They told me a couple of days ago that tonight’s dinner is sold-out. They even had to turn some folks away who wanted to be with us tonight.

I’ve got to tell you, that’s a lot of pressure.

So, I went to my staff and told them we needed the best speech they could come up with.

Oh…it was beautiful, it was eloquent. It would have been great.

But, on the way down here, I found out that tonight we were honoring our legislators.

A few things immediately came to mind...

Every once in a while, it gets a little lonely under the Gold Dome when y’all aren’t around.

The great thing about having the legislators down there is that there is always something to laugh about.

Take Eric Johnson. Eric can’t seem to make up his mind…First it was a mustache, then he was clean shaven, now he has a beard.

Come to think of it, Eric changes his facial hair more than Georgia changes the flag.

Eric…I can speak from personal experience…if you can grow hair, don’t waste it (while Governor rubs head).

And then there is Eric’s partner in crime, Tom Price.

You know, Tom is the only man in America that wears sweater-vests to NASCAR races.

And the, over in the House, Lynn Westmoreland led our charge.

I was going through some constituent mail one day, and a retired teacher had sent in Lynn’s 3rd Grade Report Card. You know, he really hasn’t changed much since then.

Sure, he had good marks in Math, Spelling, and Grammar. But the teacher’s comments at the bottom were what caught my eye: “Talks too much in class.”

Well…I guess some things never change.

But you know…when the Capitol gets really quiet late at night and nobody is around, I even begin to miss the reporters that normally run through the halls. Whether it’s Dick Pettys, Jim Galloway, Doug Gross, or Tom Baxter…

You know if you’ve picked up a newspaper in the last five months, every once in a while, those guys wrote a story about me that wasn’t 100% positive.

But, sometimes, we were able to pull one over on them.

Take, for instance, my Capitol Challenge program. I had them believing that I was trying to cut fat in my diet and lose weight as a metaphor for cutting waste in state government.

Come on…I was just trying to help the “Big Guy” drop a few pounds.

But, really, losing weight is a tough thing when you’re the Governor. I have lunch receptions, dinner parties, and everyone brings snacks over to the office.

Let me let you in on a little secret though. I made a rule for myself that kept the pounds coming off… you know what it is?

Every time Terry Coleman would run from a tough issue, like ethics or education, I’d run around the block.

I tell you, on the last day of the session, I must have run twenty miles, and that was before lunch.

But, it certainly was a challenging session this year. We had a lot of tough issues to tackle:

Should Georgia restaurants be required to serve sweet tea….

Should we allow a breed of Asian Leopard Cat in Georgia…

And, should we make the Green Tree Frog the Official Amphibian of our great state…

But, we did get some work done on key measures this year.

I’m sure you all heard about the coloring contest they had in the House of Representatives this year.

They bought a huge box of crayons and got to work on making a new flag….but I’ve got to say, it sure would have been nice if they had bought a couple of rulers, too.

If we learned one thing from redistricting a couple of years ago, anytime you give Democrats a box of crayons and tell them to get to work…Georgians are in for some big trouble.

Of course, one of the biggest stories this year was some guy who they say kept flying helicopters all over the state.

I don’t get it…President Bush flies a plane onto an aircraft carrier and he’s a hero.

I fly one little helicopter into the side of one little building, and all of a sudden they tell me I shouldn’t fly the things.

I’ve even come up with a new plan to balance the budget…by the time we finish reimbursing the state for helicopter flights, we’ll have a surplus, and we can even fund all those pork projects Terry Coleman and Jimmy Skipper tried to pass.

But, really folks, it does get a little lonely sometimes at the Capitol without these guys around.

You know, when I look around the room here tonight, I see one big family.

Legislators, activists, the leaders on my campaign and many other campaigns over the years.

Right here, in this auditorium tonight, is our Republican family.

This is the group that convinced me to run for Governor…this is the group that dedicated so many hours to my campaign, and this is the group that will be members of the team that will finally bring positive change to Georgia.

