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OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
STATE CAPITOL
BOISE 83720
[phone]

STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS
by CECIL D. ANDRUS
GOVERNOR OF IDAHO
before a JOINT SESSION OF THE FIRST REGULAR SESSION OF THE
52ND IDAHO LEGISLATURE
House Chambers
Boise, Idaho
January 11, 1993

EMBARGOED UNTIL: 1 P.M. MST

      Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, members of the
judiciary, distinguished elected state officials, ladies
and gentlemen of the First Regular Session of the 52nd
Idaho Legislature, my fellow citizens.
      I am proud of our Idaho, deeply proud.
      So it was with a mixture of humor and humility that
I accepted on your behalf a rather extraordinary
compliment several weeks ago. I was meeting with leaders
of President-elect Clinton's transition team, and the
discussion turned, as it has so often over the past year,
to the economy -- and to the performance of a few select
states that stand in such sharp contrast to a nation in
distress.
      "Why is Idaho an island?" I was asked.
      Tongue in cheek, I told them, "Strong management."
      Of course, all of us know Idaho's resounding success
is much more than just management style.  It is hard work.
It is timing and good fortune.  It is understanding how to
empower people, and how important it is to consciously
protect a quality of life unknown to other Americans.
      There is an ancient Chinese proverb which says, "A
kind word warms for three winters," and that may be true.
But in Idaho, we understand that we have distinguished
ourselves not by dwelling on our laurels but by
aggressively addressing difficult questions and tremendous
challenges.

I. The State of the State

      It is my great honor and responsibility to come
before you once again to assess the state of the state of
Idaho. It is a report of optimism and hope, a landmark
pointing us along a path toward our highest aspirations,
and a reminder that as the ascent steepens, we must prove
our fitness for the climb by stepping boldly.
      It is a challenge to be unconventional.  That should
not be hard for us because unconventional is the Idaho
style.
      My call is for us to seek out the invention in our
midst.
      It will be important, particularly in these weeks of
your deliberations in the inaugural session of the 52nd
Legislature, to store convention away and consider the
validity of new ideas.
      Our highest hopes and aspirations -- which I believe
are practically universal among Idahoans -- can only be
achieved by finding creative answers to vexing questions.
      President John F. Kennedy said:
      "As every generation has had to disenthrall itself
from an inheritance of truisms and stereotypes, so in our
time we must move on from the reassuring repetition of
stale phrases to a new, difficult but essential
confrontation with reality...
      "Too often, we hold fast to the cliches of our
forebears... We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the
discomfort of thought."
      Ladies and gentlemen, I believe the surest way to
mishandle a problem is to avoid it.  There is peril in
ignoring reality.
      Let us be guided by reality and by the principle
that the people of Idaho, our people, sent us here to
lead, not to bicker over mere politics.  They sent us here
to chart a correct and forward course built upon
cooperation.
      We must never forget that we have been sent here to
represent their best interest.  My commitment to you is
openness and goodwill in ambitiously carrying out this
bidding.

II. Accomplishments of 1992

      When I reflect on what we have accomplished together
in the recent months and years, I am sometimes awed.
      In a nation faltering in recession, Idaho has taken
the road less traveled.
      We are at the head of the nation's first rank of
states in personal income gain and in job creation.  Since
December of 1987, total retail sales in Idaho have grown
by 26 percent.  Nonagricultural employment has grown by
27.5 percent, the highest rate in the nation.  And
personal income has grown by 36 percent.
      These numbers are directly reflected in the strong
performances of Idaho businesses and in our solid tax
revenues.
      In spite of a stream of new arrivals from states
where life is not as good, our 1992 unemployment rate has
held a full point below the national average.
      And, in a late 1992 event little noted but very
revealing of our success, Park River Homes, Inc., of Post
Falls became the 100,000th Idaho corporation.
      Any acknowledgement of our great success must note
that progress has come because we have built lasting
partnerships, partnerships between you and me and
between business and government.
      These essential partnerships were never more
valuable than in 1987, when I asked for and the
Legislature granted an appropriation of $1.8 million to
turn a caretaker office into an aggressive, competent
Department of Commerce equipped to capitalize on Idaho's
extraordinary business climate.  Our confidence has been
more than borne out.
      We are further strengthened by the fact that women
have taken their place at the head of the Idaho judiciary.
Two years ago, I selected Cathy Silak as the first woman
on the Idaho Court of Appeals. Then last summer, I was
honored to appoint Linda Copple Trout, a person of rich
experience and qualifications, as the first female justice
in the 100-year history of the Idaho Supreme Court. In her
place, I was granted the opportunity to provide a seat on
the Second District Court to Idaho's first
African-American female jurist, Ida Leggett.
      To these judges I say, Godspeed in your work.
Finally, you have been given your chance to serve.  May
the door of opportunity be forever open to other
outstanding women, and may we Idahoans in this new year
rededicate ourselves to the fundamental principle of
equality, tolerance, and justice for all.  Let Idaho
always stand for fairness, and let us always reject the
forces of division and hatred.

