May 24, 2012

"We have a goal now of...66 percent of our adult population will have some kind of post high school certification or degree by the year 2020. We recognize there are challenges out there we need to address."
-Governor Herbert

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Good day. Could I just take a minute to make an opening statement and solicit your help? It kind of comes under the adage of "What a difference a year makes." A year ago I was here with you and talked about some public safety issues that were facing the state as we approached Memorial Day weekend. The issue was flooding. We had raging currents in our streams and rivers, and there was concern that we'd have some incidents that would take place if we were not on guard. Well this year it's just the opposite. We have fire. We have fire concerns out there, we have low moisture content in our vegetation out there, and as we approach this Memorial Day weekend, we need to encourage the people of Utah to be very careful, be vigilant in their outdoor recreation.

We've had already 120 fires around the state. That's a significant increase from last year. It's going to cost our budget Last year we spent about $2.2 million on fires. We're going to have more fires this year, it appears, because we've had a dry spring, and it looks like we're headed for a dry summer. Interestingly enough, of the 120 fires that we've had already in our state, 118 of them have been man caused. So our efforts out there to stop people from being careless with their campfires, their automobiles and motorized vehicles out in our mountains and our foothills and our wildlands interface, fireworks, those kind of things we need to be very vigilant about.

So I would ask you to help get that information out to the people of Utah. We can replace property, but we can't replace lives, and we need to be careful as we go into this Memorial Day weekend, and particularly throughout this summer. So thank you very much for your help in that regard.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Governor, on that, the state is often called on, in a flooding situation, to respond with special resources. Are there resources available for the state to augment localities as they respond to fire threats, fires that may occur during the Memorial Day weekend?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: There are. We budget for this situation each and every year. You never can predict exactly what the extent of the cost is going to be, how many fires. The good news for us so far is that we've only had about 3,000 acres of fires, and they've all been contained. One fire in particular, in Hurricane, is about 2,000 acres of it. So most of the fires have been small, they've been able to be contained.

Cities and counties have emergency funds for these kinds of areas of interface, particularly the counties, and so does the state. And we'll have to adjust accordingly as we see those demands upon the budget as we go throughout this year. I would also note, too, that for people who have questions, we have a web page, you can go to utahfireinfo.gov if they want some additional information. We have in real time, you can track the fires that are going on out there, and people can be aware of the location and what's taking place.

LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET NEWS: Governor, speaking of budgeting, you're being asked to bring the legislature into special session to allocate $25 million for education to correct an error in accounting that has left our education system with a shortfall. And there's also pressure, too, to deal with testing that is somehow tied to Common Core, and is causing some concern among some lawmakers. Where are you on calling a special session? Sooner? Later?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, let me talk maybe about both of those, one at a time. First off, there is a need to adjust the budget for the $25 million that was under requested. This is not anybody taking any money, it's just that the formula they used was not accurate, and so we have a $25 million shortfall in the budget. Those moneys are in the budget, we just need to reallocate them appropriately and authorize their expenditures. There will be no loss of any programs in schools, no impact on teachers and class rooms and students. But whether we do that in a special session or wait until the session in 2013, there's discussion about that going on right now, and there are differences of opinion between the House and the Senate. I've asked them to work and reconcile those differences and come back to me with a recommendation and then we'll act accordingly on that aspect of a special session, if needs be.

Secondly, on the need to have testing, and ACT test in 10th or 11th grade, which is what you're talking about, has absolutely nothing to do with Common Core. I know they're sometimes connected for whatever reasons, I'm not certain but we've eliminated the UBISCUT program, and we need to have some kind of exit testing that needs to take place, and an ACT test as an exit test in 10th or 11th grade seems to be the appropriate way to evaluate where we are with our students, and to help them prepare for college. So in some form or fashion we need to address that issue, and that should happen hopefully before the start of the next school year.

