Office of the Governor
Senator Norton. Speaker Berry. Senator Feeley.
Representative Snyder. All the Members of the General Assembly.
Fellow Coloradans. I would introduce members of my family, but
it would take half the day as you well know. I welcome them also.
Before I forget this, on your desk is a very
good summary of our budget this year, and I'll mention a couple
of other things that are on your desks.
I am glad to be here.
This is the 12th time I've come before you
to report on the State of the State.
It is the last such speech I will give-in
this century. But I think a four-year sabbatical would be very
refreshing.
I'm thoughtful about these past 11 years.
You know, we've made tremendous progress.
When we started, our economy was in trouble.
What did we do? We declared Colorado "open
for business." We used our advantages to attract new business
and new jobs and made some key investments.
Today, we enjoy the results of those efforts-a
diverse economy, a record high growth, record low unemployment,
and unparalleled economic opportunity.
We now are one of the premier economies in
the nation-perhaps even of the world.
Colorado is not just the best place to work,
it's the best place to live.
We should feel good about this. And we should
be proud that we did this together-the people of Colorado, businesses
and unions, the General Assembly, local governments, this administration,
Republicans, Democrats and Independents.
We've done well. But there is more to do.
And also the next 10, 15, 20 years it is not
going to be like the last 10. This is a critical fact we need
to absorb.
As I approach this speech, I'm trying to look
at a larger picture. I'm trying to step back from the day-to-day
details of how many prisons to build or how to fill the potholes.
And I am trying to look at history and see
what trends are unfolding that are changing our world and how
we need to comprehend those trends and strategize because of them.
Let me put this in perspective.
At the dawn of the 19th century, we were an
agrarian society and our future depended on exploring and settling
and expanding a frontier.
At the dawn of the 20th century, we were becoming
an industrial and urbanized society, and our future depended increasingly
on centralized manufacturing.
Now during those important periods of history,
wise leaders crafted public policies-railroad land grants, rural
electrification, the agricultural extension service, land grant
colleges, the GI bill, Social Security-that met the challenges
of the time.
But now, as we approach the dawn of the 21st
century, our economy is radically changing, it's based upon an
information age and it's going to be driven by ideas, skills and
knowledge.
In the past, we had a resource based economy.
Now, we have an idea based economy. All you
need to do is look at the daily papers. Just look at them; they
are crammed full. Look at NASDAQ, the stock exchanges, look at
where the new employment is coming. You can look at my John Deere
tractor business. You can't work there unless you really know
what computers are like.
Where once our economy moved at the speed
of a horse, a train, a car and then an airplane, today, our economy
moves at the speed of an idea.
And while the speed of a train, a car, or
plane are all limited by physical technology, the speed of an
idea is limited only by the mind's ability to think and to comprehend.
So what are the large public policy questions-comparable
to rural electrification or land grant colleges-that we face now?
It begins with this. It's how we develop
people with ideas, skills and knowledge. Most any economist will
say that.
Now, where does that lead us?
It leads us to our first priority, early childhood.
We begin to learn ideas, skills and knowledge
at earliest age. Science confirms what many parents already understand-that
the experiences of a child from birth to age 6 are absolutely
the most critical to the development of that child's ability to
think creatively, to work in a team with others and to function
effectively in society.
We know that stress and adverse environments
damage the developing brain and that those effects can last a
lifetime. But think about the implications of this.
Studies show that children who do not get
enough nurturing and stimulation have serious intellectual deficits
by 18 months of age, and that full reversal of these deficits
may not be possible. In many cases, preschool teachers can tell
you which children in their classrooms are likely to graduate
from high school.
Well, there's another radical change in our
lives. Ironically, at the very same time that this information
age puts a premium on the development of the skills and knowledge
of our youngsters in the 0-6 years, more and more of our parents
have to leave home and go to work.
It's a strange thing. These two trends are
converging in history and are causing a crises. I'm not making
a judgment here about both parents going to work. I'm just trying
to describe a new reality for our families.
During the most important years of development,
on any given day, 48 percent of young Colorado children spend
some or all of their day outside the home in the care of someone
other than their parents.
The proportion of young children with employed
mothers jumped from about 7 percent in 1940 to 43 percent in 1980
to 63 percent in 1996, and I tell you it's going to go to 85.
This represents a radical change in how children
are being raised.
Parents work hard. They want the best for
their children. But it isn't always easy.
Let me read a clip that I got in the last
couple of days. It's out of the New York Times News Service and
it's from in Florida. Let me read it:
At five the other morning Marlene Garrett
had her 11-month old baby in her arms and was guiding her with
two other sleep dazed children ages three and four through the
darkness to the babysitter.
