October 24, 2013

"Education is my number one budget priority, but counseling is going to be a new initiative we're going to see if we can't in fact have some positive impact as we go forward this next year." -Governor Herbert on KUED

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Good morning. Nice to be with you and let me just give a brief opening statement, if I could. In light of a lot of excitement we've had over in the last couple of weeks--new lieutenant governor, government shutdown, opening of the national parks--overshadowed in all that was the fact I had the Governor's first educational faculty meeting and we had a great opportunity to meet with faculty throughout the state of Utah, some in person and live and some remote by television and remote video, and having the opportunity to talk to our educational teachers, those on the front lines, about our goal of 66 by 2020 which is really significant for us if we want to attain the economic achievement that we’re capable of in this state.

So it was a great opportunity to talk about that and also an initiative that I don't want people to forget about that we need to tee up and that's counseling. We are not doing as good a job counseling our students in school as we are capable of doing. We have young people that need some direction. Sometimes the only direction they get in their schooling and their educational career is from a school counselor and we're asking counselors to sometimes do too much, whether it's some of the issues socially that they experience, healthcare issues for our students, as opposed teaching them what is your aptitude and here’s a career path where you can find a good job in the marketplace. Part of it’s alignment, making sure we get enough engineers for example, people in computer science and technology, where we have a great shortage in the marketplace today.

So we're going to do our best here starting now to emphasize getting good counseling in schools to give good direction to our students which is going to give us a better outcome economically and socially in this state. In an area with kind of a little bit of money, not a lot of money, we can actually have a significant, dramatic outcome. So again just wanted to bring that to everybody’s attention. It's something I feel passionate about. You know education is my number one budget priority, but counseling is going to be a new initiative we’re going to see if we can’t in fact have some positive impact as we go forward this next year.

ROD DECKER, KUTV-2: 66 by 2020 has been in effect now for a couple of years. Do you know, we had about 40% to go and over ten I don't know how exactly how it works out but they say we needed three to four percent per year on average to make it. You’ve had a couple of years. Have you made your three or four percent in these past two years? Do you have any mileposts to see if we're moving toward 66 by 2020 as we ought to be.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: As reluctant as I am to correct you, Rod, we passed a resolution this past legislative session, so it's really been in effect since this past legislative session as the focus and goal of what we need to do over the next eight, nine years. We have in fact met that goal. It is about three to four percent growth, but we have some dramatic needs going forward to maintain that. Particularly in the light of changes with particularly the LDS Church and the reduction of the missionary age is taking people out of the path into college and university study and going on to missions. That causes us to have a slight reduction in some of those who are attending college. The need to have more certificates in our U-CAT system, our applied technologies.

We’re working in concert with our universities and colleges and applied technology. But anymore as we've met with all the players involved, we can no longer think K through 12, which has been our mind set. The mindset now has got to be K through 16 and beyond if we're going to in fact achieve that goal. So processes, new resources, better counseling, less seat time and more accomplishment in the classroom, going from five years to four years to get your degree, all those things are part and parcel of the specifics of how we'll get there.

ROD DECKER, KUTV-2: Ok if I hear correctly you're not quite on track but you suspect that's due to the change in the missionary age and you’re going to make it up when these guys come back and get going.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: I would say it this way, we are on track but we see some concerns on the horizon because of the missionary change age which will reduce the number of students going in. It hasn't reduced it as much as we thought it would be. That's good news, that means more are going out of high school into college in post high school studies and more getting certificates, more getting associates degrees. So those are all good trends but you know we can't rest on our laurels. It's going to be a significant effort. We're at 43% now, post high school certificates or graduation, associate or regular bachelor’s degrees. We're trying to go by a 50% increase to 66. So it's a big lift. But we do it because it needs to be done. If we don't, then the studies show that we'll have an economy that underperforms from what we're capable of doing. And at the heart of the quality of life, the heart of everything we’re doing in Utah has got to be built upon a foundation of a functioning, expanding and growing economy.

