Governor Michael O. Leavitt

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank Gov. Bangerter, on behalf of all Utahns, for the extraordinary service he has rendered this state the past eight years.

To be Governor is a sacred trust...a stewardship requiring devotion of one's whole heart and soul. Governor Bangerter has done that, making a lasting contribution with the help of strong leadership and a steady hand. A major part of his legacy is that he leaves Utah better positioned for the future than any other state. I express my appreciation to Norm and those who have served before him for the solid foundation on which to build.

Now, having sworn the oath of office, the Leavitt Administration has begun. Our mandate is clear: to lead Utah to a whole new level of performance in which:

First: Making world-class education our standard.

Second: Building a stronger economy around quality higher paying jobs.

Third: This administration will protect as a precious asset our enviable quality of life.

Fourth: During our watch, state government will become even more efficient and effective and it will not grow faster than the private sector.

Fifth: In caring for our needy, we will foster and nurture two important principles in our citizens--self reliance and personal charity.
Let me tell a story:

In the spring of 1897, word came to Cedar City, my home town, that the Legislature would establish a branch of the state university in southern Utah. After a lively competition, Cedar City was awarded the school, on the condition it could deed over land and construct a building to house the school next fall. The land was quickly obtained. The citizens believed another building could temporarily house the school until a new building could be constructed.

School started in September, but in late December the State Attorney General denied payment of teachers' salaries because the building had not been constructed. He further declared that unless the building was completed by the following fall, the school would go to a different community. (I like to think Jan Graham would have gone a little easier on them)

Here was genuine crisis. Cedar City was a town of 1,500 people: There was no bank. Teachers got paid with wheat and oats, or meat, eggs and cheese. (That may have been better than the peanuts we pay them now!)

Undertaking such a challenge in the middle of the winter with no money and no materials was overwhelming. These people were largely uneducated themselves. They had come from the coal mines of Wales and the iron mines of England. But they were people of strong basic values who hungered for education and who could forsee the value it would have on their children. This school mattered to the community more than almost anything else. People united to construct the building. Families provided food, bedding and warm clothing to the men who hauled lumber down from the mountains and made bricks in freezing weather.

In Cedar City stands an inspiring sculpture of Old Sorrel, the only horse powerful enough to break trail through the deep snowdrifts that blocked the route into the mountains. By fall 1898, they had built the school that later became Southern Utah University. In nearly 100 years since then, a vibrant community has grown up around that school, and countless lives have been benefitted, my own included.

At the right time, in the right place, at a pivotal moment in history, a community with few resources, but great unity of purpose, rallied round a cause...and with love, vision and determination did far more than just build a school. They took their community to a new level of performance, creating an asset of monumental and lasting value.

Throughout all of human history, times arise when it is clear that men and women must act. Today, our challenges are much different, but just as daunting. Vision, determination and unity will be required to meet the challenges of a tough and competitive global economy. We must rally as did that community to elevate our education system to world-class status, to prepare our students for the high-tech, high paying jobs of tomorrow, to make our government lean and efficient, to preserve our enviable quality of life, and to protect the capacity to control our own destiny.

We, too, stand at a pivotal moment in history and we must respond by applying the lessons of that winter of 1898 to fulfill these five objectives and to take this state to a whole new level of performance.

EDUCATION

Those citizens valued education, perhaps sensing, but not fully realizing, the tremendous impact for good it would have on their community over many decades. As we enter a new high-tech world, education and training becomes even more important, and we must be as daring as they were to take a quantum leap forward. We won't face deep canyon snow drifts, but we will face the barriers of changing our own outdated traditions and attitudes. In the new high-tech high-stakes global marketplace, quality jobs will simply not be available to those without quality preparation in public and higher education.

For example, recently I visited a Utah coal mine. I had visualized a different scene than I found. Historically, the hardy men and women who worked in those mines have been paid better than average wages because of the difficulty and danger of the work. in decades past they would have been considered unskilled jobs. Anybody willing to work hard in those conditions could hold a job. In the new high-tech, global marketplace, where low cost production is a matter of survival, I found a small number of workers processing coal using sophisticated computer operated mechanical mining equipment . Fewer workers, better trained, more productive. Unskilled jobs are a part of our history, not our future.

