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Gov. John R.
Kasich’s State of the State Address
Wilmington, Ohio
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
SPEAKER ROSENBERGER: The House will come to order.
I want to welcome you all here to Wilmington, Ohio. I'm really glad to
be home. Before we get started and I make my introduction, I just first
want to take the opportunity to thank my neighbors, my friends, our
community, the legislators, the governor, Senator Faber, and all those
who have made today possible. This has been a great day to showcase
Wilmington, Ohio, southwest Ohio, but more importantly our number one
asset as a state, and that's our workforce, our people, and the spirit
of everyone, and I'm so blessed—
(Applause.)
SPEAKER ROSENBERGER: And we're so blessed to have you each here today
to have this great event in the city of Wilmington. And to Wilmington
and to the community, thank you. Thank you for hosting. Thank you for
sharing your story. Thank you for sharing your example. Thank you for
sharing what you do. God bless you. I will always love you. Thank you
for the opportunity to represent you. And I look forward to continuing.
Before we get started any farther, I want to take the moment to
recognize those that are most important to every one of us. So if
you're a military veteran, if you're a firefighter or a police officer,
if you're EMS personnel, if you're in this room, please rise and be
welcomed.
(Applause.)
SENATOR FABER: I've had the privilege of having a great partner in
Senator Peterson here as we represent the people of the 91st District
and as he represents those of the 17th Senate District, but I've also
had a great partner in his leadership role. It's my great privilege to
introduce a man who does what's right for the people of Ohio to make
sure that our number one priority is a great quality of life. Ladies
and gentlemen, please welcome the president of the Senate.
(Applause.)
SENATOR FABER: Is a quorum of the Senate present? The chair recognizes
President Pro Temp Senator Weidner.
MR. WEIDNER: Is there a quorum of the House present?
SENATOR FABER: The chair recognizes Speaker Pro Temp, Representative
Amstutz.
MR. AMSTUTZ: A quorum of the 51st General Assembly being present, this
joint session will come to order.
SENATOR FABER: I invite everyone to stand for the presentation of
colors by the Wilmington Veterans Post 49 Memorial Color Guard Unit.
Please remain standing thereafter for the Pledge of Allegiance.
(Presentation of Colors.)
(Pledge of Allegiance.)
SENATOR FABER: Please be seated.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is my distinct honor and pleasure to present
the governor of the great state of Ohio, Governor John Kasich.
(Applause.)
SENATOR FABER: Ladies and gentlemen, Governor John Kasich.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A little nervous
tonight? First time? Yeah. Give him a great round of applause. Our
brand-new speaker.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: I want to thank you, members of the General Assembly.
Thanks for coming here tonight. I want to thank the members of my
cabinet who had a fantastic day in Wilmington. I'm told over 80
meetings, including a meeting with 200 veterans at a jobs fair, and
that's why we do this, so we can come into the community and help.
And my staff—my cabinet and my staff, God bless you. You know, I'm just
one person that gets to direct, but without you we can't do it. So I
want to thank you.
And, of course, to my special wife, Karen Kasich. Karen, would you
stand and let them—let them recognize you?
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: Yes. That's right. She has to live with me. That's
worth a standing ovation.
And I want to thank the Roberts family for hosting. This is really a
unique spot and we are just thrilled to be here.
Some of you may wonder why I asked the General Assembly to come right
here to Wilmington tonight, and I really want to tell you why I am
here. A lot would think it's just because of Cliff, and I love Cliff,
and I'll tell you a little bit about Cliff and Wilmington and me a
little bit further along.
But I came here to Wilmington during my campaign in 2010 and I saw the
devastation that this town had suffered. It was written on the faces of
the people of Wilmington, and these are people who had played by the
rules. They didn't do anything wrong. So much reminds me of stories
across the country, including in my old hometown. They worked hard, but
one day the rug was pulled from under them. People lost their savings.
People lost their homes. A lot of people were losing hope in what their
future was going to be.
And many of them were only able to feed their families, thanks to the
good work of the people at food pantries like Sugartree Ministries.
What a great operation it was. Yes, you can applaud for Sugartree
Ministries.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: In 2010, I visited Sugartree with my campaign staff
and my wife. Remember, sweetheart, when we were here?
We left the pantry, and we got back on the bus. And I was getting
pretty emotional. I turned to the people who were with me, the people
who were on my campaign staff, many of whom had been with me for many
years. And I said, “You'd better understand, this is not just another
political campaign. Did you see what was happening in that pantry? Did
you see the pain, the anguish, on their faces?”
You know, I told them that day, “Our mission is to help fix this
community and to restore some hope. Our mission is to help get people
back on their feet in places like Wilmington.” And, you know, folks, I
have very good news to report. The state of the state is getting
stronger, and we have regained our footing, but we must act decisively
now to seize the greater opportunities that await all of us. We are
better today than we were, and we are rising.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: Wilmington is in many ways a reflection of Ohio. We
are doing better, as shown by going from—think about this—89 cents in
our rainy day fund, and an $8 billion shortfall to a balanced budget
today, and a $1.5 billion surplus. From 89 cents and 8 billion in the
hole, to a balanced budget and a $1.5 billion surplus, and we are
looking forward to adding another $400 million to that piggy bank, to
that surplus for Ohio.
And I have to tell you, not half but nearly half the states are not
structurally balanced. They're struggling now to try to figure out how
to—how to bring their books in line. And you know what that's like?
When you have to go and do major surgery? When you don't know how
you're going to put it all together?
And it happened here because we've all agreed to use conservative
economics and act like a good old Ohio family that says, ‘we've got to
go conservative with the money that we have’. We've gone from
losing—the record's really frankly amazing that we all should feel
proud of—we went from losing 350,000 jobs—that’s three and a half times
Ohio Stadium—to where we are up almost 300,000 new private sector jobs
over the period of the last four years. It's amazing.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: We've gone from very high taxes across the board to
the largest tax cuts in America, including tax cuts for the working
poor, which is a very important part of our philosophy. We're seeing
wages grow faster than the national average, and the unemployment rate
has dropped to the lowest level in more than a decade. That is
something for all of us to feel good about and to share with our
friends and neighbors across Ohio.
