July 26, 2007

PREPARED REMARKS OF GOVERNOR HALEY BARBOUR AT THE NESHOBA COUNTY FAIR

Thank you. It’s great to be back with wonderful folks at the Neshoba County Fair.

Marsha and I first came to the Fair more than twenty-five years ago. We’ve heard a lot of political speeches here at Founders Square.

How did you like that last speech by John Arthur Eaves, Junior?

You know what it means when a candidate’s campaign message is nothing but negative attacks on his opponent; no substance or solutions. It means that the candidate has nothing to offer.

Four years ago I stood here and not only talked about the serious problems Mississippi faced, but I also laid out plans and programs to solve those problems. I told you, “With strong leadership, we can do better.”

And today we are doing better, much better. Not every problem is solved, and not every solution is perfect; but you judge for yourself how Mississippi is doing.

Four years ago lawsuit abuse had caused a health care crisis in our state. Doctors were quitting their practices; leaving the state; hospitals were closing obstetrics wards.

In 2004, led by the State Senate and sustained by a bi-partisan group of House members who fought and defeated the House leadership, our Legislature passed the most comprehensive tort reform law in the country, and it has worked. Doctors are coming to the state, and our health care infrastructure is growing again. Small businesses are creating more jobs because of savings that resulted from tort reform.

I can tell you, Toyota would not have located in Mississippi if we hadn’t passed tort reform.

Four years ago Mississippi had lost more than 38,000 jobs under the Musgrove Administration. Our state had lost 22% of its manufacturing jobs during those four years—the worst in the nation.

Because of tort reform, revamped job training, reformed economic development programs and closer cooperation between state and local leaders, in this administration there has been a net increase of more than 41,000 jobs.

Today more people are working in Mississippi than at any other time in our state’s history. We have record employment, and people are earning more money than ever. Personal income went up more than 15% in the last three years.

In 2003, the state treasury was in the worst mess at least since the Depression, with a $720 million budget hole in one year. Yet that same year state appropriations for our universities had been cut 7%; our community colleges had been cut 16%; and state spending for drug enforcement had been cut 42%!

We’ve turned the state’s fiscal condition around. We’ve now had two years in a row with significant surpluses, and this fiscal year will show another large surplus. In fact, we’ve rebuilt the state’s Rainy Day Fund back to where it was under Governor Kirk Fordice.

And we did it without raising anybody’s taxes!

How? We got control of state spending, something that was long overdue.

But we didn’t control state spending by short-changing our priorities.

The number one priority for Mississippi state government is education: Education is our number one economic development issue and our number one quality of life issue.

Since I’ve been Governor, Mississippi has seen record spending at every level of education.

State appropriations for our K-12 schools have increased by $529 million since I became Governor. That is the largest increase in K-12 spending in any four year period under any governor in the history of our state.

Our school teachers will be paid an average of some $43,000 this year, a more than 20% increase in these four years.

Our universities, which were cut by 7% during the Musgrove Administration, have received a 32% increase since I’ve been Governor.

And our community colleges, which were cut 16% during the previous administration, have received a 52% increase in these four years, including more than doubling the amount spent for workforce development and job training.

Not only have we funded education at record levels, we’ve begun serious education reform. It is not enough simply to spend record amounts on education. The real key is to make sure we are getting our money’s worth for the more than $4 billion of taxpayer money that is spent in our public schools each year.
Like education, we’ve made law enforcement a top priority. We’ve given our highway patrolmen record pay increases.

We’ve passed the Castle law to make sure you can protect yourself in your home. We passed new laws to crack down on felons who commit crimes with guns. Longer, mandatory sentences for gun crimes, but the laws have no negative effect on the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms.

I believe in criminal control, not gun control.

The other great key to getting the state’s financial house back in order is economic growth. More people working and making more money than ever before.

We’ve had record job creation, and it has been achieved with higher quality, better paying jobs.

Toyota is one great example. It has received a lot of attention because Toyota’s new plant was the most sought-after economic development project in the United States this year, and it’s being built in Mississippi.

This huge Toyota plant will bring in lots of suppliers, with large investments and many new jobs.

In fact, the first supplier was announced at 9:00 this morning. Toyota Auto Body, a major Toyota partner in Japan, will build its first plant ever in the United States, and that plant will be located in North Mississippi. This will be a $180 million capital investment, and the plant will have 260 jobs in Phase One.

