December 2001

Class size would have to be increased, and there would have to be classes that literally were closed. This is a midyear, you can't do that in the middle of the year without literally combining classes and sending a teacher home.

Reporters (in order of appearance):

KEN VERDOIA, KUED
CHRIS VANOCUR, KTVX
TOM JORDAN, METRO NETWORKS
JENNIFER JORDAN, KCPW
JUDY FAHYS, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
JERRY SPANGLER, DESERET NEWS

Transcript:

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Governor, thanks for joining us today. Several key state legislators are making it clear that they see the state's current budget challenge differently than you, and that they are indicating a desire to pursue their own course, not only for the current fiscal year shortfall, but for the next year's budgeting, as well. With a shortened legislative session in front of you, is this going to make dealing with the major financial challenges all the more difficult?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: It is the legislature's job, and it will be more difficult. I have worked over the course of the last several months to present a balanced budget. It's now their turn, and it's, in my experience, easier said than done, and much easier accomplished in practice than in theory.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: There is an effort afoot in the media to pick this as them against you. You seem to be saying, clearly it's their Constitutional responsibility to fashion a fiscal response. Does that mean you're going to back out and not be a player during this negotiative process?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: I collaborated very closely with them as I formulated my plan. I look forward to them doing the same thing. Ultimately, it has to pass the legislature and has to be signed by the governor. That's the way it's designed in the Constitution. It isn't starting out much differently this year than it usually does. The only difference here is we're talking about how much will be cut from the budget. I have strong feelings about education needing to be protected, about maintaining the level of our commitment on homeland security, and then assuring that we're helping those who are having trouble in difficult times. I'm sure that the legislature sees all of those as priorities, but when they get into it and spend as much time at it as I have, they'll find out that it's much more difficult to do that than just to talk about it.

CHRIS VANOCUR, KTVX: Governor, as Ken mentioned, it's easy to get caught up in the political aspect of this. I'm wondering if you could address some remarks to the people of Utah, I mean we're talking about things like shortfalls and deficits and cuts, things we really haven't talked about in a decade. What do these things really mean to the individual Utahn? How will it affect them? How will it affect their children, their families?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: Well, it will quickly affect them. I have balanced the budget, maintained the momentum we have in education. If the legislature were to carry through with their plan of cutting an additional $25 million, that's essentially a student and a half per class. Class size would have to be increased, and there would have to be classes that literally were closed. This is a midyear, you can't do that in the middle of the year without literally combining classes and sending a teacher home. $24 million is a lot of money. That would have impact on lots of children. Health care: I'm already receiving calls because of actions that we've had to take in being able to balance the budget in health care and Medicaid. It's difficult, these are difficult decisions that we've had to work in the area of prescription medicine, for example, and to limit the amount or the number of prescriptions so that we can make it through the year and balance the budget. If the legislature were to carry through with the suggestion that they would dramatically scale back health care, it would have a negative impact that would have to be defended. Higher education: We have 9,000 new students already on our campuses, not for next year, but for this year. If they were to follow through on what they've suggested and cut it back an additional five and a half or $6 million, that means that students wouldn't get classes, it means that people wouldn't be able to enroll, that they'd have to leave. These are all decisions that I've had to face, that they'll have to face. It would mean that highway projects might have to be put off. I've put forward a plan that I feel very good about that includes keeping our momentum in education, maintaining the integrity of our homeland security commitments, and taking special care of those who are hurt by the economy, and who are currently in need.

CHRIS VANOCUR, KTVX: As a follow-up, I'm curious psychologically how you get legislators and the people of Utah used to the notion that, at least temporarily, the boom years aren't here any more? It really does take a different sort of mind set, doesn't it?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: It does. It's been a different experience for me, it will be for Utahns. We've had a decade of very prosperous times. We have doubled our spending in education, we've been able to reduce class sizes, increase teacher pay, we've been able to build roads, we've been actually able to reduce taxes during that period of time. It's been a prosperous and very interesting and exciting time. We are in a moment now where we're in a flat economy, in some cases we're even in a negative economy. Gratefully we're still in a positive economy here in Utah with respect to job creation, but we're still going to go through a period where we're pedaling up hill.

TOM JORDAN, METRO NETWORKS: Do you see any area in the presentation of the leadership? That it's going to be a really difficult problem to try to resolve what you've had and what you've already presented.

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: This is the way the budget process always starts. I have to put a budget forward that says, "Here's how I would do it in totality." They have a 45-day process, and they begin by saying, "Well, we'll take a different approach. We're going to cut another hundred million dollars out of the budget." But they haven't gone through item by item, and we all find in our own budgets that when you say, "I'm going to scale back my spending," as you get into that process it's more difficult to do it in specific than it is in just philosophic aggregate. They will then start through a process. Legislators will begin to analyze. They'll begin to feel all of these cross pressures that come. That's the process. And when we get to the end, we'll have to reconcile their thoughts and mine, and we'll balance the budget and keep the state moving forward.