This is all really great stuff. But if I were to leave this hall
tonight and say that our mission is accomplished, there's no way I
would be doing my job. We haven't finished our mission. We have a lot
more battles to wage, and I cannot wage them without you, my colleagues
in the General Assembly. I can't do it unless we all work together.
Earlier this month I proposed a budget for the next two years. And
while people may think budgets are about numbers and dollars, that's
not really it. I've been working on budgets since I was just a—kind of
a kid. But they were never just about numbers. They are about people.
Budgets are about vision. They're about economic growth, a 21st century
education system, and not leaving anybody behind, particularly those
people who live in the shadows.
We're starting to get a glimpse of where our vision can take Ohio when
we work hard and we make the tough and right choices. But we have more
work to do. We need to win more battles against the status quo. We
can't drift, folks. We cannot drift. We have to continue to win battles
against the status quo if we want to take Ohio where we want it to be,
where we need to be, and that means we have to continue to battle
special interests that want to lock us in where we are today.
And the plan my administration has laid out provides a path that I
believe will propel us higher and higher. I'm proud of what we've done
so far, and I'm grateful that I've had the chance to serve alongside
leaders with vision and a certain sense of toughness, because
leadership is the willingness to walk a lonely path. Leadership is not
a finger in the air to figure out who's going to be with you. It's not
about who likes you. It's about using your judgment to deliver the best
results.
And I've been able to serve with leaders just like this. Two I want to
mention: Senate—former Senate President Tom Niehaus. He's in the
audience tonight. I'd like him to stand. Where is Tom Niehaus? Way in
the back. Give him a round of applause.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: And, of course, former Speaker of the House Bill
Batchelder. I'm told he is here tonight as well. Where is Bill? Bill,
stand and be recognized.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: You know, I'm grateful to serve with someone like
Keith Faber. Keith and I are buddies. You know, that's a really
wonderful thing when you can cross the line from “colleague” and you
can tease and you can kid. And Keith's my buddy.
And, you know, what can I say about Cliff? I first understood the
passion that burns inside of Cliff Rosenberger when he came constantly
to see me about the things that we needed to do to get Wilmington on
its feet. Always thinking differently, always thinking outside the box,
inside the box, with such great passion for the people of Wilmington,
for the people of Clinton County, but most particularly here in
Wilmington, you could not have a better friend than Cliff Rosenberger.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: His heart and soul is committed to you.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: And then how about Bob Peterson? He's one of the great
ones, too. Where is Bob Peterson? Bob, stand up. Get recognized. He's
also a great leader here.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: So I've said that I'm proud about what we've been
doing, but let me be clear about what is making a difference. It's
balanced budgets. It's surpluses. It's smart management. It's common
sense regulations. Thank you, Mary Taylor for all of your work on
common sense regulations. It's tax cuts.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: Yeah. Give Mary a round of applause. She's terrific.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: These are the ideas that are producing the economic
growth which is making so many of the other good things possible. These
accomplishments are sending a message to job creators around the state,
around the country, and around the globe that Ohio is open for
business. And let me tell you, I talk to them all the time. When I tell
them that we were $8 billion in the hole and now we're $2 billion in
the black, that we've got $3 billion worth of tax cuts, that we've got
a private sector entity that can respond to them quickly when it comes
to the need to give them answers on the opportunities for job growth—I
talk to them all the time, every week, almost every day. It's hard for
them to believe. But now we're starting to get a reputation because
what we celebrate here tonight is for real. And particularly when
compared to others—it's impressive.
From here we are now poised to take what I believe are major leaps
forward so we can begin locking down the progress we've made and
preparing for the challenges that are looming all too close on the
horizon. Challenges, like the aging of our workforce as baby boomers
retire. We're getting older in Ohio. Understand the implications of not
being able to refill those jobs with young people. We face the
inevitable next economic downturn. One minute we're up; the next one
we're down. Just look at the stock market. Look at the economic news
and the unexpected crises that always seem to strike. They always seem
to strike when we least expect it.
I believe the most important thing that we can do to plan ahead is to
continue strengthening Ohio's economy by further cutting taxes, and
that means we must restrain government spending. We need to cut taxes
and we need to restrain the growth of government.
I'm proposing that we cut taxes by $500 million on top of the $3
billion in tax cuts we've already made because high income taxes punish
risk taking. High income taxes punish risk taking, investment and job
creation—and they drive some of our best and some of our brightest to
other states in search of lower taxes and better opportunities. And you
all know what I mean. I don't care what part of Ohio you come from—you
know that some of our best and our brightest and most successful—they
leave. Those are our jewels, and yet they go other places. So we've got
to continue to do the things we need to do to cut their taxes.
The budget I've proposed holds growth to below historic inflation. It's
only 2 percent the first year and 2 percent the next—2 and a half
percent the next year. So think about this. We want to restrain the
growth in government spending, and it is critical that we grow at a
level where we can meet our priorities, but at the same time can have
the space for tax cuts.
That doesn't mean we don't invest in some priorities, like education,
but we're always looking for ways to innovate and improve and reduce
because our administration has been successful in doing that.
We've been able to keep growth in check so that there's money to give
back to Ohioans in the form of a $500 million tax cut because we have
restrained ourselves, we're able to give 500—a half a billion
dollars—back to the people of this state. So—
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: So now we're going to have a little bit of an
explanation of all this. So to make sure we're all on the same page,
let's remember what tax cuts do to strengthen Ohio. When people get to
keep more of their money, the money they earn, they have more control
over their lives. When they get to keep more, they've got more control.
They have more power to decide their futures, more flexibility to
respond to changes in their lives or changes in the economy.
Folks, it's not the government's money that we let them keep. It's
Ohioans' money. It's our money, and we want them to keep as much of it
as possible. Because what they do, they will always know how to spend
it better than government ever could. In other words, when they've got
the money, they're going to do a better job of exercising choice than
any government will ever do for them. Don't forget that.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: But here's another thing you need to understand. Low
taxes signal to job creators that Ohio is a safe and attractive place
to invest. When you're looking at investing, you want to go where
things are solid, where budgets are balanced, where you know that
government is being restrained, and you also know that that is a—that
is a government or a group of leaders who understand the philosophy of
reducing taxes and empowering people from the bottom up. It sends a
signal of strength. And that's exactly what we want to do.
