September 28, 2006

"...as I put my budget together it's going to be with education front and center. And it's going to have an eye toward the weighted pupil unit, it's going to look at compensation, because I don't want to lose our good talent to Wyoming and Nevada." -Governor Huntsman

Reporters: (in order of appearance):

KEN VERDOIA, KUED
DAN BAMMES, KUER
TOM JORDAN, METRO NETWORKS
GLEN WARCHOL, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
LEE AUSTIN, UTAH PUBLIC RADIO
JULIE ROSE, KCPW
LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET MORNING NEWS

Transcript:
KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Governor, thanks for joining us today. I want to go a little bit far afield to start out today. This week the Democratic candidate for governor in California announced that, if elected, he would pursue any means at his disposal to seek the recall of California national guard troops deployed to Iraq, and prohibit, block the further deployment of California national guard units to Iraq. I wonder about your reaction to such a move by a governor, and how does that jibe with your support or view towards deployment of Utah troops serving in Iraq?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: A little far afield. First of all, I think Schwartznegger's likely to win the race in California. He seems to be comfortably ahead. So I don't know that this will ever materialize into anything that becomes public policy. Even if it did, the idea would be going against the grain of established law, going back to the 1930's, basically, that gave the federal government the power to call up troops in exchange for their paying for those troops, something that still exists today.

I guess some could argue the point that, you know, maybe lack of a formal declaration of war, which there wasn't in Korea, we still sent troops, which there wasn't in VietNam, where we still deployed troops, didn't send them but we deployed them, so I'm not sure that that would ultimately materialize into anything legitimate from a public policy standpoint.

As for our troops, we have several hundred deployed in theater in Iraq, we have just under 200 in Afghanistan, training and mentoring the Afghani troops who need it so desperately. We have work in Thailand, Philippines, South America, some of which is part of the overall war on terror. Some of which is specifically appropriated or earmarked for the war in Iraq.

I support our troops, I meet with them regularly, I meet with their families, I call the moms and dads when we lose somebody in the theater of conflict, which is never an easy thing to do. I know our citizens by and large support our troops. They might not completely support the way in which the war unfurled itself, or the way, or the grounds on which we argued that we enter Iraq, but I think most of the citizens of the state do support our men and women in uniform, which I think is important. As do I.

Now, would you like to see greater clarity in terms of where we're going longer term, and what that longer term commitment might be on the part of our state? For me, yes, that would be nice to hear at some point. But in the meantime, I think the effort is to raise up and train local indigenous forces, Iraqi troops, and police officials, to begin to take the place of our U.S. forces, which I think is the right thing to be doing, allowing us the flexibility of drawing down, sooner rather than later, if that's what the United States chooses to do. But I'll leave that in the hands of the federal officials, that's not something we have to deal with. I'm concerned about the well being of our national guard troops, and so far as I can tell, we've got a lot of very, thousands of very, very committed troops who are doing their best in and out of the theater of conflict.

DAN BAMMES, KUER: Governor, are you concerned that the uncertainty regarding what will happen next in Iraq or Afghanistan, where they might be deployed, how long duty might be extended, will hurt the recruiting and retention of, especially experienced senior national guard personnel, and hurt its core mission of serving the people of Utah?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: No, we always maintain, I think, a very healthy balance, those who are left here in the state, should we encounter heaven forbid any kind of catastrophe, and those who are deployed on various other missions. That's a balance that is done very carefully with the adjutant general and others who are part of the planning process. I think the recruiting efforts are strong, I think there is a belief that America has a role to play in the world, and that the military obviously is part of that role. And I don't think that's going to change any time soon.

TOM JORDAN, METRO NETWORKS: Governor, here's a sort of a segue back to the state here, from California. California's just recently, of course, gone after a rather major global warming initiative. You've got a number of programs under way inside the state to try to deal with energy efficiency. Do you anticipate at any point being able to sort of follow California's lead on trying to toughen standards even more?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: A lot of what we do will play out under the banner of the Western Governors Association, where many of us have been involved in moving along ideas and policies that will inventory greenhouse gas emissions, for example, that will try to identify the root causes of emissions, and work toward greater energy efficiency.

Now, we are leading the charge of all western states in terms of getting that done on a time line that is more ambitious, more aggressive than even the western governors have recommended, which I'm very, very proud of. Beyond that, I've put together a blue ribbon commission, and we've met just recently, on climate change, so that we can bring the best minds to the table, including local elected officials, and including some from industry, and we can have an intelligent discussion about what we can do here locally, and the kinds of policies or incentives that we ought to be looking to as we move forward. I think it's a very real issue, and one that we need to get smart about.

