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State of the State, continued

Ladies and gentlemen, I have to tell you that, not only at the State level but at the federal level as well, those days are over.
It’s time to become family again. It’s time we accept one of the greatest burdens and greatest opportunities that our Creator gave us, and that is personal responsibility.

It all begins with us – the individual – and how we decide to fulfill the role of being our brother’s keeper.

It’s a concept deeply ingrained in our history. From the United Order envisioned by our Mormon pioneers, all the way back to Puritan leader John Winthrop’s call in 1630 for the Massachusetts Bay Colony settlers to put aside their niceties “for the supply of others’ necessities.”

Winthrop’s goal was to establish a community so close and so cohesive that it would become “as members of the same body.”

Our Idaho Family is no different today. As citizens, we must work together to rebuild “our community as members of the same body.”

Our fellow citizens have endorsed that path for our State government as the most consistent with Idaho’s independent, self-reliant principles and priorities.

And our citizens, our businesses and our civic organizations are setting the example.

It was the energy and the enthusiasm of folks in Twin Falls that responded to the loss of 600 jobs at Dell by going out and finding 900 to 1,200 better jobs for the community with C3.

It was the community spirit of folks in Pocatello and Chubbuck that convinced Allstate that Idaho was the best place to build a regional service center with hundreds of new jobs, and that also convinced ON Semiconductor to expand twice in the past year.

It was the competence, the can-do attitude and the competitive fire of folks at Empire Aerospace that convinced Horizon Airlines to get its aircraft maintenance done in Coeur d’Alene.

It was the expertise and commitment to innovation of the folks at Micron that convinced Origin Solar of Australia that Idaho was the right place to build high-efficiency energy cells.

And it was the community spirit of the folks in Kamiah that convinced new investors in the Blue North Mill to add dozens of new hires since August, with more on the way.

My friends, community is the single biggest thing we have to celebrate as we begin 2011 – that sense of shared family history that runs through everything we do here in Idaho.

The degree to which this Citizen Legislature and all of us in State government are part of that community goes a long way toward explaining why we are in much better fiscal shape than many other states.

And one of the big reasons for that is – like any family or community – our first thoughts are about what we have rather than what we lack – what we can do rather than where we can turn for help.

That’s why our State government today is far better and more efficient than it was just two years ago.

And that’s why all our State agencies are continuing to build partnerships, find efficiencies and develop smarter ways of doing their jobs.

I’m more convinced than ever that living within the people’s means is crucial to maintaining and building public confidence – not only in our system of government but in our citizens’ own ability to make a difference.

As Thomas Jefferson said in 1802, “If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become happy.”

So let’s talk for a minute about some of what our State government is doing to avoid wasting the people’s labors:

At the Department of Correction, Director Brent Reinke and Olivia Craven at the Parole Commission have improved offender assessment and placement and are making better use of retained-jurisdiction programs. That’s saving $32 million and holding our inmate population more than 1,500 below projections.
Transportation Director Brian Ness recently realigned his agency to improve customer service, efficiency and accountability to the tune of at least $1.5 million in savings over the next two years.
The Industrial Commission and Chairman R.D. Maynard are proposing to use a surplus in its cash balance to waive some or all of the workers compensation premium tax paid by insurers and self-insured employers.
At the Division of Building Safety, Kelly Pearce and his team are saving $415,000 a year by such steps as sharing office space, using videoconferencing, cross-training inspectors, and issuing more permits online. And Phase Two of my Tax Compliance Initiative now is bringing in more than $1 million a month to the General Fund that previously was going uncollected.

That’s money we can use for public schools or other pressing needs.

Yet as important as all that is, it means next to nothing to the tens of thousands of Idahoans who are out of work.
Along with responsibly balancing our budget, there is no task before us more important than improving Idaho’s economy.
That does not mean government spending. It means stability. It means predictability. And it means keeping more money in the hands of the people whose innovation and enterprise actually creates those career opportunities.

As you know, I have been an advocate for lower taxes throughout my public life. If there was ever a time when ensuring the private sector has the motivation and the means to put Idahoans back to work, it’s now. When President Reagan signed the landmark Tax Reform Act of 1986 into law, he cited the need to secure Americans’ economic freedoms. He cited the need to “restore certainty to our tax code and our economy.”

And he cited the fact that – as he put it – “ultimately the economy is not made up of aggregates like government spending and consumer demand, but of individual men and women, each striving to provide for his family and better his or her lot in life.”

With that in mind, I encourage you to seriously consider legislation being introduced by Representative Marv Hagedorn.
His bill would equalize and then gradually reduce our marginal State income tax rates for individuals and businesses over ten years, starting in 2013.

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