February 1, 2008

LANSING - In her weekly radio address, Governor Jennifer M. Granholm today highlighted her priorities for the year ahead that will help Michigan emerge from this period of economic restructuring as a more prosperous state.  In her sixth annual State of the State address to a joint session of the Legislature earlier in the week, the governor outlined new initiatives and efforts that will help Michigan transition to a new era. 

"In these tough times, government cannot be all things to all people," Granholm said. "That's why we will focus on four things:  a job for every worker, affordable health care for every family, safe places to live and work for all of us, and a quality education for our citizens - kids and adults."

Granholm said that these are the right priorities to ensure that we can maintain our Michigan way of life today and also ensure that Michigan can successfully transition to the 21st century economy. 

"We didn't get into this situation overnight; we aren't going to get out of it overnight," Granholm said.  "That's why we're rolling up our sleeves and working to diversify our economy and educate out citizens to make Michigan a great place to live, learn, and earn."

The governor's weekly radio address is released each Friday morning and may be heard on broadcast stations across the state.  The address is available on the governor's Web site at  

( www.michigan.gov/gov) for download, together with a clip of the quote above.  The radio address is also available as a podcast on the Web site, as well as on iTunes and via RSS feed for general distribution to personal MP3 players and home computers.  Links to the audio files and text of today's address follow.

Governor Jennifer M. Granholm Radio Address
February 1, 2008

Full:  http://www.michigan.gov/documents/gov/Gov130_Full_223365_7.mp3
Edited:  http://www.michigan.gov/documents/gov/Gov130_Edit_223366_7.mp3
Quote:  http://www.michigan.gov/documents/gov/Gov130_Quote_223367_7.mp3

Hello, this is Governor Jennifer Granholm

Earlier this week, I stood before a joint session of the Michigan Legislature to give my annual State of the State speech outlining my priorities for the year ahead. 

I said that in these tough times, government cannot be all things to all people.  That is why we will focus on four things - a job for every worker, affordable health care for every family, safe places to live and work for all of us, and quality education for our citizens, kids and adults.

These are the right priorities to ensure that we can maintain our Michigan way of life today and in the future - and the right priorities to ensure that Michigan can successfully transition to the 21st century economy.

To get there, we are putting new tools into place to grow jobs and diversify our economy.  Now, Michigan will have the most aggressive job creation effort in the nation. 

We'll expand our No Worker Left Behind program to help Michigan workers get the training they need to transition into new jobs

We'll create Invest Michigan! - an innovative new investment fund that will make capital available to businesses who agree to grow new jobs in Michigan. 

We will offer the Michigan Job Creation Incentive - a tax cut for high-growth sector businesses that create new jobs in Michigan. 

We'll create thousands of jobs today thanks to a billion dollar stimulus package to accelerate needed construction and building projects. 

We'll also attract and grow alternative energy jobs.  If we capitalize on our natural assets and move quickly to put strong incentives in place, we can replace lost manufacturing jobs with a whole new, growing sector.

To transition to the next era, we must diversify and grow jobs, but we must also ensure quality education for all people - adults and kids.

To achieve that goal, I am introducing the 21st Century Schools Fund to help Michigan school districts replace high schools that fail with schools that will help every child succeed.  I'll also ask Michigan school districts to begin offering full-day kindergarten to all students.

My speech also included new efforts to protect Michigan citizens and their pocketbooks by, among other things, creating an insurance advocate who will fight to make insurance rates fair and affordable for consumers, no matter where they live, and broadened powers for local prosecutors to crack down on price-fixing and gas-gouging at the pump.

With these measures and others, we will help Michigan emerge from this period of economic restructuring as a more prosperous state.  We didn't get into this situation overnight; we aren't going to get out of it overnight.

That's why we're rolling up our sleeves and working to diversify our economy and educate our citizens to make Michigan a great place to live, learn, and earn.

Thank you for listening.

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