Governor Michael O. Leavitt

Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, Lieutenant Governor, and my fellow citizens.

Utah sizzles with energy! More jobs, better jobs, better quality of life. What a way to begin a new century!

We lead the nation in job creation and personal income growth. Kiplinger, Forbes and others call us the nation's best. But it is more than just good economic news. We are the best managed state in America, one of the best states to raise children, the most liveable state. We are the nation's second healthiest state. It is hard to imagine a more prosperous time in Utah. Utah is, more than ever before . . . the place.

1995 will be remembered for community triumphs. Saving Hill Field, winning the competition for Micron, and who can forget the Olympics announcement . . . people hugging co-workers and family members, dancing in the streets, horns honking. And now the Centennial.

Several days ago, as the Centennial trains journeyed to Salt Lake City from distant parts of Utah, workers, grandparents, teachers and school children came by the thousands, lining the tracks, waving Utah flags. Boys ran to the tracks and picked up coins they had laid on the rail for the Centennial Express to flatten. I couldn't resist getting one myself. A unique Centennial memento.

I hope each of us will carry mementos of our Centennial celebration into the coming years, not just memories of the fireworks, singing and dancing, but mementos of deeper values, mementos of the heart.

Tonight, we begin our first legislative session of our second hundred years on Human Rights Day, and we remember leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King. We are joined by nearly every living person who has served as a legislator or held another constitutional office. Today's generation of leaders owes a great debt to you for visionary leadership that has made Utah what it is today. Tonight I join with my colleagues in the Legislature on behalf of nearly 2 million Utahns to say thank you.

Yes, it was a remarkable first century, but one second after 9:14 a.m. on Jan. 4th, our second hundred years began . . . at a pivotal point in history. Think of this . . . over the next four years we will prepare for a new decade, a new century and a new millennium. This only happens once every one thousand years. What's more, it is a time when events are converging to usher in a whole new era in history as the industrial age gives way to the knowledge age. We face changes and challenges of staggering proportions. But in the tradition of those who have served before us, we will build on challenge and turn change to opportunity. Not by our declarations, but by our actions, not later but now.

GROWTH SUMMIT

It is clear that managing the challenges of growth will dominate the first decade of our second century. Our Growth Summit marked the beginning of a 30-year challenge to preserve and enhance our quality of life.

First priority -- better roads. An historic $3.5 billion plan to build roads. Most of the funding will come from the Centennial Highway Endowment, where every dollar will be used to relieve congestion statewide. I have proposed a 10-year funding plan, with the first phase included in this year's budget. We have the money; we have the responsibility.

We need better roads. Not next year. Not next term. Not next generation. NOW.

And we're going to need water. The Growth Summit agenda promotes conservation, fixes dams and funds development. On the Colorado River, a broad consensus developed to begin pursuing opportunities that allow us to maintain ownership, but gain the value for its use so we can invest those dollars in other water development projects. When I was 11 years old, it was my job to walk the irrigation ditch to make certain nobody was using our water. I realize now that I'm governor it's the same job, just a much bigger ditch. No generation can say they have met their stewardship without providing water for the next generation.

No topic evoked more passion at the Growth Summit than the discussion of preserving open spaces. Little was agreed upon, but we did accomplish something enormously important -- we opened the debate. This is a new subject for this state, but as we see open fields and farms transformed into subdivisions and convenience stores, it is clear we must become a generation of planners. That debate will continue during this session.

VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY

In addition to protecting and enhancing our basic infrastructure of water and roads, we must take advantage of the new infrastructure of information technology and telecommunications. I want to make a proposal that a decade from now will benefit thousands of our citizens. I propose that we partner with neighboring states to create a regional, virtual university . . . a higher education institution for a new millennium. Students in several states will take electronically-delivered classes originating from public and private institutions all across the region.

