June 28, 2012

We are doing everything we physically and humanly can do right now to fight this difficult situation, these fires.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Good morning, all.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Good morning, Governor.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: I know there's a number of questions, and some important issues, but before we could begin if I could make an opening statement. I know there's a lot of concerns about the wildfire situation that we have out there, and let me just give you the current update. Again, subject to change, this is a very volatile situation out there.

We have six current active wildfires that are taking place throughout the state of Utah, covering over 80,000 acres, and in some areas that growth of the fire, based on wind and weather, can be dramatic. We've lost roughly 80 structures to date, at least 190 additional structures which are threatened. We've had one fatality. We've had a couple of injuries, and others that are missing. We have at least one missing person as we have today. There's about 1200 total personnel that are responding to these fires. The bulk of them on what we call the Wood Hollow Fire, which has now encompassed about 46,000 acres.

Concern for the public's safety and welfare, of course, is foremost on our minds. And particularly that goes to the travelling public. And so roads have been closed, are closing, and opening as the public safety officials there on the ground see a need and an opportunity. But if you have questions we encourage people to contact the Utah Department of Transportation, watch the signs that we have that are available and that will give you some information, but please call before you travel if you're going into these areas where these fires are at.

We've received three F mag grants, which is helping us to fight the fire with some federal money through FEMA, and we're getting regular updates, literally on an hourly basis as this takes place. We're in contact with other states, we have regional firefighters that are with us here. Our volunteer effort here in the state of Utah has been dramatic, and in fact has been noticed by those with the Red Cross of saying, "We've never been to a state where we've had to turn away volunteers." So a lot is being done, and yet to be done.

Let me just reiterate, in closing. One, we need to call upon the people of Utah to abide by the law. There is some misinformation out there about fireworks. We have had a ban on fireworks outside of city limits since June 23rd, so it is against the law to use fireworks any place outside of the city limits in the state of Utah. We are working and we'll have a press conference later today with the cities, and talk about what they can do under the law to regulate fireworks within their city limits, as is appropriate under a local control basis. So again, we hope people will abide by the laws.

We understand, too, that people need to use common sense when they get out there, whether it's with camp fires, which are also banned outside of approved camp fire locations, where we have designated places for a camp fire. All camp fires are banned outside of the city limits also. Firearm regulations, which we've had some problems with, again, is a common sense thing, which we are looking at. We'll have further comment on that as we go forward. But firearms should be used with common sense also out there, and again we're asking people to be responsible in their behavior.

Something else that comes to mind as I was thinking about this in preparation today, as a man of faith, I remember the comments of my father who said to me at a young age, that we ought to pray like everything depends upon the Lord, and then work like everything depends upon us. I think that's good counsel for the people of Utah today.

We are doing everything we physically and humanly can do right now to fight this difficult situation, these fires. But I want to call upon all, whatever their religious persuasion is, to make sure that we're praying like everything depends upon the Lord, and do what the supplication is it to a divine power to give us help, to protect those who are out there in harm's way fighting the fires, to protect people and property, to temper the elements. Whatever your feelings are, we need to make sure that we are praying like everything depends upon the Lord, and believe me we're going to work like everything depends upon us. So this would be a great weekend to probably make sure we're doing enough praying.

KEN VEROIA, KUED: Governor, thank you. As you allude to on this Thursday morning when we meet, there are a number of issues in the air. One of them is the U.S. Supreme Court handing down its ruling on the Affordable Care Act, deciding the act is a Constitutional exercise of federal government authority. Knowing many of the details are still to be worked out and studied closely by your office, what's your initial reaction?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, it's an issue we needed to have settled. The constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act is a needful decision. Whatever the decision was going to be, I've always believed it's bad policy. And regardless of the decision today, I still believe it's bad policy. I think Obamacare is, in fact, the wrong direction to go. I think it has brought uncertainty in the marketplace, I think it's going to raise the costs of health care, certainly the cost of insurance, I believe you'll see skyrocket if it remains the law of the land. I think that the administration took their eye off the ball. The focus should have been, we're into a recession, the focus should have been on what can we do to get out of the recession? Focus on growing the economy.

We've done that in Utah, and we see the positive results that we've had in Utah, as we're now growing our economy at twice the national average and creating jobs and reducing unemployment in significant and dramatic ways. Unfortunately, this administration focused on a health care reform, which has been the most divisive issue that I've seen in my lifetime since Vietnam. This has divided the country terribly and taken our eye off the ball of economic recovery.

