October 25, 2007 (---Huntsman, 3rd Year---)

"I've said probably in 50 public settings that I support vouchers...I try to balance my position on vouchers with a clarion call to the public to go out and get smart in ways that they feel best suit their families and their individual communities, and then cast a vote." -Gov Huntsman

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Governor, thanks for joining us today. We're moving into the final two weeks leading up to the November 6th vote, and suddenly you are appearing frequently on Utah television stations in an ad endorsing Referendum 1, which appears to be out takes from a news conference. Are you comfortable with that role you've now assumed as an on‑camera spokesperson for referendum 1?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: I don't think there's much I can do about it. I mean as a public person you're out there, what you say is recorded, and filmed, and I guess if you're not willing to go into the studio to cut something, then they're going to find film footage somewhere else. But I'm on record supporting vouchers, I have for years. And all I would say is this at this point. I mean there's nothing really new that anyone can add to the debate. I mean all the information is out there.

My only hope is that people would be respectful as we approach the last couple of weeks, respectful of differences, respectful of the big picture for education, which to my mind is teacher compensation, things like assessments reform. We've got a lot of work to ensure that our schools are 21st century schools, and vouchers may be part of it, if they're successful.

But we have some really important issues longer term that have to be dealt with, every one of us, and the dialogues have to be respectful and the relationships have to be maintained and intact.

And so I would ask that people in the last couple of weeks maintain a sense of respect, and equilibrium as we do the due diligence, determine for ourselves what we think is right for the state, and then cast a vote. That's all we can ask people to do. Kind of keep the heat down a little bit.

LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET MORNING NEWS: Are you seeing too much heat in this debate? Is that why you're admonishing people now?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: Not necessarily, but I suspect that in the last little while that the heat will increase, and as it does, which is only inevitable in any kind of closely‑fought campaign, that people remain respectful. I mean there are legitimate issues on both sides of this issue, and people need to get smart and do what they think is right for the state longer term, and cast a vote. I don't, you know‑ ‑

Thank goodness we can have these kinds of debates without fist fights and blood in the streets. I mean that's kind of what makes us unique as a society. But we're not there in terms of the really hot heat. We might hit that in the last few days, I don't know. But as we approach that period, all we can say is remain respectful of people's differences, go out and learn the issue for yourself and then cast a vote.

GLEN WARCHOL, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: Is the referendum is getting ugly the reason that you're keeping it at arm's length?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: I'm not necessarily keeping it at arm's length. I'm just asking people, as I always have, to go out and get smart on the issue and cast a vote. And I've let people know where I am. That's no secret. It's been the same for four or five years. And I think it's an important issue. We're the first state in the country that would have a comprehensive state wide voucher. It's been done in Washington, D.C., it's been done in Milwaukee, but it's never been done state wide. So it's not surprising that you've got people on both sides who are involved at the national level, both in terms of funding and in terms of messaging. It's an important vote, and I think we ought to recognize it as an important vote.

DAN BAMMES, KUER: Well governor, the polls show this is behind, referendum 1, but it quite possibly will not pass. If you support vouchers, why not get involved in the campaign in the last few days of the campaign, and possibly push it over the edge?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: Well I think I am involved, and I think I've said everything I'm going to say about vouchers, and it's out there for everybody to see. And that's all part of the educational process. You're going to have voices weigh in on both sides, and that's what campaigns are about. But what is most important, and the reason I continue to bring it up, is people need to look for themselves. They need to look beyond the rhetoric, they need to look at the issue and how it will affect them, their families, and their households. And then cast a vote, and then turn out to vote. And I think our community will be well served by that longer term, and the will of the people will be respected.

TOM JORDAN, METRO NETWORKS: Sorry. If it's voted down, which appears to be the direction it's headed, how does that affect what happens next for you?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: Well, I don't know that you can necessarily claim an early defeat. I think these things always kind of take shape the last few days in any election, that's what happens. My priority will remain what it is, which is teacher compensation. I'm getting around to every one of the 40 school districts, and I hear the issues longitudinally that people really care about, and teacher compensation comes up everywhere. We had a 400‑teacher deficit at the beginning of the school year on top of 200 last year.