Another illustration: One of our defense contractors was recently forced to lay off hundreds of its workers. Within weeks many of these people found that they were ill prepared to re-enter the high tech global marketplace and entered our community colleges for training.

I visited a Utah steel fabricator and watched work on a project bound for Germany. It was part of a contract won in competition with Korean, Japanese and European firms.

I call for revolutionary improvement because a revolution is taking place in the work place. I propose world-class as our standard, because we are now competing with the world. Nothing short of a revolution, nothing short of world-class, will suffice. We must lift the basic structure and culture of public education to place value on competency, outcome and achievement, instead of on the process and time spent in class.

Happily, most of Utah's education community appears ready for this revolution. I want to be their partner in making it happen. This state has spent three years in a comprehensive strategic planning process involving the entire community. The plan does not consist of unproven theories. Every innovation in the strategic plan is being successfully used somewhere in Utah's system now. Wonderful things are occurring.

Some educators, parents, even students may feel uncomfortable with these changes, sub-consciously hoping that eventually things will return to "normal," It won't happen. "Normal" as it existed in the past, will not return. The momentum of change and technological growth is too rapid.

To those of you who feel reluctant, please join us,--join us in a great adventure, where together we build world-class schools.

Let's acknowledge that like those who built the school in 1898, our financial resources are not adequate if we expect to but all the improvement we need. Cynics will say, "you propose world class education--that will cost hundreds of millions of dollars." To them I reply, "We will invest every available dollar in education, but the strategic plan is not just about money. It is about change and improvement. Making the system better. It's about expanding the way we think. This administration will not define our success in education or in any other area by the amount we spend, but rather, by our results.

We start with excellent schools. The elements of success are in place.....great children...great teachers... parents who care. Now is the time to take the quantum leap forward. We will be focused like a laser in seeing that it is successful. I will be visiting schools from one end of the state to the other to see that it is implemented. I will not give up. I will not back down. We prepare the workforce of the future and they are our children.

JOBS/ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The second objective in taking Utah to a whole new level of performance has to do with quality jobs, higher household income, and economic development. I am committed to seeing that Utah offers a healthy business climate--a climate with a reasonable regulatory structure, competitive utility rates, low taxes, affordable housing, a trained workforce, an excellent quality of life, and world-class infrastructure.

A favorable business climate is not necessarily about corporate giants growing bigger and more powerful. It is about thousands of small businesses succeeding. It is about jobs and paychecks. I want my children and yours to have a place where they can work and have a sense of productivity, security and predictability about the future.

This was poignantly illustrated to me some time ago during a visit to a good friend named Gordon. He had some health problems and had recently retired from a job he held for many years. While I was there, some senior officials from his company came by to make a retirement presentation. After they left, we discussed what that company meant to him. He said, "It's a good company...they treated me well." He pointed to photos of his four daughters on the living room wall. "Those girls grew up in this home. The mortgage was paid for because the company never missed a paycheck. They all have college degrees because my job was stable. My medical bills will be paid for because my company had great health insurance." He finished by gently whispering, "I love that company." I left his home that night with a heightened appreciation of the role business plays in the lives of our citizens.

Hundreds of thousands of people could tell stories similar to Gordon's. And sadly many others could tell the other side of the story, of businesses forced to downsize or close, laying off people and causing serious financial difficulties. Many in our society know the hardship of inadequate access to medical care.

But businesses and working citizens pay taxes that contribute to the schools attended by our children, that build roads upon which to drive. Gordon's company and thousands more like it are the engine that drive this state economically.

Part of business climate is basic infrastructure--good sewer, water, roads. Today, infrastructure includes an important new element that is crucial to taking this state to its new performance level. In the 1950's, the trip to Salt Lake City from anywhere in rural Utah was a much longer adventure than it is today. From Cedar City the road was a two-lane highway that wound through every town. If we behaved ourselves through the southern and the middle counties, we could have a malted milk at the Frostee Freeze as we passed through Nephi. We tried to make that last until we got to the pond in Salem. After that, the towns were closer together and the sights and sounds of every main street in Utah County entertained us until we reached our destination. These same main roads carried the traffic of interstate commerce, with eighteen-wheel diesel trucks revving their engines at the town traffic lights.