III. Accountability in Government

      To keep the Idaho experience rare and special, we
must bravely confront the obstacles in our path.
      That is why it is prudent for us to seize this
moment to examine how we might restructure government to
help us reach our objectives.
      We should attend to the lessons in the three R's:
re-think, refine, re-invent.  It is a way for us to go
even further to meet one of this administration's highest
principles: accountability to the public.
      All of the fair-minded people of Idaho, whose
dearly-earned dollars support government's ability to
extend important services, deserve no less than our
maximum effort in making sure that our programs are run
efficiently by people who are willing to go the extra
mile.
      It is a fact that Idaho spends less per person on
government than almost any other state.  But that is of
little consequence to Idahoans.
      They want us to cultivate and protect their good
lives and to refrain from building empires to do it.
      I propose we begin by seriously undertaking the
business of consolidating and improving government.  I ask
you to consider these questions, and to ask some of your
own:
      * Is it time to merge the responsibilities of the
Lieutenant Governor and the Secretary of State to create
one full-time elected position?  The men serving in these
two offices have said they will not seek re-election, so
we are afforded the opportunity to consider this question
from the perspective of logic, organization and economy.
Such a move would allow a seat on the Land Board for the
state Treasurer without expanding its numbers.
      * Is it time to change the governance of education
so that separate boards oversee the public schools and the
colleges and universities?  I have long supported such a
move and endorse it again along with efforts to streamline
administration in the Office of the State Board of
Education and on each of the campuses.
      * Is it time that the Superintendent of Public
Instruction be appointed in a non-partisan manner?
      * Does every county in the state really need a
prosecutor, or could the people be served more effectively
by a system of district attorneys? How about coroners, law
enforcement agencies and emergency services? Could
consolidation save us money without sacrificing service?
      We must determine which services are redundant and
eliminate them, and we must merge systems so that the
people are paying for performance, not administration.
      Refining state government is one reason why I
support efforts to establish a bipartisan oversight of our
operations, the so-called performance audit.  Agencies
need to understand what the expectations of them are, and
the public needs to hear from an unprejudiced voice
whether those expectations are met.
      I offer for your consideration several other
initiatives that will reduce the cost of government,
privatize non-essential or inefficient services, and more
logically organize our operations:
      First, I propose we consolidate all vocational
rehabilitation services where logic directs them to be --
inside the Industrial Commission.  This reorganization
will eliminate a tier of management overseeing vocational
rehabilitation in our schools and colleges, save money and
improve service to our clients.
      Second, I recommend that the Idaho Office for
Children be formally recognized by statute.
      In 1991, I created by executive order this office to
coordinate and fully integrate all state services for
children.  It is clear that parents need one-stop access
to the bewildering maze of children's services.
      Third, I propose that we push state printing
services into the private sector while retaining ownership
of equipment to perform routine projects, which can be
adequately performed by our correctional industries
employees.
      Fourth, I believe we should close the Department of
Administration's Bureau of Supplies so that agencies can
let market forces work to the taxpayers' advantage in the
purchasing of paper and office equipment.
      These steps to restructure the way we do business
will reduce state government overhead, make services more
efficient, and save tax money.
      Now is the time to restructure Idaho for a new
century of progress.
      Let us begin today to strengthen, streamline, and
stimulate efficiency so that government continues to help
opportunity thrive.
      Idaho's achievements are notable, indeed.  America
could do as well.
      But there is more to be done: to educate and protect
the children; to ensure that most basic family value, the
ability to earn a day's pay for a day's work; to be good
and wise stewards of our resources; and to grant fairness
and equity for our taxpayers.