"Momma has to go to work to buy
you shoes", Mrs. Garrett told them. She had just that day
moved up the economic ladder, from a job selling sneakers at $5.25
an hour to a job at the bagel café for $6 an hour. Her
shift started at six in the morning and she did not want to be
late. Seven blocks on foot and then she was hugging her children
and handing them over to Vivian, a Bohemian woman who works nights
at the laundry. Now Vivian's small apartment was clean but sparsely
furnished. There were no toys or books in sight, just a television
that the children spent most of the next 10 hours watching. For
this, Mrs. Garrett scrapes together 50 bucks a week. A little
less than half the cost for just one child in most licensed day
care centers. Mrs. Garrett hurried down the stairs and set off
to work three miles away. The family car had died a month ago.
"It breaks my heart leaving them
there." Said Mrs. Garrett who arrived in Florida from Jamaica
in 1989,"I want them in a learning environment but its the
best I can do right now, its an emergency situation."
That doesn't represent every child but it
represents far, far too many and I think we all know the impact
of that upon the development of a child's mind and character.
The two historic trends I've talked about-the
move from a resource based economy to an idea based economy, and
the new reality of the working family-present us with enormous
policy challenges that we must tackle head on-in our families,
in the private sector, and in government.
And let me just say one more item. If that
wasn't enough, we've been passing welfare laws that say you also
have to go to work and leave your child. Now I supported those
laws as most of the people in this room did, because we thought
we were doing the right thing and I think there was a correctness
about what we did.
What I'm trying to say is that this is the
first priority of Colorado. The challenge we have is, what are
we going to do approach strategically this problem?
Let's begin by reaffirming our commitment
to the goal of making Colorado "the best place to raise a
child" in the nation.
Together, we have worked on a bipartisan basis. Among other accomplishments, let me list a few:
One of our proudest and most creative achievements,
I believe, has been Bright Beginnings. Under the guidance of
Brad Butler, the former chairman of Proctor and Gamble, we've
built Bright Beginnings into a thriving, volunteer-based effort
in cities and towns across the state where newborn children are
welcomed into our communities.
Bright Beginnings has also increased private
sector involvement in creating family-friendly workplaces.
We need to build on the good work we have
done, and reaffirm our commitment to children being our top priority.
But we need to do more. We need a collective response in the
public and private sector to this dilemma of child care.
How are we going to do it?
It needs to be driven by the free market. The government has
an important role. But we've got to think through and drive this
solution through the free market.
How can we do that? Let me lay out five or six points.
First, for the free market to work parents have got to
have the right information to make the right purchases. Let's
be honest about it; we need to assist parents in identifying what
good child care is. Parents need good information, we need to
use the resources of the private sector to help parents to be
good consumers and be able to identify high quality early education
programs for their children. By one measure, only one in five
kids in child care is receiving a quality experience. Doug Price,
president of First Bank of Colorado, is leading an exciting private
sector initiative, called "Educare," which is one example
of how we can work in this area. I really am optimistic about
what that group will do. But we need to begin by getting the
right kind of understanding as to what is good care, quality care
and assisting parents to know how to purchase it and where it
is located.
Second, we need to help child care providers, both public
and private, improve quality. We need to set some quality standards-not
just minimum rules and regulations-for child care facilities.
And we need professional development and training for child care
workers so that they adequately understand the growth and development
of young children and how to nurture them.
I support legislation to create a voluntary child care credential
that recognizes professional achievement and expertise.
We have a tremendous job to do here to extend through distance
learning the opportunity for child care workers to achieve these
skills.
Third, we need to increase the availability of space, the
availability of quality child care. This is a serious issue for
infants, toddlers, special needs children, and for those who must
work weekends and nights. Right here in Colorado, 177,000 kids
need child care, but the current system can only care for 130,000.
And remember, on top of what we already need, we're adding 40,000
more children to the system because of our welfare-to-work program.
Fourth, we need more resources. Again I'm trying to lay
out a structure in which the free market can work here, you need
good information, you need to find a way to improve the quality,
help providers get that done. You need to be sure we've got the
quantity, the access there. But you've got to be able to afford
it. How can we help here? We need to get more resources into
the system, both to parents and to communities to provide accessibility,
quality and affordability. The President of the United States
helped a good bit in the last couple of days by the new initiatives
he has suggested. And I hope Congress will look kindly upon them.
By virtue of the strength of our economy, we have a budget surplus,
as you well know. Now all of us have ideas about what to do with
that surplus, and I will speak more about that later in this speech.
