Governor Jim Pillen Delivers State of the State Address

Here's the script for the governor's state of the state address. The complete speech can be heard below.
 
LINCOLN, NE -- President Kelly, Speaker Arch, members of the 109th Legislature, tribal leaders, distinguished guests, and fellow Nebraskans.

One year ago, I stood before you just days after suffering major injuries while horseback riding with my family.

It was a life-giving experience—and one that came close to my life’s journey ending—but the upside was that it reaffirmed in me a spirit of faith, hope, love, and gratitude.

Nebraskans are truly amazing.

I can’t thank you all enough for your prayers.

I have incredible gratitude for the people of our state, but most of all I need to give a shoutout to my bride and our amazing First Lady, Suzanne, for supporting me through every hardship and struggle I’ve endured this past year.

Just as I thank her for all she does for me—and for putting up with me—I thank the family and loved ones behind all the public servants in this room for making it possible for you to come here to work for a better Nebraska.

By the way, it’s a lot less painful to stand up here this year, so I hope you’ll forgive me while I talk a little longer than normal.
***
2025 was an immensely consequential year for our country and for our state.

Much of the hard work that we have done—both in this chamber and across my administration—has come into full effect for the benefit of our people.

We have worked tirelessly to shrink government so that it better serves Nebraskans – improving outcomes, while cutting costs and waste just like a business.

We have made tremendous progress and are working to instill a culture of efficiency and reform.
We have finished the job of bringing our workforce back to the office after the pandemic and reduced our reliance on costly contractors providing duplicative and bloated work on projects and services that provide little value for Nebraskans.

We have honored the individual freedoms promised by our founding fathers, especially those of religious freedom and the Second Amendment.

Through rules issued by my administration, we are enforcing what this body worked so hard and endured so much to pass—protections for Nebraska kids from radical sex-change treatments.

Today, because of the massive victories I stood with the pro-life community to achieve and enshrine in our Constitution – more babies in this state are being protected from the tragedy of abortions than any time since Roe v. Wade.
***
New leadership in Washington has created countless new opportunities for Nebraska.
From moving forward on long-overdue energy development and regulatory reforms to speed road construction, to generational investments in the rural economy, the Trump administration has proven its commitment to strengthening the parts of America which, like Nebraska, feed, fuel, and build this great nation.

Because of that commitment, I have proudly built relationships throughout his Administration focused on how we can do great things for Nebraska’s future.

We have already seen the fruits of those partnerships.

Nebraska was first in the nation to get a waiver to ban pop and energy drinks – which aren’t food groups, by the way – from government-subsidized nutrition programs.

We were first in the nation to take advantage of the One Big Beautiful Bill opportunity to require able-bodied adults to work before they access welfare.

I was the first Governor in the country to sign an Executive Order indicating Nebraska’s intent to opt into the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit – a move that could bring millions of federal dollars into our state to support all kids in our schools – public, private, and homeschool. It’s a gamechanger.
And most recently, we were in the TOP TEN states for federal investments from the groundbreaking Rural Health Transformation program, receiving over $218 million.

This stuff is a win-win for Nebraska and a win-win for America.
***
Our partnerships with President Trump and his cabinet are also keeping Nebraskans – and families around our country – safe.

Because of our shared commitment to border security and immigration enforcement, Nebraska became one of the first states in the nation to establish an ICE detention facility to help get criminal illegal aliens off our streets.

We have a simple message: Nebraska is proud to be doing our part to get the border secure and to protect America’s kids from criminals who traffic people, gang violence, and drugs like fentanyl and meth.

The need for going after those criminal illegal aliens could not be more clear today.

Right here in Nebraska, in just the last few weeks, we have seen several examples of the danger these individuals—and the cartel terrorist and criminal organizations they support—pose to our country.
One recent incident in Omaha demonstrated not only their danger but also showcased the great risks that our men and women in blue face every time they put on the uniform.

On December 3rd, a convicted felon and El Salvadoran national in our country illegally, was being hunted by the Omaha Police Gang Unit after he shot an innocent man in a grocery store.
They followed him to a gas station in a different part of town and confronted him in the restroom.
After the officers ordered him to surrender, he came out of a stall, guns blazing – shooting and hitting three police officers.

