Speech
Montana Chamber of Commerce Days - Progress 2004
Remarks of Governor Judy Martz
Helena
1/7/2004
**Check Against Delivery**
Thank you. It is a pleasure for me to be here.
I want to express my deepest thanks to Webb Brown for all he does for you and the business community in Montana, and to his lovely wife, Kathy, for all she does to support him and the Helena community. Aren’t they are wonderful team! Webb, I have a Governor’s Citation for you as an expression of my sincere appreciate for your hard work.
Thanks so much for inviting me to speak with you tonight on the significant accomplishments of my administration over the past year.
I also want to share with you some personal thoughts about the final year of my administration and the progress we’re making on the things I set out to do three short years ago.
But before I do all that, I want to tell you that I’ve had just about the most wonderful Christmas and New Year anyone could ever want. For those of you who are already grandparents, you know just what I mean.
Our daughter Stacy and her husband Abe had a baby girl, Remy, on New Years Eve.
Some of you were at the Capitol last August on the day I announced my decision to not seek a second term. You may remember me saying that I’ve been away from home for nearly nine years and I look forward to going home and being with my family. Well, now you know the rest of the story. It feels so good to be a grandmother.
The new addition to my family reinforced my perspective on what is truly important in life. Our families and our freedoms are what make life worth living.
We see our families every day, but our freedoms are something no one can truly grasp.
I am reminded of our freedom when I visit a deployment of our National Guard, which I’ve done many times in the past two years. And being at the funeral last Friday of Army Lt. Matthew Saltz, Montana’s first soldier to die in combat during this current conflict brought it all even that much closer to home.
These men and women are being sent to a faraway land to extend the freedom we all enjoy every day. I appreciate them all so much and would hope you join me in supporting them every chance you get.
The family I love, and the soldiers I value, make this job so much easier. I am reminded that I am here to do the right thing for the people of Montana. I love this job. It is a great opportunity to affect change.
Remember when 2004 seemed so far in the future?
Well, if you haven’t noticed, it’s now upon us, and it’s an election year, and each one of you better be involved.
Montana will be electing a new governor, lieutenant governor, and secretary of state, and there are races for attorney general, superintendent of schools and state auditor, along with the races for the state house and senate, the public service commission and Supreme Court.
We also have the election for our U.S. House seat and we will be voting for president.
Your very presence at these annual Chamber Business Days at the Capitol tells me that each of you has a real interest in responsible government and I want to thank you for that. It is your job to get more people like yourselves involved. That’s what makes government better.
It’s also critical that everyone here makes the time to meet each of the candidates running for my job, and to ask them what they will do, if elected.
Don’t let them off the hook, and pay attention to what each of them tells you, then listen to what they tell someone else in another community in response to the same question.
No one let me off the hook. They still don’t and for that I am grateful.
In my campaign four years ago, I told the voters I had an agenda and I’m proud to say I stuck to it.
We said we would concentrate on economic development and tax reform, education, healthcare, natural resources and the environment and tribal relations.
Let’s look at the record: because of our relationship with many of you in Montana’s business community, we’ve been successful in passing the most significant tax reform legislation in three decades, recruiting two new agriculture facilities to Montana, re-opening the Montana Resources mine, and very simply, being true to our word that Montana is “open for business.”
We are not finished. We have work yet to do. More good work like we have done. Look at the examples.
Our income growth has improved, in fact for the second quarter of 2003 that ended in October Montana ranked second in personal income growth.
Our unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the nation at four point three percent. Well below the national level of five point nine percent.
Montana’s children continue to get a quality education. Our eight graders rank fourth in both reading and math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
We’re continually working on solutions to the uninsured, and we’ve worked closely with Montana’s tribal leaders on a number of critical issues.
One of the achievements that has been the most gratifying was being elected chair of the Western Governors Association. Many of you helped make our annual meeting in September at Big Sky a success.
And, thanks to you, I think we showed the West why Montana is both ripe for growth and the best kept secret in America.
We advocated for many important issues, while I was chair, but I made one issue the cornerstone. Our mills are closing and our forests are burning, that’s why I chose Healthy Forests as my number one issue for the WGA.
We must attempt in every way possible to control the possibility of devastating forest fires. I hosted a Western Governors summit in Missoula on forest management last summer, then Congress passed the President’s Healthy Forest Initiative that we worked so hard on to enact.
I’ve also been working closely with Senator Burns on the federal energy bill to see that language is included to make it possible for us to transmit power to the west coast.
We have the coal across eastern Montana. Whether it’s at Otter Creek, near Miles City or Circle, or near the Crow Reservation the coal is there. We can unearth it effectively and safely and help solve this nation’s energy woes. We must be a part of the solution.
The same applies for coal bed methane. We can help with the energy supply, take care of the landowners and help fund our schools with safe resource use.
My administration also takes pride in its stewardship of the peoples’ money. We didn’t waste your tax dollars by holding a special session, as some legislators urged, to spend our federal money.
