Gov. John Bel Edwards, who is leaving office this week after eight years in the Governor's Mansion, delivered a farewell address Wednesday.
Here is the full text of his speech, as provided to us by his press office:
Good evening!
Thank you all so much for coming out tonight and joining Donna and me in our hometown of Amite. As I look out into this crowd, I see family, friends, neighbors, and even strangers who have supported and encouraged me since day one.
As y’all probably know, This town is where I first learned the importance of faith, family, and hard work. It’s where my mama, a charity hospital nurse, and my Papa, one of four sheriffs in our family, taught me the value of public service.
I grew up here with the best, most loving and supportive siblings who worked so hard to ensure our success: Alice, Frank, Clay, Andrew, Morgan, and Daniel - I love y’all.
Amite is where one day in the seventh grade I met a sweet, beautiful schoolmate who I knew, even then, would be the love of my life. And she’s with me tonight as she has been just about every day since.
Give me a second to brag on Donna, y’all. I know I’m biased, but she is the best first lady in Louisiana history.
There is no job description for being a first lady, but that did not stop Donna. She identified the areas that she was passionate about, used her creativity, got busy connecting people across the state, even across the nation and globe to work with her and she has done an outstanding job.
Donna is a true champion for children, women and families. From elevating the importance of music, movement and art education, to providing a supportive network for foster children and families, and working tirelessly to help prevent and raise awareness about human trafficking, – she has accomplished so much for our state. And she did all of that while also preserving the history and beauty of the Governor’s Mansion.
The improvements she has made will be there for generations to enjoy.
Donna inspires me every day. She prays with me every day. I could not have asked for a better partner in life or a better mother to our children - Samantha Bel, Sarah Ellen and John Miller. All of whom have been absolute troopers throughout the last 10 years and a great blessing to us.
Donna and I are proud to represent Amite. This is where we raised our children and now look forward to being grandparents. This is where my brother, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather have served as sheriff. This is the district that first entrusted me to represent them in elected office, and I have worked hard to maintain that trust every day in every decision I made.
And that is why I wanted my final speech as Governor to be here, with you, where it all began. None of our success would’ve been possible without the people of Amite and Tangipahoa Parish.
I’ll never forget the day I was sitting in the Legislature, talking to my good friend Sam Jones, telling him I’d had enough of the governor we had at the time. He was leading us into a crippling budget crisis - the extent of which we had yet to fully understand. Students were fleeing the state because of the largest disinvestment to higher education in the country. One of the nation’s largest percentages of working poor were being deprived of health insurance that was readily available. Business-as-usual politics was holding us back.
So I told Sam, “I’m running for governor.”
Not many people believed I could win. But choosing this path was never about power. It was never about proving a point. It wasn’t about politics. It wasn’t even about me. It was about people. People like you all here tonight.
Diversity was important to me from day one. I am proud to say that we have had the most diverse and the most competent administration in state history with cabinet, boards, commissions and staff that look like the state of Louisiana. Their quality is inextricably linked to diversity.
Now let’s go back to 2016 and talk about the challenges we’ve met and the progress we’ve delivered over eight years. Because my story is your story. And I want you all to be proud of what we’ve accomplished for Louisiana together. All of it on a bipartisan basis.
Spoiler alert: our state is much better off today than it was 8 years ago in numerous critically important and objectively verifiable ways. In fact, not just better, but in many respects the best and strongest Louisiana has ever been.
When I took office, the state had a $2 billion deficit and a grand total of $400 million in the Budget Stabilization Fund. I am leaving with a balanced budget and more than $3 billion in reserve accounts.
The Budget Stabilization Fund, known as the rainy day fund, by itself now has a billion dollars.
There’s also more than $2.2 billion in the Revenue Stabilization Fund, which did not exist until my first year as Governor. We had a $300 million surplus last fiscal year. We have $91.4 million in excess revenue for the current fiscal year. And we currently are looking at 99.8 million in increase in State General Fund for next fiscal year.
Simply put, we are in excellent financial shape.
These savings have been accomplished while also INVESTING in critical priorities and paying record amounts to the pension systems’ unfunded accrued liability, to retire debt, and to pay judgements.
Let’s talk about education for a moment - the reason I ran for governor in the first place.
We have given teachers a total of $5,300 in raises; $2,650 for support workers.