This criminal met his end in that gas station restroom, and, by the grace of God, none of the officers were killed.

We have with us today the six Officers from the great Omaha Police Department who bravely confronted that criminal:
Detective Jordan Brandt    
Detective Christopher Brown
Detective Kyle Graber
Sergeant Jonathan Holtrop
Sergeant Emilio Luna
and Detective Brock Rengo

These men represent all of the brave Nebraska law enforcement officers who answer the call to protect our people and hold the line against anarchy.

Please join me in welcoming them and honoring their service – Officers, please stand to be recognized.
***
Although the challenges we face as a nation are great—in spite of a few Debbie Downers—the facts are crystal clear: This is an extraordinary moment for Nebraska.

After the volatility of the last few years—driven in large part by the rampant inflation of the Biden Presidency—Nebraska’s economy has grown faster than most states, posting the sixth highest quarterly GDP growth rate in the country according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

After years of troubling declines in net migration to Nebraska, we are finally seeing a positive trend, showing that our growth is stable, steady, and healthy.

Nebraska is now setting population records.

We’ve seen significant growth in our urban cores and throughout our state. And, for the first time ever, we now have more than 2 million Nebraskans living the Good Life!

Our economy is broad, led by the industries of agriculture, banking, manufacturing, healthcare, construction, and insurance – we remain a recession proof state.

We can bet the farm that Nebraska is primed to grow.

Our ethanol industry has been championed by the Trump administration and is playing a key role in American energy dominance and security.

Today, we can proudly say that Nebraska ethanol is number one in America.

The investments we’ve made in our roads and infrastructure are paying off, and I’m looking forward to being in Norfolk in just a few days to announce that we have accelerated the long-overdue completion of the critical Highway 275 corridor in Northeast Nebraska – from Norfolk to Omaha.
And our cattle industry—the backbone of Nebraska ag—is thriving. Absolutely hitting it out of the park.

We are number one in America! And if there’s one thing I know we can all agree on: it’s a great day anytime Nebraska beats Texas.

For these and countless other reasons, the state of our state is as strong as ever.
But with the work of the leaders in this chamber, I believe we can make it even stronger.
***
This session will be short, but if we set aside politics, stick to principles, and use our time wisely, it can be great.

First and foremost, we must continue to emphasize through both our actions and policies, that The Good Life is Open for Business.

2025 included Nebraska’s first recognition of a home-grown “unicorn company”—a privately held startup that has achieved a valuation of over one billion dollars.

This type of feat takes grit, innovation, a great product with greater execution, and massive investor confidence.

The team behind CompanyCam—founded by the Hansen family who runs a Lincoln roofing company that needed a better process to document job sites—have done just that, building a construction management app startup right here in Nebraska, creating careers and opportunities for the people of our state.

Members of the CompanyCam team are here with us today – please stand to be recognized – and I ask you to join me in congratulating these Nebraskans on their historic success.

There are countless other examples of Nebraskans across our state who just get to work, building success in our communities.

They, along with so many other innovators, are proof of what is possible here if we continue to build a climate where businesses are free to form, free to grow, and free to thrive.

With an already low-regulation environment and plummeting tax rates, we’ve done much to make Nebraska even more open for business.

One area where we must do better is to ensure Nebraska is not a haven for opportunistic trial lawyers chasing jackpot litigation.

The costs that hardworking business owners and their teams must bear to defend against junk lawsuits can be debilitating.

We must shield against that in Nebraska.

Senators Bosn, Hallstrom, Sorrentino, and Kauth have introduced a series of tort reform bills that will make sure that Nebraska is not a place where the risk of frivolous lawsuits destroys the freedom for job creators to thrive.

Growing Nebraska’s workforce is critical, and we must support businesses that recruit new Nebraskans to come here and put down roots.

It’s the market, and we have to compete to win. We’re doing that work.

Throughout last year, my team worked closely with business and Chamber of Commerce leaders and economic development experts to develop the Grow the Good Life Incentive, which will provide significant tax credits to businesses of all sizes that grow their business and bring new, high paying careers here to Nebraska.

