January 25, 2007

"I think education is going to have a banner year. They had a good year last year, this year's going to be a banner year. -Gov Huntsman

Reporters (in order of appearance):

KEN VERDOIA, KUED
DAN BAMMES, KUER
TOM JORDAN, METRO NETWORKS
BROCK VERGAKIS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET MORNING NEWS
RICHARD PIATT, KSL-TV
BRIAN SCHOTT, KCPW
MATT CANHAM, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

Transcript:

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Governor, thanks for joining us today. Your administration now has completed two public hearings on the proposed explosion test at the Nevada test site known as Divine Strake. No surprise that you got an earful of people sharing your concern, opposition to this. But when it's all said and done, at the end of the day, as they say, is the public outcry going to be weighted in the consideration of moving forward with this test?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: Hard to know, Ken. All I can tell you is that our system is based on the power of the people. And when the people so unanimously speak out on an issue, as we have on this one, chances are we can get something done. And I'll just go back in history two or three years ago, where all I heard was there was nothing that could be done about nuclear waste coming into our state. It was basically a fait accompli. Well something has been done about that, and it took working, our legislature, a lot of people making hugely important contributions. Senator Hatch and others. The judiciary and the executive branch.

And I suspect on this issue, the parallels are somewhat analogous, and that is if we're willing to fight this, and we clearly are as a state, then we need to kind of work the levers of power and influence in Washington. And I fully intend to do my part when I'm back in February for the annual governor's gathering, I'm going to do a little bit of door knocking. I don't yet know who I'm going to see, but I'll be there and this is an issue that I'm going to take up, as I did last year with nuclear waste.

And there is nothing more powerful than an expression by the people in our form of government. And our people have expressed their opinion on Divine Strake, and we have too many people, not just in the southern part of our state, but throughout, who now are going on the third generation, well into the second generation, into the third generation, of people who have been impacted by early nuclear testing from the 1950's. We have all-too vivid memories and recollections of what happened before, and that's not something we want to relive.

DAN BAMMES, KUER: Governor, right now the legislature is looking at possibly further reduction of the sales tax on food, and of course running into the fact that some of that sales tax helps to fund local initiatives, such as the zap tax here in Salt Lake County, and also transit funding would be affected by this. How is your office working with the legislature to achieve some of your tax reform goals, and you've got one worthy goal in one hand, and another on the other. It's a balancing act, and how are you trying to work out some compromises to help and not hurt at the same time?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: Well, let me just preface this answer by saying it's a very good year to be talking about tax reform. In fact it is only in years like we're experiencing this year and last year that you could really have a discussion about tax reform. We still have numbers yet to come in next month. We don't know yet what the totality of the surplus is going to be. I don't know whether we're going to add to it or not next month, I just don't have any feel for that right now.

But I have put forward what I think is right for our state at this point in time in terms of tax reform. I put a number to it. Now the legislature has added to it by discussion with respect to harmonizing the food tax, which would carry with it about a $20 million bill for locals. A good chunk about that, about 17, is transportation related, UTA, and then you've got other bits and pieces that make up the remaining three.

I think that, first of all, I'm completely open to this discussion. I think this is movement towards something that I have long talked about and championed, although I didn't know if it would, indeed, come up during this legislative session, and that is somehow addressing the tax on food. So I'm completely open to this discussion, and with an eye towards holding harmless some of those, like rural hospitals who I think we have to pay a little bit more attention to as it relates to those who ultimately could shoulder the cost at the local level of getting this done.

But the discussion is just beginning. We're not yet at the level of full bloom, and we have weeks ahead of us yet to complete this discussion, and I very much look forward to engaging my colleagues in the house and the senate in putting forward a meaningful tax reform package, and certainly remaining open to the tax coming, in some form or fashion, the tax coming off of food.