We have great colleges and universities. Their research is changing the world of information technology, space, biotechnology and medicine. But there's a new element to be added. For the past 2,500 years, people traveled to college and university campuses to access the knowledge that is stored and taught there. In the Knowledge Age, the knowledge will go where the people are. The simplicity of that statement belies the earth-shattering consequences of its impact.

Will this replace the on-campus experience? No, that's not its purpose. But it will offer thousands of citizens an important alternative, and it will enhance the choices and options of those who want the campus experience.

Our higher education community in Utah is very progressive, almost visionary on this subject. On every campus many are moving forward, but there will always be those who want to stick with the status quo. There are centuries of cultural and bureaucratic barriers to overcome. But these changes are being driven by the marketplace. Ray Noorda, the founder of Novell, provides one of the best insights about change. He says, "fight it and die; accept it and survive, lead it and prosper."

I say, let Utah lead!

KEEPER OF THE FLAME

To introduce some of our more difficult problems, I would like to return to a theme from my Centennial address.

One April afternoon, my grandfather, then 10 years old, was traveling on horseback with his two older brothers from their sheep camp to town. It had been a hard spring. An unusual number of ewes had died or abandoned their lambs. The boys carried on their saddles about a dozen dogie lambs.

One of those startling spring snow storms that occur in Utah mountains descended with frightening fury. The boys became disoriented, wet, cold and worried. Wisely, they stopped and built a crude shelter. With the last of their damp matches they succeeded in getting a fire started.

It got dark, very dark. They huddled with the lambs around the fire and as their meager woodpile dwindled the fire burned low. The two older boys ventured into the darkness for wood, leaving their brother to tend the fire. Despite his best efforts, the fire continued to burn down, leaving only the dim glow of the orange and blue coals. He knew if the glow of the embers disappeared, reviving it would be impossible. The fire was their source of warmth and also provided a guide back for his brothers. He knelt by the fire and gently blew again and again upon the embers to keep them alive. The brothers returned, each with an armful of sticks. The fire burned brightly again and they survived the night.

To me, those embers represent our basic values that we must ever keep alive if the flame of prosperity is to burn. The people of Utah have continually nurtured and preserved a foundation of self-reliance, hard work, responsibility, kindness and honesty.

These are simple but powerful virtues. Self reliance is nothing more than doing all possible to carry one's own burdens. Honesty is keeping family promises, giving a day's work for a day's pay, rendering one's debts, telling the truth, keeping the law. Human kindness is caring for a neighbor or shouldering another's load. In the context of centuries, those attributes have proven to be the active ingredients that sustain free societies.

As we face the next hundred years, during a period of unparalleled change, we can proceed with the confidence that a nation or state acting on these values will have the capacity to care for the truly needy, fund great institutions, foster education and improve the human condition.

THE ROLE OF PEOPLE

Adequate roads, sufficient water, and great universities are the pitch-filled logs that make the flame of prosperity crackle and burn hot. Government in this state will successfully meet these challenges.

But we face other problems that are deeply complex, where solutions are elusive and government's role is not nearly as well defined. I'm talking about the disheartening trends we see in ugly violent crimes and the flood of children, spouses and the elderly who are abused, beaten and neglected, the people who need jobs but are trapped in a dead-end welfare system.

Government clearly has a role in these areas. Where other than government would we assign the awful decision of terminating the parental rights of a mother or father that abuse or neglect their baby? Society needs a way of caring for these people. In every society and culture a small percentage of people need this kind of help.

So long as problems are restricted to a small fraction of society, nations can grow and prosper. But what happens if the percentage grows and grows? What happens if a culture begins to glorify violence and sexual promiscuity and marital infidelity as modeled on television, in literature and in popular music. What happens when out of wedlock births become so prevalent that it becomes "no big deal." What happens when boys brag about the children they "fathered" without any concept of the responsibility the word carries.

We all know what happens. That small percentage that society can handle grows and grows and grows and soon society is overrun by violent ugly crimes, abused or neglected children and financial burdens society can't handle.