Let's take the small business owner, for example. The small business
that has more money can hire more people. They can buy more machinery
and equipment to increase production. And, therefore, have a better
chance to thrive. Small businesses get healthier. They can hire. They
can be stronger. This is not a Republican philosophy. This is just a
simple fact. High taxes discourage it. High taxes, especially the
income tax, punish a small business owner's willingness to take the
risk to hire more people, to invest in improvements, and work harder to
be successful.
Lower taxes incentivize all of those things. And when small businesses
across this state take risks when they invest and expand, it echos
throughout our economy. It's called growth. It's called job creation.
And it lifts Ohio. That's why—one reason why—we work so hard to cut
Workers' Compensation premiums by 12 percent and $409 million in
savings, and we have given private employers $1.75 billion back in
rebates while investing in worker safety. You think that doesn't free
up money? Call your small business and ask them. It's also why I want
to eliminate income taxes for virtually every small business in our
state, to help fuel and accelerate growth.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: I want to send a message that if you want to start a
small business with no income taxes on a small business up to $2
million. If you want to start a small business, if you're an
entrepreneur if you're a young person coming out of college, do it in
Ohio. Think about it. Do it in Ohio. Come here. Stay here or come here
because we're going to give you the help you need to open the doors.
And that helps us with the population drain that we've seen in this
state.
We see similar—right. Exactly right, Tim.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: We see similar good things happen when families get to
keep more of their own money. They've got more power and control over
their own lives. They have the freedom to direct their own futures.
They can save for a rainy day or for college education, or they can
make needed home repairs. Maybe they can go into business or maybe take
a special trip, like my mom and dad used to take us when they had a
little bit more money in their pockets.
I want to give families this kind of power over their own lives, and
that's why I'm proposing to cut the income tax rate by 23 percent.
We've already cut Ohio's income tax rate from 5.9 to 5.33 percent, and
our budget will take it all the way down to 4.1 percent over the next
two years.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: I want you to think about it, and would love you to
support it.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: Let's keep going, and let the common sense growth
strategy of cutting taxes strengthen Ohio, as well as helping us
attract the best and brightest to our state. Don't forget, many of our
most successful job creators, CEOs and innovators leave Ohio for states
with zero income taxes. And what they do is take their good ideas,
their philanthropy with them.
Let me put this in simple terms. So you work a whole lifetime, maybe
you build a business. You become successful. My dad carried mail on his
back. I used to say, “Dad, how do we feel about the rich?” He said,
“Johnny, we don't hate the rich. We want to be one of them.”
The fact is, in Ohio, punishing success will drive people out. So these
folks, many of whom we all know, whether we live in Steubenville,
whether we live in Youngstown, whether we live in Cleveland, whether we
live in Toledo, Cincinnati, or Columbus, somebody has an opportunity to
cash in what they earned. And they want to sell some stock. I want you
all to think about this for a second. They want to sell some stock. If
they go to Florida and live, they pay the federal capital gains rate,
20 percent. They don't pay anything else. If they live in Ohio, they
pay the federal capital gains rate plus an additional 5.3 percent. Now,
what would you rather pay, 25.3 percent in taxes or 20 percent? And for
many of these people who were successful, it's a large amount of money.
So that's why when you go to Naples and you drive around down there,
you keep bumping into Ohioans, because they've all moved. And with the
savings they make by not paying Ohio's income tax, they could buy
another house down there.
This is not complicated. We can’t lose our best and brightest. I'm just
pleading with you to understand that we drive them out. And they go
down there. When they go down there to Florida, they're building a new
performing arts center down in Naples. You know, they're down there
hanging out. They're creating jobs down there. I want them building
performing arts centers in Wilmington, Ohio, not down in Naples,
Florida. I want to keep them here.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: So that's the easy—that’s the easy part of it. Okay?
And you can all debate about how you want to do it. That $500 million
gets paid for by the savings that we've been able to generate. But I've
got to tell you about something that, frankly, I think is almost as
important. I believe we can achieve even more if we start fundamentally
changing the way that Ohio's tax system works so that taxes have less
of a drag on the private economy.
Look, no tax is great, but some are worse than others. I don't know if
you've ever studied that some taxes have a greater drag on economic
growth than other taxes. So if we're going to raise taxes—or if we're
going to have taxes–let's have the taxes that have the least negative
impact on the private economy so we can create jobs.
A certain level of taxes—of course—is inevitable, to pave the roads,
run the schools and care for the needy. The government's got to make
that money go as far as it can. And those taxes must be generated in
the least harmful way. This means we must reduce Ohio's traditional
overreliance on income taxes and lean more on consumption taxes.
Now, let me finish this. I think we should lean less on income taxes
which punish investment and the growth and seek to lean more on
consumption taxes.
Hey, the states that have followed that formula, they're growing faster
than we are. They're younger than we are. Where are they? Florida,
Texas. Look at what's happening in Tennessee. I have to compete against
those states when I make these calls to the CEOs. The fact is that the
states that have had either lower or no income tax, like Nevada, people
are moving there—they’re playing with fire out there and may raise
taxes—people are moving from California to Nevada. This is happening.
Because money flows to the places that have lower taxes.
Our income taxes are a severe drag on economic growth. They essentially
punish those who go out and work harder. We're supposed to celebrate
hard work. We all said that we want to create good middle-class jobs
and we want to bolster family economics, but they can't grow and they
can't thrive without new investment. This is just simple, really simple
stuff. Investments must be nourished, not discouraged. By freeing up
income taxes, we're freeing up more capital to invest in business to
grow and create more good paying jobs.
New jobs need new businesses. Think about what's happening over there
in Steubenville. New jobs need new businesses, and new businesses need
new investments. And let's encourage investment by cutting taxes. It's
common sense. It's a process that begins with investment and ends with
higher family incomes.
Folks, this isn't Republican. This isn't Democrat. It's a lot of what
we've been trying to do over the last four years, and look at our
results. So, let's not like stop. Let's do more of it. More of it so we
can have more jobs, so we can secure our place here in America.