TOM JORDAN, METRO NETWORKS: Speaking of full bloom, issues that are not there yet, obviously the whole issue of a tax cut, this sounds like the food sales tax is something where you would be willing to sort of let that one go if you can get what you need for funding in some of your primary areas, like education and transportation. Is that reasonable?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: The good news this year is that I think the focus, not only in the executive branch but in the legislative branch as well, is on the big ticket items, on the things that I believe we ought to be doing as elected officials. Education. I think education is going to have a banner year. They had a good year last year, this year's going to be a banner year. Transportation, the economy, taking care of some of our health and our Medicaid needs. These are all issues that are certainly on the table and being discussed and deliberated very, very seriously. And that's the good news.

We're still going to have room beyond these discussions to talk about tax reform, and if we bump into a discussion on sales tax coming off of food, I fought for it last year, I don't know where it's going to be this year, I want to remain open minded about it. But I'll certainly be willing to engage in that discussion. But I have my priorities.

BROCK VERGAKIS, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Do you consider the sales tax on food a moral tax?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: I do.

BROCK VERGAKIS, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Then why wait another year to get it off?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: Well, we might not have to wait another year. Again, I'm going to see where the discussion goes this year. My own thinking was this. It was a goal for my first term, one never knows if they're going to have a second term, you don't know if you're going to get re elected in this business. But for my first term was to address the sales tax coming off of food. Now, can it happen in one year? That's a very difficult thing to do in one year. Can it happen in two back to back years?

The thought was this year maybe to look at the impact on local governments and to prove the point that it really wouldn't be deleterious or harmful to them. And then maybe to pick it up next year. The point is to somehow get it done during my first term. That was kind of an unspoken, unwritten goal that I had, and boy, if you can take it off all in one year or in sequential years, that's great. But I know what my goal is, and that's by the end of my first term to see if we can't address it, at least the state portion, in some significant fashion.

LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET MORNING NEWS: Governor, you talk about the hold harmless provision on taking the sales tax on food, and I guess the bill that's passed the house will take care of rural hospitals and allow resort communities to raise their tax slightly to make up the difference in what they would lose, but that as we've discussed it really transit and ZAP tax, the zoos arts and parks tax, that are the most affected. It looks like the split right now between the house and the senate is the senate wants to find a way to make that up. That's, as you said, about $20 million. Is there room in the budget to do that, if that turns to be the compromise? And is that comes in that you think it's good state policy for the state to hold harmless on these locally imposed taxes?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: I don't know if you can come up with a blanket answer at this point. The answer in terms of having a budget that is flexible enough to accommodate certain needs going forward in the world of tax reform, yes, I want to maintain a certain level of flexibility, and I'm certainly open to the discussion for both the house and the senate on who might be held harmless, and how we can compensate for that. I'm just, I'm not ready to take a position in total on this. Other than to say I think directionally the discussion is very good and very helpful at this point.

RICHARD PIATT, KSL-TV: Governor, when we talk about the budget in terms of education, it seems it focuses on public education. But I'm wondering if you feel satisfied about the direction higher education's funding situation's going right now.

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: I feel pretty good about higher education, and again, a big part of higher education, knowing that the trend throughout the nation really has been to support less and less from a state level institutions of higher learning. That's just a longitudinal trend that we're seeing everywhere, which means that more in the way of federal grants have to be won, more in the way of aggressive fund raising needs to occur.

In that environment, I think we're still doing a very, very good job. If you look at our budget this year, I think those involved in the higher ed world would tell you that it is a very good budget, we're focusing on areas that would enhance, for example, and supplement the all important U-STAR program of last year, which I think was absolutely unprecedented in terms of size, scope, and vision for the state.

Now, if you have a U-STAR, and you're going to want to make it work over the next ten and twenty years, you've got to have the human talent, the brain power to make it work, which means that you've got to support exactly what we're supporting this year, and that's some funding to retain talent at our universities and to recruit the talent, otherwise U-STAR is just a bunch of hollow buildings.