But families with young children ought to have the first crack
at that surplus.
Two years ago, we created a state child care credit for families
with incomes of $60,000 or less. Under that law, the average
qualifying family in Colorado can claim between 10 and 50 percent
of their federal child care credit against their state income
tax liability.
To provide middle and low income families with more help to offset
child care expenses, I propose we increase this tax credit to
equal the full amount families receive on their federal taxes,
and make it refundable so that more families can take advantage
of it.
Let me underscore that. This would put $26 million a year into
the pockets of families to help them with their child care expenses.
And it is critical that you underscore the fact that it would
be a refund to families even if they didn't owe the tax liability.
In addition, I propose that we extend the current business tax
credits available only in enterprise zones to all businesses
statewide who invest in child care programs and facilities in
their communities, or for their employees.
I understand that there is legislation that will be introduced
through the Children's Legislative Ad Hoc Committee, to create
an Early Education and School Readiness Program. This program
will direct new funds to communities and will give them the flexibility
to use these funds to improve program quality, to help with teacher
training and more. I think that's a good idea. We ought to explore
together appropriate funding levels and sources for this program.
I've earmarked $2 million again this year in Community Development
Block Grant monies to help communities build or renovate child
care centers.
There are at least 10 separate federal funding sources for early
education programs. It's actually common to see, in one building,
children segregated into classrooms according to funding programs.
I ask you, why would we want poor kids, kids with special needs,
and kids with working parents segregated pattern? It's not good
for kids and it's not an efficient way to spend money.
We need to actively seek waivers from all of these separate federal
programs so that communities can pool these resources to meet
their specific needs. You Republicans can applaud on that one.
That's one of your items. All right.
Fifth - and this is the most important element of our child
care plan - we need to help local communities coordinate their
efforts. Let me just speak about that. Let's take the imaginary
community of Holyoke or any other community in Colorado. I need
to redo that sentence, don't I? Let's leave Holyoke and let's
just take an imaginary community. See any time I get to a word
that's close to Holly, I kind of clam up.
Right now we have the federal and state government in that community
with the TANF monies for daycare, we've got Head Start, we've
got the Colorado Preschool Program, and we've got some categorical
stovepipes coming down from the federal government and we've got
program after program that is not related to government in that
community.
What we need to do is to bring the power structure of that community
together. Who would it be at the table? It would be the child
care advocates, it would be the employers, it would be the police
and fire chief, it would be those who represent schools, those
who represent the church community in very large numbers. They
would set at this table and say, "OK, what is the need in
our community?" And they would do an inventory and they'd
say, "what is the present capacity?" And they'd say,
"woops, it isn't adequate. Now you take that assignment
and you take that assignment." And then they would say,
"What is the present affordability?" And employers
would talk about it, the welfare folks would talk about it, those
who fall within the gap need to be considered.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if that community then could take those
resources and let the left hand know what the right hand is doing
and orchestrate all those multiple resources together and provide
a comprehensive approach to child care in that community?
Now you see what really hurts is when I call somebody in to repair
my refrigerator or my airplane, I'm paying them $25 or $35 an
hour. But when someone takes their child over to a child care
center, that employee gets paid $6.25.
I value the children more than I do the refrigerator but the terrible dilemma is this
; most experts say that quality child care costs $8,100 a year
and I believe it. We only have about $4,800 to $5,000 in a purchaser's
hand. How do we close that gap? We've got to do it with some
volunteerism, we need to reach into that community after we have
that council there and say, "folks we can't do it with dollars
alone. We need your help seniors, we need your help the church
community."
We need to get at this on a community basis. This is not a left
or right ideological program. This is devolving this thing down
to a community level. That's a conservative principle. It is
using the free market to make it work. That's a conservative
principle. It is getting parents the information they need to
make good purchases and it is helping those providers get their
employees trained.
We can do this, we can do this. I heard this morning that Gov.
Wilson in California put hundreds of millions of dollars on the
table for infrastructure and child care. God bless him, he's
going the right way.
I've got to get on with the speech because we're limited to an
hour, but I feel this very strongly. There's one last thing I'll
say before I leave this issue of what is quality child care.
Let me give you two words: Warmth and responsiveness. When you
put a child in a setting, that setting needs to be one of warmth
and it needs to be responsive to that child.
And you know, I didn't get to use this any where else in this
speech, it's Plato. Plato on this subject:
'You know that the beginning is the most important part of any
work, especially in the case of any young and tender thing. For
that is the time in which the character is being formed and the
desired impression more readily taken. Shall we just carelessly
allow children to hear the casual tales to be devised by casual
persons or to receive into their mind ideas for the most part
that are the very opposite of those which we wish them to have
when they are grown up?'
