Speech

Helena Lions Club

Remarks of Governor Judy Martz
Helena
1/13/2004

**Check Against Delivery**

Thank you. It is a pleasure for me to be here.
It is always a pleasure to meet with Montana’s service and civic groups.

Your work in the community and throughout the state is the true meaning of service. You and your colleagues are the backbone of many cities and towns.

Thanks so much for inviting me to speak with you today 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 years ago.

But before I do all that, I want to tell you that I had just about the most wonderful Christmas and New Year’s anyone could ever want. For those of you who are already grandparents, you know just what I mean.

My daughter Stacey and her husband Abe had a baby girl, Remy, on New Years Eve.

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 often lately. And being at the funeral a week ago of Army Lt. Matthew Saltz 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. [Pause]

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 invitation for me to speak tells me that you have 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. No one let me off the hook and they still don’t. Pay attention to what each of them tells you, and listen to what they tell someone else in another community in response to the same question.

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: we were 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.”

Our income growth has improved significantly. In fact, for the second quarter of 2003, that ended in October, Montana ranked second in personal income growth, and our unemployment rate, at four point three percent, is one of the lowest in the nation.

In other areas our children are getting a quality education, we’re 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 most humbling events of my administration was being elected chair of the Western Governors Association.

While I was chair last year, we advocated for many important issues, 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, on the Crow Reservation, near Miles City or Circle, the coal is there. We can unearth it effectively and safely and help solve this nation’s energy woes.

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.
That’s 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 a solid infrastructure for its citizens.

I’m pleased to say that with the support of our Congressional delegation 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.

On an issue that has received a lot of attention in the past few weeks, I was at the Livestock Auction in Ramsay last Friday to promote our beef industry.

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.

I hope you will join me in spreading the word that our beef producers are the finest in the world and last summer I led a delegation to Argentina to promote our beef industry.

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 Helena 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.

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.

We had good news last week as Attorney General McGrath agreed to lead Montana’s effort in the litigation on 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.

I think you can tell we have 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. We must first 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.I hope there aren’t any skeptics or pessimists here.

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.

In closing, let me remind you once again to get involved in this year’s political process, if you not already involved. Or, at least get to know each of the gubernatorial candidates, and ask them what they will do for Montana, if elected.

Your involvement is important to the future – the future our children and my new granddaughter will live and work in.

It will mean the difference between building on the foundation we have established and 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.


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