IV. Goals for 1993

1. Relief for Idaho's Homeowners
      Let us begin our task of innovation for Idaho by
providing tax relief to the overburdened homeowner.
      Fairness is all anyone really asks of government.
And the one-percent initiative, defeated in the 1992
election, was a homeowners' shot for fairness sent
across the bow of government at every level.
      I say again today that it would be foolish not to
heed the concerns of the 474,000 people who voted on the
initiative, or those of the 163,000 voters who
supported it.
      Idaho needs meaningful tax reform, and the
wellspring of change should be the property tax.
      Today, I stand eager to work with you to cut
property taxes for home owners -- just as we did when we
removed the eight-mill school levy from the property tax,
when we established and then expanded the circuit-breaker,
when we established the 50-50 homeowner's exemption, and
when we enacted the level-pay provision.
      In my executive budget, I will present to you a
comprehensive plan to remove tens of millions of dollars
of tax burden from homeowners, and I hope you will have
the courage to help make these ideas reality for Idaho's
fixture.
      You know that I believe establishing the proper role
of the property tax in our tax system is our collective
responsibility to the people of this state.
      It is no less our obligation to find ways to deal
with the inevitably higher costs of growth -- more and
more inmates in the penitentiary, swelling student bodies
on every single college campus in this state, and
thousands of fresh new faces in our public schools.
      Under state jurisdiction today are 1,351 more
prisoners and parolees than in 1991, a 21 -percent
increase.  Since 1989 school enrollment is up 11.5
percent, and, on campus the number has jumped by 38.5
percent.  Medicaid caseload has grown by 327 percent in
five years.
      These relentless forces of growth are demanding ever
greater accountability of government.
      "Let us not seek the Republican answer or the
Democratic answer but the right answer," John Kennedy
said.  "Let us not seek to fire the blame for the past.
Let us accept our own responsibility for the fixture."

2. Restructuring Education

      Ladies and gentlemen of Idaho's 52nd Legislature, in
answering the question, "How do we make life in Idaho
better than it is today?" I ask you to consider the
overwhelming decisions faced by State Police Sergeant
David Cordova last spring as he scrambled to save the
occupants of a motor home that had plunged over a cliff
and into the swift current of the Salmon River.
      Sergeant Cordova saw a man, a woman, and a little
girl floundering helplessly in the water.
      His actions in that desperate moment were heroic and
instinctive.  He thought first not of his own life but of
the child out in the current.  Experienced in water rescue
and guided by the hand of God, Sergeant Cordova saved
Danica Oviatt's life. He was also able to rescue Danica's
father before the churning waters swept him away.
      I believe that every one of us, if we were placed by
fate in such a predicament of high risk, would react to
save our children first.
      In sculpting an Idaho of the next century that is
equal to or greater than the Idaho of today, we must do
what Sergeant Cordova's reflexes directed him to do.  We
must never rest until we have accomplished our duty to our
first priority, our children.
      Idaho's children are depending on us to provide them
opportunity and to help prepare them to seize it.  That is
why we must inject fresh enthusiasm into the effort to
restructure Idaho's schools, retool the system so that we
may give our best to boys and girls, men and women, who we
soon expect will give their best.
      Questioning the old ways, fostering innovation, and
freeing the exchange of fresh ideas will take us there.
      We must continue to sow the seeds of change by
creating and adequately funding pilot projects in schools
throughout the state and then create a mechanism so that
they can share the experience of reform with partner
schools.
     We must enlist the help of business in injecting the
elements of high technology into each classroom so that
Idaho graduates will be prepared to become the achievers
of the 2lst century.
     In the past year, state government has become a
leader in parent activism in school.  Hundreds of state
employees, given the opportunity, have taken time out of
their workdays to help in school.  Some news accounts have
focused on the so-called cost of this program, but that
emphasis badly misses the point; the gift of time and
enthusiasm of parents is as valuable as any investment we
can ever make in our schools.
     I am happy to report to you today that this spirit is
catching.  Businesses are establishing similar policies.
     As I have said, I believe we in Idaho should
undertake an initiative that is well in progress
throughout the world -- extending the school year and
pushing more academic substance into the classroom.  I
stand prepared to consider any idea you may have to raise
the competitiveness of our schools.
     The executive budget I will submit to you this week,
while keeping Idaho apace with the growth of our student
bodies, contains other important initiatives in public
education:
     * Placement of counselors in every elementary school
in Idaho's 113 districts.
     * Establishment of a gifted and talented program
designed to foster the development of our most promising
elementary and secondary students.  Idaho has taken
important steps to assist other special-needs students,
and in 1993 we have an opportunity to help our best and
brightest reach further.
     Extending Idaho's reach is also our most important
challenge in higher education.  So today I ask you to
address two critical needs: first, access to health care
for the tens of thousands of rural Idahoans; and, second,
a better-trained and more capable professional workforce
to respond to the fast growth of our high-technology
industries.
     I propose establishing a master's level nurse
practitioner program at Idaho State University with class
offerings in Pocatello and Boise.
      The nurse practitioner, I believe, will become a
rescuer of the rural health care crisis in this state
where vast distances separate populated areas.  Nurse
practitioners can provide family health care to people
whose homes may be many miles from a physician.
      And to address Southwestern Idaho's rapid growth as
a center of high technology, I advocate expanding the
University of Idaho electrical engineering program on the
campus of Boise State University. More immediate access to
this curriculum will give people working in the
electronics industry professional growth opportunities and
will provide their employers with a highly qualified
workforce.