This groundbreaking incentive will be second to none, giving businesses a 10% tax credit for a full decade when they grow their business by bringing NEW, highly paid people to our state.
Senator Von Gillern is carrying this key economic development bill, and I look forward to signing it into law so that we can give our businesses and industry a powerful tool to grow here.
We can–and will–compete with anyone.

Electrical power is one of the great keys to economic prosperity in the coming years.

Because of the growth in artificial intelligence and other energy-intensive industries, regions that find a way to produce vastly more electricity than they do now will thrive, while those who fail will shrink.
Gone are the days when “data center” meant a giant warehouse of servers storing our emails and cat videos in the cloud, hogging power but employing very few people.

The facilities of the future, let’s call them “AI factories,” are critical not just for our information economy, but for our national security.

We simply can’t lose them to our foreign adversaries.

Nebraska will win the electricity and AI power game. There’s no other option.

The good news is, we are already blessed with a strong foundation.

Our unique, only-in-Nebraska public power system has built the most affordable and reliable grid in America, but we need to keep it that way.

One major way is to remove the red tape and obstacles for large power users—like artificial intelligence, aviation fuel, or bioeconomy plants—to build their own power plant and sell excess electricity onto the grid.

This “behind the meter” generation is important, and with a few modest changes in our public power laws, we can make it possible here in Nebraska now.

Senator DeKay is carrying a bill to make this happen, and I thank the senator for helping to power our economy going forward.

We must continue our work to reduce the tax burden on Nebraskans, whether they live in Omaha or Ogallala.
***
Our tax policy is broken. We have to come together to fix it.

We have made progress in three years, from delivering the largest tax cut in state history, to capping local government tax collections, to making property tax relief accessible to all, not just those with pricey accountants and lawyers.

We stopped the disgrace of taxing our seniors on their social security income, for crying out loud, and removed Community Colleges from the property tax rolls in order to strengthen our great community colleges.

But the work is far from complete, and the people of this state expect this Legislature to continue its work of fixing our property tax crisis.

I believe that tax cuts work. I believe they give Nebraska families and small businesses a boost.
Unfortunately, over the past four decades, much of what Nebraska has done is create carveouts, subsidies, loopholes, and exemptions.

What we thought was a tax cut was actually a tax shift.

To truly deliver a real and durable tax cut, we must simultaneously deliver an equal decrease in government spending.

This legislature has the opportunity to lead reform efforts and join me in passing a budget that delivers lasting and transformative tax relief to Nebraska’s homeowners, farmers, and ranchers.
I have proposed, and Speaker Arch has introduced on my behalf, a budget that does that.
And it does so by cutting spending.

From streamlining welfare programs to smartly aligning our correctional facility resources to meet our current population needs, we are delving into parts of the state’s budget and shining the light in unprecedented ways.

The result of this budget work will mean a five hundred-million-dollar improvement to the state’s bottom line in this biennium.

For those doing the math, take note: this proposal eliminates the make-believe budget crisis that so many critics have imagined over the last few months.

Not only does this budget keep Nebraska on a thriving fiscal course for our state checking account, our state savings accounts are in a historically strong position.
 
Simply put, the breathless doomsday stories are not to be believed — Nebraska’s fiscal health is beyond question.
 
The state of Nebraska, today, has a general fund reserve of nearly two billion dollars and the highest credit rating in our history.
 
Let me repeat that — nearly 2 billion dollars in the bank and our highest credit rating, ever.
 
Later this year, we will make transfers for additional property tax relief — and even after that we will still have over 1.3 billion dollars in unobligated reserves.
 
Beyond a healthy reserve, it’s not the job of state government to hoard taxpayer money.
 
We must give it back — or put it to work — for Nebraskans.
 
Across state government, we’re making progress:

Saving money by eliminating or merging duplicative or costly parts of government.
Funding promising, Nebraska-born businesses, creating high paying careers, and investing in workforce development by repurposing stagnant cash.

