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Courtesy photo. Gov. Charlie Crist followed up his Tuesday night State of the State address with the following message in his weekly newsletter, Notes from the Capitol:
This evening, during my fourth State of the State Address, I called on the Florida Legislature to address essential issues for Floridians: jobs and prosperity for Floridians; continued improvements to PreK-12 schools, colleges, and universities; and re-instilling confidence in the integrity of government.
I am grateful to our Senate and House members for swiftly passing legislation on opening day of the 2010 Legislative Session to provide relief to businesses by reducing the unemployment compensation tax for two years. They answered the call for help from Florida’s businesses.
I hope they continue these efforts and achieve meaningful results for Floridians. Over the past three years, my administration has made great gains in areas such as our environmental record, improvements in transportation, record adoptions and child protection, and health care expansion. I am proud of the work we have done to improve the quality of life for Floridians, but we still have much work to do.
My top priority for the 2010 Legislative Session is maintaining jobs and prosperity for Floridians. By delaying current tax increases and lightening the corporate tax burden, we can help save millions of dollars for Florida’s businesses and families and help save and create jobs. I plan to continue our improvement to Florida schools. We are going to redefine how Florida recognizes, rewards and retains quality teachers.
I propose raising the average per student amount in Florida’s funding for public school scholarships. By keeping schools accountable for their resources we can help provide a quality education to ALL children.
We need to re-instill confidence in the integrity of Government. Through increased background checks of caregivers we can protect our most vulnerable by keeping convicted felons from working with elderly and children. Our public officials need to be held to higher standards through a code of conduct in order to regain the trust of Florida’s people.
This year, more than others, our achievements will be measured – not by the passion of our rhetoric – but by our ability to be problem solvers and guide the ship of our state through the economic storm we are facing.
I have absolute confidence in the wisdom of the House and Senate. When I imagine Florida’s future, I cannot help but see past the current troubles to the bright future that awaits us. I ask you to focus your sights there as well. Thank you very much.
God bless each of you, and God bless Florida.