If, in addition to keeping our spending in check, we also move away
from income taxes and more towards consumption taxes, we're both
encouraging hard work we're also giving people more control over the
amount of taxes they ultimately pay.
You see, in a consumption tax model, you're in control. You only pay
taxes on the purchases you choose to make. You're the one who decides
what you buy and how much you spend. And for the poorest Ohioans, we're
providing income tax relief so they're not disproportionately impacted
by the change in taxes. Our philosophy is to bring the top rate down
and help people who are the working poor. That's why we created—for the
first time in Ohio—the Earned Income Tax Credit. It's not refundable,
but it's breathtaking that we—I wouldn't say breathtaking—but it is
certainly new. It's never happened before. The communities that help
the poor, the working poor, we’re for it. We created it. Now we're
significantly increasing the personal exemptions so that the working
poor can have incentives. You've got to remember, the best help for low
income Ohioans is a better job, which they have a better chance of
getting when we improve Ohio's tax climate.
You know the biggest single cure for poverty? A job. And when we are
growing jobs...
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: …okay. So we're talking about not just saving money in
government spending, but we're talking about tax reform. Some things go
up, other things go down, but to provide the incentive for the least
negative impact on the private economy.
Severance taxes, that's another place where we need tax reform. The
reason is simple. Our current system doesn't reflect our current
reality. Ohio's severance tax was created decades ago, long before
Ohio's shale boom was ever envisioned. Its current low rate: 20 cents
on a barrel of oil.
I don't know anybody who lives in Ohio who would not like to sign up
for this, twenty cents on a barrel of oil. It's unconscionable as far
as I'm concerned. It's not right. It isn't fair to Ohioans, because
these resources are being depleted. They're never coming back. Ohio's
being made poorer as a result of the depletion of our resources. It's
like oil and gas itself. Much of the wealth the shale boom is
generating is being shipped out of our state, being shipped out of Ohio.
We need to change that while at the same time making sure that Ohio's
long time small drillers—the ones who have been around for years and
make very little money. We want to just get rid of their income taxes
altogether but we also want to make sure that local governments are
supported when their calls for first responders and infrastructure or
other essential services are forced to go up because of the oil and gas
activity. Okay? All of it.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: The prosperity created by our oil and gas deposits can
be great not just for shale country. This is not just for part of Ohio
but for all of Ohio because it makes possible the income tax cuts that
provide an economic boost statewide.
I'm disappointed by those who say the severance tax reform will kill
the industry. That's a joke. That's a big fat joke because I've talked
to them in private. And I'll tell you what, our severance tax will
still be competitive with our energy-rich states. And you know what?
Let's reform the severance tax so all Ohioans can have lower income
taxes and we all benefit from this whole industry. That's what it
should be all about.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: I want to tell you a story. I'm out in Wyoming. I'm
meeting with Governor Mead in Wyoming. I said, “Who's the greatest
governor?” He said, “One is Governor Hathaway.” I said, “Why is that?”
He said, “Well, he was an oil and gas guy.” “Really?” “Yeah, he was an
oil and gas guy. He showed up one day and said we need to have a
severance tax and we need to make sure we capture the loss that we're
experiencing here because someday we won't have those minerals, and now
they're running these big kind of surpluses in this fund, this special
mineral fund.”
So what happened? Oil and gas guy, he goes to an event with a bunch of
the oil and gas people. They say to him, “Well, we supported you in
your campaign.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his checkbook
and said, “How much do I owe you, boys? Because we're going to have a
severance tax in the state of Wyoming.” And guess what? He's gone down
now as one of the greatest governors in the state of Wyoming. Let's
learn from Governor Hathaway. Okay?
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: And what the people of this state want—all right.
Let's talk about the CAT tax. If you don't do that, by the way, you
won't get the reduction in these other taxes. It won't happen. You're
either for more economic growth in these lower taxes or you're getting
stuck in the status quo. These aren't easy decisions. I understand it.
I used to be in office when people would come around and beat on me and
say this and that. You know, let's talk about the CAT tax. It was
created 10 years ago and has been a huge benefit to large companies,
especially manufacturing companies.
Of course we want to see them succeed, but we also want Ohio's small
enterprises to succeed because they're the real engines of economic
growth. They're the fighter jets of Ohio's economy, small, nimble, able
to respond on a dime to changes in the marketplace. It's time for these
small businesses to receive the same shot in the arm that big
businesses received ten years ago. So let's reform the CAT tax and
eliminate small business income taxes altogether. Now, that's a very
interesting proposal and a very interesting thought.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: I get it that any change to tax policy is hard. Like
barnacles layering up on a pier in the ocean, the special interests
cling to the status quo, and any change at all is disruptive to them.
Ironically, even change that improves their overall situations, like
the tax cuts and the tax reforms in our budget.
But the special interests that are already beating on you are
inherently short-sighted. Please keep in mind the basics. We have a
larger mission than just making some special interest group happy. Our
mission is to lift Ohio.
Now, taken as an integrated package, all of these changes help us
continue to diversify Ohio's economy and achieve a crossover of sorts
where we can maintain a vibrant manufacturing climate. We want to
continue to do the steel. We want to do the cars. We want to do all
those things. And a little bit of change in the CAT tax and helping
small businesses and the suppliers grow and flourish and hire, and
small businesses, by the way, they're the ones that will take a chance
an awful lot of time on people who others consider marginal workers. We
maintain a vibrant manufacturing company, but we inspire a fire for
cutting edge companies and technologies that have the greatest
potential for job growth.
There was an article today I read online, the biggest businesses in
America have less employees. Look at the ones that are really
skyrocketing in this country. Cloud computing, 3-D printing. 3-D
printing, have you ever seen it? It's amazing what it means and what it
can mean. Telemedicine and the medical devices that make it possible,
logistics, financial services, IT services. These are the cutting-edge
industries we must have in Ohio. They just can't be somewhere else.
And we can’t continue to be known as the rust belt. The only person
that I think likes to be called—you know, have a little rust on him, is
Bill Batchelder because he's been around for a hundred years. Okay? No
one likes rust. We need the new industries. We need the new economy in
this state.