We have, we just met with a working group on assessments reform a couple of days ago, Patty Harrington and a large group of our public educators who are looking at assessment reform. Another message that has come through loud and clear is we test too much. And moreover, we're testing to the Iowa standard, as opposed to the Singapore standard. And we need to kind of take a step back and say, instead of seven or eight individual tests, isn't there a test or two that is a more accurate reflection of where our kids are with respect to class rooms in the nation, but also classrooms around the world? And I think there's going to be a lot of very good thought that comes out of the whole assessments reform undertaking.

These are the kinds of things that longer term are very, very important for education, and getting us to where we need to be. So my priorities are going to stay where they have always been, and my legislative offerings are going to be consistent with that.

BROCK VERGAKIS, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Would you be willing to take money out of the general fund to use on teacher compensation?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: I'd keep all options open.

LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET MORNING NEWS: Governor, getting back to your role in this voucher debate, aren't you really trying to have it both ways, you're trying to be, as you've described yourself in the past, an honest broker, you've told us in this very setting you didn't want to be a poster boy for vouchers, even though you support the issue? And yet you appear in public at a press conference called basically to get you to endorse publicly referendum 1, and that, to no one's surprise, turns up in print advertising, turns up in television advertising. The general public is going to see you as promoting referendum 1, whether you say you are or not.

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: I think I promoted it for about four years. I don't think my message has been different. And I've spoken out in this very gathering, four or five different times, my message has been the same. My message was the same during the campaign. People, some of them cast a vote based upon what I stood for during the election of '04, I then signed it into law. I think I've been very consistent in that regard. My message hasn't changed.

But as we get closer to a vote and people ask, of course I'm going to tell them exactly where I stand which is not any different than where I've always been. And as you get closer to a vote, chances are that those sound bites are going to be highlighted even more, because that's all part of a campaign. If you're a public person there's not much you can do about that.

LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET MORNING NEWS: But part of your message has been that you weren't going to campaign, that as governor that wasn't your role. And yet you're seen by the public as campaigning for this.

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: I'm also governor, and every day I work on the issues and every day I'm asked different questions about where I am on the issues, and I give a straight answer whenever I'm asked. And some people might see that as campaigning, some people might see it as doing what a governor is supposed to do. And that's just answering questions based upon where I come down on the issue. And so I try to balance my position on vouchers with a clarion call to the public to go out and get smart in ways that they feel best suit their families and their individual communities, and then cast a vote.

You've got to balance those two. I can't very well be completely detached from the issue when I've talked about it from my earliest days as a candidate. But I also feel a certain personal responsibility to encourage everybody to go out and do what they think is right. And get smart on the issue and turn out to vote. And then we're all going live with the consequences in early November.

LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET MORNING NEWS: Would you have done that press conference if you knew it was going to be used in advertising and used to portray you as actually actively promoting referendum 1?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: I've said probably in 50 public settings that I support vouchers, in different language, and if you don't find it in one you'll find it in another. If you're a public person, your statements and comments are going to get into the public domain, whether it's this issue or any other issue. And there's not much you can do about that.

BROCK VERGAKIS, ASSOICATED PRESS: We typically don't see cameras for parents for choice in education at news conferences or wandering around the capitol. Did anybody from your office alert them that you were going to be there?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: I had no idea I didn't see them when there were there, I didn't vet whatever was done. I just heard that it showed up ultimately.

TOM JORDAN, METRO NEWS: Governor, I'd like to switch gears here to a different sort of an issue. Nuclear. You fought really hard to keep waste storage out of the state and now it's turning back up that we might be looking at nuclear power. What's your take on it right now?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: There's a very interesting MIT study that was done most recently chaired by John Deutsche who's a former secretary of defense under president Clinton, and they take a fairly comprehensive view of nuclear power. And so the big picture is you've got probably 435 reactors in the world that provide 17 percent of all global electricity needs. And you've got, in 31 different countries. You've got over 100 reactors here in the United States that provide probably 15 percent of our needs in the nation.