3. Child Protection

      There are critical strides we can make outside the
classroom for Idaho's children, and this administration
has never been more committed to protecting our most
vulnerable citizens from the sometimes heartbreaking
realities of life.
      Sadly, in this age of express-lane divorce, there
are parents who are not living up even to the financial
obligation of raising their children.
      I stand before you to ask that we join together
today to make Idaho the nation's standard.bearer of
child-support enforcement by enacting tougher laws.  One
of the proposals I ask you to consider would prohibit a
person from receiving a driver's license or hunting and
fishing privileges if he or she flees from or ignores this
fundamental obligation of parenthood.
      The flight of parents from their child-support
obligations is a growing national problem, and we have
earned a reputation of one of the leading states in
stemming it. But we must do more.
      We must also do more to protect children from the
despicable crime of child abuse.  In spite of the
continued increase of this crime, last year the total
number of prosecutions declined statewide.  Attorney
General EchoHawk is proposing legislation to further our
joint efforts to get more serious about this crime, which
is devastating the lives of too many little children.

4. Getting a Grip on Health Care
      * In Connecticut, Illinois, and Virginia, state
governments have been forced by soaring costs to reduce
provider reimbursements for Medicaid care.
      * Whole programs in the Medicaid systems of
Michigan, Kansas, and Florida have been eliminated.
      * In neighboring Washington, the projected Medicaid
deficit is $1.2 billion, and in Montana it is more than
$300 million.
      We cannot permit Idaho to fall into this bottomless
cavern of fiscal ruin.
      I have directed the Department of Health and Welfare
to take all appropriate steps -- including a reduction of
reimbursement to providers -- to check the so far
unbridled growth of Medicaid costs.
      We will use every means at our disposal to cut the
costs of Medicaid without creating a hardship on people
who need the services.
      What we are doing is applying proven business
principles to the management of a public health program
that is growing explosively.
      These are not incidental bills.  In the first 11
months of 1992, the state paid St. Luke's Regional Medical
Center $15 million in reimbursements for Medicaid service.
In the same period, we paid a physician in Twin Falls more
than $220,000. A Nampa dentist was reimbursed $210,000 for
Medicaid services in those 11 months.
      Congress has refused to recognize that we need a
national solution for the health care crisis.  Its answer
has been to relax eligibility and mandate state-provided
services without providing adequate funding and without
insisting on cost-containment.
      It is not Idaho's intention to turn out the poor and
the sick.  We are not denying coverage to anyone now
receiving it.  We are not asking doctors and hospitals
to do any more than they have ethically pledged to do.
But we # taking steps to curb the spending spree before a
bill comes due that we cannot pay.
      I refuse to look on passively as an out-of-control
federally-mandated program damages the quality of life we
in Idaho have worked so hard to achieve.
      I do seek to improve the quality of life for Idaho's
senior citizens, who have contributed so much to our
state, by establishing an innovative, cost-effective
volunteer respite program.  Such a move will encourage the
elderly to stay in their homes by providing essential help
to family members who are currently caring for
them.