Think of the kids staring at a television 10 hours a day. Folks,
this is a crisis and it doesn't need to be. We can do something
about it. I ask you to join and support this program of making
this the first priority of Colorado.
I've talked about child care. But there is
another issue that affects our children's ability to learn and
grow. And that's health care.
We've made some progress here. But not enough.
86 percent of Colorado's two-year olds are
immunized-that's higher than the national average.
Last year, our school-based health centers provided 30,000 kids access to
basic health care and prevention services.
And Colorado was the first state in the nation
to submit for federal approval a child health insurance program,
called the Children's Basic Health Plan.
But with Colorado's prosperity, it is unacceptable,
it is unacceptable to have 180,000 of our children-mostly in working
families - who still do not have health insurance.
And it's unacceptable that many children don't
get the dental care they need-in large part because our Medicaid
reimbursement rates are too low.
I think it is a scandal that we can only pay
30 percent reimbursement of costs for dental healthcare in this
state given the affluence we have in our economy.
Now, here's what we can do.
First, the
new Federal Balanced Budget Agreement provides Colorado up to
$42 million in matching funds to improve children's health.
I propose that we accelerate the Children's
Basic Health Plan to provide insurance for 25,000 more children
this year, and follow through with plans to cover at least 45,000
children next year. I urge you to allocate $5.2 million from
the General Fund this year to match available federal dollars.
This program-a model for other states-focuses
on prevention. Its goal is to provide comprehensive services,
using managed care and existing public and community health infrastructure.
Second,
I support legislation to expand Medicaid coverage by modifying
the asset test and covering all children up to 100 percent of
the federal poverty level.
Third, I
propose to develop a network of dentists, non-profit organizations,
and community health care providers to better coordinate available
resources to serve children who don't have access to dental care.
Fourth,
we should increase reimbursements for dentists providing services
to Medicaid children, and we should expand Medicaid to give our
poorest children dental care.
With a state investment of $1 million, we
can access another $1 million in federal funds, and provide much
needed dental care to Colorado's children.
I don't know about you, but I can't work if
I've got a tooth that's just blinding me with pain. And I think
children can't think and grow and educate themselves. It's just
a very very inefficient way to try to expect a child to develop
themselves if we can't give them adequate dental care.
Fifth, I
propose a modest investment of $600,000 to fund a pilot program
for prenatal and early childhood home visitations by nurses for
300 at-risk families.
And sixth, we should double the number
of children who have access to school-based health centers.
One final point in this area. On your desks
you will find an Investment Prospectus published by the Governor's
office. To those of you who invest in stocks or bonds, it will
look familiar.
This Prospectus, however, is unique. It's
about kids. It tells us that we ought to invest more in prevention
programs early in a child's life. It shows, in stark terms, the
long-term costs of inaction-poor health, foster care, child welfare,
special education.
I urge you to read it. If we make smart investments
today, we will save the state money in the long-run.
Now I'd like to talk now about K-12 education.
I've talked about child care and how important
that is. And I've talked about child health.
But to move toward an economy where skills,
knowledge and ideas are paramount, we have got to work on public
education.
We have been focused on this for several years, and we have taken
some steps toward lasting reform. Today, all 176 of our school
districts have implemented high academic standards-developed by
parents, teachers, business people and others-for each grade in
reading, writing, math, science, geography and history.
We now can say to every kid "this is what you need to know,
and this is what you need to be able to do."
Now with the fourth grade reading and writing assessments completed
last year, we now have, for the first time, an accurate measure
of where our kids are-not compared to other kids in other states,
but compared to where we think they need to be to succeed
in the new economy.
And now we know that too many of our kids do not meet these standards.
We know that less than 50 percent of our fourth graders write
as well as they should, and just over 50 percent read as well
as they should.
That's sobering news. But I welcome it because, for the first
time, we have an objective measure of how we're doing.
To meet the challenges of an economy driven by skills, knowledge
and ideas, we have to do better.
So today, let's dedicate ourselves to this goal: every school
in Colorado will improve its own performance by at least 25 percent
in fourth grade reading and writing over the next three years.
We have as much to do for our public schools over the next 10
years as we have done for our economy over the last 10 years.
I know that many schools and districts are already working hard
to improve achievement, and I applaud their efforts.
But how do we help each school reach this goal?