I've often marveled at the vision of President Eisenhower and the Congress of his time, who foresaw the impending need and established a national goal to build an interstate highway system before traffic became a crisis. It was controversial, but some could feel the excitement of such a daring undertaking. People in those little towns depended upon the commerce of traffic and were rightfully worried about would happen when the freeway passed them by.

And patterns did change. The folks at the Frostee Freeze in Nephi could tell you that being bypassed profoundly affects your economic life. At the same time, however, stronger businesses emerged at strategic locations, taking advantage of the increased traffic and inherent flow of dollars. And as I drive those highways now, I appreciate the fact that these freeways are a vital link for Utah with the nation. Imagine our plight today if we did not stand at the crossroads of major interstate highways, which are really the veins through which the blood of commerce flows. Those roads mean millions of dollars and thousands of jobs. We are indebted to the generation that built them for their foresight and commitment. Now it is our turn.

In the next decade, a new and different type highway must be built. Once again the costs and stakes are high. This one won't require the laborious laying of asphalt and concrete. It will be built of fiber optics and invisible waves. It must reach beyond the boundaries of this nation to link us to the world. It will be an electronic highway -- a telecommunications and technological capacity that will be absolutely critical for the high-paying high-tech enterprises of the future. The interstate highway system has been crucial for the economies of this state and the nation. The electronic highway, linking government and businesses, schools and homes, rural areas with the cities, will be even more important -- and more useful.

The tremendous capacity of telephones, television, satellites and computers will be merged into one seamless electronic highway, allowing the transmission of data, voice and pictures interactively and instantaneously to anywhere at any time on hundreds or even thousands of channels. This will provide remarkable capabilities to business, government and education. Much interaction with business or government that now requires travel and time will be conducted from a home or business. Libraries as we now know them may well become obsolete. Vast amounts of information, more than is presently housed in any library in the world, will be accessible with a few keystrokes.

In the same way that the interstate highway has been crucial to the commerce of our nation, our need to be at the forefront of technological capacity is acute. It must reach into every community of this state, ideally into every home.

Like those who built a school in the winter of 1898, we must be equal to the challenge of readiness, because to be bypassed by the electronic highway would be real isolation, and it would be economic devastation.

Utah is better positioned that most states and nations to profit from the electronic highway. We have a critical mass of high-tech enterprises and the required expertise and leadership. We are also well positioned to attract new high-tech businesses. Quality of life and workforce, rather than location and proximity to markets, are becoming the driving factors executives weigh in business location decisions.

It is important that this state invest in technology. But state government still has to maintain our existing automotive highways. Government alone will never have sufficient resources to build the electronic highway. Government must provide guidance and incentives, but the private sector, guided by the marketplace, must play the key role in development. This job will require a public-private partnership and we must move quickly if we are to take advantage of the profound opportunities ahead.

LIMITED GROWTH IN GOVERNMENT

A third objective in taking Utah to a whole new level of performance is efficient, customer-oriented government that wisely uses tax dollars. Government can be, and must be, a powerful force for good in society. But government has a tendency to grow rapidly and enlarge its role improperly. It must be held in check.

Government simply cannot be expected to solve all of society's problems. Unlimited good projects exist on which tax dollars could be spent. Needs exist everywhere, far more than taxpayers can afford. My heart is often willing to do more than my head tells me is prudent. Part of being governor is finding the balance and then having the courage to draw a line and say no -- even if it means we can't do all that we would like to do. We must remember that strong families of every type, strong businesses, and strong communities, not big government, form the backbone of a healthy society.

We must never forget that, while our state government stretches to educate more children per capita than any other state, their taxpaying parents are struggling to feed, cloth and keep them. Government just lives within its means and I renew my pledge that during my administration state government will not be allowed to grow faster than the private sector.

Holding the line of government growth will require a team effort. Most Utah state employees are hard-working, and often underappreciated. Still as any business person knows, what was excellent in the past may not be sufficient for the future. We may be doing things right, but are we doing the right thing?

When I was young, we filled up our car at one of the two full-service gas stations at either end of town. As we pulled up, a couple of young men would hurry you to fill the tank wash our windows, check the oil and even the tire pressure. You could get about any auto service at either station, anything from a lube job to a tune-up, to major mechanical work. Those stations seemed prosperous and secure. Who would have thought they needed to change?

