Tina said, and I quote, "Now that I receive a paycheck, it is twice as much as I have ever received during the time I was on AFDC."
To the men and women in W-2, the message from your peers and myself is simple: You can do it.
If you ever have doubts, just give Tina Miller a call.
And to ensure these women and other working families have the highest quality child care, we propose providing an annual site visit for every certified child care provider, including provisional providers such as relatives. And we want to provide caregivers with smoke detectors, first aid kits, health information and children's books.
As our families are working in Wisconsin, we must never forget that they can spend their money much more wisely than government can.
Ladies and gentlemen, that's why we cut property taxes for the second straight year. And that's why we based the lottery credit on the parcels of property owned, saving farmers millions in taxes. With us tonight is Jerry Bradley of Sun Prairie, a fifth generation farmer whose family filed the deed for their land in 1848. Jerry saw a $1,200 reduction in his property taxes last month.
Working together in this chamber, we cut income taxes by 1 percent
indexed them for inflation to save families $25 million a year
eliminated the state income tax for families earning under $18,000
and did away with the ridiculous marriage penalty.
And thanks to our booming economy, we have a surplus that will help us provide another $180 million in tax cuts tonight.
Together, we're providing real tax relief touching the everyday lives of real families. And we're fostering further economic growth in our state.
The cutting-edge jobs of tomorrow are being spawned right here in Wisconsin, as high-technology jobs are the fastest growing in the state, up 27 percent last year.
Nowhere is this growth more evident than in West Central Wisconsin, where high technology companies now dominate the local economy.
Time Magazine recently profiled Chippewa Falls in a story on the revival of small cities in America. Time said it singled out this titanic little city because:
"The city was once a lumber capital and now it's into microchips. What we liked about Chippewa Falls was its affordable housing, Leinenkugels beer, good winter sports and a mix of work and recreation."
Please welcome to the chambers Chippewa Falls Mayor Virginia Smith along with its economic development leaders Jim Schuh, Mike Jordan and John Regetz.
To keep the momentum going in this region, we are investing tonight a $500,000 grant from the Wisconsin Development Fund toward construction of the Chippewa Valley Technical College Manufacturing and Technology Center. The facility will provide space for employee training, product planning and distance education courses. A strong new tool for growing and attracting technology companies.
However, the growth of high-tech jobs stretches beyond the Chippewa Valley. Madison and southeastern Wisconsin remain a flurry of economic activity.
So it makes sense to connect and foster this growth industry in Wisconsin. I am proposing that we designate Interstate 90-94 from the Minnesota border to Milwaukee as the Wisconsin Technology Corridor.
When visitors and business leaders drive through our state on this highway, they will know they are traveling through a state committed to creating the jobs of tomorrow.
To further attract and grow high-tech companies, we must stop taxing the jobs of the future. We must stop taxing business computers as recommended by my Blue Ribbon Commission on Jobs for the 21st Century chaired by Katherine Lyall.
This tax cut, which received overwhelming bipartisan support in this chamber, will literally translate into thousands of high-paying jobs in Wisconsin. And we will do it without shifting the tax burden to homeowners.
In Wisconsin, we can't afford to ignore the great potential of our tourism industry. Therefore, we propose an additional $1.5 million for tourism marketing efforts so we can fully capitalize on the growing drawing power of America's State.
For our farmers, we must open new doors in the global marketplace. Agriculture exports reached a record $2 billion last year, supporting 40,000 jobs, but we are capable of doing much more.
Our strategic marketing plan seeks to double the amount of agricultural exports by the year 2002. And we begin with our greatest commodity -- the product that put Wisconsin on the map and spawned the latest fashion craze in headwear: cheese.
Our Dairy 20/20 early planning grants will help farmers study increasing their herd size, partnering with another farmer, or modernizing their equipment for maximum profitability.
And there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon in our long and hard-fought battle for reform in the milk marketing order system. We won the federal lawsuit prohibiting Washington from using the distance milk is produced from Eau Claire as a basis for milk prices. Now we need Washington to end its appeal and implement reform as ordered.
