March 28, 2013

I would just hearken to our past legislative session...we were able to, because of the growth, put over $300 million into public education and higher education..."
-Governor Herbert

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Good day.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Good morning, Governor.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Good morning to you, and before we open for questions, let me just make an observation, if I could. Spring is here, just around the corner, it's a beautiful day out there today, and I think it just makes us happy and energetic as we look towards spring and summer. But I'm really energetic and happy today because we just got the latest job numbers out here, this past week. And we find that our economy in Utah is now growing at four percent annualized rate. And that's a significant improvement. As you know, our historical rate is 3.2 percent, so we've gone through the recession, through the trough, and are now coming up the outside, and now we're growing again at better than historic norms. We set a goal, as you know, about a year and a half ago, of 100,000 jobs in 1,000 days. We're approaching the 50,000 job rate, growth rate, now, and our unemployment rate has dropped from 5.4 to 5.2 percent. With great signs of continued economic growth and expansion in our future.

Again, I just want to emphasize that my focus has been on the economy, we, working with the legislature, have created an environment that's second to none when it comes to economic growth and the entrepreneurial to have success, and it's paying off significant dividends. And I would just hearken to our past legislative session, just closed, that we were able to, because of the growth, put over $300 million into public education and higher education, a significant number of new money. And that, again, helps us as we create the labor force of tomorrow today, so that we can compete in a global marketplace. So I'm very energized about that. Again, it's good to see the fruits of your labors, and I look forward to continue to work with the legislature as we focus on economic growth and education as a priority for this state, as we continue to kind of lead the nation in economic opportunity. And I say that, too, advisedly, in spite of some of the drag that we have on the economy out of the uncertainty of Washington, D.C. So good news for us in Utah, and looking forward to the future.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Governor, as is our wont, we will pull you away from the good news, and ask you questions in another area, specifically you referred to the state legislative session recently completed. More than 500 pieces of legislation passed, and then sent to your office for your consideration. Of all those numerous bills, one that has gotten the most attention is your veto of House Bill 76. While you've discussed it in other settings, we've not had an opportunity in this setting. Can you run through, once again, your decision to veto that bill?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: I can. And it certainly is an important issue. I'm a strong Second Amendment supporter. I believe in the right to bear arms, and certainly people have the right to have firearms for their own self defense. That being the case, as we look at Utah's Constitution, and our federal Constitution, we've evolved in Utah to have a concealed weapon permit requirement, which has served us very well for the last 15 years. In fact it's become a model for the nation as far as concealed weapon permit statutes, and we're recognized with reciprocity with about 34 other states. I didn't see any compelling reason to change that statute.

What is the reason? Nobody seemed to be concerned about it for the last number of years, it's served us well. I've used the phrase, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." And so consequently I think it's not good policy to change. The anecdotal story that we've been told is well this is because some rancher was riding his horse up in the foothills and was hassled because he put a coat on because of inclement weather and covered his firearm is not really a compelling reason to change the statute. If that's really an issue, and I'm a little jaundice eyed about that being an issue, there's probably a more narrow way to address it. So based on, I think, the public needs, our public safety people, our law enforcement people say this does inhibit their ability to keep the public safe, I vetoed the bill.

ROD DECKER, KUTV: There may be a veto override session. Do you know yet whether there will be, and are you either politicking, or going to politic? Are you going to call people up and say, "Remember the favor I did for you, please support my veto," or are you just going to keep a hands off and let them do what they do?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, I expect that the legislature, again, their role to play is not completed yet, they'll wait until April the 4th when I make the decisions on what bills I'm signing or vetoing, and then I expect they'll look at the possibility of an override session.

I would suggest to them that they ought to consider the public, and I think take a little time to methodically think about House Bill 76, specifically. We've had a number of legislators that have kind of indicated, you know, maybe we were a little hasty here. But we'll see what they do. They have that right, and role to play. If they decide to have a session, we'll certainly be advocating why it should, the veto should be upheld, and we'll have that robust discussion.