ERIK NIELSEN, KUED-7: Governor does full-day kindergarten figure into your plan at all?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Absolutely, early intervention for particularly our at-risk children, those coming from difficult circumstances, we need to find those out early so we can intervene and get them on the right track. Clearly reading for example is a key issue. We've got to have reading proficiency by the end of third grade. If we don't then these students will under perform for the rest of their educational experience. It's hard when you start with that deficit at the end of the third grade to catch up. So our emphasis needs to be on this early intervention, making sure we have reading proficiency by the end of third grade and math proficiency by the end of sixth grade, otherwise they're always playing catch up. That's an area where again with effective resourcing, we can have dramatic outcomes that will improve the outcomes for graduation rates.

LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET NEWS: Governor you mentioned the shutdown in the state’s effort to reopen the national parks. The state allocated $1.7 million through a deal with the federal government. About 700-thousand of that is automatically coming back under the terms of that deal, but what's up in the air is whether the state will be paid the $1-million that was actually spent during I believe it was six days of the shutdown to keep the parks open. How confident are you Utah will see that money back? And if it doesn't get the money back, was it still worth to it make that deal?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well I'm pretty confident we're going to get the money back and it certainly was worth it when you think we spent about $166 thousand in the investment side and get about $3 million a day in our national parks and those surrounding areas in economic benefits. It's a good return on your investment. The agreement that I made with secretary Jewell, the Department of Interior, originally--we had two or three different proposals--but the one we agreed on was we'll lend you the money and you pay us back and she agreed to that. Says when we get the money, we'll forward it back to you for reimbursement.

What we found out was under the law, the anti-deficiency act was one that was cited, she had no ability to commit the federal government to give us back the money. That has to be a congressional action and so we still agreed to that with that modification, believing it was in the best interest of Utah to move ahead and find a solution to what was a cataclysmic problem and with that, again I applaud Sally Jewell for her efforts to work with me--democrat working republican governor, I think that shows we can work together. Secondly I applaud our and our congressional delegation who also stepped up and all of them said we'll do what we need to do to make sure that congress authorizes the reimbursement of the money, and thirdly I appreciate our legislature stepping up and saying even if it went longer than the ten days, we've got money in reserves to take care of that, because it's important we keep the economy going in Utah. And so I think everybody had a part to play and everybody played it pretty well. I believe we will get the money back.

GLEN MILLS, ABC-4: On that note congressman Stewart and other lawmakers in D.C. are working and discussing mechanisms to put in place in the event this happens again that states can continue to run their national parks. Have you been involved in that discussion and comment on that?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: I have not. I know of congressman Stewart's efforts and I applaud the desire to find a way, if we happen to have another government shut down, and heaven knows I hope we don't. It doesn’t- - nobody wins with a government shut down. But if in fact that should happen again what can we do to keep the parks open?

I think what the resolution we had worked good for Utah and maybe it wouldn't work for every state but it worked us because we're capable of doing it, and we’re fiscally prudent, we’ve got reserves. We have the ability to be more flexible and more nimble and find opportunities that other states probably couldn't. That being said we don't want those parks shut down. It's not just the people of Utah that are impacted but we have international visitors. Our five national parks, really the majority of people that come there as you probably know are non-English speaking people.

We have a significant international tourism and travel trade that comes centered around those five national parks and of course they spin out to other areas from the national parks. That’s kind of our hook in many ways to get people in. They travel to state parks, state monuments, state facilities. They enjoy the beauties of Utah and our tourism and travel which is expanding at about 7.8% is benefitted with those parks being open. So it's good for us, it’s good for America. You don't want people coming from Europe and Beijing and China and Tokyo and South America come here and say what? America is closed? You know they base their travel arrangements around visiting these national parks, so it's important we keep them open.