We have significantly increased funding for early childhood education – in fact, the most ever in the state general fund in the current budget.
We are making historic investments in higher education – Including an increase of $465 million in recurring funding for operational expenses.
My administration has worked to pass honest, fiscally sound budgets that adequately fund Louisiana’s most critical priorities. We have operated state government in a cost-effective, efficient and transparent manner in an effort to best serve taxpayers, attract new businesses and investors and ensure a high quality of life for the people of Louisiana.
That is a huge difference from my predecessor’s days of smoke and mirrors budgeting, fund sweeps, one time money for recurring expenditures, and incessant budget cuts to be followed by mid-year cuts. In contrast, we have produced surpluses every single year. I want to pause for a moment to thank Jay Dardenne and his wonderful staff for their excellent work.
And over the last 8 years, the growth of the State General Fund has been less than inflation. Let me say that again - over the last 8 years, the growth of the State General Fund has been less than inflation.
And we’re making progress on other fronts too.
I am very proud to say that our unemployment rate is the lowest ever measured for the month of November at 3.5% - well below the national average. And we keep beating our own records month after month.
I am also proud to tell you that in the third quarter, Louisiana’s real Gross Domestic Product grew faster than 45 other states, at a rate of 6.6%. The national rate was 4.9%. Our real GDP was higher than many other southern states, including Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia and Florida.
Something else I’m really proud of is the replenishment of our unemployment trust fund. You know, there is a law that says if you go below $100 million in the unemployment trust fund, there is a solvency tax on businesses that the state must levy. Because of COVID, we were headed in that direction. But I insisted that wouldn’t happen and we came together to replenish that fund without taxing employers more. That fund’s at $924 million today, and the forecast is for almost $1.1 billion by next August – almost exactly where it was going into COVID.
We are making monumental investments in critical infrastructure. My administration has allocated nearly $5.5 billion to more than 2,000 infrastructure projects around the state, including nearly 7,000 miles of road improvements.
And by the way, while I’m on the topic of transportation, Louisiana has certainly not been shortchanged by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Based on formula funding alone, Louisiana is expected to receive $7.5 billion dollars. Louisiana is 16th in per capita formula funding and 12th in total resilience funding that we’ve received and that’s 9th per capita.
Over $10.1 billion in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act funding has been announced for Louisiana. This includes $1.29 billion for Resilience of Infrastructure, much of which is allocated to protect Louisiana’s coast through grants to CPRA and direct federal spending from USACE.
Speaking of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we committed years ago to closing the digital divide by 2029. Just a few weeks ago I announced that Louisiana is leading the country in putting Bipartisan Infrastructure Law broadband funding to work. We are the first state in America to receive our funding allocation—setting a model for other states. That $1.35 billion will ensure we close the digital divide by 2029 by having affordable high speed internet available at every business and residential address across the state.
Now, let’s talk about the progress we’ve made in economic development.
We have announced more than 261 economic development projects representing $94 Billion in capital investment in Louisiana. Those projects will result in the creation of an estimated 80,000+ direct and indirect new jobs.
We have expanded programs to create small business contract opportunities with the state, support women and minority entrepreneurs, and promote small businesses owned by military veterans and Gold Star spouses.
Hudson Initiative expenditures with disadvantaged businesses increased nearly 300% between 2016 and 2022 – from $32 million to $90.5 million.
In 2016, I signed an executive order to reign in and reform the Industrial Tax Exemption Program that was overly generous. Instead of the 100% exemption, it’s now a max 80% exemption for a 5 year term, with the option of another 5 year term if obligations are met. We tied it to job creation and gave locals a voice since only local property taxes were at issue.
Fears that these ITEP reforms would reduce capital investment in the state were not only unfounded, they were exactly wrong. ITEP projects averaged $10 billion per year pre-reform in manufacturing projects and post-reform they averaged $25 billion.
Giving local governments a say in whether their property taxes are exempted has proven extremely beneficial to both communities and the economic growth of the state. In fact, locals have realized $750 million more in revenue for police and fire protection, education, and local roads and bridges.
Louisiana’s manufacturing jobs – the “gold standard” indicator of economic health, due to their positive ripple effect on the economy at large – ended 2022 at their highest level in seven years.
We have successfully implemented an “all-of-the-above” energy strategy that leveraged the only Climate Action Plan in the Gulf South to drive new energy investment, while continuing to support companies meeting current market demand for oil & gas.