But society changed. One of the stations responded, completely remaking itself. It eliminated many old services and added entirely new ones. It required people to pump their own gas, check their own oil and even started charging them to use a coin-operated air compressor! But at the same time it allowed them to buy a gallon of milk, a magazine or a 64-ounce soft drink at the convenience store on their way home from work. Now you might even pick up a movie video there.

Well, you know the rest of the story. It has been repeated in practically every neighborhood in the state. The gas station that continued with business as usual, offering the same old services, the same old way, went broke. It may have been efficient in what it was doing, but it was simply doing the wrong things. The one that adapted to changed conditions prospered.

Already we have recommended the consolidation of several divisions of state government and we will suggest more organizational changes in the future. Some of them might be painful. But if government, in the fast-paced decade ahead, is to support Utah citizens in world-class education, high-paying jobs and enhanced quality of life, as public servants we must be as innovative and fast on our feet as the most successful business.

I spoke earlier about the fear of change and innovation. Change is hard, but it is also invigorating and exciting to be a participant in improving the way things work. To state employees I would say the same thing I said to educators: please join me in a great adventure. Together we can reinvent state government, find better and more efficient ways to serve our customers, and take Utah to a whole new level of performance. Every state and education employee has a role to play in creating quality jobs, quality education, and an enhanced quality of life for our citizens. It is our mission and our mandate.

QUALITY OF LIFE

Among Utah's greatest assets are our mountains, forests, deserts, rivers and streams. We have tremendous recreational opportunities only minutes away from where we live. We have abundant wildlife and gorgeous scenery. Our arts, cultural and sports opportunities are world class. We have what many states lack, and we must protect these assets or fail in our stewardship.

We must achieve economic progress and government efficiency without sacrificing what makes Utah unique -- our quality of life. Preserving and enhancing our life quality is the fourth objective in taking Utah to the next level of performance. If we do not preserve what we have and keep our skies blue and streams pure, we will be judged harshly by the next generation.

This will not be easy. With Utah poised for major growth and its attendant problems, the only way to retain our enviable quality of life is by focusing on quality, not quantity. More low-paying jobs, clogged freeways and dirty air do not represent progress. We must not sell ourselves as cheaper, but as better.

Balance is critical. We must balance development with preservation, growth with environmental protection. Economic and environmental progress must be achieved together. One must not be entirely sacrificed for the other. Government programs and regulations are a tool but they alone cannot achieve a clean and safe environment. It will require a personal commitment and a change of our hearts.

In the back of our broom closet at home, hanging on a hook, is a symbol of the type of change I'm talking about. The symbol is a plastic bag in which our family deposits aluminum cans to be recycled. I'll guess you have one to. I have to admit that the impetus for this environmental action came from our children and what they learned in school. Just a year or two ago, my soda pop cans went unthinkingly into the garbage. But today my children would be disgraced if I did such a thing. Hearts can change...and they must if we are to preserve our quality of life as we take Utah to a whole new level of performance.

FOSTERING SELF-RELIANCE

Speaking of heart . . . may I express that mine has been touched many times during the last year as I campaigned throughout the state. I met people with needs well beyond their own family's resources . . . like the loving parents of a severely handicapped son who for 17 years have carried a heavy burden . . . and the unemployed single mother with three children, one of them seriously ill . . . and the 14-year-old victim of child abuse -- whose parents were incapable or unwilling to care for her . . . and the caseworkers, counselors and volunteers who struggle under heavy case loads to bring relief.

These experiences have brought me face-to-face with the reality that as a government, and as a society, we have a responsibility to help. The challenge is to provide wise help that connects charity with responsibility, that ultimately leads to independence, not dependence.

As in nearly every area of government, the needs here exceed our resources. Government simply cannot solve all the problems that exist, nor should it. Citizens must not relinquish to government the basic human need to serve others. One of the great things about living in Utah is that we do serve one another, family to family and neighbor to neighbor. Each of us must expand our capacity to serve to meet even more of the needs that exist.

Government must provide a limited safety net that helps those with needs beyond the capacity of families, neighbors and friends, and that leads toward self-reliance. One such excellent Utah program that is becoming a national model helps single parents on welfare gain the training and skills they need to become self-reliant. It offers the right balance between charity and responsibility.

