October 16, 2009
Gov. Nixon's remarks to 143rd Annual MPA Conference, Kansas City
Good afternoon. It's a pleasure to be with you today for the 143rd Annual Convention of the Missouri Press Association.
Missouri has a long tradition of strong journalism - and especially, strong newspapers. Our communities - and our democracy -- are better for it.
I'm sure many of you in this room are familiar with William Story, the legendary Chicago newspaperman. It was Story who once said ... "It's the newspaper's duty to print the news - and raise hell."
After nearly 24 years in public office, I can tell you that it's not always easy to be on the receiving end of that journalistic hell-raising. But while it's sometimes unpleasant, let there be no doubt. We all benefit from the work of talented, and persistent, journalists who hold elected officials accountable on the public's behalf.
It's a tough - and unsettling -- time for American newspapers, whose vital First Amendment mission is yoked to problematic business model. Meanwhile, the appetite for news and information has not declined one whit. To the contrary, the demand for news - online, around the clock -- has never been greater. And there have never been so many sources of information - some trained, credible and reliable, some irresponsible and inflammatory.
But how the news industry is reinventing itself to meet those challenges is a subject for another day.
Today, I want to update you on the challenges facing Missouri as the global economic crisis continues, and share with you the course we have charted to turn this economy around.
Missouri businesses and Missouri families have been hit hard. All across our state, small businesses are fighting just to keep their doors open, and families are struggling to make ends meet. As of September, Missouri unemployment had reached 9.5 percent - the highest level in decades, but still below the national average of 9.8 percent.
These are challenging times for every employer - and every employee - in Missouri.
State government is no exception. We ended fiscal year 2009 with a revenue drop of nearly 7 percent - about $779 million below what was estimated.
We don't print money here in Missouri. We have to balance our budget - every year...and $779 million is a pretty deep hole.
Fiscal year 2010 already is presenting challenges. State revenue is now 10 percent below this time last year. We're tracking these numbers very closely ... and it's not a rosy picture.
But while these numbers pose real challenges, they didn't take us by surprise. Over the past year, we took an aggressive - and fiscally conservative - approach to managing our budget. We trimmed the budget early, reducing the overall size of our state workforce by 1,500 positions. We shrank programs where we had to. And - like many of you -- we've looked for creative ways to do more with less.
Earlier this year, I ordered state agencies to reduce their energy consumption by 2 percent a year for the next 10 years - we are leading by example. We're also reviewing and renegotiating state leases and contracts to find additional savings. And we're taking state government digital - and discovering ways we can save taxpayers time and money by conducting business online.
Because of these bold steps and innovative strategies, we've avoided the economic disasters now playing out in other states.
- In Kansas, the state has eliminated 4,000 local school employees, and more layoffs may be on the way.
- In Illinois, plans are underway to ax 10 percent of its corrections workforce.
- Hawaii has cut $400 million from its elementary and secondary school budgets.
Compare those truly drastic steps to what we have been able to accomplish in Missouri this year. By working together, across party lines ...
- We appropriated record funding for our K-12 classrooms, including an increase of nearly $70 million for the foundation formula;
- We protected Missouri students from tuition spikes at our two- and four-year colleges and universities, and provided stable funding for higher education;
- We eliminated the franchise tax for more than 16,000 small businesses - the engine of our economy; and
- We've begun phasing out state income tax for our proud military retirees.
This responsible approach - of measured cuts and strategic investment -- will help us turn this economy around.
What we've accomplished in Missouri is gaining attention and respect from national economic experts. Just a few weeks ago, Fitch Ratings affirmed Missouri's excellent triple-A bond rating. That makes us one of only seven states - and the only state in the Midwest - to achieve triple-A status from all three rating firms.
But our eyes aren't focused only on the immediate economic challenges. We're also looking ahead ... to new opportunities for economic transformation, growth and prosperity.
Missouri is positioned to lead the national economic recovery and resurgence ... to be first in our efforts to create jobs; first in educating our workers for the 21st century; and first in sparking new investment.
The first step in this process is clear: jobs, jobs, jobs.
Missouri has strong businesses across the spectrum: health care; transportation, financial services, utilities, manufacturing, IT, education, tourism.
Our diversity buffers us from the catastrophic financial shockwaves other states have felt when one segment of their economy - like housing, for instance - implodes.
When you take a closer look at Missouri's high-tech sector, there's even more reason for optimism. Missouri is home to a thriving life-sciences industry, especially in areas like animal health and nutrition; plant sciences; pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.
Consider just one of these areas: animal health and nutrition. This is a growing economic niche in Missouri, especially in the St. Joseph and Kansas City areas. Just how valuable is it to our state?
Missouri's animal health industry includes more than 120 companies; 30 U.S. or global corporate headquarters; $638 million in research by private companies; and more than 20,000 private-sector employees.