You can't go out half cocked in terms of making recommendations without really collecting and synthesizing for purposes of public, possible public policy, all of the information that's out there. And that's what we're attempting to do, and I feel very good about the efforts so far.

GLEN WARCHOL, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: Governor, can you maybe enlighten us, or help folks in the state understand this fourth seat situation, the status of it? And there seems to be quite a few complications with it at this point.

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: Well, whenever you're dealing with congress it's natural that you're going to have some complications. And then when you're dealing with congress in what is clearly a political environment, that's only going to be exacerbated.

All I know is this. We're under represented in Washington, our demographics would suggest that we're well beyond the point in time where we deserve an additional seat in congress. We have a window of opportunity, along with the District of Columbia, also under represented I might add, since the early 1800's, to get an additional seat in congress. So the numbers go from 435 to 437 based upon the legislation that's being looked at. We pick up one, the district picks up one. I'm supportive of the district getting one, by the way, based on the voting rights act.

So I went back, based upon the judiciary committee of the house of representatives, and in open testimony basically answered questions, and was given homework. And that was to, in a very timely fashion, take a look at our state and a possible new map, new districts, including a fourth district, and to get it back to them as quickly as possible, knowing that it was only a rough draft and that the legislature obviously would be the final arbiter of whatever that map was to be.

So I did that. I followed up as quickly as I could, I got what I thought to be a very fair map. When you have both ends of the political spectrum that are complaining, and pointing fingers at you, I guess you have to conclude you've done it about right.

And so I sent it back to the committee, and I've since had a conversation with the chairman Sensenbrenner. I've been in contact with people on both sides of the aisle. I agree with what Eleanor Holmes Norton had to say a couple of days ago in a press release, and that is I think this is going to get done. In order to get it done we've got to somehow finalize a district that has- - Mine was only a rough draft attempt. We've got to get a final district. And that would require a special session, that I'm not willing to call before the November elections. This should not happen in a political environment.

So let's say that we get beyond the November election, we're into a lame duck session, it's during that time that I would be willing to call a special session and to look at, then, whether or not we can come to grips with a fourth district. It seems that the political will is there with respect to the judiciary committee, which is driving this whole process in Washington.

So will we get it done? I think that there's a better than fifty fifty likelihood that after the election in November, during the lame duck session, we're likely to figure out a way to get a fourth seat.

That would then require a special election. Now, having never done this before I'm not quite sure what that means, but we're looking into it, presumably it would mean in the first or second quarter of '07 we then have a special election for that new district. And it would mean that all sitting members of congress would have to run again, just to reaffirm their status in a newly carved district.

And so if we're lucky enough to let a fourth district, then that is likely what will play out thereafter. If we don't get a district, which all I'm doing is trying to argue in favor of doing what I think is in the best interests of the state. No politics, just we need a four district. Our population is such that we deserve a fourth district. We're under represented. That's my only interest here. If we don't get a fourth district, which could be an outcome, then we wait until the decennial census of 2010, followed by the election of 2012, and then you've got somebody in the seat in 2013. To me that's a heck of a long time to be waiting, when we've got an interest to be protected, and to further in Washington by an additional seat in congress.

KEN VERDIOA: Governor, we're going to connect now with our site in Logan, Utah, and a question from Lee Austin of Utah Public Radio.

LEE AUSTN, UTAH PUBLIC RADIO: Hi, thank you. Governor, I just returned from a short family vacation in Wisconsin, and purchased gas there a couple of times for $2.29 a gallon. Returning here last night I noticed there hasn't been much change here. Two part question. Have you heard anything new since last week when you were calling for an investigation? There was some testimony on the subject. And two, to those who adhere to conspiracy theories, that there's some great conspiracy about petroleum prices, red state, blue states, and the upcoming elections? How do you respond to that?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: Well, all I know is here in the intermountain west, I can't imagine somebody would call it a conspiracy because you've got Wyoming under Governor Freudenthal, who basically just called for the same thing we called for and Dave Freudenthal is a great friend, by the way, and called for pretty much what we called for a week or two ago, and That is a probe into high prices. That's Wyoming. And Nevada has high prices, as well, stubbornly high prices. And so you look at the three adjoining states, and we're all facing the same basic conundrum.

You know, all I can do is look at the pricing charts, and this all started when I looked at the pricing charts. And coming from kind of an allied industry, I've looked at charts for a whole lot of years. And when you look at the pricing charts for gasoline in this state versus the national price over the last three years, they basically have been fairly consistent. Our prices, if anything, have been lower than the national average.

And then about a month ago there was an aberration that took place, and I don't know what caused the aberration. That's kind of what we're looking into, and we hope to have some answers early next week. But we were sitting at about $2.94 nationally, and about $2.95 here in the state. And the federal price went down precipitously based upon the price of oil, which went down close to 60 bucks a barrel, and in interday trading indeed went below $60 a barrel. We, on the other hand, stayed high. So there's been about a 24 to 30 cent differential almost ever since. This has been about a month ago.