Running government like a business, identifying inefficiencies and waste. Our Department of Health and Human Services has achieved an unprecedented net savings of $141 million this biennium.
Rooting out fraudsters – returning $30 million to taxpayers by cutting off ineligible individuals who are also collecting Medicaid benefits from another state.

Bottom line–our strategy of running government like a business and tightening its belt the same way Nebraska families have to may not always get the nicest headlines, but it is making sure that our state’s finances remain strong, and we avoid the shenanigans and fraud so rampant in poorly run states across America.
***
Even as we make critical and overdue reductions in government’s bloat and size, we have retained the capacity and courage to make timely investments in Nebraska’s future.

We will ensure that the state stands strongly behind the future of the Offutt Air Force Base community, establishing a program to grow the base’s missions, personnel, and funding.
We are adding funds to the tremendously successful Business Innovation Act program, which has done so much to kickstart new and innovative Nebraska companies, and at my direction we will ensure those funds are invested more efficiently through smart private sector partners, not government bureaucracy.

And while leaving the University of Nebraska’s budget unchanged, we have secured an agreement with University leadership to facilitate every Nebraska student who scores a 33 or better on their ACT getting a full scholarship, with housing, to the University of Nebraska.

There are few better single measures we can take to invest in our kids and keep them here at home.
There is much fat to cut in state government, and the work will not be done in just one or even a couple budget cycles.

But with this budget I’ve called for historic reductions while continuing to improve services for Nebraskans and make investments in our future.

Together, we can establish a trend of spending restraint and fiscal conservatism that will reduce the burden and cost of government for our people and make our state competitive for the next generation.
***
As we keep Nebraska a place that is wide open for business, we must also ensure that it remains a safe place governed with strong values.

Senator Kauth continues her tenacious leadership to protect our kids and to shield Nebraska’s girls’ spaces from men.

While we delivered important protections for locker rooms and similar spaces last year, silly politics left restrooms out of the bill.

That simply doesn’t add up to Nebraskans with basic common sense, whether they are in Ralston or Rushville.

I call upon this body to finish the job of keeping Nebraska a safe space for girls by putting Senator Kauth’s bill on my desk.

We must also ensure Nebraska’s public institutions of higher education remain places of hard research, learning, and academic success, not woke political laboratories.

We need to focus on who we are! We are Nebraska–not a woke ivory tower on the coast.
How destructive would it be if our great University of Nebraska followed the same path that so-called “elite” coastal schools have, embracing pronoun culture, DEI discrimination, antisemitism, and radical critical race theory invasion into curriculum.

To the misguided students and families who actually want that for their money, you can go elsewhere.

Nebraska’s higher education system should be a model of true academic freedom, rigor, and race blindness.

It should be governed by the same principles that have made this state great, and by doing so it will be a beacon to kids across the country who want to come to a place truly devoted to higher learning.
Kids like Mya Rourke, who is with us in the balcony today.

Mya went to the University of Nebraska simply wanting a hard education, not political indoctrination or to be shamed for her beliefs or values.

She has had the courage to speak up—which is no small feat as a college sophomore—and her example has been an inspiration to me to do more to protect kids like her on our campuses.

Mya, please stand to be recognized for your courage and doing what is right.
To help honor that courage, I have introduced language in the budget that will definitively end DEI and CRT from Nebraska’s higher ed system, and I look forward to signing it into law.
Let’s help recommit the University of Nebraska to the principles of its founding, make it a national light for free thought and academic excellence, and watch it thrive beyond expectations.
We’ll continue to make worthy investments in Nebraska’s elementary and secondary students, teachers, and schools – ensuring classroom environments that are ripe for learning. 

Today, I’d like to introduce you to Michelle Thorne, from Grand Island. She’s an educator who works as an Academic Support Coach, helping students with behavioral issues.

Legislation, passed in a Christmas tree bill in 2023, prevents schools from suspending disruptive kindergarten through second grade students from school – no matter what.

Michelle has first-hand experience of the issues the law has created – as it unintentionally damaged the classroom experience at many schools in our state.

Educators agree – for the sake of our kids, teachers, and schools – we must make this right.
Michelle, thank you for being here as a representative of Nebraska’s educators and inspiring us to do right by Nebraska’s teachers. Please stand to be recognized.