Just last week, the EPA gave Louisiana primacy in class VI well permitting - just the third state ever - and this will allow us to reduce CO2 emissions, grow the economy, and create jobs - all in furtherance of our climate action plan.
The result: Louisiana is now a global leader in the energy transition and a major international player in the booming LNG market.
Economist Loren Scott predicted that Louisiana will add 80,000 new jobs in 2024 and 2025, thanks in large part to the huge investments our state is seeing from clean energy projects.
We capitalized on coastal restoration efforts to establish Louisiana as an international water management industry hub anchored by the Water Campus in Baton Rouge. We have completed 72 projects, started 82, and procured $12.5 billion in coastal funding.
We are diversifying our economy. We have supported investments in emerging sectors such as tech, cybersecurity, life sciences and aerospace, and reinvestments in logistics assets like the $1.8 billion Louisiana International Terminal container facility at the Port of New Orleans.
I’m immensely proud that my first act as Governor was to expand Medicaid. Now, more than 500,000 working Louisianans have access to healthcare who otherwise wouldn’t. I have said this many times before and I will say it again here tonight. Medicaid expansion was the easiest big decision I made in this office.
Because of that decision, our uninsured rate is now below the national average, the state has saved money and addressed our fiscal problems, hospitals and other providers are better reimbursed, and not a single rural hospital has closed in the state. That is a far cry from some of our neighbors.
In 2017, we advanced bipartisan criminal justice reform. We reduced our incarceration rate from 760 per 100,000 in 2016 to 564 in 2021 - which is the latest data we have, and we no longer have the nation's highest incarceration rate. We enacted data driven reforms based on best practices, focused on non-violent and non-sex offenders.
We did all this while also overcoming some of the worst natural disasters in Louisiana history and a global pandemic. To the Louisiana Department of Health and the Office of Public Health, Dr. Courtney Phillips, Steve Russo, and Dr. Joe Kanter: Thank you.
In fact, there have been over 244 emergencies, resulting in around 50 state disaster declarations and 21 federal disaster declarations. I don’t know if that’s a record, but I know it’s certainly way up there.
We have met every single one of those challenges, and we have delivered progress for our people.
I know many of the folks here today were present when I gave my first inaugural address at the capitol in 2016. In that speech, I talked about how my West Point education and Army experience influence the way I govern.
In military terms, victory is won by getting timely and accurate information, formulating a sound strategy and employing the tactics necessary to succeed. I endeavored to employ that formula in every decision I have made. From COVID to hurricanes to the budget and everything in between: I looked at situations from every perspective and collectively, with the best advisors a governor could ask for, made decisions that I felt would best serve the people of Louisiana.
In that first Inaugural, I quoted General MacArthur’s farewell address to West Point when he said that in challenging times leaders must work “to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith; to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.”
Little did I know how much those words, so ingrained in me during my formative years, would ring true as I embarked on this mission of leading our great state over these past eight years.
But more than my military experiences, I leaned on my faith. Some people call me the “crisis governor” because of all the challenges we’ve faced over the past 8 years. When I took office on January 11th, 2016, not one of us could have predicted the obstacles we would have to overcome.
But I’m certain that God knew. He knew what was ahead. I put my trust in him, and I will forever be humbled that he, and y’all, saw fit to entrust me to lead and serve Louisiana through those trying days.
My prayer at the beginning of this journey, and each day since, was that of Solomon. Or in my words, “Give me the wisdom to know the right thing to do, and the courage to do it.”
Together, we have righted so many wrongs. We’ve built on the future while maintaining what makes Louisiana great.
The sugar cane still grows. The Red River still flows. Tourists still flock to Mardi Gras. Those Tangipahoa strawberries are still the best in the world. The good times still roll.
We still have our challenges to be sure, but this beautiful melting pot of cultural gumbo that we are blessed to live in has never been better.
We did put people over politics. And without question, by almost every available metric, we leave Louisiana much better than we found it eight years ago and stronger than ever. I leave the governor’s office as optimistic as I have ever been about our future.
That breeze of hope is still blowing, and I have faith that it will continue.
Louisiana, I will forever be your humble servant. But for now… Amite, I’m coming home with a grateful heart.
God bless you all, and God bless the great state of Louisiana.