RICHARD PIATT, KSL-TV: Governor, also on tap, possibly, for the special session, is addressing issuing more liquor licenses to restaurants. That's been reported in the past. Is that something that you and lawmakers are willing to take up this summer?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, I think there's a growing awareness that we need to make sure that our liquor licenses align up with the demands of, particularly restaurants and business establishments that want to come and relocate here in Utah. And it appears that we have a shortage, as I understand, and as I read the papers and listen to the media, I know that you're on top of that issue. And we will get some recommendations from our liquor commission as far as what we should be doing in that regard, and work with our legislature as far as addressing that issue.

So I think there is a growing concern and understanding that we're somehow out of sync. There's probably a couple of ways to address it, not just issuing more liquor licenses, but maybe taking a look at liquor licenses currently being issued. I've used the example of like a Deer Valley, which has multiple restaurants, it has multiple licenses. Maybe they should just have one license is all that's required, to free up four or five others that could go back into the marketplace. But I think that's something that will be addressed and should be addressed.

RICHARD PIATT, KSL-TV: So what is your sense of the urgency of this as far as an economic development issue? Has there been and will there be, as you're concerned, future lost opportunity because of the way things are now?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: I think there's I don't know if the urgency is like a "sky is falling" urgency, but I think there is a growing awareness that we are not lining up well with the marketplace. Part of that's because we are a fast growing economy. There's a lot of people want to come to Utah. And rightfully so. It's a very business friendly environment, and we're growing our economy at twice the national average, and creating jobs and economic opportunity for the entrepreneur out there. And certainly those involved in the restaurant and food business are part of that growth. And so if they want to, in fact, serve alcohol beverages, they're going to need to have a license. So that's part of the economic growth and expansion which makes it maybe a little bit more urgent than otherwise.

LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET NEWS: Special session urgency?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: I think I'm not prepared to say it's a special session urgency, but I think it's something we need to address, if not in a special session If we happen to have one for other reasons it could be one that could be put on the call. But it certainly ought to be addressed in the upcoming legislative session in 2013.

DAN BAMMES, KUER: Governor, the Utah Foundation is reporting this morning that Utah has a higher number of discouraged workers, meaning workers who are not being counted in the unemployment rate, than many other states, and a lot of those are young people, 16 to 19 years old. At the same time, our college enrollments have risen dramatically during the economic downturn. What can the state do to help that group of young people, high school and college age, find employment and find work, where they've had such a difficult time during the recession?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, the best thing we can do for anybody that's looking for a job is to provide economic opportunity and have the private sector create job opportunities. And the good news is we're doing it better than any state in America maybe short of North Dakota certainly is our percentage of job growth creation rate. So we're doing a good job. And so I understand there are people that are looking and maybe not finding the job that they want, and maybe are discouraged, but there's a heck of a lot of people now that are getting into the marketplace and saying, "Hey, now is the time." There's opportunity out there. There's jobs that are expanding and growing from within, our local jobs are expanding their operations, now, better than they've done over the last four years, and we have a lot of businesses moving into Utah, setting up shop and expanding their business operations in Utah. Maybe their headquarters are in another state, but they're expanding their operations here in Utah.

We're creating about three to four thousand jobs a month, now. We're growing at twice the national average. One of the concerns we've got is making sure that people line up with the demands of the marketplace. You've got to have the skills necessary to be hired in today's more technology advanced marketplace. For example, we've had comments from a number of our companies, L 3 Communications, Orbit up in Davis County, and others that are saying, "We have got jobs going wanting today, but we need people who have math skills, science skills, computer programming skills, more engineers." So we might have people that need to be retooled, make sure the skills they're getting in school and the pathway they're taking into college is one that lines up to the demands of the marketplace. That opens up more doors of opportunity for them to find jobs.

JESSICA GALE, KCPW: Governor, is our economy strong enough, do you believe, to put that limit on food stamps, that three month limit for people with no kids?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: You know, I think that's going to be determined. I know there's going to be a public hearing coming up, I think in July, about this issue. You know, people, the concern is for single individuals who have no children, that they'll be taken off food stamps. They can have them for three months. But they can have them for up to 36 months if they follow certain criteria. Part time work, counseling, educational opportunities, so they can still continue to have food stamps.