We need to make standards a part of the routine of the school
day. We need to improve and encourage teacher training and professional
development. We need to engage parents more effectively in the
classrooms and the work of their kids.
We need to make sure that schools and libraries are connected
to the Internet, opening students to a world of opportunities,
choices and ideas.
We need school-to-career programs, to bring knowledge of the workplace
into classrooms.
We need to provide adequate funding-a 3 percent increase for all
schools this year, and more to those schools that prove a commitment
to high standards. More on that in a moment.
In short, we need to do everything we can to help every kid in
every school in every district.
But accountability must begin somewhere. And it must be in each
school and in each district in the state.
What must each school do? Parents look to us and ask, "What
are you doing to improve my child's schools? How do you know
the money is being spent wisely?"
Let's answer these questions by requiring each school to meet
the goal of raising achievement by 25 percent in 3 years. Each
school should develop a plan of action, a blueprint for making
improvements, something that will give parents confidence that
a program is in place and that progress is going to be made.
Now any school that creates that plan, which is voluntary for
them to do, by June 30 of this year, I propose they get an additional
funding increase of one-half percent. This is a small but important
incentive and this will bring the total funding increase up to
3.5 percent for all districts which file improvement plans. Let
me underscore, there is no approval of these plans, these plans
are to be approved at a district level, but they need to have
a plan and it needs to be filed.
The plan ought to outline ways that schools will:
I want schools to get all the help they need during this three
year period so that they don't fail to make that goal. I believe
that the state Department of Education should provide specialized
technical assistance, including help from a "mentor teacher
corps," helping schools become more efficient to free up
their resources for teaching.
But this is not about plans and reports. It's about looking each
parent in the eye and saying, "Your school and your child
is not going to be left behind."
Now if we commit to help them get this job done, if after 3 years,
a school or a district is unable to improve performance, I believe
strong measures are in order. I believe that the state must have
the ability to demand accountability and change local school management
authority. Removing accreditation, as allowed by current law,
may not be enough. We may need the ability to go farther, to remove
local management.
I am very respectful of local control. But if school districts
cannot improve the education of their students, someone else must.
Our kids in school deserve nothing less.
Now, there are some who believe that we can solve our problems
in public schools simply by reducing bureaucracy and giving teachers
more discretion to discipline unruly kids.
I think those are valuable goals. But we should not be under
any illusion that that's going to get us where we need to go.
I know that this is an election year, and that bumper sticker
slogans about tough problems are inevitable.
But Colorado's parents and kids deserve something better than
that.
To summarize, we need to push standards and assessments hard.
We need to make sure it is done on the local level. We need
schools to change their ways, to improve student achievement,
and provide extra help to those who need it. And we need to attach
financial incentives to performance, and consequences to non-performance.
To help launch us toward our goal of 25 percent improvement, and
to help focus and guide our future policies on K-12 education,
I want to announce that, in partnership with business and education
groups and the board of education and the legislature, I will
host an education summit in February. At that summit, we need
to take a comprehensive look at improving student performance.
I intend that the summit address other key, long-term education
issues. What are some of those issues?
Well, that is what I propose that we do in K-12. Now, having
looked at early childhood and at K-12, let's turn briefly to higher
education. There are some very interesting things that have occurred
there in the prepaid tuition fund. You're familiar with it.
On adult literacy, it's obvious in a workforce that's down to
a 3.5 percent unemployment rate, we need to make the wise investment
in adult literacy. It's just a crucial investment.
Workforce development, this is an absoluty crucial area if our
economy is to prosper. We have made some real gains in this are
and again I refer to the written speech and budget book.
The one key area I want to talk about in higher education is what
technology is going to do. There is an absolute revolution in
terms of the way we're going to learn beyond high school. We
used to talk about institutions and teaching, we've got to reverse
that paradigm. It's now students and learning. We're going to
learn about all kinds of places in the world, we're going to learn
it in all kinds of ways.
We now have digitized course material with which you can sit in
front of a computer or CD-ROM and it can take you inside the Parthenon;
it can show you the statues. It can say "write an essay
now about the comparison artistically of this one to that."
You can be wired with the other 24 students in the class and
the professor can simultaneously look at every one of your communications.
He can give a test and can see what it is that you understand
and what you don't. He can get instantaneous feedback. Virtual
reality is here in education and in the next five years there
is going to be an explosion.
Let's take libraries. In the budget process, remember how many
dollars we put into libraries. We're going to have a library
in one location in which 50 universities will be plugged in electronically.
You won't buy 50 sets of periodicals. It is a revolutionary
time, and we have an instrument called Western Governors' University.