So what caused that aberration? That's what I'm trying to get a better understanding of. And as the national prices have gone down, we have been slow to go down. We're always very quick to go up, where people can make money. However we're very slow to go down apparently. And in the words of one of our good public servants in the state, consumers are getting hosed.

And so you've got the federal price that is about, last I looked it's probably about $2.30, $2.30 something, although you can find it even below $2 in the case of one state in the midwest. We have, today, a low of about $2.51, which is on State Street and 21st south, and then you've got a high that is over $3 in Salina.

What is good about what we have been doing, using the bully pulpit the last couple of weeks, is that price have come down on average of two to three cents a day since that high in the $2.90 range. So we're now seeing prices that are dipping into, you know, the $2.40 range, and I think they'll continue to go down until we meet the national average. That's where we've traditionally been and I think that's where we will be soon.

Outstanding, however, is still the answer as to why there's been this lag, and why there was this aberration that took place a month ago, where we didn't follow the national pricing trends. And I hope by early next week, based upon the letters that we have sent out to the refiners and to the marketing people, that we have some answers. And that we're going to look at that information, decide what needs to be done at that point. Meantime, you can go to our web site and you can find the cheapest gas in the state, and I hope people do that.

DAN BAMMES, KUER: Governor, you've been using, as you mentioned you've been using the bully pulpit to get this job done. At what point would you choose to do something more forceful, using the legal authority of the state government to investigate this in a more serious way?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: Well, I'm perfectly happy to do that when we get the information from this probe early next week. We'll obviously share it with the attorney general's office, and if there are any legal implications at all in terms of any kind of nefarious behavior, then that decision obviously will be made by the appropriate legal authorities

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Governor, speaking of the attorney general's office, the Utah attorney general's office has been involved in kind of a twin prong approach to the FLDS community on the Utah Arizona border. They've been investigating financially, a trust officer is looking at the management of the financial assets of the FLDS group, and of course there's now the high profile arrest and looming prosecution of FLDS leader Warren Jeffs. The question then becomes, these are steps, what's the goal? Is the goal of the state of Utah eradication of this group, or is it simply to tailor back their activities into an acceptable norm, and what would be the acceptable norm?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: Well, first of all let me say that the attorney general's doing a very, very good job here, I think he's working hard, and I commend him, and I commend law enforcement officials who basically have gone after an FBI top 10 lister and found him, and they're bringing him to justice, and I think that's great. And I think Mark Shurtleff, as he has stated over and over again, is doing everything that resources will allow, and he's going after the most egregious of offenders, sex crimes and those who basically are involved in some sort of tax fraud. And I agree with Mark's approach, I think he's doing it the right way, and we'll see what results based upon his reinforced efforts.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: But then to what end? If you weed out these offenders, does that mean the state would then say, "good, we're done, we'll step back, and live your lives as you choose according to the dictates of your conscience"?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: First of all it's illegal. Polygamy is illegal, I think everybody knows that. Beyond that, the attorney general said that we will do what resources allow us to do, and resources allow us to go after those egregious offenders. And beyond that I'm going to take whatever recommendations our chief legal advisor, our attorney general, would like to provide. He's doing everything that he can, he's taken a very aggressive approach, I think he's taken the right approach, and all we can do right now is go after those who are engaged in the most egregious criminal behavior.

JULIE ROSE, KCPW: Governor, a question about the problem with the uninsured here in Utah. You've had us looking for at least a year now of how to cover folks who don't have insurance. And last week one of your top health advisors, Dr. David Sundwall from the department of health, made a proposal, coming from your office ostensibly, and I'm wondering about your thoughts on this, that parents be required, that it be a mandate that parents cover their children, have insurance for their children, as evidence of their responsibility as parents. And I'm wondering, lawmakers certainly are a little nervous, at least conservative lawmakers I've spoken to, about mandates of that type. What's the reality, do you think? How realistic is it to try to put something like that on parents and their children?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: Well, we're going to know very soon. We've spent a lot of time looking at the uninsured in this state, and we have far too many, 275,000 to 300,000. You can't approach this problem with a one-size-fits-all solution. You have to approach it incrementally. And I'm prepared to take a significant first step. We don't yet know what all of that's going to look like, but we'll be prepared this legislative session as we begin vetting it with members of the legislature and others who have an interest in this particular issue, and we're going to start with kids. I think that's an appropriate place to start.