5. Vigilance Over Nuclear Waste
      One of our most unwavering responsibilities is
protecting life in a place that is what America was. That
is why I will ask you to take action this session to
prohibit the storage in Idaho of high-level nuclear waste
from commercial utility reactors in other states.
      As you know, Idaho has been engaged in a court case
over the federal government's intentions to store at the
Idaho National Engineering Laboratory waste generated at
a commercial reactor #n Colorado.
      What you may not know is that there are dozens of
other commercial utility reactors scattered across this
country soon to be decommissioned.  The chief executives
of these utilities, I can assure you, are sizing up the
Idaho desert as the perfect place to send their waste,
which they call "spent fuel" but which will remain
radioactive for 25,000 years.
      And the Department of Energy, which has been so far
hopelessly engaged in trying to find a willing recipient
for these reactor cores, will be under immense pressure to
give its utility clients an out by opening the doors of
federal sites, like the INEL, for storage.
      What makes this issue even more compelling is that
the secretary of energy just announced what he calls a
"new strategy" to store spent commercial fuel at the INEL.
      My adamant opposition to the government's intention
to turn Idaho into the nation's waste dump for this
radioactive garbage is well known.  Now it is time for
our Legislature to send a clear message to the federal
government that we don't want it, and we will not stand
idly by while they try to force it upon us.
      The INEL is unique in two ways: it is the nation's
leading center for nuclear research and development, and
its land covers the largest freshwater aquifer on the
continent.  We must make it clear that Idaho will not
permit this laboratory to become the nation's de facto
waste dump and put its most vital natural resource at
risk.
      Just as Idaho's ban of waste importation from
nuclear weapons plants spurred action to open a
transuranic waste site in New Mexico, legislative action
to prevent storage of this commercial spent fuel in Idaho
will go a long way in our establishing a coherent national
policy to store waste where it is generated until a
permanent repository is opened.

6. Land, Air and Water
      The trust of stewardship of this remarkable place is
profound.  Let it be our mission for the generations to
follow that we will use prudently, that we will protect
devotedly, that we will be vigilant enough to pass on an
Idaho as naturally extraordinary as the one we inherited.
      Let us move together to give permanent protection
from hydropower intrusion to the great Henry's Fork of the
Snake River and the still pristine north and middle
forks of the Boise River. Let us take the necessary steps
to cleanse the ailing middle reach of the Snake River.
      Let us continue our aggressive advocacy for the
salmon.  Remember, Idaho is the only state to have set
forth a plan to restore this magnificent creature, a plan
that safeguards existing water rights yet deals with the
critical issue of getting the juvenile fish to the ocean.
Only this passage will allow them to return from the
Pacific to perpetuate their species in the waters of the
Idaho high country.
      And let Idaho become the national leader in
developing a comprehensive strategy of water conservation
so that, as long as dry conditions prevail in this arid
land, we will preserve our stores of the fuel that drives
our economy.

7. Partnership with Indian Nations
      Idaho and its Indian nations do not agree on the
question of casino gambling, but that is only one of many
pressing issues of mutual concern that require us to keep
our lines of communication open.
      Today, I ask you to create a Native American
Commission to take on the challenges of economic
development on the reservations, and the many
environmental and social issues that confront the
Shoshone-Bannock, the Coeur d'Alene, the Kootenai, the Nez
Perce, and the Shoshone-Paiute.

V. Conclusion
      Today, I have placed at the disposal of the people
of Idaho a program of innovation, which will chart a
course of hope.
      We must ask ourselves, what can we be?  How can we
make Idaho's achievements of tomorrow eclipse those of
today?
      It may be natural, even comfortable, to have
something of an emotional attachment to the tried and
true, but, to steady Idaho for the 2lst century, we must
challenge every assumption, scrutinize every expenditure
and organization, study every policy, and hold every rule
and method up to the light of the modern era.
      * We must check the growth of federally-mandated
medical costs.
      * We must craft fairness into the tax structure.
      * We must restructure Idaho education to enable our
children to master a global marketplace.
      * We must demonstrate accountability and create
efficiency in government.
      * And we must begin the important process of
rethinking, refining and reinventing government at all
levels.
      We are compelled by the realities of the day and by
our own urge to govern with wisdom to dispense business as
usual and step boldly toward a future that is undeniably
bright.
      What I have described to you is an agenda of change.
It is an agenda of progress.
      Let us fuse our energies to make it an agenda of
achievement for the people of Idaho -- for 1993 and a
coming decade of challenge.
      To those who will be tempted to say that these are
not the times to be bold, it has been said, "Make no
little plans; they have no magic to stir one's blood."
      I say join with me.  H
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