In February, I visited one of these companies, Boehringer Ingelheim, in St. Joe. I was amazed by what I saw: cutting-edge technology; massive capital investment; top-tier researchers who are discovering new drugs that will change the face of veterinary medicine.
Companies like these will need even more trained specialists in the years to come. And employment with one of these companies isn't just a job. It can be a truly rewarding career.
So how do we help high-tech and other industries thrive in Missouri?
We start by fostering a culture of entrepreneurship, so that the young scientists, MBAs and engineers who graduate from our state professional schools can build their careers, and find the partners they'll need to launch the companies of tomorrow. And we took key steps in that direction this year.
First, we passed a comprehensive jobs bill that gave us better tools to recruit high-tech businesses to Missouri. We also created a small business loan program to help emerging businesses grow.
While we aggressively recruit and help spark new businesses, we can't forget the businesses that are already invested in Missouri. We want to reward and protect companies with deep roots in Missouri that also have the potential to grow and create more opportunities for employment.
I recently visited BKD, one of the world's largest accounting firms, which just opened a brand-new, beautiful headquarters in downtown Springfield. Before it did so, BKD considered a number of options to relocate to other states. But BKD decided to keep its headquarters - and hundreds of jobs - right here in Missouri. The company's leaders told me how much they value Missouri's excellent workforce, and our great quality of life. They knew they'd have a hard time matching that anywhere else.
We need to do everything we can to help Missouri companies like BKD grow - and stay -- right here in the Show-Me State.
Growing existing Missouri businesses. That will be the focus of Missouri First - my comprehensive policy agenda for 2010. In the coming months, I'll continue to meet with Missouri business leaders. And when the General Assembly returns in January, we'll put forward a detailed legislative package to foster economic growth by supporting existing Missouri employers.
We're going to find the right combination of resources, programs and tools to keep - and expand - high-quality businesses right here in the Show-Me State.
Keeping these top-tier businesses - and attracting others - won't be easy. Other states, and other countries, will try to court them away. That means Missouri MUST have a highly skilled workforce ready to compete for 21st-century careers.
Programs like our Caring for Missourians initiative will help us meet that challenge. Under Caring for Missourians, Missouri's two- and four-year, public colleges and universities are significantly boosting the number of students ready to enter the field of health care.
Even with unemployment at record levels, hospitals and clinics face a critical shortage of doctors, nurses, technicians and other trained health care professionals. So these new grads won't be waiting long to find good positions.
That's good for our economy - and great for our health care system.
Last summer, our Next-Generation Jobs Team put more than 7,000 Missouri high school and college students to work in high-tech industries. Funded by the Federal Recovery Act, the Next-Generation Jobs Team matched these bright young people with high-tech summer work experiences. Youth like Dalton Stowe, a student at Missouri S&T, who worked in design and manufacturing at an alternative energy supply company in Sedalia; or Kalia Newton, a student at Mizzou, who interned at Cerner in Kansas City and now wants to add a double major in nursing.
Through programs like Caring for Missourians and the Next-Generation Jobs Team, we're taking key steps to equip Missourians to compete in the global economy.
To turn this economy around, we're also going to have to take a fresh look at some of Missouri's best, but often overlooked, assets.
One-hundred years ago, another Missouri Governor was looking for ways to spark economic growth.
Governor Herbert Hadley was drawn to the great beauty of the Missouri Ozarks. And as the first Republican Governor since Reconstruction, he'd probably be considered a bit of a "maverick." So, in 1909, Governor Hadley organized a canoe expedition on the Current River to promote travel to the Ozarks.
The night before the trip, the Governor threw a banquet for his guests in Salem, featuring baked possum for a buck-fifty a head. The next morning, Governor Hadley and his party - including about 40 business leaders, a Congressman, local officials and a small pack of journalists - set out in 10 flat-bottomed boats for the voyage from Welch's Spring to Round Spring.
Despite the moans of a few of your unhappy predecessors, the float trip was a great success. Publicity in national newspapers helped spark a new wave of visitors to Missouri, and with them came a thriving business for restaurants, lodges and outfitters.
As tourism around the Ozarks flourished - it led to more investment in other industries as well.
Today, we have another opportunity to dramatically increase tourism in Missouri. And we already have the natural resources to do it - our beautiful Missouri State Parks.
Missouri is home to 83 state parks and historic sites, including more than 960 miles of trails and 40 campgrounds.
But while Missourians' tacit support for state parks has always been strong, we have seen a disturbing trend in attendance at the parks in the past decade. In 1999, Missouri State Parks reported more than 18.2 million visits. Since then, the trend has been unmistakable ... down, down, down. Last year, park attendance bottomed out at 14.8 million visits statewide.