It is absolutely mind-blowing. 17 states, 17 governors have
created it and it will be a distribution network for existing
course work, it'll cross state boundaries, cross the barrier of
tuition and will be a great facilitator in access to existing
courses.
But the exciting thing about WGU is that it will also develop
a certificate of competency, so that independent of the course
you will be certified as to whether you know what you're supposed
to know. The free market will come into higher education and in
a way it has never done before. Right now if you want to take
your kid to college, you go to the library and you look and all
you see is input, how much it costs, how restrictive is admission,
how many Ph. Ds.
If we ever get a certification of competency, separate from those
who provide the course, then you can look at outputs. And once
you begin to look at outputs, you no longer buy brand names, you
buy results. And that's were the economy of knowledgeable buying
will come to play. One of the greatest barriers of the average
family to the good life is access to education beyond high school.
What I'm really talking about is the equivalent to the JD Powers
survey about educational quality and price.
Let me turn to technology. You have on your desk a brochure entitled
Colorado Connect.
I've been doing a lot of thinking about technology and meeting
with CEOs and I just want to say that this document, Connect Colorado,
explains some of our current efforts to use technology to make
government work better, and to connect better with our citizens
through an improved information systems. One example is the Colorado
Homepage. Another is the effort to connect our schools to the
information highway.
We have started down this road, we have more to do.
I have asked for $20 million to improve the ability of our schools
to enter the information age.
Growth and quality of life.
So far this morning, I've talked about the new economy, child
care and health, education and technology. I think all of you
know that in the area of quality of life we have made some gains,
but we have more work to do.
Crime.
Frankly, despite our population growth, statistics show that our
streets and neighborhoods are safer today than they have been
in many years.
That didn't just happen. We have taken an iron-fist approach
to crime-especially juvenile crime. The policies we have implemented
together-banning guns in the hands of kids, funding community
efforts to prevent crime, and passing tougher sentences for adult
and juvenile offenders-are working.
But there are still some serious issues that must be addressed.
We have been shocked recently by several outrageous hate crimes
in Colorado. By hate crime, we mean a crime against someone motivated
solely by a victim's personal characteristic, such as race, age
or gender.
Our statutes here are strong. But I want to make two changes
to make them stronger.
First, I believe we should add hate crimes to the list
of aggravating circumstances in death penalty cases.
Second, I believe that the definition of hate crimes should
be extended to include crimes motivated by the sexual orientation
of the victim. Too many of Colorado's gay and lesbian citizens
face such crimes each year, and we should provide this added protection
to them.
We know in the long run the solution to crime involves more than
just getting tough on criminals. We know that it is much less
expensive and so much better to prevent crimes before they happen.
One of the best things we have done in this area is the Youth
Crime Prevention and Intervention program. In a similar vein,
we should expand our prevention efforts to include increased alcohol
and drug treatment as well as other programs which have proven
track records.
Environment.
I think that you all know the importance of the environment to
this state. I've always said the future of Colorado will be determined
by two thing: how well we raise our children and how well we keep
our place, our environment.
It is just a critical asset. We have made some real gains in
our Smart Growth movement. We have in process 74 recommendations
that are being implemented.
What is really encouraging is what is happening in the local government
area. They are acting. Let's use the examples of Larimer and
Weld counties and the cities of Fort Collins, Greeley, and Loveland.
They're using tools to ensure they don't become just one city.
The San Luis Valley has also done some creative work and we need
to continue to think about how we can support that effort.
Let me speak about clean air for a moment. Twenty years ago we
violated clean air standards 170 each year. In this past two
years, we didn't violate those standards once. We did it largely
through local initiatives and efforts and we should be proud of
this. We need to continue these efforts in light of our futuregrowth.
In the metropolitan area, for instance, local governmental, business
and community leaders are developing the "Blueprint for Clean
Air"-a long-term, comprehensive, locally-driven plan to reduce
the Brown Cloud over the next 10 to 20 years. This is precisely
the kind of bottom-up, local solution that we need to support.
I want to turn to transportation.
Our most pressing growth issue is in transportation and its time
for some straight talk.
Transportation is critical to our economy and to the quality of
our lives. Yet we are falling behind. We have not kept up with
growth of our population and the number of cars on our roads.
We have 500,000 more people on the road than we did five years
ago. It's harder to get to work, and the time spent struck in
traffic is time not spent with families.
We know we have a serious problem. And, we have come to consensus
that we have at least $13 billion of unfunded need-$8 billion
at the state level and $5 billion at the local level. And folks,
that's a very conservative figure. Let me tell you it's conservative.
