Gov. Perdue addressed members of the N.C. House on Wednesday and called on them to take three major actions that will reform how the General Assembly does business.
Here is the text of her speech:
"Good morning.
Thank you for the invitation to be here with you today. I see lots of familiar faces and some new ones too.
I’m looking forward to working with all of you in the upcoming session. My cabinet secretaries are ready to work with you, and like me, have an open-door policy.
You know we have our work cut out for us.
You will get a glimpse of the challenges facing us as you listen to many of the state’s leaders in today’s briefing.
And you will see the metrics – a NC budget deficit of more than $3 1/2 billion.
Agency heads will tell you how they are preparing for cuts of up to 15% in their 2011-12 budgets.
And they will detail the work their agencies do for the people of this great state—they will identify their core missions and gladly respond to your questions now and during the General Assembly budget meetings.
Those of you who are beginning your service will quickly realize – if you haven’t already, but I suspect most of you already have – that the honeymoon is almost over.
The real work – the hard work – is about to begin.
Each and every one of you is elected to represent the people of your districts and is called upon by those citizens, some of whom did not vote at all, to make this state better.
So all of you, the newcomers and the seasoned leaders, on both sides of the aisle, are critical.
The issues debated and resolved here will shape NC’s economic outcomes for the next 30 or 40 yrs.
All of us have an opportunity to transform this state, and our state’s government, like never before.
Make no mistake, change won’t come easy. The challenges facing us in January are like none we have seen since the Great Depression.
North Carolina is at a defining moment in our history, and the decisions we make will either keep us firmly on the path to continued recovery and global competitiveness , or else will shift us into reverse.
Backing up is not an option for NC.
In the two years since I took office, nearly all of my efforts have gone into four things: creating jobs, protecting education, balancing the budget, and reforming the bureaucracy.
This work has clearly paid off. We are in a better position for economic recovery now than we were in 2008.
Unemployment has dropped nearly 2 percentage points. National publications say we're one of a handful of states leading this country out of the recession.
NC is nationally recognized as the best place to do business. In two years, I’ve announced nearly 280 new business commitments with $10.4 billion in investments, and NC has grown some 50,000 new jobs.
Our education focus on Career and College—Ready, Set, Go! has been selected as a national model for reforming public education.
That means North Carolina’s children will graduate high school career or college ready.
And a new wave of ethics and transparency laws have resulted in a better, more open government for the people.
Last week I announced my vision for beginning to set government straight. You heard me talk about changing the way state government does business, and many of those changes are really transformative.
I proposed four actions: consolidation and privatization of some agency functions, elimination of duplicative services, a hiring freeze across state government and a review of at least 150 boards and commissions.
Those changes can immediately save tens of millions of dollars, but by themselves won’t be enough to set government straight.
As I told business leaders last week, we must run this state more like a business as we manage for results.
I appreciate your positive remarks so far, and look forward to working with all of you to enact the changes I have proposed.
So as I present my budget to you next year, you will see 14 state functions consolidated into 8.
You will see middle management cut and offices closed down.
You will also see changes to programs across state government. I will outline hundreds of millions of dollars in savings.
And then I will ask you to join me.
Join me in focusing like a laser on the core missions that people expect and need from state government:
• Jobs for our people and an economy in NC that is stable and globally competitive;
• Investments in our children, our future workforce, through a strong education system; and
• Attention to the services that make NC a safe and healthy place to live and raise a family.
These priorities have been the foundation of NC’s success, generation after generation.
And now we all have an opportunity to strengthen that foundation. To set government straight for the people.
So as I am focused on reorganizing state government and getting rid of unnecessary rules and regulations, I ask you to join me in setting government straight and look inward, at the legislative branch of government.
I ask you to take three major steps to transform how the NC General Assembly does business.
Steps many of you have proposed off and on for years.
First – I call on you to pass legislation that will limit the length of time the NC General Assembly can remain in session.
I propose limiting long sessions to 90 days, and short sessions to 45 days. These proposals are based on bills that were filed last year and years before by members from both sides of the aisle.
The General Assembly’s long sessions have averaged 202 business days – not counting weekends.
Short sessions in recent years have run an average of 69 calendar days.
These marathon sessions cost the state $50,000 for every day the General Assembly is in session. That’s $1 million a month.
The uncertain length of these sessions makes it nearly impossible to maintain a full time job at home or to plan for family times
With session limits in place, you can do the people’s work with a sense of deliberate urgency, and then go back to your districts in a timely manner.
Sessions limits will save the state money, money we can use to keep teachers in the classrooms, or fund a scholarship program to send our children to college.
It means as lawmakers you will remain vigilant and focused on what’s really important. You will work efficiently and with purpose. And that is what citizens are demanding throughout state government.
Second – I ask you to pass a Voter Empowerment Act -- legislation that creates an independent, bipartisan redistricting commission.
This isn’t my idea; many of you in this room have talked about and supported a redistricting commission for years. I believe it needs to be done now, in time to draw new maps for the 2012 elections.
A Voter Empowerment Act will protect the rights of all our people, will ensure fairness as maps are drawn, and will once and for all do away with the divisive partisan politics that have plagued NC’s redistricting efforts in the past and ended up in court time after time.
Third and finally – just as the executive branch of state government has become transparent and accountable to the people, I call on the legislative branch to do the same.
On my first day in office I signed executive orders that increased transparency and defined what a public record is, so records are. I later signed bills into law so records are open to the public.
Today, I ask you in the General Assembly to review all public records statutes that apply to the General Assembly, and make them consistent with the standards that exist for state agencies across the rest of state government.
Many of you have spoken in the House and Senate chambers or in public meetings about your belief in holding state government accountable and transparent. Now is the time to stand behind those words.
You are doing the people’s work. Your business is the people’s business. They want us all to open our windows and let the sun shine in.
My friends, as we look around us, we see what makes NC the best state in America.
We are in tough times, but we are fighters. We are determined, and we care about our future and our children’s future.
We are growing jobs better than almost every other state in the country. We are reforming our schools, even though we know we still need to do more. And we are tackling the problems that are slowing our progress.
Resetting state government, eliminating unnecessary rules and regulations and enacting these three steps – session limits, the voter Empowerment Act, and public records, will transform NC’s government.
Our fellow citizens – no matter how they voted in this election or what political affiliation they put beside their names -- are looking to us in this room to position NC for a successful and competitive future.
The people of this state – all of us – want to guarantee that NC’s best days are ahead of us, and that life will be better for our children and grandchildren than for ourselves.
Big dreams – high expectations – doing the unthinkable – these opportunities have defined NC and made us the envy of every state in America.
The progress of this state has been built decade after decade by bold vision.
Leaders in the public and private sector – by men and women who sat in those chairs you now occupy long before you or I dreamed of serving here.
Economic opportunity through education has defined the success of NC.
Leaders who understood their decisions mattered, not in elections, but to real people’s lives across NC, defined the success of NC.
Now we – you and you and you – are the elected leaders of this state.
We have a significant and powerful opportunity to write this chapter of NC’s history.
I ask you to help me transform NC’s government and services as you also transform the way this body works.
An opportunity to make a real difference – an opportunity to solidify NC’s progress in a global economy.
That success begins in these very halls with your vote. Good luck. God speed. Merry Christmas."