FOLEY, Ala. — Gov. Bob Riley addressed the South Baldwin Chamber of Commerce Monday at the Foley Civic Center, delivering a “State of the State” speech. He promised that — like in the past — the hard economic times will pass.

Riley cited a precipitous drop in the nation’s employment over the past few months as troubling but called the federal government’s reaction even more troubling.

“I’m not too sure I’ve ever went through a time, an economic period, that is as critical as what we’re in right now,” Riley said. “I’m old enough to remember when we went through three or four recessions; a time when interest rates got up to 20, 21 percent. I’ve never seen anything quite as dramatic as it is right now.”

Riley said if given the opportunity to vote on the stimulus plan currently still in development, he would vote against it in a heartbeat, due to its lack of applying the stimulus equitably across the United States.

“I really don’t have much of a social life,” Riley said. “I took the whole bill home and read it. The bill is front loaded to the point that it really does help certain areas of the United States much more than it will help some of the rural areas. If you look at it, you begin to understand that there are projects in there that are going to have a huge impact on the local economies of each one of these congressmen and senators.”

The governor also said the bill’s authors have had four to five months to think about and write what they want into the bill, whereas government officials like Riley have only had about three weeks and are now playing catch up.

“From the time the president signs [the stimulus plan] into law, we have, in some instances, 30 days to design a project, have the application signed and get it in,” Riley said. “ We have to compete with people who have been doing this now for several months. Its just not right. When you get to the point that you begin to damage certain parts of the economy in order to be beneficial to other parts of the economy, I’ve got a big problem with it.”

Compared to other southern states, Riley said Alabama is doing better. In fact, he said Alabama is doing better than most states in the nation.

“We have developed a new type of economy,” Riley said. “That economy is more global in reach, more cosmopolitan and internationally-based than just about any other state in the union.”

More locally, Riley declared Baldwin County one of the most economically vibrant counties in the United States.

“You are going through a difficult time,” he said. “But there is going to come a day which I hope is in the very near future, where everything begins to stabilize.”

Moving away from economic ups and downs, Riley discussed Alabama’s continuing advancements in education. Starting next year, all schools will be required to offer Advanced Placement classes as part of the curriculum or made available through technology.

Alabama will also be the first state in the nation to offer video conferencing distance learning to every high school in the state.

Currently, 52 percent of the high schools in the state do not have the ability to take an Advanced Placement course. Starting this year, the schools that offer no AP courses will have a minimum of at least two classes in all of the four core curriculums.

“You take what we have,” Riley said. “We have low taxes, a work ethic that is second to none, a quality of life that’s as good as any and the most beautiful beaches you’ll find anywhere. If we can take education and become the absolute leader, we are about to see a transformation here that is going to be incredible.”

To help make these changes and further changes happen, Riley stressed the importance of calling the Alabama Representatives in the House to voice concerns so they can be more proactive in Washington.

“If I can convince you of the legitimacy of this. If five or six people call each one of these guys tomorrow, that will become the number one issue they will deal with. If ten or twenty people call, they won’t think of anything else until they take care of it. There is nothing Baldwin County can’t accomplish.”