We need to burnish these unique Missouri gems, and do a better job of showcasing them.
Boosting attendance at our state parks will help preserve a vital part of our living Missouri heritage. And it will also help grow our tourism industry, even in these challenging times.
What better - and more affordable -- place is there to take a break from all the worries of our daily lives - than right in our own backyard?
For hikers and mountain bikers, bird-watching Boomers, or families with mini-vans full of kids, our state parks offer us the freedom of the outdoors and the joys of reconnecting with nature.
Think about the parks in your part of the state. ... I'll always cherish the early mornings my dad and I spent fishing for trout at Montauk State Park ... Mornings when we'd get there so early you could watch the mist roll off the water.
If you're looking for something to pry your kids away from the TV and computer games, there's something new to explore in every corner of the Show-Me State. But we need to spread the word about the wonders waiting for them ... outdoors.
The state's Division of Tourism has figured out that every visitor to Missouri spends about 81 bucks a day. Last year, more than 39 million people visited the Show-Me State.
If we can get each visitor to stick around for just one more day -- to hike a prairie in bloom, to catch a fish, to watch a redtail ride a thermal ... it won't take long before we've added billions to our economy. Billions, just from a day trip to a state park.
That means more hotel rooms booked; more meals served, more tickets sold...and more jobs in the hospitality sector in every corner of Missouri.
But these changes won't happen by themselves or by proclamation. They're going to take hard work by those of us in state government, and a partnership with those in the private sector. And my team is already blazing ahead.
We're building the Rock Island Connector on the Katy Trail working from West to East - so you folks in Kansas City can enjoy this cross-state trail as quickly as possible. And in late November, we'll be ready to begin work on a new leg of the trail, which will run from St. Charles into St. Louis.
And we're hoping to work with our friends in the media, and on our state website, to help us spread this message like never before.
We've also undertaken a massive effort to protect another priceless Missouri resource: water.
Water quality has been in the news quite a bit lately, as I'm sure you've noticed. While the headlines may be new, the issue itself is decades old.
When I was growing up, folks down in my hometown were piping sewage straight into a local creek. So much pollution, in fact, that the other kids and I had to stop fishing there. Our parents were afraid we'd get sick.
After my dad learned about federal grants to help small towns build water treatment plants, he decided to run for Mayor. He won the election; applied for the grant; and cleaned up that creek. My dad wanted us to be able to catch a fish and eat it - safely. The way he had as a boy. The way we want our kids and our grandkids to do.
Protecting water quality isn't something I've taken an interest in lately because it's been front-page news. As Attorney General, I prosecuted polluters up one side of Missouri and down the other - for sewage spills, and chemical dumping, and pesticide run-off.
As a state, we've got to get serious about cleaning up our waterways. And that's exactly what we're doing. Just weeks ago, I announced a major clean-up initiative at the Lake of the Ozarks, including a sweep of more than 400 facilities that hold wastewater permits around the Lake.
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has already completed 274 of those inspections. They have issued 54 letters of warning and 21 notices of violation to permit holders who are not meeting state requirements.
We've also begun our comprehensive survey of water quality throughout the Lake. Over the coming weeks, we'll collect samples from more than 300 sites, and we'll complete that study and make it public before the end of the calendar year.
By cleaning up our waterways; enhancing our parks; and increasing our marketing and promotional efforts, we will ensure that Missouri's natural beauty is a destination for generations of visitors to come.
As we prepare for our second year in office, my administration will keep a sharp and sustained focus on these key Missouri First initiatives: creating jobs, expanding educational opportunities, and boosting economic development through tourism. All along the way, we'll be keeping you informed.
I'd like to leave you with one final thought, a thought about a value we share - something sacred: the public trust. Journalists are the stewards of that sacred trust, just like those who serve in public office. Your readers depend on you for information, about your communities, our state and our world.
Celebrity journalists, infatuated with the sound of their own voices, stage debates where the two sides go after each other with all the integrity and intelligence of professional wrestling. All too often, Washington insiders join the mob to score cheap political points.
These sideshows may be diverting ... for a while ... but they do they advance the common good? No. Do they serve democracy? No. And those antics shouldn't cheapen the discourse here in Missouri.
You set the tone for public discourse. Set that bar high.
Trained journalists, who uphold the highest standards of accuracy and professional ethics, can be a powerful force for doing good, for fighting corruption, for recognizing genuine accomplishments, for shaping public policy - for keeping the people informed and engaged with issues that MATTER.
No other institution can do what you do, backed by the power of our Constitution. What you do with that power is as important today as it was when the Founding Fathers saw fit to write it into the laws of a new nation. And at the dawn of the 21st century, we need real journalists more than ever.
Thank you for your dedication to your craft, to democracy, and to informed, and civil, debate. Enjoy the rest of your conference.
Thank you.