SeverCorr and PACCAR in Columbus, Navistar in West Point, PSL-North America at Port Bienville, General Electric at Batesville and Tower Automotive at Meridian. Raytheon’s expansion at Forest will add 150 new jobs, and ACCO Brands is adding 300 more jobs at Booneville. Ergon and Bunge are investing $100 million to build an ethanol plant in Vicksburg, while Mississippi Power will build a $1.8 billion coal –gasification plant just across the way in Kemper County. Howard Industries in Laurel has added more than 1,000 jobs since the hurricane. Corrections Corporation’s new $105 million facility will be built at Natchez, and its Tutwiler facility expanded; the Federal Bureau of Prisons has begun a $100 million expansion in Yazoo City. Bearing Point’s sophisticated service center in Hattiesburg will soon be joined by a similar Comcast facility, a 600-employee Advanced Solutions Center in Madison.

Record employment – higher paying jobs. Incredible private and public investment in Mississippi. All these result from aggressively implementing strong, responsible economic development programs. As long as I’m Governor, the rip-offs like the Beef Processing Plant are history. Do you remember that fiasco? You should – it cost you $55 million dollars.

For three and a half years we’ve had tremendous cooperation from local leaders and our federal delegation. Job creation is a team sport. We have a strong team, and in Mississippi, we are moving forward together.

You can imagine I’m proud of this record. It’s a record of promises made and promises kept. It is a record I’m glad to run on.

Still, I understand not every problem has been solved, and not every program has worked perfectly. We’ve got a lot more to do, and Marsha and I are committed to giving our all to finishing the job.

I understand that for far too many Mississippians, a pay raise has to go to pay increased health care costs.

Large areas, especially in the Delta and Southwest Mississippi, need special attention for economic development, just as some kids need special help in school. This Administration has been making those special efforts, whether it is to try to get help for school kids with dyslexia or assisting Viking’s expansion and recruiting Raybestos to create jobs in Greenwood.

And a job that won’t be finished for a while is the rebuilding and renewal of our Coast after Katrina.

When Marsha and I were here four years ago, nobody knew about Katrina. Yet our state bore the brunt of the worst natural disaster in American history.

I remember flying over in a helicopter the morning after the storm; it looked as if the hand of God had wiped away the Coast; in some places for blocks, in some places for miles.

Marsha went to the Coast for seventy of the first ninety days after the storm. She often was my best source of information, and she was one reason I quickly became confident about the Coast’s recovery. She told me constantly about needs that had to be filled, but she also talked about the spirit and character of the people on the Coast.

There were many reasons for hope and optimism:
• Great work by local officials and first volunteers;
• Wonderful efforts by hundreds of thousands of volunteers, who are still coming;
• Unprecedented amounts of federal funds . . . more than $25 billion so far.

All of this was and is critical. But the most important reason I’m not only optimistic but absolutely confident about Mississippi’s future is the spirit and character of our people.

We got knocked down hard by the worst natural disaster in American history, but Mississippians got right back up, hitched up their britches and went to work, helping themselves and helping their neighbors.

Our folks weren’t whining or moping; weren’t looking for anybody to blame. Mississippians aren’t into victimhood.

Our people are also why record progress has been made on the Coast and all over South Mississippi. It’s not fast enough to suit me, and we still have a mighty tall mountain in front of us; but it is obvious the area’s renewal is well down the road. And the Coast is not coming back like it was; it is coming back as it can be . . . bigger and better than ever.

In the process, Mississippi’s response to Katrina has done more than anything else to improve the image of our state.

America and the world liked what they saw in Mississippi after the storm.

They saw strong, resilient, self-reliant people; people whose character and spirit were reflected in their response to the crisis; people who were ready to share because they cared about their neighbors and their communities.

Many companies that have chosen to locate and create jobs in Mississippi these last couple of years did so because they liked what they saw in our response to Katrina.

The country has given our state a second look since the storm, and that’s a main reason our future is so promising.

That promise, that opportunity is why Marsha and I are running for re-election. Yes, we still have problems to deal with, and we must deal with them. But, more importantly, we must take advantage of an historic opportunity. And that will take leadership, just as Katrina took leadership and teamwork.

Think how every family would love for their children and grandchildren to stay here in Mississippi because the jobs and opportunities for success will be here in Mississippi. That can be our future.

We’re moving forward together. Our economy is growing; creating new, high paying jobs. But we have only just begun.

With strong leadership, we’ll not only do better, we’ll enjoy a rising tide of prosperity that will touch more Mississippians from more walks of life than anything we’ve ever seen before.

As I said nearly two years ago to the Legislature, Katrina revealed to the world and to ourselves the character and spirit that define us as Mississippians. That revelation creates unprecedented opportunity for us and our state . . . opportunity for job creation and economic prosperity . . . for a better quality of life for our people . . . for greater, more widely spread equity than at any other time in our history.

Our children and grandchildren can, indeed will, have far more opportunity than my generation ever dreamed of . . . if we seize this moment.

Marsha and I ask you for your vote next month and in November. We need and appreciate your prayers, and finally, I ask you to join us in working together to see that we seize this moment and grasp the historic opportunities God has provided us. Thank you. God bless you all.