I do believe, if you want to repeal Obamacare, you need to repeal Obama, and that's why I'm supporting Mitt Romney, and I believe that we need to have someone who understands free market principles, that will at least let the states, as the states should do, as laboratories of innovation, lead the charge on health care.

Look at, again, Utah. We've been working on health care reform way before President Obama came into office. We will continue to work on health care reform and see if we can't find solutions that are unique to Utah. But I would remind everybody, Utah's health care costs are the lowest in the nation, and we have about the fourth or fifth rated best quality in the nation. That's the kind of health care you want to have throughout the nation, and I'd again say to the people in Washington, D.C., look at Utah as a good example.

RICHARD PIATT, KSL-5: But Governor, the goal of the Affordable Care Act was mainly to provide health insurance and health insurance options to people that don't have health insurance now. What's your assessment of the impact on Utahns to that end, specifically?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, again, one of the best things you can do to get more accessibility to health care is to lower the cost. There's nothing that's been done in the current debate on health care that's really been addressing health care cost and reduction. Maybe having more doctors, for example, in the marketplace would have been a good way to go to help reduce the costs of health care. More supply commensurate with the demand out there for health care. We have needs to maybe have tort reform, and the ability to provide doctors the opportunities to do preventive medicine, meaning prevent themselves from being sued.

RICHARD PIATT, KSL-5: Would you acknowledge that there are portions of the law that are good things? Preventing someone for being rejected for a pre existing condition? Extending health benefits to people to the age of 25 under their parents' plan? Those kind of things are in fact helping people right now.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: I would admit to the fact that we have good intentions. I believe that the people in this debate have all had good intentions of what can we do to provide better accessibility to quality health care. But the problem is, my belief is that the way they're going is that you're going to, in fact, you might have more universal health care coverage, but at what cost? Can we afford it as a nation? We're at 15.3 trillion dollars in debt right now, and rising. The Medicaid costs alone on this would cost the people of Utah, as we embrace the Affordable Care Act, $1.3 billion over the next ten years. It's a budget buster.

So yeah, the goal of universal access is a good one, well intended, but can we afford it? And is it going to, in fact, be so deleterious to our economy that we stay in a recessionary, you know, economy for many years to come? The best thing we can do to help people get health care is to keep the costs down and affordable, and provide them jobs where they can go out there and buy it themselves. Many of our people in the marketplace today choose not to buy health insurance, even though they can have access to it and they can afford it.

LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET NEWS: Governor, I understand you don't agree with the law, but it has been upheld by the Supreme Court. So what actually happens now for Utah? You talk about the burden of Medicaid costs here in Utah. What happens next? I know your goal is to have it repealed, have Mitt Romney become president and somehow manage to repeal it and replace it with something else. But if and until that happens, what's next?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Sure. Well, there's a lot of uncertainty. I mean we had uncertainty before the Supreme Court decision today, and we have even more uncertainty after the Supreme Court. Isn't it interesting that the argument that President Obama put forward was this is not going to be a tax increase, this is going to be, in fact, constitutional based on the commerce clause of the Constitution, and yet we find out today it's Constitutional because it is a tax increase on everybody, including the middle class. The irony there is kind of rich.

So bad policy is bad policy. And we need to do everything we can under the law to reject and replace with good policy this health care act. So we'll abide by the mandates of the law, we will work within the confines of the law to, in fact, replace a bad policy on health care with a good policy on health care. And I think states should be driving that issue. Fifty laboratories of innovation, finding different ways to do things based on their unique demographics. Again, you look at Utah with a young population, we have a different challenge health care wise than, say, Arizona, which has a very more elderly population, or Florida which is number one for senior citizens. It's a different challenge when it comes to health care. We ought not to have a one size fits all come out of Washington, D.C. We will continue in Utah to work on health care reform under the law, and whatever the mandates are we'll live with them, but we're going to find health care reform in our own unique Utah way.

MAX ROTH, FOX13: Governor, one of the primary arguments for the Affordable Care Act was that it would bring the cost of health insurance down by bringing low risk people into the insurance pool, the Congressional Budget Office said it would bring costs down, I remember having conversations with Bob Bennett saying an individual mandate would bring costs down. I wonder what you base your opinion on when you said that it will cause the cost to skyrocket?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, I think as people are looking at now, check with your chamber of commerce folks, the business people, the ones that are supplying most of the health care opportunities in a benefit package that we receive as individuals. And you'll find that the pre existing conditions is going to drive up the costs of insurance premiums. The comments today you're hearing is the cost of insurance is going to go up. That means that businesses, if they can afford it, are going to have to either have a change in their pay scale to be able to still have a profitable bottom line, or drop health care coverage altogether as a benefit. The CBO office, again, here, just a few months ago revised their estimates, and said that, "Oh, we made a little bit of a goof, here, we're off by four or five hundred million dollars in the cost of what this is going to be for the Affordable Care Act."

