 This will not be an ordinary governor's budget address. But someone in Harrisburg has to start telling the people of Pennsylvania the truth about the mess we're in. My fellow Pennsylvanians, our commonwealth is in crisis. A crisis that threatens our future. Pennsylvania now faces a $2 billion budget deficit. That's not a Democratic fact, and that's not a Republican fact. It's just a fact. It's a time bomb, and it's ticking away right now, even as I speak. If it explodes, the people in this chamber, if you allow it to explode, then Pennsylvania will experience a fiscal catastrophe, the likes of which we have never seen. Nearly three-quarters of Pennsylvania homeowners will see their already-too-high property taxes skyrocket even further. Our education system, already threadbare after years of underfunding at the state level, will take a ruinous hit. We will lose nearly $200 million in services to Pennsylvania seniors. We'll lose $180 million in assistance for people living with mental illness or intellectual disabilities. Even those cuts will not solve our mathematical crisis. If we don't have sustainable revenue sources in our budget, the result will be billions of dollars in new property tax hikes at the local level. Republicans and Democrats sitting in this chamber right now sat at a table with me and did the hard work to find common ground. We had a deal, and then the House Republican leaders walked away. Only in Harrisburg could that be seen as an acceptable way to do business. And if the consequences I'm describing sound familiar, it's because Pennsylvania has been building up to this moment. For years, our leaders have tried to balance our state budget on the backs of our children. We were left with tens of thousands of teachers laid off. We crowded classrooms across most of our school districts. When I took office, Pennsylvania ranked near the bottom of the country in the percentage of state-level K-12 investment. The burden of funding our schools therefore fell on our local communities. And that in turn meant huge spikes in property taxes for Pennsylvania homeowners. Even these huge cuts to education weren't really enough to balance the budget. Instead of finding a sustainable way to deal with the real deficit, Harrisburg chose to paper over the problem with a series of budgetary gimmicks and quick fixes. Now maybe you can get away with that for a little while, but sooner or later the rent comes due. If you can't agree to the budget reforms I've proposed, then help me find a sustainable alternative. If you won't take seriously your responsibility to the people of Pennsylvania and find another job, a bright future is still within our grasp. It's up to the people in this chamber to save Pennsylvania's future. It's time for the people in this chamber to get back to work. I'm ready to do the hard work to build a brighter future for Pennsylvania. I hope you're ready to join me. Thank you. God bless the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.