But again, the best thing we can do for those folks is to provide them a job a job opportunity. We're doing be better than about any place in America now with our Department of Workforce Services of getting people that are out of work into work. Our period of time for them to be unemployed is shorter than any place in America. So again, I think our leaders there are doing the right thing, they're going to review that situation, and incent people to find jobs, and we're going to make sure that there are jobs out there available for them. A public hearing will come up in July, and we'll see what the comments are at that time.

JOHN FLOREZ, DESERET NEWS: Governor, you recently fired your IT director, saying he lacked oversight and leadership skills. On the other hand, the Department of Workforce Services let information out about Medicaid and immigrants, trying to get the illegal immigrants. And also the Department of Workforce Services found that they had a $28 million misuse of application of data. So what's the difference? Why did we fire that one person and then not the other?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, again, if I understand your question right, here, and our DTS, our Department of Technology Services, we fired somebody there, or asked for their resignation, which was given, which is probably more correct, is because of a lack of oversight and a lack of accountability on the issue at hand. There's issues that take place. You know, we have 22,265 state employees, and occasionally they make mistakes. Some of them preventable. And the response to that is the concern I had, and building a technology system that's safe and secure was a concern going forward. And I think there needed to be a change there. The Department of Workforce Services, our leadership there has been outstanding. We are probably doing more with less in DWS than any department we have in state government.

JOHN FLOREZ, DESERET NEWS: But your audit said you had a $28 million error and nothing was done about that.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: $28 million error in where?

JOHN FLOREZ, DESERET NEWS: In data entry.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, not in Department of Workforce Services. Are you talking about the Medicaid breach?

JOHN FLOREZ, DESERET NEWS: Yeah.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: That's the Department of Health, John.

JOHN FLOREZ, DESERET NEWS: No, it wasn't breached. They didn't keep track of properly inputting the information, with a $28 million error.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Okay, I guess I'm not familiar with what you're talking about, John, so I'm sorry for that. Errors happen, we want to make sure that those errors are corrected and we have processes in place to make sure that happens. But I'm very comfortable with the leadership of DWS, that they're doing a great job out there. And being recognized nationally for their efforts, in fact. And so I think they're doing a good job there, and obviously they have my confidence or I'd replace them.

At DTS we needed to make a change there as we move forward, and we are doing some good things there. We've added an ombudsman, for example, in DTS, to help with the breach that took place with the social security numbers. Those have all been contacted, other than about 1,000 people which we think probably have had either bad social security numbers out there and we're not going to be able to find, could be some false numbers that have been entered into the system.

We have The good news is that we have found no credit problems with any of the people who have had their information breached. We will continue to work with them on credit monitoring over the next year or longer. Again, I think our ombudsman will help us, Sheila Walsh McDonald, to help us to direct our affairs in that regard as we solve that particular problem. So I'm comfortable with the changes we've made, and we'll continue to monitor that situation at DTS.

ROD DECKER, KUTV: Next November you're going to have to either sign or not sign a letter saying whether the state wants to administer the Affordable Care Act on its own, or let the federal government administer it. It's nuanced a bit, but generally you'll have to state, "What's the state policy?" Do you know yet whether Utah is going to want to run this thing itself, or whether Utah is going to want to sit back and let the federal government do it?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, I don't want to get the cart before the horse, here, because we do have a Supreme Court decision which will come down before that. I've been asked by the other 28 governors to go back to Washington, D.C. and speak about the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act, and the Republican response to repeal and replace. We think there are, in fact, opportunities to replace what we would think is bad policy with the Obama care approach. That being the case, I expect that the individual mandate will be found to be unconstitutional. But if, in fact, it doesn't, and the Wall Street Journal asked me this very question, "What are you going to do about it?" My position is it's bad policy. It's bad policy that I hope the Supreme Court will overturn. But if they don't, for whatever reason I don't understand the logic or legality if they would not do that but if they don't we're prepared to, in fact, do what we need to do under the rule of law. And we will work to change bad policy with our congressional delegation, we'll work with other Governors around the country. We're going to make sure that, in fact, we end up with good policy in behalf of the people of America, the people of Utah, and our taxpayers. But you know, we will find ways to, in fact, change the law if it's a bad law and process, and that's what we should be doing.