But you know, I have a role to play, which is to kind of be the brake, sometimes, on the legislature, and make sure that the legislation that they pass does not have unintended consequences--which I think this one does for our police and law enforcement people--and sign or veto. And I've played that role by vetoing the bill. We'll see what the legislature does going forward.

LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET NEWS: Governor, you indicated that you have until April 3rd, next Wednesday, to make decisions on other bills. What other issues are giving you concern? What else are you looking at possibly vetoing at this point?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, I'm hopeful that we won't veto anything more. We hope that the legislation's all good and appropriate. And we've been very proactive, as an administration, in working with the legislators to make sure that we have good legislation passed. They recognize that I have the veto pen capability, and a lot of legislators come and get our buy in. We also reach out and say, you know, this legislation, the direction it's going, we don't particularly like, and it may be subject to veto, if you could make some changes and modifications maybe we can find the win win that we can all feel good about. And that's worked very well for us.

And so we don't have a lot of onerous bills on the watch list that we think are going to be some significantly big problems. That doesn't mean we don't go through them all very carefully, line by line, and we're doing that now. We've done about 250 bills of the 520 that have been passed, so we're about halfway there. There's probably a handful of bills that are causing me some concerns. We've reached out to some of the stakeholders to see if they've got input to give to us, to help us understand better the motivation and the outcome.

We have found that some that we thought would have concerns about the bill have not, certain pieces of legislation. They, in fact, have bought into the bill. So we'll continue that process. There's probably less than ten that I've got any big concern about right now.

LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET NEWS: Can you tell us a little bit about what those bills would do and what the concerns are?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, it's a little premature to say exactly, because I don't want to say something that maybe is I misunderstand the bill and some concerns I've got in the first reading of it, and some of our staff. We have all of our cabinet, our department heads kind of involved, we have a checklist where they go through and give comments and invites us to investigate and ask these questions, which we get clarification on.

But there's been some concerns about some of the education bills that we've got there that we're going to take a look at, meeting with the stakeholders. Maybe some of the air quality issue bills that we'll take a look at. But by and large, I think we've had a good legislative session, that has been mostly common sense. It might be interesting to you to know that of the 250 bills we've passed, I'd say probably 80 percent are generally consensus bills, where the overwhelming majority, just a handful of dissenting votes that occur.

I'm finding that a lot of the stuff we do at the legislature are nuts and bolts, meat and potatoes kind of stuff, roll up your sleeves and do the hard work of clarification and maybe some modification, and not earth shattering different developments on policy.

ROD DECKER, KUTV: A national study recently came out that the University of Utah participated in, and it showed that the best predictor of late stage breast cancer for women is not having health insurance. A woman doesn't have health insurance, she doesn't go get checked up, she gets caught in late stage breast cancer, she's got a hard row, and maybe she dies and it didn't need to be done. Will you be looking at those sorts of things when you make your decision whether to extend Medicaid?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Absolutely. Health care is a complex issue, as we all know, and it's not just one silver bullet out there for health care to have the best possible outcome, some of it's individual responsibility, exercise and diet.

And certainly having regular physical checkups are things that we ought to do and a penny saved now is a dime saved later. So we need to make sure we have access to good health care, and certainly the programs we have in place now, and some of it's volunteer care clinics for people that can't afford health insurance, have helped take place of that early intervention and early checkups that will help those kinds of issues you've mentioned, Rod.

That being said, we have a committee in place with our Department of Health on health reform and Medicaid, which are looking at the cost to the benefits of the state of Utah. And that's going to be a significant issue to help us in this discussion.

Because that's not the end of it. Clearly we have people say, "Hey, it's free money. It's coming from the federal government." And it may be free money to the state, it may be free money to the counties, which also have a role to play in health care. But it's not free money from the taxpayers. It comes out of the wallets of the taxpayers, whether it's a federal tax or a state tax. And so the cost of this is something we all need to be concerned about, short term as well as long term.

That being said, I expect that this committee will come to me over the next few months, and say, "Here are the recommendations of how we, in fact, provide access and better health care to the people of Utah." And there might be six or eight different recommendations that we'll look at and maybe come up with some kind of decision upon.