So last year we saw U-STAR, which I think was an unprecedented achievement for higher ed. This year we're seeing as one of our big ticket items being money that will allow us to retain and recruit the kind of world class talent that will make our universities really superb places. You've got to remember, university talent these days are sometimes traded as if they were professional athletes. They're in high, high demand. If you want a center of excellence, you've got to have the talent and the brain power, and the intellectual leadership to make it work. And we've got a lot of great leadership on our university campuses. The trick going forward, and the challenge, certainly, is going to be to figure out how to retain them. And, indeed, to recruit and supplement the good work that is already going on.

RICHARD PIATT, KSL-TV: In terms of higher education, there's also a bill that deals with in state tuition for the children of illegal immigrants, undocumented immigrants. That's just one of several immigration related bills that are being proposed at the legislature this year. And I know that you don't comment on bills that are pending, but the immigration issue overall, you've stated before, is a federal issue. I'm wondering how you feel about the state dealing with this, spending time during the legislature, talking about these kinds of things. Do you think it's healthy? Do you think that if these bills pass you're likely to support them? Or what's your feeling about them?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: Well, it's a symptom of a world in which the federal government has not taken any kind of formal action comprehensively in addressing immigration reform. This is what we're left with. We've had a lot of debate and a lot of discussion, but zero action in Washington as it relates to immigration. So what happens as a consequence? You have several one off issues, including tuition, just to name one of them, that we've then have to deal with here in the state.

The Dream Act for example, which I support, should have been passed long ago. I think there's a very good likelihood that it's going to probably make it through this session of congress, which is to say in the next few months, would be my hope, and that then gives us further guidance in terms of what we're able to do on the tuition side.

Beyond that, more comprehensive reform in addressing the border, in addressing the 10 to 12 million people who are here in our country, all of these issues are left unresolved at this point. Although I think, if you look at the totality of issues that where there is some convergence on the part of Speaker Pelosi, Senator Reid and President Bush, this would have to be one area that is ripe for movement, where there is some level of convergence.

And I'm optimistic about a fix, a breakthrough occurring in the next few months, which means to us at the state level that many of these one off discussions that we're having are going to be part of an overall omnibus comprehensive package that then gives us further guidance in terms of what we do about law enforcement, what we do about tuition and health care and some of these other costs that we have no choice but to cover and assume at this point.

DAN BAMMES, KUER: Governor, your predecessor, Olene Walker, began a consultative process that eventually led to the Washington County land bill sponsored by Senator Bennett and Congressman Matheson, which went nowhere at the end of the last session of congress, that gives everybody involved in that a chance to take a breath again and look at it. But do you believe that bill will eventually be back in some form, or does that process now have to start over in Washington County and other parts of the state?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: I think we're off to a pretty good start, and I think we have something that we can deal with as we move forward. And I say that because it has bipartisan buy in with both Congressman Matheson and Senator Bennett, and you have, almost from the beginning, an Envision Utah like process that brought stakeholders to the table. Not pleasing everybody, of course, these things never do. But I think in terms of the process that you need in creating a pathway forward for issues as complex as this, they used basically the right approach, and I think the right issues were covered, and I'm not sure that this is all going to be for naught at the end of the day. I think we've got a very important starting point as we move into this year, and probably into the next legislative session.

TOM JORDAN, METRO NETWORKS: This week our biggest trade show in the state comes to town, the outdoor retailers, and they represent a couple of different things that seem to be part, and not only play into that issue, but into other initiatives of yours, obviously the expansion of convention business, and what that represents to the state in tourism, but also the companies in that show sell the equipment the people use to become outdoor tourists. And are you on good terms at this point with outdoor retail and what they represent in terms of, say, the state's environmental package at this point?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: Well I'm not sure whether you can ever make a sweeping comment about whether we're in complete harmony. I'm not always in complete harmony with Mary Kaye, my wonderful wife. We have debates around the table too sometimes. Now, are we on good working terms? Absolutely. In fact we're having the board of directors over at the mansion, governor's mansion in the next few days to talk about some of the issues that are important to them.

