxes.
WORKFORCE SHORTAGE: The key to addressing a potential workforce shortage is through education. We must: create a $5 million dollar science, technology, engineering, and math – or STEM – Center at the University of Northern Iowa; expand the needs-based All-Iowa Opportunity Scholarship; and do whatever it takes to institute Iowa’s new Model Core Curriculum statewide by 2010.
Finally, the Governor closed with a call for unity. “My friends, civility works,” said Governor Culver. “People expect us to do our work, and to get along. I stand ready to do my part.” The Governor continued, “Let’s lift up our great state this session. Let’s ensure 2008 is a year in which our civility and our constituents are our focus. Let’s give it our best effort, tone down the partisan rhetoric, get the peoples’ work done, and end the session as friends. Last year we proved our collective hopes and dreams for Iowa are worth fighting for. Well, I’m asking for a renewal of our commitment to Iowa’s future.”