Sandy Breth -- who is here with us tonight -- has one of those great stories.

When the economy took a dive a few years ago, she took a pay cut.  Not long after that, she lost her job.  Today, however, she's working at G3 Industries in Mosinee.

G3 is one of those companies that added jobs in the past year and now has plans to add even more in the future.  The owner told me that he’s creating more jobs in Wisconsin because he likes the way we are moving our state forward.  

Without the positive changes, he told me he would not have had the confidence to grow his business here.  Improving the business climate is not only good for business owners; it's good for people like Sandy and her family.

We need more stories like hers in Wisconsin.  So our Lieutenant Governor and I held small business round-tables all over the state.

From La Crosse to Green Bay, from Superior to Racine, from Milwaukee to Eau Claire, from Madison to Wausau, we listened.  In particular, we heard many business owners say that they have jobs but that they cannot find enough skilled workers to fill them. This is a problem that must be solved.

With that in mind, we introduced our Wisconsin Working jobs plan.  In it, we double the number of job fairs, add staff to connect people to employment, make it easier for job seekers to get needed skills and we prepare to do more to promote manufacturing.

In addition, we are specifically targeting our veterans for full employment. It is unacceptable to think that any man or woman who has served our country would return home and not be able to find a job.  I made employment of our returning veterans the number one mission of our state Department of Veterans Affairs.

Focusing on veterans is good for employers like Monarch Company in Milwaukee who is looking to add machinists and welders.  After a recent visit there they told me they understand the benefits of employing veterans. Our returning service members are good hires because they are well disciplined.  On top of that, they can get their training paid for through the Wisconsin GI Bill that we fully restored last year.

To create more jobs, employers told us they also need help cutting through the red tape of government.

Tonight, I'm announcing new members to the Small Business Regulatory Review Board which has the authority to review every rule in all of our state agencies. I will direct our agencies to work with them to remove antiquated and unnecessary regulations that pose a threat to creating new jobs.

Employers also told us that they need a 21st century infrastructure system to drive economic development.  After the previous administration raided more than a billion dollars out of the Transportation Fund, I took action to restore our commitment to good roads, freight rail and strong ports.  We know that a strong transportation system helps manufacturers and farmers get product to and from market and it keeps good people on the job building that infrastructure.

There is another tremendous opportunity for job growth. We can pass legislation that will streamline the process for safe and environmentally sound mining. The proposed project in northwestern Wisconsin could provide at least 700 jobs at the mine and thousands across the state.

I mentioned this idea several times during the campaign and we've debated it for months. Now it is time for Wisconsin to move forward on a project that is not only about jobs but also about the history of our badger state.

Our heritage in Wisconsin is also built on fiscal restraint.  One of the most important parts of our state constitution affirms that “frugality in government leads to freedom and prosperity for our people.”  That is worth repeating: “frugality in government leads to freedom and prosperity for our people.”  I believe our founders had it right. 

Think about it, when I spoke here last January, Wisconsin faced a $3.6 billion deficit.

In the past, state government took more than a billion dollars away from building safe roads and bridges, illegally raided the fund to support malpractice victims and ignored a payment to Minnesota for tax reciprocity.  And one-time federal stimulus money was used for ongoing costs –all of these practices left us with a more than $3 billion hole to fill last year. 

While these poor decisions of the past left us with a major budget deficit, Wisconsin was not alone. Nearly every state in America faced a budget deficit in 2011. So what did other states do?

Some, like Illinois, raised taxes - but that only made matters worse.

Other states used massive layoffs to balance their budgets.  - We avoided that in Wisconsin.

Some states cut core services like Medicaid.  But in Wisconsin, we added some $1.2 billion to Medicaid and our reforms allow us to expand Familycare - our long-term care program for seniors - all across the state.

Still other states opted to use budget tricks. But I didn't want to pass that burden on to my sons and their generation.  I want our kids and grandkids to inherit a Wisconsin even greater than the one we did. 

With that in mind, we balanced the $3.6 billion budget deficit with long-term, structural reforms. We thought more about the next generation than we did about the next election.

And isn't that what the people elected us to do?  We kept our promises.

It’s why our ranking as a good place to create jobs went up faster than any state in the country last year.  We went from years of being ranked in the bottom ten to breaking into the top half of the states.  Employers appreciate that we took our fiscal problems seriously and that we addressed them with real solutions.