You know, I joke about it, but it really was a truly historic session in Atlanta.

No, we didn’t always agree. And, no, we didn’t get every bill we wanted through the legislature.

But, we worked together to accomplish many important priorities.

And I do appreciate this opportunity to recognize the hard work of my Republican friends in the General Assembly.

In the House, my Floor Leaders Glenn Richardson and Larry O’Neal did a tremendous job in presenting legislation that addressed the tough issues, and Lynn Westmoreland worked hard to keep a conservative agenda moving forward from a difficult minority position.

In the Senate, Bill Stephens and Dan Lee helped build the support to pass every piece of legislation that I had introduced into that body.

And President Pro Tem Eric Johnson and Majority Leader Tom Price proved that Republicans were up for the challenge of leadership this session.

We inherited the state’s worst budget crisis since the Great Depression…and produced a balanced budget.

Not only that, but we began to implement fundamental tax reform.

Despite the budget crisis, we a series of tax cuts this year.

We saved the Homestead Exemption, and passed tax cuts for our seniors, military personnel, and teachers.

We planned for the future by implementing tax incentives for businesses bringing jobs to Georgia.

We faced the crisis, were honest with the people of Georgia, and used fiscally conservative principles to move our state forward.

We also passed a good first-step towards fundamental education reform.

We will provide accountability, but give our educators the flexibility to teach our children.

We also passed a bill close to my heart: giving foster parents a voice in the placement of children under their care.

We passed a bill to make our streets safer: cracking down on methamphetamine producers in our state.

We fulfilled our constitutional responsibility and reformed our indigent defense system.

And, we ensured Georgians adequate access to home loans by reforming the Predatory Lending Bill.

That ain’t bad for just one year’s work.

But, we have even more work that lies ahead.

We must continue to implement reforms to our education system.

I am not satisfied, and the people of Georgia are not satisfied, with below-average results in our schools. We must return more local control to our schools, we must respect our teachers, and we must give flexibility to our parents to find the best options for educating their children.

We must continue to reform our budget process.

Starting next year, we will change the way our state spends money.

No longer will the previous year’s expenditures simply continue on into the next year’s budget with new spending tacked on without review.

We will start the budgeting process at zero. And we will require state agencies account for and justify every single dollar of the people’s money they receive.

And we have to pass meaningful, real ethics reform. I will not waver on this issue.

On the first day of my Administration, I signed a stringent executive order, establishing a strict code of ethical conduct for State employees. My goal is to eliminate any and all public doubt in the integrity of State government, its leadership, its employees, and its business dealings.

I proposed similar reforms for all branches of State government, but the Democratic leadership of the House of Representatives chose not to pass it. Oh, they all said they were in favor of ethics reform, but after hours upon hours of hearings, nothing was done.

Every politician I’ve ever met on the campaign trail said they were in favor of ethics reform.

Republicans backed up their talk this session. The Republican-led Senate passed meaningful ethics legislation. Democrats fell silent.

Now I’m counting on all of you to help me carry on this fight.

We must continue putting pressure on the Democrats until the House passes our legislation that would restore public’s trust in government.

And, if they refuse to pass meaningful reform, we will take their record to the people of Georgia and let the voters be the final voice on whether our state makes ethics a top priority.

My friends, I serve with some really good folks that are in this audience tonight. And we work for the people’s agenda. We work on kitchen table economics and legislation that helps our most vulnerable citizens.

We serve for the children and our troops. Our seniors, and the everyday citizen just trying to get ahead.

And we share a common vision of the New Georgia.
A vision of a state government where people are more important than politics.

A state government truly of the people, by the people, and for the people.

A state government that is responsive to the people’s needs and where the public trust in state government is restored.

I ask you all to move forward with me in fulfilling the vision of the New Georgia.

Once again, I want to thank the Republican legislators and all of you for your hard work and congratulate you on all that you have accomplished.

God bless you all

And God Bless the Great state of Georgia!