RICHARD PIATT, KSL-TV: Well, it sounds like you're willing to, shall we say, compromise on this issue, rather than just scrapping the Affordable Health Care Act. Are you saying that you want to salvage it somehow?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: No, no, I don't want to salvage it at all. I want to change it. States should be leading out on this issue. I've testified before congressional hearings to the extent that it was an egregious omission when they created the Affordable Care Act. Now, 2500 pages that people, even today, don't know what's in there, what the outcome is going to be, what, in fact, the consequences, intended and unintended, are going to be because of this bill. It's driving uncertainty, it's raising the cost to do business, it's creating havoc with our economy, frankly. So I don't like the Affordable Care Act. I think we need to address health care, and we're doing it in Utah in a state driven way. We've had our health care summit last year, we've broken into subcommittees, we've got all stakeholders involved, and Utah will find a way to address health care in a unique, Utah way. We'll partner with other states. And we'll find the demographics are maybe different in Nevada, an older population, say, than in Utah, a younger population. We'll learn from each other. We'll learn from our successes, we'll learn from our failures, and we'll develop a good policy for health care reform in this country with the states driving the effort. I think that's what should happen. But we're not going to break laws, I don't think that's the right way. We will take the necessary steps to change the law.

REPORTER: Governor, this is

JOHN FLOREZ: How would you define good policy?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, again, it's probably like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I expect there are differences of opinion. But for me good policy means curtailing rising costs of health care, and in fact, if we can, lowering the cost, making it more accessible, more affordable to the population in general, and maintaining or increasing quality. That ought to be the goal of every state. And in Utah we're doing a pretty good job of it.

I would note that Utah has the lowest cost health care in America, and about the fourth or fifth rated highest quality. So our ratio is very good. We're doing things right in Utah and we'll continue to do them, and actually other states are starting to copy our lead, which is appropriate, copy from the best.

MAX ROTH, FOX13: Governor, this is an election year of course, you know and your opponent is combining what they say is a series of management problems in different state agencies, and we've talked about a few, from the education to technology services and health, Workforce Services, DABC. Why should a voter look at that and not say, "There's a management problem in state government in general"?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, I wouldn't expect my opponent to say anything good about me. I mean that would be a surprise, wouldn't it? It is the political season, and so they're going to try to heighten anything that they think is going wrong, as if somehow that's a leadership problem.

I would like to reference what we are doing positively in this state. I mean we are leading in virtually every measurable category. We're growing the economy now at twice the national average, we're creating jobs at numbers we haven't seen in four or five years.

We're putting more money into education, nearly $200 million into education funding this past year. Indicative of the turn around in the economy. The fact that we just received the endorsement of the Utah Education Association is indicative. They look at our efforts on education reform and say, "Hey, we like the leadership that's being demonstrated there." Something I think most of the people of Utah appreciate and understand. We're adding more computer opportunities and technology into the classroom to augment the teachers. We have a goal now of 66 by 2020, meaning 66 percent of our adult population will have some kind of post high school certification or degree by the year 2020. We recognize there are challenges out there that we need to address. For example, we're low when it comes to women getting their degrees and so we created a task force, a women's college education task force, chaired by former Governor Olene Walker and Bonnie Jean Beesley, the chairman of our Board of Regents, making sure that we give every opportunity for our female side of the equation to get a college degree.

We're doing a lot of wonderful things, and not only in education, economically, energy development, things we're doing with our public lands issues, our transportation, our building of our roads. My gosh, if we could just take time on our roads. Did you know the I 15 Core project? I know there's been some criticism of UDOT of late, but you look at UDOT, what they've done with the I 15 Core project, a $1.7 billion project. We're doing a billion dollar project at less cost per mile of road than any place in America. We are doing it under time and under budget. Thirty five months and this thing's going to be completed under time, and we're saving about $200 million. That's taxpayers' dollars. $200 million being saved on that project, doing 63 bridges and interchanges. I mean that project is just one of 200, by the way, that we have in the state right now, doing very well. I would just cite the L.A. Times, here, just last month talked about Utah, and the Utah Department of Transportation is the example to the country of how to build roads. So we've got a lot of successes out there. And I would tout the accomplishments and the successes of why I deserve re election.

LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET NEWS: Governor, last time we were here you talked about UDOT and the problems with an employee. Those have been resolved. You indicated that once they were resolved you'd take a look at whether there should be any kind of disciplinary action against the head of UDOT for some of the things he did in connection with that, specifically asking her to sign a letter saying she wouldn't deal with the Democratic Party on this issue at all. Have you decided what you're going to do as far as the head of UDOT goes?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: That's still under review. And I would say this, that John Njord is great at building roads. And I just cited some of the examples of the great successes we're having in Utah when it comes to managing the taxpayers' dollars better than probably any place in America when it comes to building roads for lower cost and high quality. He's not really good at politics. And that's a concern, that's a part of his responsibilities to manage correctly, but he's got 1600 employees, he's only having trouble with one. But that's under review and I'm going to take that into consideration as we move through this project, particularly as we finish up I 15.

ROBERT GEHRKE, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: Governor, are you prepared today to endorse Orrin Hatch for re election to the senate?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: You know, I think Orrin's got a lot of things going for him that will really benefit the people of Utah. The seniority issue is real, that's how the process works in Washington, D.C. His experience can be very valuable to us as a state as we compete with other states and try to impact what they do in Washington. Again, I think, as I've said about Mitt Romney for the presidency, Utah's a great example of turnaround. We want to turn around this country economically and make things better and balance budgets and stop spending ourselves into oblivion, Utah is a great example how to do that. I think Orrin brings that to the table.

I'm going to be asked to endorse, I've typically stayed out of endorsing when we have Republicans running against Republicans. I'll weigh that at the appropriate time as we go forward in the future and make a decision. I would say, parenthetically, you know, I think individual endorsements are way over rated. I think the people of Utah are pretty bright, they analyze very carefully, they look at the facts and the data and they make a decision independent of endorsement.

RICHARD PIATT, KSL-TV: Governor, just let me circle back to the beginning of this news conference where you gave a cautionary note about fire danger, saying that the state is spending $2.2 million last year on the fire situation. Moving forward, if the state continues to push the federal lands issue, the state will have to spend much more because it will assume responsibility for those lands, which is a shared cost in fire fighting, with the federal government right now. So I guess this just sort of brings up the point, can the state, in fact, afford to manage all those federal lands if the state does assume control of them?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, it depends on what the outcome of that discussion is going to be. You know, we don't want to presuppose this is going to be the end result, we're going to take back the lands and have no resources to deal with them. It may be a shared responsibility, as it is now, with maybe a little different format. It could be, in fact, that we're just trying to get better understanding of the multiple use aspects of the BLM land, which is part of their statutory responsibility. And yet it seems we pushed over to one side where it's only outdoor recreation, more wilderness, more wilderness, and less motorized access. So I don't know what the outcome's going to be on this issue.

The important point is that we want to reset the opportunity for dialogue, and we've used as a pressure point the fact that when we became a state there was a promise made. And that promise was to, in fact, to dispose of those lands which were not privately owned. We now call them the public lands. They never did that. And in 1975 they tried to unilaterally say, "We don't have that responsibility any more," by passing a new piece of legislation which we call the Public Lands Practice Management Act, FPLPMA. We're just saying that's not right. That's not fair, and we ought to be treated like North Dakota was treated. So we're going to reset the dialogue and the discussion and we'll see where that leads us.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Governor, we have only 30 seconds remaining in this news conference. I will not ask you a question that requires too much time.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Time goes so fast with you guys.

REPORTER: But I'll ask you for a point of personal privilege at this point. As a broadcaster, I’ve had the opportunity to work with many people over the years, and this past week the Utah Broadcaster's Hall of Fame inducted three of my colleagues into their esteemed hall for recognition of long service. Among those honored was KUTV's Rod Decker, who's been a stalwart figure in coverage, not just of state and local government, but of issues far and wide in Utah for many, many years. Rod's is a valued voice among Utah's journalism community. He joins Craig Wirth and Ed Yates as my journalistic colleagues inducted in the 2012 Utah Broadcaster's Hall Of Fame. My personal congratulations to Rod. Good night.

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