My hope is, we've got a health care summit scheduled for September, that we have recommendations from this committee that we can then go out and start championing and advocating for with the legislature. And whether that includes Medicaid expansion is yet to be determined.

ROD DECKER, KUTV: Do you accept what the study seems to say, that Medicaid expansion will save lives, it will improve outcomes and it will save, with respect to breast cancer, if we expand it, some women will live who, some Utah women will live who otherwise would die?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well I haven't read the study so it's hard for me to comment on that. But I do believe that, you know, having regular checkups and meeting with a physician who can check you for cancer, or any other potential ailment, certainly will help save lives. The question's going to be, is that something we can only get through Medicaid expansion? Is it something we can afford, and if we spend money there, what do we lose in other places in health and human services, which also might be a detriment to life in other aspects?

So we've got to take in a holistic view, it's not just one at the exclusion of others, but what can we do to optimize the taxpayers' dollars and get the best health care outcomes we can possibly get for the state of Utah? Which, I might add, is a unique state compared to other states. We probably have more of a concern, or should have maybe more concern for prenatal care, which will help save lives, because we're a young population. And the approach we take here in Utah might be different than the approach they should be taking in Florida, which has a more senior population.

So I don't like the one-size-fits-all approach. I certainly want to get all the input we can so we make the right decision for Utah, ask that's what I'm going to do. I don't care what other states are doing, I only care what Utah's going to be doing. We want to make sure we do everything we can to improve outcomes for the people of Utah, and we'll do what's in the best interests of the people of Utah at the end of the day.

RICH PIATT, KSL: Well this cost benefit study was supposed to be out a month ago, it was expected weeks before that. It seems to be taking an inordinate amount of time. Is it concerning you how long this is taking, given that other states that had refused have come around and accepted it? Should Utah also be close to making a decision on this?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well I think we should be getting closer. Again, this is a significant step, it's a change of policy and it's a very expensive change. And so I'm not going to be rushed into this because others have decided to make a leap. Some of the states, and I don't know what their motivations are, maybe for political purposes. I'm not an ideologue on this. I want to make sure that we are methodical, that we understand all there is to understand about the potential good and the bad that would come out of Medicaid expansion, but it ought to be in the context of health care reform entirely.

It ought to be in the context of, what can we do and what should we do to get the best health outcomes for the people of Utah, and our own unique demographics. And so, again, we have one time to get this right, and I want to make sure we get it right. Again, I expect we'll have recommendations come to us through this process, and we'll have something probably to announce as a recommendation that we accept and will advocate for in September.

PAUL FOY, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Governor, let me ask you about another tough question, Snake Valley, the water agreement. It looks like Utah has little choice but to approve an agreement with Nevada for pumping ground water from Snake Valley, otherwise Las Vegas will just take the water. When are you going to make this decision, and how are you going to make it?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: It's a tough issue, and it's fraught with emotion, and it's a complex issue, so that it's probably maybe only a handful of water attorneys that really understand the complexity and the legal ramifications of it. So we've, again, been very careful. This goes back to Governor Huntsman's day when it first came about, and there have been fits and starts on this issue for a variety of reasons.

As I've got into this this past year, I recognize you can probably argue both sides of the issue. I think most people on the Utah side of the border, and even those on the Nevada side of the border, believe the pipe line is a mistake. Bringing a pipe line up from Clark County, Las Vegas, all the way up into Snake and Spring Valleys and that part of Nevada is a very expensive proposition that's fraught with a lot of risk. So the question for Utah is, for us, our concern is, you know, we can't tell Nevada what to do, that's their decision.

But we have skin in the game, here, in water in Snake Valley. And I can promise you all that my goal is very clear. One, we will not give up one molecule of water to Nevada that is Utah water. We will protect the rights of those who already have water rights on Utah's side, and we're concerned about those on the Nevada side of the line too. Those water rights should be protected. And lastly, we want to make sure that whatever happens, that the environment is protected also. It has ramifications not only in Snake Valley and the ecosystem there, but maybe what it could do to dust and pollution here on the Wasatch Front.