JENNIFER JORDAN, KCPW: Governor, you talked about the possibility of increasing class size. Utah already has the largest number of pupils per teacher in the country. How much further can those teachers be stretched?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: Well, that's a very good question that I think the budget makers will need to ask. This is a particularly troublesome problem, because we're dealing with the current budget year. The approach I've taken would be not to reduce education during this period, and I've presented a balanced budget not to do that. When you get into the question of how do you reduce education midyear by $25 million, and talk to a superintendent he'll tell you, "I can do that over the summer, because I'll just take three classes--or two classes--or three classes, and make two out of them, or I'll have one teacher who isn't returning and I won't replace them." But midyear? How do you do this midyear when you've signed contracts, you've got the students in your classroom? You've created both contracts and expectations. I just think it'll be a lot better for us to maintain the momentum of our education position. Granted, we're not going to be able to make big increases next year. I've proposed a 1.35 percent weighted pupil unit, regrettably that's one of the lowest that I've ever proposed, and it's enough to basically pay their benefits with no salary increases. But it'll be much more difficult. And I've proposed not cutting education during the current fiscal year, and cutting other places. And I've proposed a balanced budget that I think accomplishes that.

JUDY FAHYS, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: Governor, can you talk about what it's going to take for the state to help businesses out during this time? What is your role, and what is the legislature's role in steering the economy?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: My greatest concern is that we keep focused on the long-term economy. The economy will come back. Will it be in the second, third, or fourth quarter? I don't know. We're counting on, and budgeting on that it'll be sometime in the third quarter. We're already starting to see signs of heightened activity. But the long term has to be our focus. We need to make ourselves a capital for high-tech employment, investment, and entrepreneurship. During my state of the state address, during the first week of the legislature, I'll be presenting a thousand-day plan that will lay out the components that I believe we as a state need to do to create a long-term fiscal financial prosperity for ourselves.

JUDY FAHYS, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: Can you give us a couple of ideas about the general areas, for instance, where you think that's important?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: I'll be talking about making Utah a capital for high-tech employment. I'll be talking about the key role that education plays. There's never been a time when education was more closely linked to our economic prosperity than now. And for that reason, I again argue that if we're having to deal with budget shortfalls in the current year, we need to keep the momentum we have in education. Next year as we provide a budget, we need to keep the progress. We may not take big steps forward financially, but we can't take a step back. We've got to keep moving forward. I'll be talking about quality of life and the need to position Utah as a place where we have high quality of life. Because businesses can locate anywhere in an information society, and we need to maintain the level of the quality, we need to maintain Utah as an affordable place, a business-friendly place. Those are the things I'm concerned about. Yes, there are things we can do in the short term. The Congress is currently focusing on a stimulus bill. I'm more concerned about the horizon of one or three and five years than I am the next three to five months. Because nature has a way of being able to work through those things.

JUDY FAHYS, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: And talk a little bit about the federal stimulus package. What could that conceivably do for the Utah economy?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: Well, I spoke with the White House last evening, and they indicated to me that the new House version that passed would include some emergency health care dollars for Utah. That's what encourages me the most. Because right now we have limits on the number of new children that we're able to cover in our CHIP plan. We also have limits on prescriptions. All because we don't have the money to pay for everything that we'd like to. I'd like to have those dollars come back, and I'd like to see them do whatever they can to keep the economy strong in the short run.

JERRY SPANGLER, DESERET NEWS: Governor, your thousand-day plan as you just outlined doesn't sound a whole lot different than what you've outlined in past years, maintaining the momentum in education, keeping Utah affordable, those types of things. How is this plan any different than what you've put out before?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: Ah, Jerry, a very good reason for you to come listen to the speech. I will tell you it may be among the most aggressive of my outlines, and I'm- - And I'll tell you that this is the earliest I've had a first draft. I'm very proud of myself.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Governor, as they used to say in Congress that Social Security was the third rail. You didn't want to touch it, you didn't ever want to cut it because the cost to human beings, public anger, and political damage just made the effort not worthwhile, regardless of budget woes. You seem to be saying now that education is that third rail in your vision of the budget. And this takes a sizable portion of the state's budget. You're saying, you're urging the state to keep their hands off. Doesn't that put a disproportionate burden on other aspects of the state budget in lean times?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: It does. On the other hand, the only way we're able to keep our human service efforts up, the only way we're able to build highways, the only way we're able to have parks and recreation, the only way we're able to keep our regulatory responsibilities up, is if we have a strong economy, and you will not have a strong economy in the future without an education system that is, that trains our students and our citizens rapidly and repeatedly for the changes that are coming. There was a very thoughtful piece of research in the Tribune a couple of weeks ago that compared our investment in education over the last decade and our economic prosperity. We have increased the number of students who get bachelors degrees in our state by 20 percent in the last ten years. At the same time, we've gone from 29th in household income to 8th. Just think about that for a minute. 29th to 8th. We have had a major jump forward by focusing on education, by focusing on the development of technology, by diversifying our economy. Those are the things that have ultimately created a fast-growing, vibrant state. Now, I just cannot, I cannot conceive that we would not realize the value of education in driving this economy forward. It is ultimately what will allow us to maintain prosperity and to employ our children and our grandchildren.