Rather, we waited until the fire costs were calculated, then used the balance for the education of our children and the health of our citizens.
We also made sure the attorney general and public service commission had the resources to ensure that Montana’s energy consumers have a voice in the Northwestern bankruptcy situation.
On a personal note, I have to tell you, I believe it’s unacceptable for Northwestern to be paying bonuses to its highest paid executives when the company is in the middle of a bankruptcy situation.
Corporate America must be more responsible than that and more accountable to the people it serves. Maybe it feels correct to them but to the people they serve it feels wrong. That is why I established a high-level consumer energy task force.
To make sure that the energy consumers of Montana are protected and have the energy they need to keep warm. The task force has done an excellent job.
On a related subject, it’s no secret that a strong economy must have an adequate infrastructure for its citizens.
That’s one reason Harry and I jumped aboard Amtrak in Havre last fall and rode to Cut Bank with the president of Amtrak. We wanted to promote passenger rail service on the hi-line and to create support for Amtrak’s federal funding.
I’m pleased to say that with the support of our Congressional delegation and senators from other states we were successful in getting the necessary money to keep the Empire Builder operating.
Another important issue facing our transportation system is the continued mindset by some Montanans that they can drink and drive.
We cracked down on this problem by lowering the threshold and stiffening the penalties, and next session, we must pass an open container ban. To do otherwise is just not acceptable any longer.
Besides riding Amtrak, Harry and I also led a delegation of Montanans to Argentina to promote our beef industry last summer. Because our ranchers are so great at what they do they have so much to teach our neighbors.
And now our Montana cattlemen and women need our support more than ever. They do the best job in the world of producing safe, wholesome and nutritious food for America.
They need and deserve our support and that is why I proclaimed this week American Beef Week. Join me in spreading the word that our beef producers are the finest in the world. And, thanks for having beef tonight!
I can tell you the Martz family had beef for Christmas and New Years dinner.
Besides Argentina, we have been working with other nations as well. We didn’t get to Taiwan last year because of SARS, but we are rescheduling that trade mission for this spring.
And one of the highlights of 2003 and my administration was the visit to Montana of Kyrgyzstan President Askar Akaev.
Kyrgyzstan is a nation that is only 12 years old, but the people want freedom to flourish and want to grow their economy. I look forward to helping them reach their goals.
Also, looking down the road, at my request the legislature last year, created two commissions to make government more responsive to the needs of Montanans.
One of the commissions is looking at K through 12 school funding. We made great strides to modernize our school funding formula last session and I know we will complete the task with this commission. Thank you to the Chamber for making the commission a reality.
The other group is examining Medicaid to develop recommendations on improving service for those in need and making sure the government works at peak efficiency.
Some of you here are involved in these commissions and I would encourage all of you to follow their progress and assist in any way possible.
I would also like to address the issue of snowmobiles in Yellowstone Park. We are going to continue to spread the word, as we have for years, that we will not allow the federal judiciary to continue to dictate our lives. We will be engaged in the lawsuit with Wyoming to protect these businesses.
And, tomorrow night I’ll be in Phoenix to give a keynote address to the Western Business Council.
I plan to ask each and every person there to come to Montana, and meet with me in my office, and to look at Montana as a place to do business.
I think you can tell we’ve got an ambitious year ahead and we don’t intend to let the political season interfere with it.
While others are out campaigning, we’ll be working on behalf of all hard-working Montanans and their families.
I know there are some skeptics and pessimists who are predicting we’re going to have another 200 plus million dollar deficit.
I can tell you they’re wrong. First of all, it’s way to early to be guessing what the real numbers will be. First, we have to account for growth - growth that we are already experiencing.
Skepticism is a major reason why it has taken a generation to get our economy primed for expansion.
There shouldn’t be any skeptics or pessimists in this room.
As the drivers of our economy and the folks who put people to work, I trust that each one of you is still looking for ways to improve the economy.
There is one thing I want you to know for sure. When I leave office, Montana will be in much better shape financially and our economy will be in much better shape, than when I came into office three years ago.
Governors all across this country have faced similar problems for the past few years, some much worse than ours. If we hadn’t made the tough decisions in 2001 and the cuts in the special session, we would have been in the category with those far worse off than we were.
So, I hope than when each of you returns home, if you are not yet involved in the gubernatorial race that you will get involved. At least get to know each of the candidates, talk with them and ask them point blank what they will do for Montana, if elected governor.
Your involvement is important to the future – the future our children and my new granddaughter will live and work in.
This governor’s race will mean the difference between building on the foundation we have established or dismantling what we have done.
The income tax reductions we passed last winter are far too important to the expansion of our economy and the livelihoods of Montana’s working men and women to let a new administration and a new legislature turn back the clock on all the good things we have done.
You are the key. Keep up the good work.
Thank you again for inviting me to join you this evening. Thank you for all you do on behalf of the people of Montana. God bless you all.
# # #
