After all, I have spent the better part of my adult life insisting that government be open... that government be accessible... and that government be held accountable to people who voted us into office.
And one of the things I've tried to do in my first months in office is to give more Georgians - reporters and members of the general public alike - a closer look at how their government works.
And this week, I am proposing legislation to strengthen our Open Records laws to make public access to our public records surer, faster, and more comprehensive.
As the leaders and decision-makers of this great state, it is our responsibility to strive for perfection.
As the population of Georgia increased dramatically, so did development.
Business and the state have a common interest; not an adversarial interest.
But neither will we forget those who served at Yorktown or those who died on the beaches of Normandy or in the jungles of Vietnam.
But the fact is, no matter how good the teacher, how small the class, how focused on quality education the school may be none of this matters if we ignore the individual needs of our students.
By creating a Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District, we will give local governments a framework for working together on an issue that affects our whole state.
Enhancing revenues will help us improve education and solve our infrastructure problems.
Finally, we all benefit from an economy that has been the envy of the Southeast, and in fact, the envy of most of the nation, for several decades.
Georgia is in an enviable position today, but we can't rest on our laurels.
Georgia was blessed with strong leaders who avoided the kind of divisive distractions that held back most other cities and states in the South.
Hardly a week goes by that we don't see a heartbreaking story in the newspaper about some teenage driver in a fatal accident on our roads.
I am committed to making Georgia a model for open and honest government.
I hope you all agree that we're moving in the right direction to protect Georgia as a great place. But we also need to protect Georgia as a people.
I want business to prosper and make a profit caused by business expansion and prosperity.
I was going to make it painful if not impossible for public official to circumvent our Open Records and Open Meetings Laws.
If you dislike the process, take it out on me. I am fair game. But don't put our people to anguish because of something that is not their fault.
Improving education is the single greatest thing we can do for the people of Georgia, but there are other things we also need to do.
In my first year as governor, we solved some of the problems that had begun to undermine the Open Records Act. ... we gave the act teeth by providing criminal penalties for knowing violations.
Last, but certainly not least, we must continue to cut the taxes that Georgians pay, by increasing the homestead exemption on homes and family farms.
Make no mistake: technical education can change lives for the better, by preparing people for challenging new careers.
My very presence here, as governor of this great state... is testament to the power of an individual to fight for truth and clear his own good name.
My whole life I've been an advocate for open records - transparency in government - because I think it brings with it greater accountability.
Neither political party is clean when it comes to tactics that divide our people.
No one in government should ever think that the citizens they work for can't or won't scrutinize their actions.
Now, we are already in the process of developing tests that measure students' ability at different grade levels in reading, language arts and math.
One thing I learned a long time ago as a prosecutor is that it's tough to get people to obey a law if there is not penalty for breaking it.
Publications such as Forbes and Fortune continually rank Georgia cities as among the best places to live, work and run a business.
Repeating a grade needs to be the last resort, not an automatic response to a child who is struggling to learn.
So today I say, the outlook in Georgia has never been brighter.
The First Amendment rejects red tape, cover-up and double-speak.
The time has come to end social promotion in our schools.
The very first item in our Bill of Rights is freedom of the press, freedom of speech.
There is no country on earth with a stronger tradition of protecting the public's right to know.
Traffic is only one of the side effects of growth.
We are all one - or at least we should be - and it is our job, our duty, and our great challenge to fight the voices of division and seek the salve of reconciliation.
We changed the names of our technical schools to colleges, we expanded the eligibility for HOPE scholarships for technical training, and we added some formula funding.
We live in a state with a wonderful climate and plenty of natural beauty, from the shores of Cumberland Island to the Chattahoochee River to the Blue Ridge Mountains.
We made a good start toward preserving recreational areas like the Chattahoochee River.
We must be willing to change the way we do business if we hope to live up to the responsibilities that go along with being public servants.
We will never forget those like my great-grandfather who fought at Vicksburg.
We've worked hard to create jobs, but that's not enough; we have to make sure Georgians are prepared to compete for those jobs.
What I am proposing this year are not lofty concepts far removed form the daily struggle so of ordinary Georgians. They are proposals that directly effect the lives of the people we serve.
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