I've had an ongoing dialogue with the Frank Uhlemeyer and Peter Metcalf, and others who are involved in key parts of this business, and we welcome what they've done in the state. We welcome the kinds of tourism and recreation that they promote. We welcome the kind of economic development that has been brought about. And I welcome personally the kind of sharper focus that they have brought to the debate over the so called gems that we have in the state and we probably ought to highlight more and more in terms of really world class destinations for bikers and hikers and outdoors enthusiasts.

But let's not forget also, as they are one of the biggest conventions, that this last week we had the hunter's expo, which is going to be here through 2011 and promises to be probably the largest of its kind anywhere in the United States, and perhaps even over the next couple of years the largest convention that we have here in the state.

And let us not forget, either, the Sundance Film Festival, which was kicked off last week, which brings 57,000 people to the state, pumps $61 million, 1700 movies are screened. It's a world class affair that brings about 1200 journalists from around the world to put on display this wonderful state of ours. So we thank the outdoor retailers, we thank all others who have taken an interest in bringing their conventions and their programs to our state.

BRIAN SCHOTT, KCPW: Governor, you've proposed a number of ethics reforms for members of the executive branch. Senator Howard Stephenson in an interview on our station said that they were not needed for members of the legislative branch. Do you all reforms attack an actual problem, or a problem of perception in terms of lobbyist influence on the hill?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: It's a good question, and I would have to say that it's more pre emptive as a measure than it is reactive. And for me it's important because I want to have some very crisply defined boundaries for ethical behavior in the executive branch. And again, this is not a message to the legislative branch or anyone else. i'm responsible for the executive branch, and I have to do that which I feel comfortable doing. And I identified three areas under the banner of ethics, that I've talked about. My very first press conference, as a candidate, going back quite some time, was on ethics, and I talked about it ever since. And I have, through the power of an executive order, the ability to tighten some things in the area of ethics.

So I think it is more pre-emptive, more preventive, if you will, than anything else. I never want it said that someone tripped and fell in some egregious way in the executive branch because there was an ambiguous definition of ethics. I don't want to live in that kind of world. I want them clearly defined in areas that I think are important. And so we are creating, finalizing this executive order, which I hope to sign in the next week or so, and we're looking to some states that I would consider to have pretty good standards in their area of ethics, and I'm looking for guidance in terms of best practices out there. And so for me it is not pointing a finger of blame at anybody, or saying that we've made an egregious mistake somewhere. It really is more preventive.

BRIAN SCHOTT, KCPW: Would you like to see the legislature follow your lead on this? Public opinion polls show that a vast majority of Utahns don't want gifts from lobbyists to legislators any more. They don't want those things.

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: That is completely up to the legislature to decide. It's a part time body, it's much different than the executive branch, where we have full time employees, and people who do this for their entire career, and make very important decisions as it relates to the regulation of industries, for example. And so the executive branch, I would really define as an area for which I'm responsible, obviously, but one that really needs, I think, clearer cut guidance. The legislature being a part time body needs to do what they feel strongly about doing.

RICHARD PIATT, KSL-TV: Even though the legislature's a part time body, there's still a concern, if it's a perception among the public that there's been a problem with influencing elected officials, in general, and one of the ways that the greatest influence comes, you know, I believe, is campaign contributions. But I'm wondering if you feel like the issue of influencing can ever be completely taken out of the system, of the process?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: I'm not sure it ever can. Human beings are not perfect. They are subject to all kinds of external influences, even if you have the best of guidance in the area of ethics. But I think it does help to have clearly defined boundaries for behavior and ethics. It does in business, it does in government. I think it does in a lot of other realms of professional pursuits as well. And for me, it's something I feel strongly about. The legislature can do whatever they feel strongly about. It's completely their call. But I never want it said about the executive branch that we took loosely or lightly our ethical charge.