This was a very difficult program to get started because of the roadblocks imposed by the federal government. Our Department of Human Services had to obtain 44 different waivers from federal regulations to begin the program.

This is indicative of a larger problem, illustrated by an experience I had one July day when I was moving sprinkler pipe in a thirsty alfalfa field at our farm in Loa. When I turned water into the pipe, nothing happened. No water pressure.

I re-examined the connections, but found no leak. then I noticed in the distance, several miles up the road, a geyser shooting 150 feet in the air. I instinctively knew what had occurred. You see, farmers routinely band together and build reservoirs to collect their water shares. From the reservoir they run a master pipe, to which each farmer, in turn, connects his own individual sprinkler system.

Well, the geyser was too big to be on a farm line. The leak was obviously in the main pipe at the reservoir. One at a time, the farmers realized the problem and soon most had gathered to help the system manager repair the damage. They each had their own fields and farms to nurture but knew that until the main system was fixed their own progress was impaired.

As I assume stewardship over this state, there are plenty of challenges and opportunities on this farm to keep me busy. But it has become obvious to me that a serious problem exists on the master pipe that until fixed will impair out ability to take Utah to the next level of performance. I speak here of the federal government. In the short time I have associated with other governors, the fundamental problem of federal interference emerges in every discussion. The federal government gets in the way of us solving our problems.

The fundamental nature of our central government is changing. Instead of performing limited responsibilities delegated to it by sovereign states, the federal government has reversed the roles and become all-powerful, mandating to the states. It is an institution out of control force. The system is broken. And the Congress, appears to have neither the incentive or inclination to fix it.

States do not lack agreement most of the broad federal goals. We want to protect our environment, and take care of our needy. But the federal government's one size fits all approach doesn't work and it is stifling the ability to of the states to bring innovation and creativity to these difficult problems, while acting out our own values in our own way.

Now, I do not propose to take on the entire federal bureaucracy as a lone governor from the small state of Utah. But I feel compelled to speak of this today. I firmly believe that states' rights will be a defining issue in the 90's. It has to be -- the current direction of our federal government isn't working. The states may be the only constitutional authority strong enough to challenge the misdirection of the federal government. I am hopeful that our new president -- who spent the last 12 years as governor of a small state -- will bring a new perspective. But I believe the governors of this nation will ultimately need to take a historic stand to demand discipline, sanity and a better balance in the federal system. I intend to be part of that effort.

Well, you've been a very patient audience. Let me summarize.

With the same sense of purpose held by those who built a school in the winter of 1898, we can take Utah to a new level of performance. We can provide high-paying jobs, world-class education, efficient government, and we can preserve and enhance our quality of life. We ought to make government and education, and even life in general, work better in Utah. We have the values, the family strength, the work ethic and the determination.

My values are rooted in Utah. I learned them from loving and hard-working and God-fearing parents and grandparents. They were instilled as I worked in the fields -- mending fence, herding cattle and taking our irrigation turn at 2:00 A.M. in the morning. They were also learned in the business world, where success has required hard work and an entrepreneurial spirit. My values are centered on faith in God, family strength, thrift, independence, hard work, and understanding of the great power of education, and enduring belief that government ought to be limited and efficient.

The other day I received a note from my mother. With her indulgence, and with yours, I'd like to read from that note as I conclude today.

Dear Michael,

When you were a little boy and television had just come to our town, the show you never missed was Gunsmoke. Strangely, the part you liked the most occurred before the episode began. It was the part where Matt Dillon rode his horse up the ridge, paused, leaned forward on the saddle horn, and described the rigors of being a U.S. Marshall in Dodge City. Dillon would say, "Its's a chancy job, and a little lonely."

In perfect imitation, you used to gallop your stick horse though the house, stopping at appropriate intervals to declare in your deepest four-year old voice, "It's a chancy job; and a little lonely."

Well, here you are again, son . . . a chancy job, this time for real. But I have a strong sense of security knowing what you understand so well: That in this job, as in any other, even when you feel lonely you really never need to be alone."
(End of quote)

I want to assure the people of this state that, indeed, I do understand the principle well. I do not intend to approach this task alone. Not only will I depend upon the great support of good people, but I acknowledge the blessings of God upon this state and I pledge to you that I will seek His guidance in everything that I do, as I take up this task. We will take this state to a new level of performance.

Thank You!