As our population ages and more and more baby boomers retire, you know
what happens? These kinds of cutting-edge jobs help us keep our young
people and help us attract new ones. And when combined with the cool
factor we're seeing in our cities, as well as our state's low cost of
living, as Al Ratner points out, we can truly take our state to the
next level with better, more exciting opportunities for everyone.
We've got to do the heavy lifting and make these bold new choices. You
don't have to do everything I want here, and I'm sure you won't. But
here's what I'm going to tell you, but most of it is going to be—most
of it, if it's based on a good logical argument, I'm fine. But here's
what I'm going to suggest to you: if we look back on Ohio and we are
only big heavy manufacturing and we forget the cloud computing—where we
now have a billion dollar investment, the data and logistics that IBM
brought to our state, the medical device companies, the medical imaging
companies, the new IT services, the new financial services—that’s where
the jobs are, folks. That's where the world is going.
You want to keep young people in this state? When they graduate, if
they can get an exciting new job, they're not going anywhere. We've got
cool cities. We've got low cost of living. We've just got to give them
the jobs so they don't have to go somewhere else to get excited about
their life. This is what this is really all about.
So I want you to think about this, carefully, please; I ask you to
think about it carefully, because I believe the future of our state is
at risk. This isn't about John Kasich. This is about this precious
state and how I think it will look in 20 years; because decisions we
make now, Jim Buchy, are decisions that will affect us a little bit
further down the road.
Look, another critical part of our economic revival is education. Our
colleges and universities understand this, and I've got to tell you,
they have been heroic. I don't think there is another state in America
where the presidents of our universities and community colleges have a
better relationship with the governor. We work together hand in glove.
And I've got to tell you, it's pretty stunning because I asked them to
do things that they don't do in any other state.
You remember when we did the capitol bill? I said, “We're not going to
spread the peanut butter across the whole slice of bread. We'll do a
capitol bill if you'll agree that we can help those who need help
without taking stuff for yourself.” You know what happened in Stark
State? You know what happened in Zane State? They got to build these
new centers, the new technology so people could learn the oil and gas
industry. And it never happened before.
How about our funding formula? I tell people in our states about our
funding formula and they can't believe it. The universities have said
we will not take one single dime of public money—not one single dime of
public money—until a student completes a course, gets a certificate, or
graduates. That's unbelievable, and that helps our kids to get through
school quicker, and all these folks have gone along with it.
Now we're telling them we're going to have this big task force and
we're going to get into your costs. My friend Keith, he feels about
this as passionately as I do. I want to give them a little chance.
We're going to have to study and we're going to look at everything that
drives the costs up at our universities.
Now, across this state, this has really touched a nerve. All of the
newspapers, Keith, have editorialized in favor of this plan. And you
know what they say? We will join Kasich and Faber and we will join
Rosenberger as well and we will slice these universities if they do not
come back and get this mission accomplished over the period of the next
year. And some of them are here tonight, give them a round of applause
for their leadership at these universities.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: You know, they're going along with this idea of
two-year schools being able to award a bachelor degree. Unbelievable.
And they're going to adopt new online competency-based courses. In
other words, if you're a nurse and you're 32 and you want to get a
bigger certificate, you're going to be able to go online and get that
done. And you'll be able to take those courses and get that degree. You
won't even have to sit in a classroom if you've got it all together.
It's sort of like what we did with the veterans, like when we said if
you can drive a truck from Kabul to Kandahar, you don't have to take
all those tests and licenses. You can get ahead.
We also want the insurance companies to go online and post curriculum.
They all want people. You're working at McDonald's, you think you're
stuck, you go down to the public library, Fred, you take the online
course at your pace and, if you pass it, you either get a job working
at the insurance company or you can get a certificate and a credential
for the fact that you now have a skill. We need to make sure we give
hope to people who think they are stuck. And that's exactly what these
universities are cooperating with us on.
So let's see how it goes. And, Keith, I promise you, and I'm promising
you here tonight, if they don't come back here with a plan, you and I
are sitting down. It will be a tough day for them, but let's give them
a little bit of time. We'll have this task force, and I hope you'll be
a major part of it.
With lower costs, and a freeze on tuition, more students can afford
college, hopefully finish without the huge debts. And we have $120
million in this student debt relief fund. Honestly, I think it's like a
thimble in the ocean. We know how tough it is. We know you have a lot
of debt. We want to do something to help you. It could be related to
the fact that if you take an in-demand job and you stay in Ohio for
five years, we'll give you the help you want. We think it's absolutely
critical.
Now, the strategy of embracing change and thriving from it that our
colleges are adopting, it is a model for the country, but it's also a
model for our K through 12 leaders, K through 12 leaders who all too
often struggle to improve and innovate. It's hard for them. I don't
understand all the reasons. I understand some of them. It's not fair to
Ohio's children and it's not fair to the dedicated teachers who teach
when the innovations are not brought.
We've made our education system a priority, but think about this: we're
only going to grow government 2, 2 and a half percent, we're cutting
taxes, we put a billion dollars into K through 12 funding—a billion
dollars—now we're going to stick 700 million more into K through 12
education.
I checked on this, Randy: $1.7 billion investment over these four
years, the largest investment in education in the history of the state
of Ohio, because we consider education and K through 12 education to be
a top priority, and I hope you agree with that.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: Let me tell you what the underlying philosophy is.
Look, I'm the governor, right? I don't represent a district. So I've
got to figure out how to take this money and allocate it across the
state in the fairest way possible. So what are we saying? If you can do
more for yourself, you should, because there are others who are worse
off and need more help. We can't take from schools that are worse off.
Let me repeat: we cannot take from schools that are worse off and give
it to those who have more. We often do that today. It's not fair. We've
got to do better than that.
It's about capacity to help yourself. And we say that if you are poor
in property taxes and poor in income and you have more students, we
ought to do more to help you. But if you're wealthier in property taxes
and wealthier in income—maybe you're losing students—we shouldn't do as
much to help you. You can help yourself.
