Lt. Gov. Speaks At Lincoln Day Dinner
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
He said the main reason he said yes to being Gov. Mike Pence’s lieutenant – taking over for Sue Ellspermann this year – “is because I know what is at stake for our state come this November.”
As lieutenant governor, Holcomb said he oversees six main agencies, including the Department of Agriculture.
“Everyone knows how important ag is, not just to our past and our present, but also to our future. What a lot of people don’t know is ... Indiana is the No. 1 duck producing state in the country. We’re also No. 1 for when it comes to wood for office furniture. Our timber is very, very important to our state. We’re No. 2 in popcorn and ice cream. We’re No. 3 in eggs, soybeans, spearmint, tomatoes for processing. We’re No. 4 in turkey and peppermint and ethanol. We’re No. 5 in watermelon, hogs and corn,” Holcomb said.
Benton and Jasper counties are getting into shrimp farming in “creative and innovative” ways no matter what the season is, he said.
“And that’s kind of why Indiana is becoming known as the Silicon Valley of Ag, because we have this very welcoming and encouraging approach to folks in farming, whether it’s a large or small operation,” Holcomb said.
He also oversees the Department of Defense Development. “Obviously, everyone knows that there’s no more patriotic state in the country. It’s evidenced on many levels. Obviously our National Guard, we, per capita, send more people in uniform, many times into harm’s way, than any other state in the country. We have the fourth largest force in the country.”
Indiana also has the third largest Navy facility in the country.
“The technology that is coming out of Crane, down in south central Indiana, every sailor – every man and woman in uniform on a boat anywhere in the world – is dependent on the technology and research that is coming out of and being manufactured at Crane,” he said.
There’s also several other military installations in Indiana. In Terre Haute, “we’re literally controlling and monitoring drone traffic in the Middle East,” he stated.
Some of his other jobs include overseeing housing, small businesses and the Office of Community and Rural Affairs.
Twelve years ago, Holcomb said Indiana was trying to determine its destiny and “what we wanted it to be because Republicans in this room, who were instrumental in turing the state of Indiana around, said we can do better and we have to do better. Not just for our children’s sake, not just for our grandchildren’s sake, but for right now. We have to turn this ship around.”
He then talked a little bit about what Indiana was like before 2005.
“Pre-2005, before Republicans were in charge of leading the state of Indiana, our state was simply broke. We were $800 million in the hole, kind of drifting off and sinking in this ocean of red ink. We had blown through a billion-dollar Rainy Day Fund, our savings account. We were raiding funds, robbing Peter to pay Paul. We were delaying payments to your local schools and to local government units. If you were operating a non-profit and reliant on state grants, you were told you would receive delayed payments, forcing you to go borrow if you felt your work had to be done,” he reminded the Republicans.
The Department of Labor, he claimed, was being “operated directly by the AFL-CIO” and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management closely reflected President Obama’s EPA with an “anti-pro-business” approach. “It was literally chasing jobs away, making it very difficult to create and invest capital,” he said.
State road and bridge projects were continously promised but the state had no way of doing them financially so they were delayed. As further evidence of dysfunction in the state, it took hours then to conduct business at the BMV that now takes minutes.
Holcomb said, “I don’t think for a second we need to embellish the record or exaggerate the record or spin the record. The facts are just the facts. They are on our side.”
He said Republicans, including many in the room at the dinner Thursday night, took the state from last to leader in many important categories where Indiana finds itself competing with the rest of the world.
“Which leads me to where we are today and why we have so much to be proud of and why the state of Indiana is so strong,” Holcomb continued.
From the time Pence was sworn into office as governor, Holcomb said the state has managed to maintain the AAA credit rating by all the major bond raters; managed to protect and maintain the $2.14 billion Rainy Day Fund; it’s rated No. 1 in the Midwest in every tax climate and regulatory measure; it’s finishing its road projects like I-69, has three new bridges over the Ohio River and may add a fourth port.
“There’s no other state that is talking about this kind of stuff because they don’t have the money to do it,” he said, claiming that Indiana does because it has the fiscal discipline.
He said because of all those reasons, people are choosing to locate in Indiana and the state is winning with industries choosing to come here. He said Indiana is not only leading but creating separation between the state and its closest competitors.
Holcomb said there are more people today working in the private sector in Indiana than ever before in the state’s 200-year history. “It’s a pretty big deal. Once again, no other state can say that,” he said.
He said Indiana has 2,643,000 people working in the private sector, and there have been 135,000 new private-sector jobs created. Indiana is the No. 1 manufacturing job in the country, and its unemployment rate has dropped from 8.4 percent to 5 percent. It also has 34,000 fewer people on the state welfare rolls, he said.
“I would say, with all due respect, President Obama, we did create this. We, in this room, created this environment. We didn’t create the private sector jobs but we created this magnet, the environment that is just very attractive to the people who have the capital and want to risk it and employ some more Hoosiers, which takes us to the future,” he said.
He said the election is going to be a choice of whether Indiana is going to go back to past ways, which he said failed, or “are we going to continue on this Republican roll under the leadership of Gov. Mike Pence and show the way for the rest of the country that this is the way to do it?”
To keep Indiana moving forward, Holcomb said, in 266 days, Obama leaves the White House once and for all, but it will be very important Hillary Clinton is not serving “a third term for Obama.” He said she will be looking for help to win from Democratic Indiana governor candidate John Gregg, who must also be stopped, so he asked everyone to join the Pence-Holcomb team.