We have probably 50 to 60,000 kids in this state who could benefit from having greater access. And would that mean fortification of CHIP? Absolutely. Would that mean looking at Medicaid, as well, in some form or fashion? Probably. Would that look at creating some sort of connector, like you have being looked at in certain other states, that would look at insurance companies' evaluating their current policies, looking at new ones that perhaps would broaden the marketplace of possibilities for those who cannot afford what currently is on the market? We certainly hope so.

But we're looking at all of these areas, and we're going to bring them together in the run up to the legislative session, so that we can take a very important first step, and that first step will deal with the children in this state.

JULIE ROSE, KCPW: Will you stand behind this concept of a mandate?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: We're debating that concept. I'm not willing to say now, as I'm not willing to say what kind of number we're going to throw behind it. That will come in time. But I will tell you that mandates have a way of getting people to deliver on certain things, and in some cases, without a mandate you're just not going to get an outcome that is desirable. That isn't to say we're going to proceed with the mandate. It's to say that we're looking at all options. We're debating all options.

LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET MORNING NEWS: Governor, you're also getting ready to put together a budget for the upcoming session of the legislature, and in doing that you have almost $400 million in extra money to spend since the last legislative session. Utahns recently got a tax cut in special session, money outside of that extra revenue. You are under a lot of pressure to do more tax cuts from some conservative lawmakers. You also expressed an interest in schools, transportation, other needs of the state. Can you give us some idea, as you prepare your budget, what you're going to do with all that extra money?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: Well, the good news is that we're dealing in an environment of surpluses, and we don't yet know what that surplus number is going to be, but it could be rather substantial. We're getting some of the early returns in, or at least will fairly soon, and we'll have a sense of that. The economy is performing exceedingly well, and I think that's good.

That allows us to fund our more important expenditures as a state, like education. And I have long said, let's create an economy that provides a strong revenue flow so that we can begin to do what needs to be done in the area of education. I was absolutely thrilled that not only last year we had record spending, but this year I think we're going to be able to have a banner year for education. And as I put my budget together it's going to be with education front and center.

And it's going to have an eye toward the weighted pupil unit, it's going to look at compensation, because I don't want to lose our good talent to Wyoming and Nevada. If they are offering a little bit more, there's no excuse in a strong economic set of circumstances we can't do more in terms of putting teaching on a pedestal, and compensating our teachers adequately. And right now, you know, we're mid pack in the region, and I think we can probably do better. Early childhood learning, and nailing the early pillars of literacy between K and third grade, fourth grade, reading, reading comprehension, writing, numeracy, as well, will be an area of focus. All day K will be an area of focus. Classroom size will be an area of focus.

We've got a lot of, I think, very important ideas that we're vetting, and developing with all education stakeholders, and I'm just delighted that we'll actually have the wherewithal maybe to make some of this a reality.

INGRID QUIROS, LA PRESENSA: Governor, today they're holding the emergency preparedness conference today, right? What is the government doing in terms of serving the multicultural community in regards of offering grants to minorities, or providing educational services, what are you doing? I understand there is a grant up to $6,000 that was given to a minority group during the last four years, and it was denied this year. And I want to know what is your position about educating the multicultural communities about emergency preparedness.

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: Well, that's, emergency preparedness is one of many issues that we need to work with our ethnic communities on. We have a great leader in our department of community and culture, Palmer DePaulis, who I will see later today. He has taken a renewed interest, as have I, in outreach to all of our ethnic communities. And I can tell you, given my interaction with our ethnic communities, I don't think they've ever been stronger and I don't think they've ever been more vibrant or more proud to call Utah home. And we can all come together on things like emergency preparedness, on educational opportunities.

I was just at Centro de Civico a week or so ago, and to think of the educational opportunities for young kids who might not fit into a traditional classroom setting that could take place in that location is a very, very important idea that is, as I mentioned to many of our Hispanic leaders, we all need to follow up on. So the times, I think, are very, very good for all of our ethnic communities. Jobs are abundant, we're all working together as best we can. And if there are deficiencies, we've got a great leader in Palmer DePaulis who is interacting on a regular basis with all of our ethnic communities to see where we can close the gap.

DAN BAMMES, KUER: Governor, one last question on budget issues. As the money continues to flow in, is there, in addition to the education priorities you talked about, do you see an opportunity once again to improve the situation of some areas that have been chronically underfunded, the guardian's office, the DSPD waiting list, the dental and vision care for Medicaid?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: We're going to look at all of the above, and I think much of this will come to light when we submit our budget in early December. You will know, based upon- - listen, a budget is policy, it is a reflection of where you're taking the public policy agenda. So I think in early December that will be a reflection of where we are taking our sense of policy in the state, what our priorities actually are.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Unfortunately we've run out of our allotted time, but a transcript of this and every governor's news conference is available on line. Thank you for joining us. Good night.

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