Our needs are much greater than that number. But that amount
of need that we're focusing on is $13 billion.
Together we passed Senate Bill 1. That was a tough battle. None
of us were totally happy with the bill. But we accomplished some
fundamental things.
We have started the job. The people want us to finish it.
Here's what we need to do.
First, because we must move ahead where we can to solve
our traffic congestion as quickly as possible, I took action several
weeks ago that I thought was important.
We stepped up to the plate in state government and let Washington
know that we intend to secure federal funding for highway improvements
and light rail along I-25 from downtown Denver to Lincoln Avenue
in Douglas County.
People are often at a dead stop on that road. We have to act
and we have to act now.
We did that by pledging state money to secure $355 million in
federal funding for that corridor.
Second, under our current system, transportation planning
in the metro area is too separate from land-use and other community
planning. Local community officials are responsible for just
about every other related issue in their jurisdictions. They
need to have more say in how transportation is organized. That's
why we must reform the governing board of RTD. It's about smart
planning. It's just totally unwise for those who make decisions
about land use not to have some access to the decisions on transportation.
I know that a number of you in this room have been thinking along
these same lines, and I'd like to look forward to working with
you on that restructuring.
Of course, the transportation situation in Denver is only part
of a larger, statewide issue. We made a good start at statewide
investments last year with Senate Bill 1. But that is just a
start.
Here, I want to be very clear. In the past, when our economy
was not as strong as it is today, we could not always afford to
make needed transportation investments. But today, when our economy
is so strong, we can afford to make these investments,
and I think we must do so.
The pressures on our transportation system are in large part the
result of strong economic growth. The budget surpluses we expect
over the next five years also are the result of that strong economic
growth.
Now look, let's be clear about the real source of this surplus.
It's not a "TABOR" surplus, it is a growth surplus.
Now when times are good, we should use part of this growth surplus
to invest in transportation. In Holly, when we had a good year,
we fixed the barn and we bought a new tractor. We invested in
good times to protect our future.
I strongly believe we must use a portion of the growth surplus
to make key public investments that will keep the economy strong
and enhance our quality of life in the future.
I know a lot of you have very specific proposals for the growth
surplus. I'm not going to make a specific proposal right now
and I'm doing that so that I can work as cooperatively and in
bipartisan way as possible with you. I think you know, I come
out with a Romer plan and it gives everybody something to shoot
at. So I just want you to know that I'm willing to work with
you.
I've recruited Larry Kallenberger to work with local communities
on a listening campaign as a part of this process of deciding
how to deal with that growth surplus. This sort of process served
us well in our Smart Growth efforts and I believe it can help
us craft a better proposal for people to vote upon.
Now my basic attitude about the growth surplus is this-some should
be returned to individuals for their own use, and some should
be used for collective investments in critical areas like transportation,
schools and technology.
Wh're about at the end, I've got to go off text and talk to you
about this. This is the most serious question that I think you
may wrestle with this session. Let's be very honest about the
facts . The facts are we've got $8 billion need at the state
level, we've got $5 billion need at the local level. What have
we applied to that? We've applied 5 years of Senate Bill 1, that's
$850 million.
Now let's talk sense. There are some in this room who would say
we're going to fund all of that out of the general fund. Add
up how much general fund money it takes to get to $8 billion or
$13 billion if you're going to include the local share. You do
$100 million a year beyond Senate Bill 1 in 20 years that's $2
billion. You do $200 million that's $4 billion. You do $400
million a year, that's $8 billion.
Now look, I attended a meeting of the capital building committee
and they were thinking about financing prisons because they didn't
have enough money in the budget to fund prisons and higher education
buildings right now, and that's before you start spending that
one two or four hundred million dollars for highways.
Folks we have a state that's on the threshhold of greatness.
You know that. What's going to get us there? Primarily it's
educating the young, those in school and higher education. It's
ideas, skill and knowledge, but we're not there yet. Did you
see this morning about the comparison of Colorado with the nation
in terms of our per capita contribution to public schools. We're
not there yet on the dropouts. We're not there yet in terms of
the quality of educational experience that we may need to have.
Now, for God sakes, you don't even need to make the decision.
All I'm asking you to do is to refer it to the people so that
they can make a decision.
I used to serve in this body. When I served up here people took
responsibility for their own actions. Several years ago the people
spoke. They spoke through the TABOR amendment and what did they
say? They said ,"we want a vote, we want to vote when you
increase taxes." Now look, let's keep faith with that.
But do you think that they were wise enough when they passed TABOR
that they really understood that they were fixing in the 6 percent
limit that you had done by statute? They didn't have a clue.