“It’s going to require everyone in the room spreading the message about the past, we’re going to have to remind people in the present and the future, because that’s what is at stake,” Holcomb said. “... We have some future to create.”[[In-content Ad]]
He said the main reason he said yes to being Gov. Mike Pence’s lieutenant – taking over for Sue Ellspermann this year – “is because I know what is at stake for our state come this November.”
As lieutenant governor, Holcomb said he oversees six main agencies, including the Department of Agriculture.
“Everyone knows how important ag is, not just to our past and our present, but also to our future. What a lot of people don’t know is ... Indiana is the No. 1 duck producing state in the country. We’re also No. 1 for when it comes to wood for office furniture. Our timber is very, very important to our state. We’re No. 2 in popcorn and ice cream. We’re No. 3 in eggs, soybeans, spearmint, tomatoes for processing. We’re No. 4 in turkey and peppermint and ethanol. We’re No. 5 in watermelon, hogs and corn,” Holcomb said.
Benton and Jasper counties are getting into shrimp farming in “creative and innovative” ways no matter what the season is, he said.
“And that’s kind of why Indiana is becoming known as the Silicon Valley of Ag, because we have this very welcoming and encouraging approach to folks in farming, whether it’s a large or small operation,” Holcomb said.
He also oversees the Department of Defense Development. “Obviously, everyone knows that there’s no more patriotic state in the country. It’s evidenced on many levels. Obviously our National Guard, we, per capita, send more people in uniform, many times into harm’s way, than any other state in the country. We have the fourth largest force in the country.”
Indiana also has the third largest Navy facility in the country.
“The technology that is coming out of Crane, down in south central Indiana, every sailor – every man and woman in uniform on a boat anywhere in the world – is dependent on the technology and research that is coming out of and being manufactured at Crane,” he said.
There’s also several other military installations in Indiana. In Terre Haute, “we’re literally controlling and monitoring drone traffic in the Middle East,” he stated.
Some of his other jobs include overseeing housing, small businesses and the Office of Community and Rural Affairs.
Twelve years ago, Holcomb said Indiana was trying to determine its destiny and “what we wanted it to be because Republicans in this room, who were instrumental in turing the state of Indiana around, said we can do better and we have to do better. Not just for our children’s sake, not just for our grandchildren’s sake, but for right now. We have to turn this ship around.”
He then talked a little bit about what Indiana was like before 2005.
“Pre-2005, before Republicans were in charge of leading the state of Indiana, our state was simply broke. We were $800 million in the hole, kind of drifting off and sinking in this ocean of red ink. We had blown through a billion-dollar Rainy Day Fund, our savings account. We were raiding funds, robbing Peter to pay Paul. We were delaying payments to your local schools and to local government units. If you were operating a non-profit and reliant on state grants, you were told you would receive delayed payments, forcing you to go borrow if you felt your work had to be done,” he reminded the Republicans.
The Department of Labor, he claimed, was being “operated directly by the AFL-CIO” and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management closely reflected President Obama’s EPA with an “anti-pro-business” approach. “It was literally chasing jobs away, making it very difficult to create and invest capital,” he said.
State road and bridge projects were continously promised but the state had no way of doing them financially so they were delayed. As further evidence of dysfunction in the state, it took hours then to conduct business at the BMV that now takes minutes.
Holcomb said, “I don’t think for a second we need to embellish the record or exaggerate the record or spin the record. The facts are just the facts. They are on our side.”
He said Republicans, including many in the room at the dinner Thursday night, took the state from last to leader in many important categories where Indiana finds itself competing with the rest of the world.
“Which leads me to where we are today and why we have so much to be proud of and why the state of Indiana is so strong,” Holcomb continued.
From the time Pence was sworn into office as governor, Holcomb said the state has managed to maintain the AAA credit rating by all the major bond raters; managed to protect and maintain the $2.14 billion Rainy Day Fund; it’s rated No. 1 in the Midwest in every tax climate and regulatory measure; it’s finishing its road projects like I-69, has three new bridges over the Ohio River and may add a fourth port.
“There’s no other state that is talking about this kind of stuff because they don’t have the money to do it,” he said, claiming that Indiana does because it has the fiscal discipline.
He said because of all those reasons, people are choosing to locate in Indiana and the state is winning with industries choosing to come here. He said Indiana is not only leading but creating separation between the state and its closest competitors.
Holcomb said there are more people today working in the private sector in Indiana than ever before in the state’s 200-year history. “It’s a pretty big deal. Once again, no other state can say that,” he said.
He said Indiana has 2,643,000 people working in the private sector, and there have been 135,000 new private-sector jobs created. Indiana is the No. 1 manufacturing job in the country, and its unemployment rate has dropped from 8.4 percent to 5 percent. It also has 34,000 fewer people on the state welfare rolls, he said.
“I would say, with all due respect, President Obama, we did create this. We, in this room, created this environment. We didn’t create the private sector jobs but we created this magnet, the environment that is just very attractive to the people who have the capital and want to risk it and employ some more Hoosiers, which takes us to the future,” he said.
He said the election is going to be a choice of whether Indiana is going to go back to past ways, which he said failed, or “are we going to continue on this Republican roll under the leadership of Gov. Mike Pence and show the way for the rest of the country that this is the way to do it?”
To keep Indiana moving forward, Holcomb said, in 266 days, Obama leaves the White House once and for all, but it will be very important Hillary Clinton is not serving “a third term for Obama.” He said she will be looking for help to win from Democratic Indiana governor candidate John Gregg, who must also be stopped, so he asked everyone to join the Pence-Holcomb team.
“It’s going to require everyone in the room spreading the message about the past, we’re going to have to remind people in the present and the future, because that’s what is at stake,” Holcomb said. “... We have some future to create.”[[In-content Ad]]
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