And the question now is what to do in a world that is growing as fast as ours, now at 6 and a half billion people, where energy demand is supposed to triple between now and 2050. I'm not sure you can keep doing things the same old way when you've got real concerns about emissions, carbon emissions, climate change, global warming. So I think you have to keep the nuclear option on the table, simply because it is a carbon‑free source of power.

And then you have to kind of begin to address the issues that concern you, and I have a few that concern me. One is cost. You know the average cost for a nuclear plant is about $2 billion. Based upon the recent experience that people have had.

Two, there are certain health and environmental concerns about the operations of plants, and we only need to go back to Three Mile Island, though no one died, there was almost a meltdown of the core. It certainly wasn't Chernobyl, where you had, I don't know, dozens of people die, and thousands exposed.

And then you've got the proliferation issues, which for me are important, as governor you don't do proliferation issues, but I've also worked in international policy, where you know proliferation of the material used, radioactive material like plutonium, has got to be a concern.

Fourth, nobody has resolved the storage issue, and that's something that I know is very important to the people of this state. We have a history as it relates to our own experience with nuclear testing. So anything connected with nuclear and many of the peripheral issues around nuclear testing, storage, energy, people are going to look at twice before they basically feel comfortable about it. And that's perfectly understandable.

So all of these issues are going to have to be looked at during the next many, many years, during which I think nuclear energy will continue to be discussed.

GLEN WARCHOL, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: Governor Huntsman‑ ‑

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: Even as a possibility in the state.

GLEN WARCHOL, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: This came up, it was sort of like one minute we were fighting to keep the waste out of Utah. Now, suddenly, over a couple of months, we're looking at two power plants and the waste that will come with it. Is it time, is it time for you and your administration to come to grips with the fact that this is coming in rapidly, and start putting together some sort of study, some sort of examination of all the issues you just laid out?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: I think that will likely happen under the BRAC, as this becomes more of a timely issue. I think we're still 10 or 20 years away from anything significant happening, because you've got the NRC, you've got the NEPA process, you've got local government, you've got water, you've got a lot of issues that will have to be covered, not least of which is cost, how you pay for something like this. Transportation, and storage. These are very real issues that I'm sure in time are going to have to be addressed.

The only reason that I don't dismiss it outright is because if you're going to take climate change seriously, and the work that people are trying to do with respect to overall emissions, you have to keep, as the MIT study mentioned, you have to keep the nuclear option on the table. At least at this point.

LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET MORNING NEWS: Governor, do you think it's going to get a fair hearing in the legislature, though, this whole nuclear power issue, given that some of the key lawmakers involved in the committees that are studying nuclear power actually have a financial interest in these proposed plants?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: Well, I can't speak to that issue. This isn't necessarily a legislature‑driven issue. This has more national policy implications. That's why the NRC ultimately gives a license. That's why the NEPA process is part of anything that is done in this regard. All I would ask is that we consider energy options for the future. That whatever we're looking at doing for one that might be a carbon‑free kind of technology, we do for all carbon‑free kinds of technologies. Let's not put one before the other.

If we're willing to provide incentives, and any incentives to my mind really have to be based on the operational capability of a plant, I'm not sure that you can‑ ‑ A little bit like HB‑11, our economic development incentives. They're based on performance. If you're willing to give a break to a plant of any kind that has a carbon‑free technology, have it based on its operations, once it comes on line and actually begins to produce electricity. If you're going to do it for one, I would ask that you do it for all of them. There are a lot of carbon‑free technologies that we ought to be looking at out there.