RICHARD PIATT, KSL-TV: Do you feel like the public should be concerned about this issue? Public opinion polls are one thing, but what's actually going on is another. From what you've seen, in Utah, do you feel like the public should be really concerned about this?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: The public needs to know that we have a wonderful group of executive branch public servants. I've been impressed by all whom I've come in contact with. And they do their best, and so far as I can tell there are no gaping holes that I could readily identify right now. So when I say this is preventive, this is something that I'd like on the books for the future. I think it's just a simple guidance that people can look to, and perhaps many would consider it to be helpful in particular areas, but I think the public should know we have a very committed, very ethical executive branch.

MATT CANHAM, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: Governor, you went the executive route. In the past you've asked, you asked, you got legislators to support bills that haven't done very well in the legislature. Did you move to an executive order because the legislature has been hostile to ethics reforms that you proposed in the past, and even this year?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: I moved because I don't want to wait any longer. And I gave it a couple of years, and indeed, there are still some measures that we're supporting. I'm still supporting term limits for the governor, I'm still supporting some aspect of campaign finance reform, which are issues that do need legislative input, by the way. These are issues that are more or less under my control as the chief executive officer for the executive branch. So you have to carefully delineate those things that I really have some say over, some control over, versus those that need broader legislative buy in.

DAN BAMMES, KUER: A couple of legislative audits have pointed out the widespread practice in Utah state government of double dipping, where retirees retire, begin collecting their pensions, and then are re-hired, sometimes even in the same positions or similar positions, in state government. Do you see any effort to change that coming up under your administration?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: Well, we have to take a kind of a look at the aspects of this that are wrong, or that need to be corrected. And it's kind of an ambiguous area right now. If somebody works for 20 years if they rightly and legitimately, enter retirement and are brought back into government, legitimately, to serve some role that would save the taxpayers money in terms of getting an in house expert as opposed to going outside, that compared to maybe a rigged system where somebody is in place for a defined period of time so that they are ensured their 20 years, and automatically re-hired as part of a pre cooked plan, that to my mind is wrong and unethical.

But this needs to be looked at, and I suspect the legislature is going to give it a review, and I don't know where it goes. But it's something that clearly is on the minds of decision makers, and we want to make sure that whatever we do going forward is fair and ethical.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Governor, advocates of drug treatment programs cheered your comments in the state of the state address about a new meth initiative for the state in drug treatment. But a number of rank and file Utahns, Frankly, were quite surprised that you would emphasize this. Perhaps they did not perceive and understand the nature of a methamphetamine threat in Utah as a public health issue. So how did you come to this issue and say, "This is one I need, not only to act on, but to elevate public understanding of"?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: It's probably not altogether bad that people have asked that question, because now they're aware of an issue that really has existed, that is a very significant one to the state, and I've come to understand it more in terms of the effect it's had on corrections, on human services, on families in general. I don't have a whole lot of meetings in these areas where meth isn't a constant refrain of some sort in terms of the overall costs it's having on our state. And so it isn't just meth for the sake of meth being a bad substance, and trying to help the individual and the families. Certainly important.

But we have a multiplier effect in terms of the cost that we are carrying at a state as a result of this very, very pervasive problem. And so for me it's not only a good human call, but it's a good managerial call as well.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: You also indicated that women were often victims, and again, for many people that falls out of their characterization of who might be the most likely victims or substance abusers. How did that knowledge come to you? Was that, again, child welfare, or human resources?

GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN: This drug does discriminate, and it discriminates against the female population. I've seen it in corrections, and I've seen it at the House of Hope, where I've gone to visit young mothers who are trying to wean themselves from addiction. And as I look at the numbers, and as I've talked to the real people involved, and the families of people involved, I've come to learn that there is a disproportionately high percentage of our population, female population, impacted by meth. We need to address it.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Governor, thank you for your time, and we'll see you next month on the governor's monthly news conference. Good evening.

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