You know, education funding is not about buildings, equipment, or
adults, and I'll tell you one more thing that it's not about, it's not
about a state printout. It's not about getting some state printout to
look at whether you got a minus or a plus. It's about distributing
precious resources as best as we can to be in a position where kids can
all have an equal chance. Somebody said, “Well, we pay all these taxes
in the suburban areas and look at all the money they get in Cleveland.”
I'll give you about 25 percent of the students in Cleveland who have so
many challenges. You grew up in a family where you—where the family's
not strong—let me say that. You grow up in a neighborhood where you
hear gunshots at night. They deserve a chance, too.
And so the bottom line for me is, let's help those that cannot help
themselves and let's have some personal responsibility in those areas
where they can. Now, look, this formula—you know, we've monkeyed around
with this for so long, and there's some things in here that I'm not
even thrilled with, but we're looking at it and we're working at it.
But I would ask you as members of the Legislature, keep the principle.
Keep the fundamental principle. It's good for our state. It's good for
our kids. It's good for our educators. And I believe it can work.
Now, we've done some fantastic things. This third grade reading
guarantee. Remember all the hassle we had with that? Now we've got kids
who can read. We're not getting them in the seventh grade and then
finding out that they can't read. That's a rip-off. We can't do that.
The third grade reading guarantee.
How about the Straight A Fund? We had to give them incentives to think
about new ways to do things. I was at a gathering of all these Straight
A Fund kids in the Rotunda. There were these girls, three of them, 12,
11, and 10, and they came to me. They said, “Mr. Governor, can you take
a look at my 3-D printing project?” I couldn't believe it. This little
10-year-old girl is, like, grabbing me by the, by my cuffs, “Come over
here and look because I'm excited about learning, because I'm excited
about being in school. Thank you for that straight A fund.”
And there'll be more. More school choice, giving families more control
over how and where to educate their kids, including technical and
vocational education. Parents, technician and vocational education is
okay. It's good. It's good.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: And do you know that we have individual education
plans? If you're a kid and say you want to be a newspaper reporter, you
can make a deal with your school board and you can go down and work at
the Wilmington paper, the Columbus Dispatch, for two or three hours on
a Monday morning and get fired up about what education is about and
what a career is about. Individual education plans.
And our budget builds on these, new steps forward by raising up values,
standards, and training so they can better help our kids understand
their abilities, assess their interests, explain what careers are
available.
Our guidance counselors need not be a set of extra hands that spend
their time guarding the lunchroom or rolling the basketball out in the
gym. They are critical people for our children in K through 12 and in
college.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: I'll give you another one here: the College Credit
Plus. I want everybody to know that we're putting more money in to
train teachers. Do you realize if you take that in high school it costs
you nothing? Did you also know that a student can get this College
Credit Plus in any school in this state? And do you know there's a lot
of parents who are totally unaware of this? This is not right. Get out
to your districts and tell people that if they want to get a start on
college at no cost, College Credit Plus. And don't take no from your
school when they say we can't do it. That's a situation? Call my
office. We'll help you out. Okay?
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: Peggy Lehner, Peggy Lehner? Early childhood education.
Back in 2011, 5,700 preschool slots. We're going to 17,000, 17,000
preschool slots for kids. They'll be better prepared for school. Hey,
we're cutting testing hours by 18 percent. And, Buchy, we're going to
give the districts flexibility on teacher evaluations, cut back red
tape, and high performances for schools—Keith, you want it—if we've got
high performing schools, let's not hassle them. Let's give them freedom
to do whatever they want to do.
Now, education choices and charter schools. Okay? We need charter
schools. We need them. Okay?
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: Yeah, we need them, but at times Ohio hasn't provided
enough guidance and oversight for charters. We're changing that by
cracking down on charter school sponsors who turn a blind eye to their
failing schools. We're going to give better schools to better sponsors
and we will ban them from sponsoring new schools if they're not doing
their jobs. We'll ban them. For sponsors who struggle but who show
promise, we'll incentivize them with some facility upgrades.
Here's the thing—if you're not loving kids, if that's not what you're
doing with the charter, we don't want you. If you're loving kids,
you're trying your best, we want you. Dick Ross, the greatest
superintendent in modern Ohio history, because he loves children, he
loves kids, is going to write these rules. You've got opinions? Tell us
what they are. We want to hear them.
But I also want to say to you that just because a charter school is not
producing great results in grades, it doesn't mean they're failing.
Some of these charter schools have kids that if they weren't in that
charter school, they'd be out on the streets. So, Mr. Leader, we've got
to figure out a way to make sure that we give everybody a chance. No
situation here we're not loving our kids, but let's not judge somebody
who's not doing their job because they've inherited a group of students
who are just struggling, and we're going to help them to get up. Plain
and simple.
You know, all these ideas, we've got to get away from the old agrarian
situation: you sit in a classroom, everybody learns the same way.
Forget about that. We've got to break free of that model. It's really
hard to do, and I’d love for you to help me do it, all of you,
Republicans and Democrats. So we can visualize education, like that
10-year-old who was so excited about her 3-D printing. We want to turn
education into an idea where kids can't wait to go to school. At
Tri-Rivers Technical Vocational School, they've got to lock the doors
because the kids are trying to get in at all hours of the day and night
because they're so excited about learning. That's what we want to do in
our state. I think we can—I think we can probably get that done.
Look what we've done in Cleveland. And by the way, those Cleveland
schools, they're turning it around. And I want to thank all the people
that were involved in the Cleveland school reform. And if you know any
other school district in this state that wants to innovate and change,
you come see us, because we're all about getting kids the opportunity
that they deserve and that they need.
Look, I said in my inaugural address that economic growth is not an end
in itself. Boy, this has really gotten people's attention. You know,
what does that mean? Well, we've got to make sure that when we are
prosperous that we share it. So we're taking on infant mortality. We
started it back in my first state of the state. We've done well on
this, frankly. I've been demanding to do more. We're making sure those
who are most at risk get what they need. If you live in a zone of acute
problems, you're automatically qualified, but we've got to have the
people living in the community giving the credibility to those who live
in the community to make sure they get the services. We'll gain on this.
We're raising up people with mental illness and developmental
disabilities. I'd say that the entity of developmental disabilities is
getting the largest raise in this budget. We want to get them in a
setting where they can prosper. Some of them are in their homes where
parents are under unbelievable stress. We want to get them in a home.
