Clearly, there are tough times ahead, but let's remember what we have been able to do together just in the last year.
First, we made a simple promise to families in this state. Any child in Wisconsin can get health insurance through BadgerCare Plus. Over the last year, 100,000 new people signed up for BadgerCare Plus, and more than two-thirds of them were kids. By the latest measures, we are number 2 in the country for health insurance coverage. Tonight, we have someone who enrolled in BadgerCare Plus. She is expecting a baby this spring, and after she graduates from the University of Wisconsin Medical School, she will start her residency this fall in Emergency Medicine. Let me introduce Sherrie Bencik.
Sherrie, you're really going to have your hands full and we wish you the best.
Second, after an effort that spanned many years and involved eight states, two Canadian provinces, and our federal government, we have ratified the Great Lakes Compact.
Lake Michigan and Lake Superior define our state in so many ways - our history, our recreation, our commerce, even our borders. Now we have acted to protect these tremendous waters. Thank you to Senators Jauch and Miller and Representatives Mason and Gunderson for your work on this accomplishment.
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Third, we launched a Clean Energy Wisconsin plan that includes many new efforts to spur innovation and free us from foreign oil. We committed to conservation, to look at new sources of energy, and to make our existing utilities cleaner.There are many other accomplishments this year. The UW Growth Agenda got underway, creating more opportunities for our citizens to go to college. Because we renewed the Stewardship Fund, we added 21,000 acres into conservation programs in 2008, providing more ways for people to hunt, fish and recreate in the great Wisconsin outdoors. We made major progress toward making sure four-year-old kindergarten is available for every parent to choose. Our utilities will burn cleaner and are on their way to reducing mercury emissions by 90 percent. We forged a new collaboration among our top medical institutions to begin providing individualized treatment based on a patient's DNA. We hosted the World Stem Cell Summit and brought together the top scientists and investors. We made our state home to part of the Olympics if the 2016 games come to Chicago. And we responded heroically to floods that tested us this summer. Our rescue workers acted swiftly, they kept people safe and we avoided what could have been a tragedy hundreds of times over.
As we take on the challenges facing our state in the coming year, there are important steps we can take to save lives, improve our health, and make our world safer.
First, we can make sure kids with autism get the treatment they need. Private insurers should cover autism; the treatment has been proven effective, and families deserve the right to see their children improve.
Second, we can make sure all our public places are smoke-free. Twenty-four other states have done it; dozens of our communities have done it. It is time for Wisconsin to take a step that improves our health, saves lives and helps people to break the addiction to tobacco.
We need to put kids first and make sure that their childcare is accountable and up to high standards. There are clear steps to improve childcare in our state, and we can take them now.
It is also time for us to confront the problems of drunk driving in this state. Let's work to allow law enforcement officers to set up controlled, reasonable sobriety checkpoints. We can pass legislation that will take drunk drivers off the road by making the third offense a felony.
We can do our part to address climate change and the way we use energy. My Global Warming Task Force over the last year put together a comprehensive and reasonable set of actions to take. We can build jobs and help our planet by cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Thank you to Senators Mark Miller, Jeff Plale and Rob Cowles and Representatives Spencer Black, Jim Soletski and Phil Montgomery for your work on this important front.
We can change school funding in a way that encourages the hiring and retention of good teachers, provides for high standards and encourages efficiencies in our school districts. We can take these steps to make sure our kids get a great education.
Our future will depend on how well we can work together. But if we ever doubt our ability to bridge our differences for the common good, consider what others in Wisconsin have been up against. Through historic challenges, we see the resolve that makes Wisconsin great.
Next month, the National Guard will begin its largest deployment ever of Wisconsin troops. More than 3,500 men and women will be called up to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan. To them, and to all their fellow members of the military and their families, our debt, and our gratitude, is enormous. Their work has been long and demanding.We have with us three members of the National Guard who have served overseas. Let me introduce: Sergeant First Class Ron Adams, Sergeant Allen Robertson and Staff Sergeant Jarret Nelson.
Your service, and the service of all your fellow soldiers, deserves our full support, and I am glad that in Wisconsin, we have made sure any veteran receives full tuition reimbursement.
After a record amount of snowfall, the southern half of our state was flooded by spring storms. Never before had we seen so much rain. Whole farms stood underwater. Rivers rose past bridges, over dams and through entire towns.
The floods were the costliest natural disaster Wisconsin has ever faced. The weather was so severe that in the Wisconsin Dells it meant a whole section of land gave way, emptying Lake Delton. The entire country watched houses float down the Wisconsin River. In the aftermath, it would have been easy to look across an empty lakebed, flooded fields and impassable roads and figure it was all too much to handle.
But that was not in the hearts of those who, as the rain continued to pour, stood with their neighbors filling sand bags. That was not in the hearts of those who opened their homes to those who had lost theirs. That was not in the hearts of the farmers who replanted and the people who rebuilt.
It is in that spirit that, just 6 months later, against all odds, Lake Delton is refilling. A vital piece of our tourism economy is going to be back this spring. And all across the state, we have recovered from this disaster. Here in Wisconsin, our spirit can not be doused.
And speaking of water and heroics, we recently saw a Wisconsin citizen do something that ought to inspire us all.
Not only can we rise above floodwaters; it turns out we can land safely on ice-cold waters. Two weeks ago, we all watched a U.S. Airways Flight land in the Hudson River after birds struck the plane, killing both engines. Somehow, through cool thinking and decisive action, the pilots were able to land the jetliner in the freezing river almost immediately after taking off. All 155 people aboard the plane, passengers and crew, made it home without any loss of life.
I am proud to have someone here tonight who lives just 10 miles away in the village of Oregon, the co-pilot of U.S. Airways Flight 1549, Jeffrey Skiles, and his wife, Barbara.
Jeffrey, your heroism and the heroic actions of your fellow crew members have made all the difference in the world for your passengers and all their families. Thank you on behalf of the state of Wisconsin.
Wisconsin, I know who we are. We're Badgers. We don't shy away -- we stand up. We don't withdraw, feeling sorry for ourselves -- we get up and fight. We work even harder. We don't point fingers and fall into small minded bickering -- we pull together, share the sacrifice and move forward. We don't forget those who have been hardest hit -- we look out for our brothers and sisters who need help the most. We are Badgers.
Thank you, everyone. On, Wisconsin."
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The Joint Convention arose.
7:53 P.M.