And so at the end of the day, whether we sign the agreement or don't sign the agreement, we will fight as hard as we can to protect Utah's water rights and the water rights we have, and not give up any water to Nevada, and protect the environment. Now, the question's going to be, does the agreement help us do that, or hinder us in doing that? Again, that's the determination I've got to make, and will probably make that determination over the next couple of weeks.

PAUL FOY, ASSOCIATED PRESS: And which way are you leaning, Governor? Can I ask you that?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: I feel good one way or the other, depending on the day I wake up. I mean I can see the concern we have, a lot of challenges with people out there that live there. It's their back yards. There's livelihood, and I would say the majority of them don't want us to sign the agreement. Our local government people are pretty much united about, against signing the agreement. I have a tendency to not want to run over the local people and the will of the people. At the same time we have a lot of attorneys say well, at the end of the day, in spite of that, it's in the best interests long term of Utah to have an agreement.

It's a tough decision. And there's no black and white, right answer here. There's no silver bullet to it. This is a matter of measuring risk. And either way we go there's some risk to Utah because of what Nevada's doing. The answer for me would be for Nevada to not do the pipeline. You know, we're having to spend a lot of time and energy on an issue that's not of our creation, but is being created by our neighboring state of Nevada. I wish they would just abandon the concept altogether, it would make my life a lot easier.

LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET NEWS: Have you been lobbying Nevada's Governor on this issue? Are they willing to

GOVERNOR HERBERT: We've had a lot of discussion. I've talked with the Governor about it, again, our people have met with their people on numerous occasions over the past number of years. I think they've negotiated in good faith. We've tried to find the proverbial win win out there. And we'll continue to try to find the proverbial win win, no matter what we do, whether we sign the agreement or not. You know, the future is the future, and there may be other opportunities to do things. So we'll have to wait and see. I, again, this is going to be a tough one, but I'm going to we're going to have to pull the trigger on this one way or the other probably in the next two or three weeks.

ROBERT GEHRKE, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: But if you don't sign the agreement then there's nothing in place to protect the Utah water rights, and Nevada proceeds as it plans, what's the are you in a position where you have to sign the agreement?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: No, we don't have to sign the agreement. Again, they've signed the agreement and said here it is and if you want it sign it.

ROBERT GEHRKE, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: But if you walk away, what are the consequences?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: It's hard to know. I expect that Nevada, if they want to put that pipeline, will continue to engage in trying to get that accomplished. They believe there's water up there. They've had water they've purchased in Spring Valley. They don't have a right to come into Snake Valley right now, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't try to do that at a future time. The agreement's designed to say, if, in fact, you do that, then here's the agreement we have between the states, and a way to monitor and have some triggers that would maybe help us stop them from pumping additional water, and causing degradation to water rights and to the environment.

So again, the future is a little uncertain on what they will do or are capable of doing, and what we would do as a counter to whatever action they take. We talked to a lot of attorneys, you know, and get opinions before we make the decision. As well as the local government officials and the people out in Snake Valley. We respect their wishes, and it's a representative form of government, and so we'll have some differences of opinion, but we want to represent the will of the people, not only in the short term but in the long term. So stay tuned, we'll make that decision probably in a couple of weeks.

RICH PIATT, KSL: Governor, let me ask you a question about water use within the state of Utah. Last week you had a water conference and you were addressing things that the state can do to encourage conservation. At the same time we've been talking about this for years and years, literally thousands of new homes are being constructed in the state, a lot of them in the western part of the Salt Lake valley, and new homes are having lawns put in. I'm talking to people in various areas of the state where they want to redo the landscaping on their office building, and lawns are required by city code.