Education in Nebraska deserves better.
Our kids deserve better.
And our teachers deserve better.

And by passing legislation introduced by Senator Murman, we’ll help restore order to classrooms so teachers can do what they do best without distraction.
***
This Legislature, even with a short window of time, must seize the opportunity to accomplish other priorities, too.

Senator Jacobson’s ag data privacy bill has been the subject of tremendous collaboration and work over the interim, and its passage will ensure that, in an information age where data is everything, Nebraska farmers and livestock producers stay in firm control of their most valuable asset—the data about what they grow, when they plant, when they fertilize, how much they irrigate, and all the other work that goes into helping to feed the world.

I believe that Nebraska’s family farmers own that data – and we’re going to defend our producers from any misguided entity with other ideas.

After a year in which acts of antisemitism surged nationwide, making sure such acts are not only enforceable as discrimination but reported by the governing bodies of our education institutions is critical to ensure Nebraska remains the Good Life for our strong Jewish community.

Senator Hardin’s LB538 would align Nebraska with many other states by adopting a strong antisemitism definition policy and enjoy broad bipartisan support in this body.

I ask you to send it to my desk without delay.

Finally, we have arrived at the critical juncture in our long-running debate over whether Nebraska should unify and strengthen its voice in presidential elections, which this body decided to divide without the input of the people in a partisan act three decades ago.

I have favored restoring the law to award our electoral college votes to the candidate who wins Nebraska as a whole, and there is a clear majority of this Legislature—stronger than ever before—who would vote for that restoration TODAY.

But a minority of this body has repeatedly obstructed the will of the majority of this body and the majority of this state by filibustering it to death.

I call upon this Legislature to pass Senator Dorn’s LR24CA to place this question on the November 2026 ballot so that the people of this state can have the final say as to how their voice will be heard in America’s most important national election.
***

In 2025, we celebrated 80 years of victory with Nebraska’s World War Two veterans.

Every medallion we gave out to our veterans across the state was a thank you for their service – and a sharp reminder of the sacrifice it takes to keep our country free.

Last month, I had the privilege and honor of presenting a Purple Heart that was earned – but never received – to a Vietnam War hero and Nebraskan named Ray Krings.

Five decades ago, as a member of the United States Army in Vietnam, Ray was severely injured during a surprise middle-of-the-night attack by North Vietnamese soldiers.
 
An explosion in his bunker pinned him underneath rubble, ultimately leading to the loss of his legs.
 
Ray never let that slow him down though. Like most Nebraskans, Ray didn’t have time to throw a pity party… He had too much to accomplish.

When he returned home to Madison County — he got married, grew a family – 7 children and 26 grandbabies – farmed, and invested in his community.

His story is inspiring — and uniquely Nebraskan. Ray never asked anybody for anything. He’s a shining light of Nebraskans’ ‘can-do’ attitude.
 
An attitude that those of us in this chamber – and state – need to remember as we go through every day.
 
Unity is indeed an important theme as we embark on 2026.

In 2017, Nebraska celebrated its 150th year of statehood, and this year America will celebrate its 250th year as a nation.

And what a quarter-millennium it has been.

Our nation was blessed with founding fathers, guided by providence, who created a federalist system of self-governance on the most brilliant constitutional documents ever enacted by human beings.
Everything we have achieved as a republic since every challenge or flaw we have overcome, has been possible because of that amazing document and the generations of leaders which have honored it and given its words meaning and force.

At the center of the remarkable system are the states, the grassroots of democracy.

How lucky are we, at the 250th birthday of our country, to be the stewards of public trust in one of America’s 50 sovereign states?

How lucky are we to have been blessed with the challenge and privilege of leadership, to do the hard work of leaving a better Nebraska for our neighbors, kids, and the generations to come?

I am grateful beyond words for that blessing, and I know the men and women of this Legislature are, too.

I look forward to working alongside you – with that Ray Krings-like can-do attitude – to do the work of our state this session, and I thank you for your service.

God bless the State of Nebraska and God bless the United States of America.