JUDY FAHYS, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: Then what programs can bear cutting the easiest? What state programs could handle it?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: Well, there are no budget cuts that are easy. I've put forward a budget that's balanced. Anyone who chooses can go on the Internet, look at the budget that I've proposed in its totality. It balances the budget, realizes the limited economic times we're in. We went back to the drawing board, looked at our priorities, concluded where we could get more efficiencies. We are working to make government more efficient, for example, by making almost every service that we provide available online. So that people can get a drivers license renewed. They can apply for an unemployment compensation claim. They can interact with a state official by on line instead of having to go down and stand in line. That helps them, but it also helps us. We think there are millions of dollars to be saved in the long term doing that kind of thing. We've also had to cut back on the amount of health benefits that we're able to provide in certain categories.

JUDY FAHYS, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: The legislature has chosen to limit its bonding, to not depend on stimulus package money, things like that. So they're looking more at cutting into programs. Again, what kinds of choices do you think they're going to be making to find the $85 million difference between your plan and their plan for next year?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: Well, I've put forward a balanced budget. It is a budget that very clearly maintains the momentum we have in education. It keeps the commitment we've made to homeland security, and I believe it fosters the care we have to take for people who are in vulnerable places right now.

CHRIS VANOCUR, KTVX: What you're saying is the kind of cuts the legislature is talking about, they go too far.

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: Well, the legislature hasn't enacted a budget. What they've done is started a process. And I believe they'll end up with a different view of the world than they have today when they've completed that process. I've put forward one plan, I think their plan will migrate over time, and that realities of what has to be done will shape their budget.

CHRIS VANOCUR, KTVX: Likely and politically it sounds like you're saying there they're headed down the wrong path.

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: I've put forward a budget that I feel is a good path. It maintains the momentum we have in education, it very clearly deals with the dilemmas of homeland security that we're dealing with, and it also takes care of people who are in need of help right now.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Governor, another subject being much discussed by legislative leaders in the past week involves the Legacy Highway and their concern with an environmental lawsuit that has blocked, or put on hold at least, progress on the legacy highway. They're quite angered that certain individuals are involved in that lawsuit, and they most frequently point to the mayor of Salt Lake City, Rocky Anderson, as being a central figure in that legal action. And there has been much talk about the possible repercussions the legislature might enact to rescind funds, to exact, if you will, their disappointment in Mayor Anderson's actions, and hold him fiscally accountable for the cost associated with the delay the state faces. Do you support this type of holding Salt Lake City, or holding its mayor accountable for the delay in this project?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: Well, I certainly don't understand why the mayor has chosen this action, because it ultimately is hurting the cause he's espousing. But I believe we're going to have to have highways and rail. It's not just one or the other. As I understand it, from my conversations with Mayor Anderson, he believes we ought to be build rail before we do roads. Well, the road's 40 percent built. We made that decision. We're moving forward. We've also got to build the rail, and this $2 million a month that it's costing us can really come from no other place than the rail. So by delaying the road that's now 40 percent complete, we're essentially spending the money frivolously with interest and penalties and legal fees that we'll ultimately need for rail. So I don't understand it, I think it's more political than it is practical.

JENNIFER JORDAN, KCPW: Would you support the lawsuit? Would you support a lawsuit that state law makers are talking about to hold those halting the Legacy Highway accountable fiscally, and as Ken said also possibly the mayor?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: You know, I don't know much about the lawsuit, and I've heard talk about legislation, but right now we've got a road that's 40 percent done and we need to finish it, it needs to be built.