Is it time for government to step in and say, okay, private developers, yeah, I get that you can do whatever you want and there's free agency, there, but there's a lack of water, everybody knows it, yet you're requiring and you're putting lawns in that require water. I mean it seems crazy.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, conservation has got to be at the top of the list on things we need to do as we plan ahead. We've had a slow the flow campaign that we've had in place for a number of years. We are trying to reduce consumption above 25 percent by 2050. As you heard in my state of the state address, I've said we need to shorten that to have 25 percent reduction by 2025. And we will meet that goal, I can assure you.

That being said, there's an evolution that takes place, an awareness that takes place with things. You know, we didn't used to recycle now we recycle. Well, we've been used to larger lawns, and grass, but if you look at down in St. George area, you'll find a lot more zero landscape that's taking place, smaller lawn. And we're finding with some of our demonstration projects, some of our conservation districts, where we're finding more water resistant grasses, so we can still have beauty and maybe not consume as much water. Maybe we're going to have to have smaller yards and lots. I believe that mostly should be handled at the local government level.

St. George, Hurricane, they know what their water capabilities are, they know what their environment's like, and they can, through their zoning ordinances, in fact, make sure that we are conserving water. Maybe different up in Logan where we have maybe an abundance of water, but again, that ought to be done by a region by-region, locality basis. I trust those local elected officials to do the right thing.

But overall, in this state, we're going to start emphasizing even more so conservation. We have potential for development of water projects, but we need to plan for the next 50 years and beyond. So we're going to have a water conference, as you know, later this year, where we talk about the next 50 years. Here's where we're at and here's where we need to be.

RICH PIATT, KSL: Is it time for you, even though you want the local governments to have control, to exert pressure or to strongly suggest that they do this? Do you feel like it's appropriate to do that?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: I think the bully pulpit, the awareness. It's not something that's hard to understand. We need to make sure the public understands the data, our local government's probably where the implementation of laws and rules and regulations ought to be. I will use the bully pulpit to make sure that the people are aware of our concerns, and make sure we have a good 50 year plan going forward.

RICH PIATT, KSL: It sounds like you have an increasing sense of urgency about this issue at the same time.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Yeah, I am having an increasing sense of urgency because we are an extremely fast growing state. We are probably the third or fourth fastest growing state in America today. And because of all the things we all love about Utah--healthy economy, which we talked about, job creation--people will come here because of economic opportunity.

But it's more than that. We have one of the best qualities of life in all of America, and people will like to come here to live because they've got good neighbors, outdoor recreation, the beautiful state that we have with beautiful people, is going to cause this state to continue to grow dramatically in the future. Water is the only limiting factor to the growth we have of this state.

LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET NEWS: Governor, are you calling on local governments to reassess their requirements for green lawns and grass and all those things that do take so much water?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: I think they need to take an evaluation. Again, I think part of what's going to come out of our summit later this year is, in fact, what is our water future going to look like? Again, what are we doing now? What do we need to do tomorrow that will ensure that we have adequate water supplies to accommodate the growth that's taking place in Utah, when it's certainly going to grow in the future. So I expect we'll get some recommendations that will come out of this water summit to help us all as we go forward in what our water responsibilities are going to be.

WHITTNEY EVANS, KUER: Governor, can you address the latest Chevron oil spill, and do you think there's any role that state government can play in preventing future spills?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Absolutely. If anything's been disappointing in this past couple of weeks, it's been this Chevron oil spill. This is just not acceptable. We need to take a more proactive stance as a state, we're going to work with our Department of Commerce, our Department of Environmental Quality, see what we can do as a state to step up that oversight.

Right now, with interstate pipelines, that's a federal responsibility of the pipeline, hazardous material, Public Safety Administration, which is a mouthful to say, but that's their responsibility, and obviously they've not done a very good job of overseeing the pipes that travel between our states. And this is just not an acceptable situation. And we will make sure that Chevron does what they need to do to clean this mess up, and we will be more pro active going forward as a state in making sure that the federal oversight is doing what they should be doing. We will augment that and we'll make sure that we stop these spills from happening.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Governor, unfortunately, on that, we have reached the extent of our allotted time. I do want to say that the Governor's News Conference is available, past versions and current versions, available online for your viewing, and transcripts are available also at KUED.org.

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