DAN MILLS, ABC-4: Do you think that solution should be state funds in the future or should it be federal funds though that would keep these things open?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, I don't think the long term should be state funds. I think we have the capability of managing the national parks. I don’t- - I'm not suggesting that's what we should do, but if we're going to put the money up to run them we ought to keep the revenue that comes in from those parks being open. But no. These are stopgap measures. I would hope we don't have a shut down of the federal government. They've not shut down the national parks in the past. We've had a number of different federal government shutdowns, some longer than this past one, but they’ve always kept the national parks open.

ROD DECKER, KUTV-2: Besides the parks you made a deal with Colorado and put some money into the national guard. Are you going to get that back? Is that in any way a problem?

GOVENOR HERBERT: I don't think it is. I've talked personally with Governor Hickenlooper. He's a good friend. I trust him and he said send your troops over we need the help, we will pay you back. And they probably have two or three different ways of doing that. Some would be with assistance from federal funds, but I'm confident that for the work we're doing in Colorado, we will be reimbursed that cost.

ROD DECKER, KUTV-2: Did we put money into benefits for guardsmen who were federally paid but the state benefits. The legislature voted to do that. Did we actually get any money in there or did the shutdown end before we could put money towards that goal?

GOVENOR HERBERT: Well we have a number of people that are government workers not just national guardsmen who were furloughed and we don't allow any double dipping, so we have some people that received unemployment benefits when they were furloughed and then they get reimbursed for the work they didn't do. In Utah if you in fact get reimbursed for work you didn't do, then you've got to pay back those unemployment benefits.

MAX ROTH, FOX-13: Governor, you mentioned two cases with Governor Hickenlooper and with Interior Secretary Jewell that you worked across party lines during the shutdown. You also said that you hope a shutdown doesn't happen again. When Senator Lee at the end of the shutdown spoke in the Senate he said it's never a bad idea doing what's right, saying that we he was doing what's right through the shutdown. Do you disagree with him?

GOVENOR HERBERT: No, I think his statement that it's never a bad thing to do the right thing is in fact true. I think we all- -

MAX ROTH, FOX-13: - -Was he doing the right thing?- -

GOVENOR HERBERT: - -Well I think we all need to probably talk about principles. I think sometimes the labels get in the way of doing the right way. We're so partisan and we cheer for our home team and sometimes we forget about the principles we're involved with. The principle of having a balanced budget, of living within our means, of not having unnecessary debt, of the moral responsibility we have to make sure that we don't pass on exorbitant debt to the next generation, our children and our grandchildren. That’s a moral issue.

So there's a lot of issues we ought to talk about based on principle. You know hindsight will tell us I guess whether what was being done in Washington or not being done in Washington was a good or bad thing. Hopefully we all learned from process. I believe in the sincerity of all of our congressional delegation as they take different approaches. The country is divided today on a lot of different issues. And so who's to say who's right or wrong? I just say to you that the shut down, there were no winners. The attempt to shut down the federal government I don't think is a good idea and I'm disappointed that we got to that point.

ATONE CLARK, STANDARD-EXAMINER: Governor, can you speak to the fact that the senate didn't vote on one of the judicial nominees? There's some discussion perhaps your office didn't properly vet the candidate, and where do you go from here?

GOVENOR HERBERT: Well you’d have to ask the senate why they didn't, so you could know for sure. We believe that the person was not only properly vetted but well qualified for the position. Her resume was good and excellent. She had good judicial demeanor. She had certainly expertise. I think she would have been an asset to the bench. I'm- - and the processes, you know people have issues and ideas that come up, and if you don't have the votes, you don't have the votes, but that’s a question you need to direct to the senate.

LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET NEWS:, Governor, back to Senator Lee's actions that led to the shutdown for a moment. You are not willing to say whether it was good or bad at this point. You said hindsight will show us if it was. Senator Hatch was pretty clear though that Lee and the other tea party members of congress that participated need to rehabilitate their images with voters before the next election. Senator Hatch was not willing to endorse Mike Lee at this point for re-election. Are you or you do think along with Senator Hatch that he’s got some work to do to prove he's worthy of Utah votes next time around.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, I haven't been asked for his endorsement so there's no need to even discuss that part. And who knows what's going happen. You know it's a long time to re-election in 2016, so we’ll have to wait and see how that plays out and make a decision at the appropriate time. That being said you know again there are difference of opinion. Clearly many republican senators were upset at the outcome that took place there with the shutdown of federal government whereas republicans being blamed for it. As a republican, I think there's blame to go around for everybody. I don't think it's fair or right to let the democrats off the hook too, as if they didn't have something to do with the shutdown. The fact that the President said I'm not going negotiate anything, you know didn't help. The fact he went out on the stump and in fact criticized and called names when things were at an impasse did not help. That causes people to be more entrenched, dig their heels in and that's not a way you bring people together.

There needs to be leadership on both sides of the aisle. Democrats and republicans have got to find leadership and the President, as I've said before, bears significant responsibility in that leadership. I quote no less a democrat than Harry S. Truman who said the buck stops here, the executive branch, and when you have impasses between the house and the senate, the President’s got to interject himself and say we will find a way.

I've suggested he should have brought them up to the White House, locked the doors, provided sandwiches and say we're not leaving here until we find a compromise. We’re going find a solution that everybody can feel good about. That's leadership. So I think it's unfair to say that Senator Lee’s all to blame for this. I’ve met with Senator Lee and Senator Cruz. I have concerns about this strategy we have that they went forward with. We had other republicans that had concerns about the strategy, and so I- - we learn from that and we move forward. And speaking as a republican now I think we need to learn from what happened and in fact improve and move forward.

LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET NEWS: Does that mean they have work to do with voters, especially Lee here in Utah? I mean you know what Utah voters want. You’ve won elections by large margins. Does Lee need to do something, as Senator Hatch said, to rehabilitate himself?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well Senator Lee needs to make that decision himself. Far be it from me to say what he needs to be doing in his respective office. I don't expect him to tell me what to do as governor. I’m not tell him what to do as senator, but based on polling and what we see nationally, the republican party in fact took a hit at least if the short term. Now again let’s not forget there's a long term.

Everybody’s talking about Obamacare and not necessarily in good terms now. As we see the rollout which been you know abysmal in its effectiveness and it’s not just the glitches in rolling it out, it’s what the ramifications are. We have people now stepping back. Democrats, labor unions, others that support it saying whoa maybe we're going a little too fast here. We shouldn't be surprised my good grief the bill passed in three days, 2700 pages that the infamous words of the then speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi said we’ve got to pass to it find out what's in it.

That's not a good way to develop policy, and think about it, we have republicans saying we want to repeal and replace. We have the President and the democrats saying we know this is not a perfect bill, there ought to be some modifications and we need to improve it. Those two positions are not that far apart. Repeal and replace. Modify what we have in place and come up with something. That's called compromise and working together, so I hope maybe the discussion will evolve and what's good policy and what really should be happening under healthcare reform, because what we have on the table right now certainly is not working and that's been the impetus, that’s been the catalyst for Senator Lee and others to in fact be so harsh in their approach in Washington, D.C.

ROD DECKER, KUTV-2: Will the rollout troubles effect your decision on whether to extend Medicaid in Utah?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Not really. I again, I'm critical of the affordable care act. I have been. We sued about it, on it's constitutionality and in fact you know we won on that issue because we thought it was a violation of the constitution on the commerce clause. What we didn't realize and it was argued by the Obama administration was this was a tax, until it got to the Supreme Court and that was just I think a legal maneuver and John Roberts, the chief justice, found that to be a tax, but again I think it was inartfully crafted. The states were never involved. I’ve been very critical about that.

We see people calling about we should have state exchanges and states should be having the lead role. Yeah, no duh. We should have been on the lead role when it came to the inception, the creation of healthcare reform. That being said it is the law of the land and I recognize that and depending on what they do in Washington will have an impact what we do in the state. But Medicaid expansion is certainly something that’s at the top of my agenda. What to do in the state of Utah. I'm concerned about people that are being lost, that are not being captured by the safety net. There's a segment of people out there under the law, which again was modified by the Supreme Court, making it voluntary.

