 Governor, welcome to the beautiful campus of Downingtown Middle School in the Downingtown Area School District. I can't tell you how excited we are to have you visit today. Moreover, I can't tell you how excited we are in the education community to have you working and backing and fighting to create the best public school system in America right here in Pennsylvania. To accomplish that goal, we need to innovate, create, and constantly sustain the system of financial support in all 500 Pennsylvania school districts. Simply put, a commitment is direly needed for funding those systems properly, adequately, and equitably. We all know that disparities in funding, the 500 educational systems exist in Pennsylvania, placing a large weight on the backs of property owners. Take right here in Downingtown. In 2008, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania funded 11% of the total operating budget in the Downingtown Area School District. Since then, seven years later, adding 324 new students and our special ed population growing larger. In response to those added conditions, the state answered by now funding 9.5% of our overall budget and decreasing state funding by $1.2 million since 08, from 08 to today. The worst part of that equation is that during that seven year time period, local property taxes rose 12.4%. That to me makes it clear that our state government is simply passing the burden of educational funding onto property owners. Governor Wolf, we know you understand that fact and we hope you can find mechanisms for increasing state support of public education without overtaxing property owners. All of us in the education community are hoping and praying that you and the General Assembly will work together to find creative ways to fix the funding problems. Ladies and gentlemen, Pennsylvania's Governor, Governor Tom Wolf. Governor, thank you. Thank you very much, Larry. It's really good to be back again and I think what's important is this backdrop. This is a middle school, public school. The future of Pennsylvania runs through the halls of places like this. This is the important thing and this is what we've got to figure out. We have to understand and remember Pennsylvania. And that's why in my budget, I'm proposing that we actually invest in education, not because I care about teachers, not because I care just about the students because I care about all of Pennsylvania. All of us, all of us will benefit if we do a good job of investing adequately and wisely in our schools. I know you can't throw money at any problem, but we cannot continue to take money out of this investment and hope to get to a good place. In my budget, I propose an additional $1.3 million just to this school district. That's about a million one more than is proposed in the Republican budget. So what we're left with is a real choice. All of us Pennsylvanians, we have to decide do we want places like this to have the resources they need to deliver on the promise that they make for all of us for a better Pennsylvania or are we going to continue to starve them of the resources they need? That's the choice. We have the choice of funding these schools adequately, and we can do that with a fair severance tax. And I I'm reminded of the Republican legislator, Representative Harry Lewis, who represents this area, Republican, who said when he was running for office, I'm going to quoting by adding a severance tax on natural gas companies. Pennsylvania would generate billions of dollars in additional revenue. This revenue must be allocated to supplement current education spending levels, which would ensure that our schools are fully funded. That's a Republican state legislator from this area. Now he got to Harrisburg. Unfortunately, his leaders will not hear what he's saying. They will not hear what the people of this district are saying. Senator Scarnetti has said his counterproposal to anything regarding a severance tax is quote unquote nothing. Speaker Terzi has traveled around the state doing event after event with the gas industry saying he's against a severance tax. I don't know how we're going to fund the kind of education we need. We need here in Pennsylvania here in downtown if we don't have a fair severance tax. And as Larry said, I don't know how we're going to get to a good place in education if we don't figure out how to give property tax relief to the people who are now shouldering the major part of the burden throughout the state for funding public education. This is our future for our future for all of us, and it shouldn't be on the backs. It shouldn't be supported simply by local property tax payers. My proposal is to give the taxpayers the property taxpayers in this district an over 20% reduction just in this district. We need to have a fair system for funding public education. It has to be adequate. It has to be fair. And that's why we have to have property tax relief. Finally, my budget, the math actually works. Sometimes you have to make hard decisions and hard choices. The math in my budget proposal actually works. The Republican proposal, it doesn't work. We've been doing what they've been proposing for four years now, and it hasn't worked. We've had credit down ratings. Our financial situation is in dire straits. That's recognized around the country. And we are being asked to sign on to once again the same kind of thing we've seen for the last four years. It hasn't worked in the past. There is no reason to expect it's going to work in the future. We have a choice. We have a choice right now. And that is the people of Pennsylvania can do one of two things. What we've been doing, which hasn't worked. It hasn't worked in education. It hasn't worked in the way we've taxed ourselves. It has not worked in the way we've tried to finance ourselves. We can keep doing that. Or we can do what I'm proposing, which is to do in a new direction that is adequately fund our education system, fairly funded, have a fair property tax system and actually come up with a budget, a financial system that actually actually works. That's what we have to do. That's what I'm proposing. I need your help. That's why I'm here. Thank you very much. And Larry, thank you again for