They didn't vote on the 6 percent limit, they didn't even understand
it. They didn't know there was going to be ratcheting down effect
of the Gallagher Amendment that is going to frustrate local jurisdictions'
efforts to support schools and push their costs onto the state
budget.
It is crazy for us to think that you can turn to an initiative
passed years ago and be able to react to the world now. It's
kind of like sending a ship across the ocean and saying, "this
is all the fuel you've got to use, we don't care whether you hit
a storm or not, we're going to tell you that's all you've got."
Folks, why don't you find a way that you can trust the people
again and ask them whether or not we're going to be a mediocre
state, or whether we're gong to be a great state.
Now what kind of judgment is it that makes you sit here and say
we're not even going to give them a chance to give us their opinion?
That is arrogance of the first order in my mind. I had another
paragraph in here about a fiscal chastity belt which I'm not going
to use because my staff wouldn't let me. But let me tell you,
let me tell you I am proud to be the governor of this state.
I'm proud of it. People envy us. We've got the best economy
in the nation, we've got the best place to live in the nation.
Do you think we're going to keep that with that fiscal straight
jacket around us?
The people want a chance to revisit that issue, the people want
a chance to say, "give us an opportunity to restate our values
of how important it is to raise a child 0-6, how important it
is to keep health for all children, not just the members of my
own family. How important it is to open up higher education."
Can I give you this illustration. You know we're entering into
an age in which you need to have more skills. If we had a 50
percent increase in higher education tuition just over night and
they went to the school and paid their tuition, you know what
would happen? You've got to reduce the general fund by the amount
of the tuition. That's the way the amendment works. Now that
is stupid.
Now if you haven't got my point, I'll stay and talk a little longer.
Let me conclude.
This morning, I've talked about the relevance and importance of
early childhood issues, public schools, higher education, the
beauty of Colorado, and the quality of life we enjoy. I've talked
about the investments we need to make, particularly in infrastructure
and transportation.
But in closing, I want to return to what is the first priority,
and that is how we as a community called Colorado can create the
best place for a child to be born and grow.
Let me tell you a story that happened to me this week as I wrote
this speech. A person I've already honored, Brad Butler-who has
been a great leader for us all in the area of children-has cancer.
I invited him to the speech, but he is in the operating room
this morning. I went to his home on Tuesday afternoon and spent
some time with him and he has given me permission to share this
with you.
I sat down in a chair across from Brad in his living room, and
he began to talk to me about the immediate need, because of his
health, to find new leadership for Bright Beginnings.
He described his health, he described how far the cancer had spread,
and asked if I would be a part of his memorial service.
Now in my awkwardness to express the feelings I have for him,
I said, "Brad, you have had a streak of bad luck."
He interrupted me and said, "No, Roy, my luck has not been
bad - it has been very good."
Then he went on and he began to describe the beauty of his relationship
to his children, to his grandchildren, to his wife Erna and he
described the joy it had been for him to help Colorado on the
crusade for children.
He handed me some writings that he had recently prepared for his
children and grandchildren, about some of the experiences in his
life, so they would know him better and know what shaped his character.
Now why do I tell you this story? It is about character.
It is important to create an environment where young children
can learn skills, knowledge and creative intelligence.
But it is much more important to create an environment where they
can acquire the traits of character displayed by a person such
as Brad Butler-traits of character like honesty, compassion, courage,
a work ethic, delayed gratification, self-control, to be a sharing
member of a community, and to serve a larger purpose than your
own personal desires.
Children, when they are born into this world, are innocent and
they're full of hope. Traits of character don't come with them.
They get that from us, the adults in their lives. Thus, the
importance of our improving the early childhood experience in
Colorado.
Our dream, our goal then, is not just to have the best economy,
it's not just to be the most beautiful state to live in, but to
be that place where the best human beings can grow.
My dialogue with Brad did not end Tuesday because he was in the
hospital this morning in a surgical room. He sent a note to me
by his son. It's classic Brad, I'll read it to you:
"Dear Roy: There are very few people I would trust to use
my situation and my feelings in a public message. I'd be too
concerned that they'd make it maudlin, self-serving or self-pitying.
But you feel free, I trust you. Make our neighbors realize that
we can not only regain much of what we've lost in time and cause,
but we can be better than we have been."
Let me close then because when I read that, I grabbed Tennyson's Ulysses which I used about six years ago. Let me close with this.
Come, let's join in this quest.
In the words of Ulysses,
Come, my friends.
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are, -
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Thank you very much.