GLEN WARCHOL, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: Governor Huntsman, following Lisa's question, you've spoken throughout your administration about ethics and the need for keeping an eye on those things, perhaps improving ethical standards. Is this situation where some legislators are involved in business deals, that they also oversee in their position as legislators, does this sort of not pass the smell test? Is this something that needs to be looked at?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: Well, that's something that the voters ultimately need to decide. I'm responsible for the executive branch. I'm responsible for ethics within the executive branch. And I've signed an executive order to that end. We hold our office to a fairly high standard. The legislature can do whatever it wants. I'm just not going venture into what is best for the legislature. Their leadership can do whatever they're comfortable with. I'm responsible for the executive branch, and I'll speak out for the executive branch.

DAN BAMMES, KUER: Governor, your coal mine safety commission met earlier this week, and the Bureau of Land Management, which was supposed to make a presentation there, didn't show up. Are you concerned that this process perhaps is not being taken seriously by people in the federal government who are today responsible for coal mine safety issues?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: No, I think it is being taken seriously. And I met yesterday afternoon with Scott Matheson and John Bossa, who are primarily responsible for this process, just getting a down load, and last I heard Richard Stickler is willing to appear before this group. And he is probably the foremost expert in federal government on mine safety. And I think that will be an important step. They're making progress. I think there will be kind of an interim report on what we might want to consider this legislative session. I don't know yet what the specifics are. I think we'll learn more about that later.

But I'm proud of the work that is being done. When you have public meetings in Price and Huntington, and Salt Lake, and you let people air out some of their concerns, you hear from some of the experts, I think they're doing exactly what we had hoped they would do. Now they've got to figure out how better to pool and share information with MSHA, and those discussions, while making incremental progress, have been a little bit slow. But they're getting to where I think they need to be.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: There are reports that Mr. Murray, Bob Murray, is laying off more miners in Utah as a consequence of a cooling‑down period of assessing mine safety. Do you think this will, in some back‑handed fashion, have an adverse effect throughout Utah's mining industry and result in a reduction of the labor force?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: I haven't seen the specifics on the report that you were citing. But I will tell you this. We're creating about 100 jobs per month in the energy sector in this state, not to mention the other sectors that are growing extremely fast. We are a state that is number one in the nation in terms of job growth and creation. And I feel very good about our position overall.

JULIE ROSE, KCPW: Governor, speaking of economic development, you're leaving this weekend for India, a trade mission that you'll be leading of businesses, and last week, Novell announced that it's laying off at least 20 jobs, many of them being outsourced to India. I wonder if you could comment on that, in light of these businesses you're now taking overseas, and how you see, how you expect to address outsourcing issues when your goal obviously is to create jobs in Utah.

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: Well, I don't know that a single business that we are taking is outsourcing, planning to outsource to India. I think they're looking to export, or pool technology with Indian firms. Half the people we're taking are from higher education, so there's a very strong higher ed component, which I think will serve our institutions well over time, and we've got probably five or six of our best higher ed institutions going along for the trip. So clearly they see something in it that is very, very important to them.

As it relates to outsourcing, listen, we're insourcing a lot more jobs than we're outsourcing. That's just the nature of our economy and where it is. And I think it says a lot about the flat world that we live in. When we are competitive enough in this state to be able to bring in the investment and the jobs that are now either announced for our state or are looking at our state, I think we're doing extremely well. I think other people ought to be concerned about outsourcing their jobs to Utah, not India. India's not what I'm worried about. India's growing very, very quickly, it's, you know, people ought to be concerned about losing their jobs to Utah, because of our competitive position.

JULIE ROSE, KCPW: Well let me ask you about the kinds of jobs that are being incentivized here in Utah. Most recently Procter & Gamble opening a plant, big incentives being offered to them, possibly Hershey Chocolate Company, CraftMade in the last year was one of the big announcements, these are manufacturing jobs largely. Are those the kinds of jobs that you envisioned, when we hear you so often talk about high‑paying technology jobs, and you know, maybe not necessarily working on a manufacturing line?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: Well I think you have to look longitudinally at the jobs that we've created over the last couple of years, here. In every single sector, when you look at the aggregate level of compensation, wages are going up, and so it is proving the point that the jobs that are coming into our state are higher‑paying jobs. And I'd take you to Amer Sports, where I was just last week. I would take you to a major scientific expansion up in Logan last week, where they're bringing on 300 new jobs at several times what the prevailing county average is.