Eau Claire, Kenosha and southwestern Wisconsin are proud examples of communities who turned economic setbacks into triumphant comebacks. We must now help Ashland and Marinette do the same in the wake of paper industry consolidations.
We can put the full resources of the state at their disposal, including local economic development planning grants, revolving loans, and $1.5 million in tax credits through a Community Development Zone Designation.
And we should create a $2 million rapid response fund so our state agencies have greater flexibility to go into these communities, give workers the help they need and immediately begin attracting new businesses.
The investments we make in growing our economy will go for naught, however, if we don't generate sufficient energy for our state.
The uncertain power supply last summer was inexcusable. Tonight we unveil a sweeping energy reliability plan.
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My recommendations will give Wisconsin the tools we need to both generate and access more power at a cheap cost.
We eliminate cumbersome and outdated reporting requirements, streamline the approval process for construction of transmission lines, and encourage construction of new generating plants to ensure an ample supply of electricity.
Our plan is comprehensive and aggressive. It protects the environment and the consumer. And it keeps Wisconsin's economy charging forward.
Nothing is ever going to turn the lights out on Wisconsin!
While reliable energy is certainly important, our biggest economic challenge is finding people for our jobs. And this requires even greater emphasis on education.
I believe in parents. More than anyone else, parents know what's best for their children and what they need to be successful.
So I want to make sure a lack of money doesn't hinder the education plans our parents make for their sons and daughters.
We pump more money into public schools than just about any state in the nation. It's time we pumped a little money into the family budget for education.
Tonight, we seek to enrich our economy by making it more affordable for parents to educate their children, whether the child is in kindergarten or a senior at the University of Wisconsin.
Our Family Education Tax Package gives parents $100 million in tax breaks to spend on the educational expenses of their children. Families would be eligible for up to a $1,500 tax break per child in kindergarten to 12th grade -- low-income families would get a refundable tax credit, while middle-income families would receive a tax deduction.
If your struggling student needs a tutor; we're going to help pay for one.
If your children need a home computer; it'll be more affordable.
And if your son or daughter wants to be a Badger, money won't stand in the way.
Our plan will give families a $3,000 per child tax deduction for tuition and expenses at any state university, technical college, private college or Minnesota reciprocity school -- a deduction equivalent to an entire year's tuition at most UW campuses.
Wisconsin has the 10th-lowest tuition in the Big Ten. We're pumping more money into financial aid. And now, this tax break will make a college education more affordable than ever in Wisconsin.
This tax package is for our parents, who work so hard to give their children the very best.
Keep our families moving forever forward toward a world-class education. Cut their taxes.
Education:
I am the Youth of Wisconsin. My dream is to go to a great school that makes learning fun and challenging so I can make my dreams come true.
The greatest challenge before our state tonight is to make sure every child in this state - whether rich or poor, suburban or urban - receives the best education in the world.
That's why we are building the world's most challenging schoolhouse of tomorrow, wiring it with the most ambitious technology capabilities in America through TEACH Wisconsin.
As we do so, we must remain dedicated to the fundamentals of education such as reading. This means literally taking a few baby steps.
New science tells us that it is never too early to begin developing the minds of our children. We should begin reading to them at birth, if not before.
Let's help families get off on the right foot toward a world-class education by giving them their child's very first book. My wife Sue Ann suggested we proposed tonight a Wisconsin First Book program, which would send the family of every newborn a Golden Book, welcoming our newest Badger and encouraging the parents to begin reading to their baby.
Educators say good reading habits start at home; now let's start them at the hospital.
Give the gift of reading to our new families.
Learning must be a continual process for our children. Our high standard of excellence applies to all our schools, not just our high schools. We must make every grade count.
Performance in the classroom - not age -- should determine whether a student moves to the next grade in school. We must worry more about our children keeping up with their friends in the classroom than on the playground.
