Speech
Lewis and Clark Republican Women
Remarks of Governor Judy Martz
State Capitol
10/3/2003
It is such an honor to be here today. It goes without saying that the past four years I have made many friends. At the same time I have encountered people that would be classified differently.
I can tell you that the people gathered in this room are my friends. There is no doubt about it.
Sharlene, thank you for the invitation. It is always a pleasure to meet with this group.
I understand that one of our Montana Republican Women has been elected to a position with the national organization.
I am sure Billie Love will continue to do a great job for us at the national level.
It was four years ago, after serving as lieutenant governor for four years, when I announced my plans to seek the most challenging, demanding and rewarding job in Montana.
The opportunity to serve the people of Montana, guided solely by my principles, has been a distinct honor.
I knew the job wouldn’t be easy. This is not a job one seeks to prove political worth.
I made another decision in August. I feel it was the right one for my family and me. As I said I have been away from home for eight years. It is time to go home.
So, I answered that question but we still have some work to do. You can be sure we are going to serve you until the very end.
One of the issues we are going to continue to work on is Forest Health.
I visited several incidents this fire season. I was in Jordan and the Flathead, flew over Seeley and had been to Missoula before each time I became more convinced that we need to support our president’s healthy forests initiative.
We are always going to have fire as long as we have drought, but a healthy forest is going to be a forest that less vulnerable to a devastating fire. Any fire will be easier to fight in a maintained forest.
There are some folks that don’t understand however. Some legislators want to take our so-called federal “windfall” and spend it on other items for state government.
That money came to us for “essential services.” I don’t know what is more essential than fighting fire.
This wasn’t a simple issue. We needed flexibility from the federal government in order to spend these dollars to protect our neighbors. Once again, President Bush and his administration worked with Congressman Rehberg and I to help us fight the fires.
So spread the word and stay with us on this issue of the federal money. Upon completion of the 2003 fire season we will be exploring several ideas for utilizing the rest of the available funds to help Montana. But right now we must protect our neighbors.
On another important issue, when we hosted the Western Governor’s Association meeting at Big Sky last month we had a very positive discussion about electric transmission.
In order for our nation to remain strong we must have a top notch transmission system. With a modernized system Montana’s economy will grow and we will be able to bring new electric generation to the West.
We are currently working with Senator Burns on this very issue. Conrad understands how important it is to Montana and we are going to support his efforts here in Montana.
When I ran for governor, I said I had several priorities for my administration – tax reform, economic development, education, health care, and resource development.
Last session we passed the first major personal tax reform in Montana in three decades.
Montana’s families are going to keep more of what they earn, and they will in turn make Montana stronger.
We kept our promise not to increase the net taxation placed on the backs of Montanans.
That tax reform is a key part of our economic development programs.
Through clustering, cooperation, recruitment, and plain old hard work we have worked to ensure the state of Montana has the means to foster growth and enhance our economy.
The first ever Office of Economic Opportunity has done a great job and our hard work and vision is paying off.
Our quarterly income growth at times has been as high as second in the nation. We have led the nation in annual job growth and we have jumped as many as 4 notches in average income.
We all know how a good workforce and a healthy economy are dependent on a good educational system from kindergarten to college.
Montana enjoys one of the strongest systems in the nation. Our teachers do a wonderful job, our students are enthusiastic, and our parents are involved.
While many states have had to slash funding or reduce service, I worked to protect schools, because this is an issue that has remained high on my list of priorities.
When it comes to our children, the status quo can never be good enough.
And while protecting K-12 from reductions last session we also passed an automatic inflationary funding increase for our schools.
Finally, school districts will have advanced knowledge of what the state’s contribution is going to be.
We also created the Montana K-12 Public School Renewal Commission.
For the first time we will bring all of the right people from education, business, labor and agriculture together to find real solutions for the legislature to improve our schools.
Very simply, it is better to strengthen our schools than to rebuild them from scratch.
I care deeply about the health of our citizens. We have supported critical services like CHIP and breast and cervical cancer treatment, and done everything we could to preserve human services programs.
I just hosted my second annual Health Care Summit to address rising medical costs and the uninsured. We had a wonderful event.
The Surgeon General was there. Richard Carmona (car-mo-na) was in attendance. What a wonderful man. President Bush did a wonderful job when he selected this very knowledgeable doctor to lead the health of our nation.
On another vital issue to Montana’s families, I have worked hard to crack down on drunk driving.
We lowered the legal intoxication limit to .08 and increased punishment for repeat offenders.
And, I can tell you plainly… that we will have an open container law next session.
Some of our biggest legislative successes have come in the area of natural resources, a critical part of Montana’s economy. Protection and use of our natural resources has always been near my heart.
We secured the title of Otter Creek Tracts 1, 2 and 3 from the federal government in exchange for the minerals from the Crown Butte Mine.
It took us a while, but hard work, not rhetoric, is bringing positive results.
We have toured farms, irrigation systems, and towns affected by the future development of coal bed natural gas. We have listened to all sides of the issue.
As such, we are working to bring the energy supply, economic benefits, and state revenue enhancements that will come from environmentally safe utilization of this natural resource.
I worked quietly, not politically, to reopen Montana Resources in Butte.
We must empower our highly skilled workers by making sure they have a place to work.
Another valuable component of our economy is agriculture. This administration has worked hard on behalf of our farmers.
We have brought two major ag facilities to Montana.
A new malting plant in Great Falls and a new Anheuser Busch malt storage facility in Sidney will encourage new crop rotation, and will bring added value to every crop grown in Montana.
This is real economic development that provides good paying jobs, not just words that bring questions and skepticism.
A final area that I would like to talk about is energy. I have established a high level task force to address this problem on behalf of consumers.
Yesterday, I utilized some money the state earned for efficiency in administration to help low income energy users. Not one Montana can go without heat this winter.
We have passed legislation to address these issues. I will continue to lead Montana through this difficult period as we work on energy.
In conclusion I want to say that because of friends like you I know I have the finest job in the world.
We have worked hard for Montana and accomplished what we wanted. But we must keep in mind that we have much work ahead of us. I will work for the state that I love right until January of 2005.
The Martz Administration will continue to serve the people of Montana to the end.
It has been a pleasure to be here today and over the next 16 months please call or visit if there is anything we can do to help.
May God Bless you all.
###