TOM JORDAN, METRO NETWORKS: Would you run through the logic that went into the state decision on the Legacy originally? Not to go after federal money for the bulk of it the way we did on I-15, where obviously the federal government covered a great deal of the expense of that. This is entirely one that's funded through state taxpayers. What was the actual logic that led us to have an entirely state funded major highway?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: Well, it was the same as the Bangerter Highway. We needed the road. And the way to get it built was to step up and build it. And we went through long, expensive, tedious, wasteful in many cases, process to get there. Finally after five years, the Clinton administration handed the state a permit that said, "You can proceed." We let a contract based on that for $461 million, and started down the process of building a road that will not just provide transportation, but trails and protect wetlands and create a wetlands park. And then 40 percent into the job they sue the Corps of Engineers, who gave us the permit, I'm meaning now the Sierra Club sued them, and said, "Put all that equipment on hold and the State of Utah, Utahn's spend $2 million a month into interest and penalties while we wait for the Federal Court to have a 20-minute hearing eight months from now," and then take their time. We- - This is really not a very tenable situation, and I'm hopeful we can resolve it. But it's ultimately hurting the taxpayers of the state, and it's ultimately hurting those who would like to have rail, because it's taking the money from rail, which will come after the highway, and it's putting it into interest and penalties and court fights about the fact that a decision they'd like to have made different wasn't made that way. I'd really like to get on with it, and I hope we can.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: What about those who say in the legislature, "Then let's take that money back"? If it costs the state $2 million or $4 million or $8 million or $16 million in this delay, we should then rescind funding for Salt Lake City in a like amount, some would say to teach them a lesson, others would say simply to offset the cost that we're forced to endure.

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: I'm not into that fight. I understand the sentiment and the frustration. I feel it. But what I want to do is get the road built.

JENNIFER JORDAN, KCPW: Governor, as we look toward the end of the year, what would you consider your major success and your major failure of the past one?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: Well I think- - Of the last year?

JENNIFER JORDAN, KCPW: Uh-huh.

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: I prefer to look at the administration over the last eight years, because I think it's a body of work. We have clearly been able to have a prosperous economy, we've doubled the success of, the funding of our education, we've increased our class sizes. We've decreased--I'm sorry--we've decreased our class sizes and increased our scores. We've been able to put technology into our classes, we've been able to increase health care dramatically. I got new figures this week about the percentage of our citizens that have health care When I became governor somewhere in the neighborhood, I think it was 9.3, or 9.7 percent of our children didn't have health care. We're down to somewhere in the neighborhood now of 7.6. We've clearly reduced it. We've added health care to 220,000 citizens over the course of the last eight years or six years. A lot of things have happened in the state that I feel great about. The land exchanges that we've been able to make, the fact that we've been able to do I-15 ahead of schedule and under budget. If I had to point to one thing in the last year that was a prominent moment to me, it would be the day that we finished the I-15 $32 million under budget and six months ahead of schedule. Those are- - Things are going well in the state. Actually we're preparing for the Olympics, we're 50 days out. Yes, the economy is not as good as we'd like it to be, but it'll be back. We've got a work force that's second to none. No one can take that away from us, only we can squander the asset by not preparing and training our children well. We have an affordable place that's tech savvy. We have a place that's recreation minded. We've got the world coming here to begin the 21st century with an event that will be unlike any event we've had in, I believe, decades because of what happened since 7-11 or rather on 9-11. There's lots to be grateful for. And we're at a Christmas season, and I will just tell you today that I'm feeling most of all just a sense of gratitude.

JENNIFER JORDAN, KCPW: And the things that aren't going quite so well?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: Well, I'm feeling a sense of optimism that we can change it, and that we have a sense of purpose in our community. One of the things that happened because of September 11th is that there is more generosity. People are feeling more charitable. They're feeling they want to help their neighbor, they want to know their neighbors. It was a tragic, difficult moment, but it's also been a moment that's revived the best part of us. And I am hopeful that this Christmas season, to you and to all of those who view this, will be not just a time of celebration because family's around us, but a moment when we reflect on the goodness of our lives, and the opportunity that it's presented to us. And I want to wish to you and to all of our viewers a very happy holiday season, and Ken, to you, thank you for the opportunity to do that.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: One of the finest attributes of the American system of government and its media coverage is the opportunity to engage in free and unfettered exchange, and so for the past year's twelve installments of this news conference, I extend to you on behalf of my colleagues our gratitude. A final thought, a new years resolution, if you will, for the coming year.

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: My most important new years resolution, I think, will be to work our way through the Olympics in a way that will make the world proud. I'm also undertaking a personal challenge. I'm going to be taking a little education myself in an area of interest to me that I want to make myself more literate in, and I'm not going to eat any desserts until after Christmas.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: On that noble and unfortunately solitary-I can't join you in that-I do want to thank you for joining us for this December edition of the Governor's Monthly News Conference, and I want to offer you a reminder that a transcript of this and every news conference from the last year is available online courtesy of the Utah Education Network at www.uen.org. Thanks for joining us and good night.

 

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