Some of them are in institutions. We'd like to get them in a home. If
they want to stay in the institution, we'd like them to stay. We want a
developmentally disabled community setting to be far better, and we
want to do that.
And with mental health, of course, we've come a long way, but we need
better coordination. We're doing it through stronger housing supports.
We're trying to rebuild them. And I never want to read a story in Ohio
like that terrible story in Virginia where the dad, Creigh Deeds,
couldn't get his son a bed. And that next morning, a disaster happened,
a tragedy happened. So Tracy Plouck is working on opening up spaces and
more beds. We've got to help the mentally ill.
You know what I think? I think because the good Lord has given us great
ways to know how to deal with the chemical imbalances and we're going
to get better and better on this where somebody with bipolar disease
with lead a normal life, and many do. We've got to teach pushing. The
Lord wants us to do that.
Let's talk about public assistance. We want to get people back on their
feet. We have a common sense approach. We want to begin to treat
everybody in a holistic manner. So you go into the welfare office. You
go stand in three lines. You go to this building, you go to that line,
then you get caseworkers, you can't figure—we can't figure it out.
Those of us in the government can't figure out how to do it. We've got
somebody on public assistance and we're running them around. All too
often we never say to them, “Why are you here? What's your problem? Why
are you in poverty?”
So what we want to do through the leadership of Doug Lumpkin and, of
course, Cynthia Dungey—she's just awesome—is break down the silos. You
go into the welfare office and we want to know, “What's the problem.
What do you need? How do we train you?” By the way, we're not going to
train you for underwater basket weaving. We're going to train you for a
job that exists in the community, so you can have satisfaction and get
back up on your feet. Welfare should not be a way of life; it should be
a way station so we can get you up on your feet and you can become
independent and become a fantastic role model for your kids. That's
what it's all about.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: It's not easy. I'm down in Cincinnati where they're
doing a pretty good job down there. They're working hard. We think they
can make more improvement. They're doing great. So I meet Natasha. You
know, she didn't live up to the rules when she was on welfare, she was
sanctioned, and lost her money. She's now working as a caseworker. She
has, I think she said, three or four hundred people. It took her nine
years to get off.
I'd love to tell you that it's going to be real simple, but I believe
that by changing welfare—and by the way, if you make more money in your
job, we're not going to take away your day care. You're going to be
able to have your child care because we don't want to penalize you for
getting ahead. Okay? It's another thing we need to do.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: We all should love this, and I think we all do. Even
these folks that work in these social service jobs, they work hard. A
lot of bureaucracy. It's hard. Big casework load. They're excited about
this, that's what I'm told.
Another place we can't fail Ohioans is in our law enforcement and
justice sections. I know Mike DeWine shares this with me. When we see
large sections of our population say they don't think their voice is
being heard or that something as important as our justice system
doesn't work for them, we need to pay attention. We acted last year to
create the only state effort, the only one we know of, to examine the
relationship between police and communities. We're holding listening
sessions across Ohio so the people in communities who have stories to
tell, who have concerns, pain, anger—they deserve to be heard. They can
be heard. And we want to turn those voices into action now, and to turn
the best police partnerships into action plans that any community in
the United States can put into place right away to strengthen the
fabric of who they are and be more inclusive. Plain and simple.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: Now, Alicia Reece, last time I checked, Democrat.
Sondra Williams, Democrat. And Nina Turner. John Born is our
co-chairman, head of Public Safety, former head of the Highway Patrol.
They're working together beautifully. Tonight I want to salute Nina
Turner. She's done a fantastic job on this commission. She has done a
fantastic job.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: You know, it's so funny. In politics today, you praise
a Democrat or you've got an idea about a police commission or
something, and people are like, why—what are you doing that for? That's
not Republican. Who cares? We're not here to serve a party or an
ideology. We're here to solve problems, and that's exactly what we're
trying to do.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: Okay. So now the time has come to honor some people
who have real courage, because when we see them, hopefully it gives us
some more courage.
So I was at Nationwide Children's Hospital visiting some friends who
have a daughter who had some sort of tumor in her brain. They think
they got it all. And I went to see her, not because I'm a great guy,
but I just wanted to go see her because maybe I could do something that
would be good.
I met the nurse. Amazing. Amazing. Have you ever been to the ICU? Have
you ever been on the oncology floor? These people are unbelievable,
these nurses. You know, I hugged that nurse in my friends' daughter's
room, and I'm choking up and I'm saying, “God bless you. God bless what
you're doing.” Think about the way they visit with us when our families
are in distress or when we're in distress. Just think about what that's
like.
And then how about the public health nurses? I mean, we find out we may
have Ebola and these nurses have to go in there at risk to themselves,
or this lady who's here with us tonight—her name is Jackie Fletcher and
she's from the Knox County public health department. She worked with
the Amish community to overcome last year's measles outbreak. You
wouldn't believe what she had to go through to get this fixed. She's
going to represent all the nurses.
By the way, in that hospital, I ran into our friend Mike Dittoe. He was
there visiting his goddaughter, 6 years old, who had just died. That
Mike Dittoe is a good man. You look at these people in these hospitals,
and they just do it day after day after day, and they struggle to just
keep serving us.
So, Jackie, you're going to represent all the nurses in Ohio, because
we love you. We love the nurses in Ohio, don't we, ladies and
gentlemen? And we want to give them a Courage Award.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: Okay, Jackie. Thank you.
Now, one fall evening not long ago, a man and a woman came upon the
scene of a single-car accident in Huntington Township in Lorain County.
Who's here from Lorain County tonight? You guys come on up here. I
never did this before. Everybody—let's do something different here.
Okay? Who else?
Now, this wasn't a fender bender. Okay? It wasn't a fender bender. The
car had broken into flames, but despite that, Brittney Smith-Robinson
and her then-fiancé, Shane Robinson—so, Shane, you got Brittney to say
yes? Is that what I'm to gather here? They stopped, they got out and
checked for passengers inside the car, and they found a man and woman
critically injured, trapped and unconscious. Brittney ran and called
911. Shane walked over, opened the passenger door, and removed the man
from danger as fire began to literally consume the passenger
compartment.