So the jobs that are being created are very good, high‑paying jobs. Many are going to be manufacturing. The manufacturing jobs, I would argue, make us counter‑cyclical, or almost inflation proof vis‑a‑vis the rest of the nation, because they're tied to the global economy. So when our nation goes down somewhat they're still going to be making products for export to the rest of the world. When you look at Procter & Gamble, I mean their first grassroots plant in 30 years will be here, and it will very much service not just the United States but the entire world. And in areas that really are counter‑cyclical economically. So this is a great time for our state.

I mean listen, you know, people have complained for four or five years, you know, and journalists have to bring up complaints, that's what you do for a living. But you look at where we've come over the last many years, and the money that we've therefore been able to put into education, into transportation, into human services, the people who are coming to Utah to take these jobs as opposed to going somewhere else for them, I think it's a very, very good picture right now. And we all ought to be pretty proud of what's going on in our state.

GLEN WARCHOL, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: Governor Huntsman, will this growth in jobs and in wages meet the needs of education with the influx of 160,000 students that we hear about over the next 5‑10 years? Will this growth you're talking about, these good times, continue, and will they meet those educational costs and needs?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: Well, nobody knows the answer to that. That is our every expectation. And you work as hard as you can to try to meet those expectations. I mean the only reason we are as aggressive as we are on the economic development front is to meet the needs for education. It's the most important expenditure we'll ever make. So every time that there is an opening or an expansion or an announcement, I say, this is a great thing for teachers and for classrooms because we can begin to do what needs to be done, even with 150,000 new kids over the next many years who are coming into our state. With that influx of new kids, you're going to have an influx of workers coming into the state, and new opportunities. So I certainly hope, and it is our every expectation that we're going to meet the educational needs of our state in the years to come.

TOM JORDAN, METRO NEWS: India is the last of the big four countries that you wanted to focus on for long‑term economic development.

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: Thank you for mentioning our state's foreign policy, you're exactly right.

TOM JORDAN, METRO NEWS: Well it's a good foreign policy. Given what you've learned with the other countries, you have specific goals that you're going for on this trip?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: We do. They're tied to certain institutions of higher learning in our state. We have about 5 MOUs we're going to be signing that will enhance programatically and faculty opportunities for higher ed indication. We've got about 15 who are high‑tech companies, including some run by some very prominent Indian‑Americans who reside here in our state, who have made our state a whole lot better because they live here and because of the jobs that they've created.

There's also a humanitarian component. We're going to open a school over there that is going to be providing education to some underserved kids, and then we'll be going to Pune University, where I'll be speaking to a very, very large group of faculty, and students. And that's not to mention all the very high‑level meetings with the leaders of the country, both in Delhi and in the Maharashtra province in Mombai.

So all in all I think it's going to be a very good visit to heighten the profile of our state, but moreover to really cement some programmatic relationships with a country that is very much on the move, not just by virtue of population growth and its geographic location, but by virtue of its economic fire power increasingly.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Governor, we only have 30 seconds left, we started this news conference by saying we were a week or so away from the 2007 election. We're about one year away from the 2008 election. Are we all working on the correct assumption that you will be running for re‑election?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: I thought that question would never come up. That is a correct assumption. We'll announce at some point, and I hope we can muster enough votes and support to serve another term. I'm a term limits person, I've said I wouldn't serve beyond two terms, and I'm going to hold true to that. So if we're lucky enough to get re‑elected and continue to serve our state, that will be the end of us.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Governor Huntsman, thank you very much. We'll see you next month with another edition of the Governor's Monthly News Conference.

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