So tonight, I propose requiring students to meet local standards on 4th- and 8th- grade tests in order to move on to the next grade. If they fail to meet these standards, we must give our students the necessary help until they succeed. But they won't be promoted until they do.
The days of social promotion must end. From now on, we only promote success in Wisconsin.
As we work to prepare world-class students, we must make sure we're preparing world-class teachers as well.
We all saw the recent national report giving the quality of our teaching a D-, the lowest in the nation. I think this grade is just plain absurd. We have some of the best teachers in the world.
Basing an entire grade for "quality of teaching" on a prescribed set of licensing standards would be like giving Mark Twain a D- on an English paper because he wrote it with the wrong color ink. Results must count for something.
While we reject the simplicity of this criticism, we must take the call for higher standards to heart and do all we can to help prepare our teachers.
Tonight, we give our teachers a chance to show the nation that they are indeed the best by helping them become certified by The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Currently, only one teacher in our state is nationally certified.
To help develop the best and the brightest for our classrooms, I am proposing that the state help pay for the cost of taking the national certification test. And when they pass it, we'll give them a $3,000 bonus.
And we're asking teachers to help us raise the bar of excellence for our classrooms by participating in a peer review and mentoring program. If we have a struggling math teacher, let's pair her with the school's best math teacher so she can improve her skills. The state will provide grants for training assistance. Teachers helping teachers raise quality in the classroom. It just makes sense.
We can't talk about education in Wisconsin, however, without taking some time to focus on Milwaukee. Nowhere is change more desperately needed than in our largest city. In recent years, we've developed some innovative programs to help raise the quality of Milwaukee's schools.
But change is not coming swift enough. Graduation rates are dropping, and the dropout rate soared to nearly 14 percent. We lost 3,400 kids last year in Milwaukee schools - that's equivalent to the entire Stoughton School District.
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When welfare threatened to consume a new generation of children, we pursued aggressive reforms but eventually scrapped the broken system and built a better one.
We must be prepared to do the same for Milwaukee Public Schools. The state of Wisconsin pays for 85 percent of the cost to educate the children of Milwaukee and we will not tolerate failure any longer.
MPS recently hired Dr. Alan Brown as its new superintendent and he deserves a chance to reverse this downward spiral. But it must be very clear that more of the status quo is completely unacceptable.
Tonight, we demand results from Milwaukee Public Schools. MPS must meet four standards of improvement by June 1, 2000.
MPS must improve its graduation rate to 90 percent.
It must raise its attendance rate to 91 percent.
It must cut its dropout rate to 9 percent.
And it must raise its third-grade reading performance to 90 percent of the statewide average.
If MPS fails to meet all four standards, it will be dissolved. Operation of the district will be turned over to a three-member commission appointed by the mayor of Milwaukee, the state superintendent of Public Instruction and me. The school district will be turned immediately into a full charter, giving the commission ultimate flexibility in rebuilding the schools of Milwaukee.
We also should immediately give MPS and Superintendent Brown some important tools to help them meet these standards.
Restore the ability for MPS to close failing schools and allow the superintendent to reassign staff without regard to seniority.
Restore permission for MPS to convert private schools to charter schools.
Provide $2.5 million for MPS to create after-school programs so our students remain engaged in their education and stay out of trouble.
And forgive the student loans of minority teachers who commit to educating the children of Milwaukee.
We must also stop wasting money busing our students from one part of Milwaukee to the other. We must immediately put 10 percent of our busing money toward building more neighborhood grade schools in Milwaukee.
Three years from now, I expect the nation to be touting Milwaukee as the model for revitalizing urban education in America.
There is nothing - nothing - more important to me as governor than making sure each and every child in this state gets the world-class education they deserve. We should pledge tonight that we will not lose one more generation of children in Milwaukee to poor schools.
It's time for MPS to stand and deliver or step aside.
Environment:
I am the youth of Wisconsin. My dream is to live in the most beautiful place in the world. A place with clean water to drink, green hills to hike and bountiful lakes to fish.