It is a lesson of centuries that prosperity can expose a community's soft under belly by breeding complacency, arrogance and social division. These behaviors destroy a nation culturally, spiritually, economically and ultimately threaten physical security.

FOSTER CARE

There are nearly 2,000 children in our state who have suffered pain that many adults don't understand. Being burned with cigarette butts for misbehaving, abandoned by their fathers, raised with drugs but no milk in their homes. These are the children who would fall through the cracks of society if government didn't intervene and remove them from the risks of abuse, even death.

Last year I made an appeal for families to consider taking foster children into their homes. A family in northern Utah illustrates why I am optimistic that if any place in America can deal with this problem, it's Utah. This family responded by taking in seven foster children. One of the children came to them with a roach infestation in his ear. Another little girl, 6 years old, communicated almost entirely through angry, violent outbursts because of the abuse she had suffered. For the first time in her life, she was taken into loving arms, held tightly, very tightly, and heard whispered almost endlessly, "I love you. I love you. I love you." After many tantrums and much patience, this little girl is finding something that she has never known in her life: peace and security. But this is just one foster family. There are thousands more stories of needy children, some of them even more tragic.

This is a problem that haunts our society. It can destroy us if we are inattentive to its tragedies. It will take government and a lot of people working together to save our most vulnerable children. We need people who will blow on the embers for these young victims, give them love and kindness, teach them basic principles that will enable them to rebuild their broken lives. I would like to ask the people of Utah; please consider whether your family can help.

CRIME

Another societal problem we must address is youth crime. In 1993, I put forward an agenda to keep our communities safe. We have expanded that agenda every year, and do so again this year, with more prison beds, more probation officers and more judges. But there is only so much that government can do. Our societal challenge is this: we have a huge and growing population of young people -- the babies of baby boomers -- who are coming of age. By every statistical measure if a person is going to break the rules of society, it happens most between the ages of 16 and 24. Tragically, the really bad violent, ugly crimes are occurring at younger and younger ages. We must be vigilant as parents and as a community to blow on the embers; teach our young people to problem solve without violence, work hard, be responsible, kind and honest. Government will do what government can do, but it's our families and communities who will save young adults and our society from broken laws and violence.

WORKFORCE SERVICES

The welfare and job training programs in this country are a mess. They snag people who need help, not into a safety net, but into a drag net of forms, regulations, multiple caseworkers, and a confusing maze of government agencies.

I'm convinced that the vast majority of those using public assistance don't want an endless stream of checks; they want help, training and a job.

We have made the process of helping people too expensive and complicated. It cries out for a dramatic simplification.

Tonight I propose a sweeping overhaul and streamlining of several state agencies. We will pull all the stray parts of welfare and job training into a new Department of Workforce Services. One-stop service centers will better serve both businesses and individuals, those seeking jobs and those needing workers.

People don't need a bureaucratic nightmare. They simply need someone who will look them in the eye, person to person, and help them put their lives back together. Someone who will help them feel the embers of self-reliance, responsibility and hard work. Someone who can help them find a job.

In Utah we will end welfare and replace it with a jobs program.

This problem clearly has its root in Washington. Over the last 40 years Congress has passed 334 different welfare and training programs.

To give you a sense of the magnitude of this problem, I've collected part of the regulations, guidelines and manuals that it takes to run the programs I'm recommending we dramatically overhaul. Just part of them stacks close to 10 feet. I had to quit collecting them, because even with the help of a friend, I couldn't reach that high.

I sat in a meeting recently where caseworkers were being evaluated. It interested me to hear how the federal government has defined what makes a "valuable" caseworker. Was it how well the they could solve problems, or build the self esteem of a single mother who lacked confidence to finish high school? No. Was it the capacity to teach interview skills for a person who wants a job? No. They were valued on how well they know the federal regulations.