Shane and Brittney—if you hadn't done this, those people wouldn't have
survived. Have you ever heard about the Good Samaritan? The Good
Samaritan goes all the way—transcends history.
You're great Good Samaritans. You could have driven by, but you didn't.
You stopped and you risked your own life for somebody else. God bless
you. Come and get a Courage Award.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: The final Courage Award this year is actually not an
Ohioan but is someone whose story has touched and inspired many people
in our state and really across the nation. She was a student at Mount
St. Joseph University in Cincinnati but can't go anymore because she's
too sick. She has incurable, inoperable brain cancer. Let's watch the
video. (Video played: http://youtu.be/erTy8wlHfE4)
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: I talked to Lauren today and her mother, Lisa. She
said, “I hope I'm being a good role model. I hope I'm a good example.”
Can you imagine that? I said, “Sweetheart, the Lord is going to honor
you. You are going to wear one of the biggest crowns because of your
courage, because of the fact that you are just such a special woman and
such a special angel.”
With us is Rick Merk. He's with Cincinnati's The Cure Starts Now
Foundation, for which Lauren has raised over $1.4 million. I don't know
if Lauren's watching. She may be. I promise you her mother is watching.
So I'm going to give this medal to Rick but maybe Lauren can hear us
from this place in Wilmington tonight in her hospital room. God bless
you, Lauren Hill.
(Applause.)
GOVERNOR KASICH: So you can't help but be inspired by these people, not
just because of their courage but they take matters into their own
hands. They're rolling up their sleeves. They're making things happen.
We need to follow their example and rededicate ourselves to citizenship.
Start Talking. Do you know about this? We've got a lot of new members
here. If a young person hears “do not do drugs,” there is a 50 percent
less chance they will ever do it. A 50 percent less chance. Now, in
your districts, you can spread it. We've spoken now, I think—well, I
know the last time I checked —to over 26,000 kids. We've gotten
teachers involved. And, ladies and gentlemen that are here in
Wilmington, I don't care where you are. You're in a restaurant? You
walk over there and you see those kids. You tell them to stay off the
drugs. Cliff will testify to the tsunami of trouble we have in this
community because of addiction. We need to be in our schools. We need
to be in our communities. We need to be in our synagogues. We need to
be in our churches. We need to be everywhere. Don't leave it to
somebody else.
Community Connectors. We've got proposals coming in. Every child needs
a mentor. I don't care whether they're poor, whether they're middle
class, or whether they're rich. Community Connectors allows us to work
with a business, a faith-based or a value-based organization within our
communities to go into the schools. What do we do when we're there? We
say we love you. We care about you. You can be something special.
Down in Cincinnati at the Cincinnati Collaborative, in a school
district that struggles to graduate, this is not unusual in an urban
district. They're trying their best and they've got a lot of great
things going on. They've got about a 63 percent graduation rate. But in
a high school where mentors go in for one hour a week every year, their
graduation rate is 97 percent. That's what we want to do in this state.
Our efforts on infant mortality, Community Connectors, on any of the
things on the front lines that our neighbors call on us to do.
Sometimes government can get so big that we just don't think there's a
place for us, or somebody else will do it, or the government will do
it. Government can be a very blunt instrument. Government can crowd out
charity if we're not careful. Sometimes we can be partners. Sometimes
we don't need any government to go and change the world, like that one
great leader Vaclav Havel used to say. So there's always the need to
get involved.
In the inaugural address, I talked about the ones that I think matter
the most. Personal responsibility, empathy, resilience—fighting back.
Teamwork—we need that in our legislature, Republicans and Democrats.
Family. Boy, we need family, we need to strengthen the family. It is so
important. And faith—we mean at the end of the day that we know that
we've been given a great opportunity to change the world.
Values are what guide the choices we make and the way we live, and we
only make ourselves and our state and our nation better when we live by
them.
Is Ohio better? No question. There's no denying we're doing better, but
it would be easy to drift.
Look, I'm going to tell you this: we're on the move. We're rising.
We're creating jobs. People are more hopeful. And you know what's
really great? No one's being left out. No one. If you're poor, if
you're sick, if you're addicted, we want to help you. If you're in
prison—Gary Mohr will give you a path so you can have a second chance.
But it all starts with a strong economy. If we're not creating jobs,
ladies and gentlemen, all the other good things don't happen. They just
don't happen.
And what I'm asking all of you to do is to think down deep of changing
the very way in which we do business in this state. We can talk about
it. We can change some of it. But do not miss the opportunity to create
a new Ohio, an exciting new Ohio, into this 21st Century.
The people want it. Oh, sometimes you're going to get harping and
you're going to get people pounding on your door, but what we've
learned over the last four years is follow the plan. The plan we know
works. And everybody in Ohio will be lifted. Isn't that our job? It's
our job to make sure that everyone in this great state feels a part of
the Buckeye family.
I'm optimistic about what I feel we can achieve. And I'm going to be
here working with you shoulder to shoulder. I'm here to serve. I'm here
to lead, but I am here to serve. And I know at the end of the day if we
go together we will look back and they will say, “Wow, what a
generation of leaders that shined up Ohio, that saved Ohio, that moved
Ohio strongly into the 21st Century.”
You know, this tie—I wear this gold tie whenever I come to Wilmington
because in 2010 I said that the sun was going to come up again in
Wilmington. The sun is coming up again in Wilmington, Cliff. The sun is
coming up in Ohio, but it's not reached its zenith. It's not in that
cloudless bright blue sky shining for everyone to see. But we can push
it there. We can help it to get there if we do it together.
God bless Ohio, God bless America, and God bless you. Thank you.
(Applause.)
SENATOR FABER: Ladies and gentlemen, please remain standing for the
retirement of the colors. Gentlemen? Thank you.
SENATOR FABER: Let's give the color guard a round of applause. Thank
you. Would you please be seated? The chair recognizes president Pro
Tempore Mr. Weidner for a motion.
MR. WIDNER: Mr. President, I move the joint session adjourn.
SENATOR FABER: Any objection? And hearing no objection, the joint
session is adjourned. Thank you for coming. Travel home safely.
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