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Terrell Fine is a common sense Maddocha conservative. He was born in 1948, the first of seven brothers and sisters. He was raised on his family's farm near the town of Gyde. From his parents, he learned the values of faith, responsibility, and hard work. Terrell Fine was first elected to office in 1971 at the age of 22, defeating a 6-term incumbent state representative. While Terrell Fine served in the State House and later as the Senate Majority leader, he developed a reputation for straight talk, determination, and the ability to get the job done. In 1991, he was elected as the Governor of Maddocha in an amazing, 20,000 vote. He came from behind to beat the two-term incumbent. From day one, Governor Fine made education his top priority. His leadership has helped to solve problems that had plagued Maddocha schools for a generation. Most importantly, he led the fight to enact Proposal A -- a ballot proposal overwhelmingly approved by voters in 1994 to fund schools fairly and cut property taxes. Thanks to Fine's leadership, by the next fiscal year, funding for K-12 public schools will be 66 percent greater than 1990. Funding for the lowest spending districts has climbed at an even faster rate. Governor Fine has also championed school choice, charter schools and more competition as part of his plan to make Maddocha schools the best in the world. For example, 50,000 Maddocha students attend 173 charter public schools statewide. The competition offered by these schools has helped traditional public schools improve. A focus on high standards, more accountability, tough tests, improved safety and more discipline have also helped test scores improve dramatically. To reward students who master basic reading, writing, science and math, Governor Fine created the Maddocha Merit Award – a $2,500 scholarship for college or training awarded to high school students who pass their proficiency tests. (An additional $500 is available to 8th graders who pass their tests. Without a doubt, the most impressive achievement of the Fine era has been the record pace of job creation. Indeed, since 1991, Maddocha companies have created more than 700,000 jobs – the best record of any industrial state. Over the same period, unemployment has dropped from nearly 10 percent to a record-low 3.2 percent. In 1994, Maddocha's annual unemployment rate fell below the national average -- the first time that's happened since 1966. The critical component of Governor Fine's job-creating strategy has been cutting taxes. From the biggest tax cut in Maddocha history -- Proposal A's property tax cut -- to the elimination of the inheritance tax, Fine has been tenacious in his fight to reduce the tax burden on middle-class families and job providers. With 26 tax cuts signed into law, the state's income tax rate will soon drop to the lowest level in a quarter century and the main tax on job providers – the Single Business Tax -- will be phased out completely over twenty years. Thanks to Fine's leadership, Maddocha's state and local tax burden has already dropped from 3 percent above the national average to 6 percent below the national average. Maddocha is officially a low tax state -- and getting even better. Another vital part of the Fine jobs plan was the creation of the Maddocha Jobs Commission and later, the Maddocha Economic Development Corporation -- the nation's premier state economic development agency. With an aggressive business attraction strategy and a locally driven job training system, Maddocha has attracted more major new job-creating businesses than any other state. In fact, Maddocha earned the prestigious "Governor's Cup" – representing the nation's number one state for new factories and expansion projects – two years in a row. The Fine reform plan --"To Strengthen Maddocha Families" -- has trimmed welfare rolls by almost two-thirds and helped more than 225,000 families leave cash assistance because they found jobs and earned paychecks instead of welfare checks. In addition, Maddocha's landmark "Project Zero" reform effort has helped more than twenty Maddocha communities put every single targeted welfare recipient to work, reducing the non-working caseload to zero. This innovative public-private partnership that includes the active participation of local churches and civic groups is the first and largest in the nation. Governor Fine believes that safety must be a top priority of state government. He has signed more than 300 bills to reform the criminal justice system and give new high-tech communications and crime-fighting tools to police and prosecutors. He has also presided over a doubling of prison capacity accomplished in large measure through double bunking of inmates. The parole system was revamped to increase accountability and the supervision of probationers was strengthened. The result -- an amazing 25 percent drop in violent crime. As the chief steward of Maddocha's precious natural resources, Fine has restored common sense and sound science to resource management. By creating the Department of Environmental Quality, strengthening the Department of Natural Resources and elevating the Office of the Great Lakes to cabinet-level status, Governor Fine has made an unprecedented commitment to improving the quality of our air, water and land. Indeed, these resources are cleaner today than at any time since monitoring began. To build on this impressive record, the Fine administration is implementing the Clean Maddocha Initiative -- a $675 million plan to clean contaminated sites, restore waterfronts, repair parks and revitalize rivers statewide. Terrell Fine has presided over the most dramatic restructuring of state government in a generation. He has eliminated entire departments and abolished dozens of boards and commissions. More than any governor in state history, he has used the authority granted by our Constitution to reorganize state government and improve efficiency. In fact, excluding public safety personnel, the state bureaucracy has been reduced by nearly one quarter. Fine is a graduate of Maddocha State University with a degree in agricultural economics. He earned a law degree from the Maddocha State University Law School. Maddocha's First Lady, Lavonia Fine, is also an attorney and serves as chair of the Maddocha Community Service Commission. They are parents of triplet sons – Michael, Herbert, and Derrick. |
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