I think the Obama administration thought they were going to force states to do certain things in providing healthcare at their cost on their nickel. Now it's a voluntary thing. That being said, we've done a significant study. We’re doing analysis of the five different recommendations that have come out of the task force. I'm concerned about those people who have the potential to fall through the cracks. They're most vulnerable amongst us. We need to take care of them one way or another.

I'm also respective of the taxpayer and their dollars. They’re the ones who are funding this whole thing. And for the people of Utah it’s about $3.2 billion over in the next ten years, so it's not an insignificant amount of money. So we need to find ways to solve the problem and I’m a believer in Utah. I believe we will find Utah solutions to our Utah unique challenges and working with a legislature I expect by the end of the year we'll have a solution in place.

ROBERT GEHRKE, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: You’ve talked about some hybrid options that might be available beyond the five that were in there. Can you describe what those hybrids might look like and tell us a little bit more about what you're thinking is in that?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well hybrid meaning the combination of different things. For example I think all of us recognize the significantly important role of charitable care, of private people stepping up and helping. When I was a county commissioner I started the volunteer care clinic in Utah county where doctors and practitioners donate their time at no charge and they are open Tuesdays and Thursdays and again for lower income folks and people that really don’t have access to other healthcare. They gets opportunities to go in there and be diagnosed and help. It helps prevent them from gettingserious problems in their healthcare. All done value unfairly with no cost to the taxpayer. That’s a significant part of it.

There could be other ways. Hospitals I think stand to benefit significantly from this. We're going to take them out of the emergency room and give them healthcare clinics and doctors offices, so the beneficiaries are going be the hospitals. Well some of that large windfall ought to be given back to help us maybe take care of these that are falling through the cracks, the most vulnerable people in our society. And so they have probably a roll to play to help us beef up opportunities to subsidize or give healthcare to folks that don't otherwise have it. So a combination of all of the above is probably what we'll find out.

I don't know. I don’t want to pre-suppose but we're getting good counsel, good advice from experts in the business of health care and I'm confident that we’re going to find a Utah solution to this issue as we go forward.

MAX ROTH, FOX-13: Governor there was a pick up truck that drove up the steps of the state capitol directly below where your offices are. If the person in that truck had a more nefarious plan, that could have been really bad. Are you concerned about that? Are you taking steps to make sure that doesn't happen again?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: I am concerned about it, and as somebody in a government position that tends to be a target on occasion--I don't want to talk about some of the security measures we do and take and what’s happening--but there are people, mostly unstable, who use government as a target, and we see examples of that throughout the country, and so it’s just a fact of life, and so in light of the ease that that person accessed the capitol and how they did it, I have talked to our security team and said we need to reevaluate and analyze what we should be doing. Can we do things better.

We have a very open and accessible capitol, that's a good thing, but we need to make sure that the legislators and others who work there are in a safe environment. There's no way to give 100% guarantee any place, but we need to analyze that and review it and make sure that we are doing we do all that we can.

ERIK NIELSEN, KUED-7: Governor we have about a minute left and I wanted to ask about the investigation into John Swallow. It’s been about four months since that started. Are you pleased with the progress that’s been going on with that? Kind of give us an update where we are.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Yeah I think so. I think the progress has been what we hoped to happen quicker. You know the federal government I wish they had stepped in earlier and made their decision rather than drag it on as long, that would be my criticism. But I think all the investigations are going forward. Again I think this will as they complete these investigations whatever the outcomes are, or the outcomes will be, but I think the public will be served and that's all anybody wants to have and sure the attorney general wants to have happen is complete these investigations, render a decision and let's move on. And so I’m pleased with what's taking place and how it's taking place.

ERIK NIELSEN, KUED-7: Well thank you. Just a reminder you can read transcripts and view past editions of The Governor’s Monthly News Conference on line. They’re available at KUED.org. Thank you very much for joining us tonight.

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