This will not be easy. We're not talking about a simple course correction or minor reform. We're talking about bulldozing bureaucracies built piece-by-piece over 40 years. We're talking about agencies and individuals giving up turf and working together. We're talking about building a system that makes sense for employees, employers and those needing public assistance.

What happens in Washington over the next few weeks will impact our initiative. The law that gave us needed flexibility was passed by Congress, but vetoed by the president. What do we do if Washington doesn't give us the flexibility? I say we push on anyway. Utah is already a national leader in welfare reform. Let Washington climb down from the beltway ivory towers where they worship bureaucratic process, come to Utah and tell us we're wrong to fix their bankrupt system. When we're finished we'll show them a system where we measure success, not by the pages and piles of red tape, but by the lives we touch, the principles we teach and the impact we're having on future generations.

WASHINGTON POLITICS

This is not just about welfare, it is really a battle about the future of our country. It is a defining moment in our nation's history. Will we continue on an ill-fated course where Washington controls our lives, or will we have a limited, strong, national government that allows communities to work out their values in their own way? Will we balance the budget, or allow deficit spending to destroy our children's future? This is a battle worth waging, because we must bring government back to neighborhoods and communities where it belongs and where it will work.

EDUCATION

In contrast to the welfare program in which we need to begin again from scratch, our public schools are a treasure.

I suppose the ultimate compliment for any enterprise is when a consumer of the product says, "I could have picked anyone, but you were the best." Last spring at the ground-breaking of Micron, J.R. Simplot, the firm's chairman, told of choosing among 400 sites to invest $2.5 billion and employ 3,500 people in good paying jobs. Why Utah?

The No. 1 reason, he said, was "because of your education system." Yes, Utah test scores are up, class sizes are down, and we are steadily improving the compensation of our teachers.

But world-class schools require continuous improvement. We have a landmark economy; I propose a landmark Centennial investment in education. I join with legislative leaders to strengthen our schools by dramatically reducing class sizes and building reading skills. With this budget, most first graders will be in a class of 18. A first grade teacher with 18 students rather than 30 can get those squirming six-year-olds off to a better start. I've seen it. Our classrooms are where we can keep the embers glowing by teaching students self reliance and responsibility, the importance of honesty, and caring, the rewards of hard work.

TAX CUT

The state of Utah has been richly blessed this year. Even amid the challenges of growth, and while launching dramatic initiatives in transportation, education, the virtual university, and workforce development, we are still able to cut taxes for our citizens. I have proposed a $75 million tax cut that may go higher if revenue projections rise. Cutting taxes at the state level and giving local leaders more flexibility to meet their needs is just as important as the balance we seek from the national government. Local leaders are accountable to their voters right in their own communities and neighborhoods. We can trust them.

So that is the state of the State; prosperous, optimistic and now, 100 years old..

Before dawn on Centennial morning I stood on Capitol Hill as the flag was raised. A battalion of cannons pounded out their salute and a chorus sang, "Utah, We Love Thee."

I climbed the front steps and turned to look at the valley. The yellow lamps lining State Street converged, then faded into a sea of lights; millions of them. Walking through the quiet rotunda, I paused in front of the portrait of Heber M. Wells, Utah's first governor. What were his thoughts, I wondered, on statehood morning? It has occurred to me that in generations to come, our children's children may read the record of tonight's proceedings to know our aspirations for this state in its second century.

We would have them know that while Utah may not be the biggest state in the union or most powerful economically and politically, in a world where many grope for a sustainable core, we intend to play a vital role.

Utah will be a place of quiet quality, a mentor state, a place where people pass on to future generations the ageless values. Like the youngest brother who preserved the glowing embers until the flame could be rekindled, Utah can be among the places where the world turns to renew its sense of basic values.

Let it be our role to blow upon the embers when the flame dims. Let this be the place where each person nurtures the flame within themselves and willingly passes a torch to another whose fire has gone out. Let Utah be a "keeper of the flame," not for a century, but forever.