So I think there's a lot of confusion out there. We still, to this day, are not getting answers on the 2500 page bill, and answers to questions we have as part of the implementation. Confusion and uncertainty is going to drive up costs.

JEFF ROBINSON, KCPW: So Governor, the state of Utah, then, you mentioned abiding by the mandates, do you think for sure we'll implement the required Medicaid expansions under the law?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, that's part of the confusion. One of the things we're hearing today is that there is, in this opinion, the fact that states don't have to accept the expansion of Medicaid.

JEFF ROBINSON, KCPW: Does that mean Utah won't?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, that's yet to be decided. We just found out about this right now, but again, I'm not going to do something that's going to bust our budget, I can tell you that. We need to do what's responsible in behalf of the taxpayers. And like most things, it's a balancing act, what is the cost to benefit ratio? So we'll have to analyze that, too, with Medicaid. But also the opinion, as I understand it today, and again, this is still under review this is, what, 90 minutes old so we're still trying to determine, what does it mean?

Although we've had a year and a half to try to determine what does the Affordable Care Act mean, and we still are unclear about that. But you know, we understand that we can't be punished if we decide not to expand with the eligibility that's mandated through the Affordable Care Act. That that, part, in fact, is not a Constitutional aspect of this bill.

ROBERT GEHRKE, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: So your direction to your Health Department, to your officials in your administration is, for the time being is, abide by the law, implement the measures that are required.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Yes, we've always been moving ahead, doing what we have to do under the law. We're a law abiding state, I believe in the rule of law, and if you need to change things you ought to change them under the rule of law. That being the case, today is an all hands on deck to get our health care professionals and what we're doing here in the state, and our human resource people, and let's analyze with our legal folks, what does this decision mean to us when it comes to the Patient Protect and Affordable Care Act? What does it mean to the state of Utah? What are our options going forward? And again, for those of us that are politically active, if you don't like Obamacare, repeal Obama.

DAN BAMMES, KUER: You mentioned in your opening statement that you would like to see some common sense applied to the use of firearms and the risk of wildfire. What are you contemplating, there, as far as changes in state law?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, it is absolutely ridiculous for anybody to go out with a firearm and do target practice and have an exploding target, that shoots fire and sparks all over the cheat grass. I mean I think most of us here realize that's a pretty stupid thing to do.

And so we're going to take a look at, do we need to, in fact, change laws? I know I've had some lament from sheriffs who say that we don't have the flexibility to restrict areas of our communities as off limits for target practice and use of firearms. And if that's the case we need to take a look at that and make a determination of changing the law, if that's the case. I believe that there ought to be more flexibility, more local control when it comes to the public safety aspects of the fire season. And so we're going to take a look at that over the next few days and make some decisions.

RICHARD PIATT, KSL5: When it comes to fireworks, does the same thing apply? Because it seems like you've got the ban on outside city limits, but you don't have the authority to ban within city limits, and I understand the local control issue. But at the same time there seems to be something that goes beyond common sense, because, quite frankly, taxpayers have the right to not have to pay for fighting the fires, breathing in the smoke, putting their homes in danger, that kind of thing.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: No and as we've said, if you start a fire just be prepared to pay for it. If you're reckless, if you're negligent, if it's intentional, under those three issues in our state statutes today, you are liable for the cost of that fire. And we're not going to be passive on this, we're going to be proactive, and I know that the private sector will be in fact, going to court, and saying, you know, "You burned down my house, and you're responsible for that."

So holding people responsible and liable is going to be a part of this going forward. The cities do have the ability, maybe not to eliminate fireworks And again, that's under kind of legal review right now. We're trying to do an analysis on that. But they certainly do have the right to regulate. And so they can say the place and manner of the discharging of fireworks in their city limits. And we've called upon the cities to do that.

We're going to have, again, a press conference later today where we'll elaborate on that, and the cities will talk about what they are doing and what their recommendations are for other cities around the state to do to make sure that we mitigate the fireworks season coming up, and we don't cause fires.

DAN BAMMES, KUER: Are you considering a special session as a way to address this?

HERBERT: Yes, we will.

LISA RILEY ROCHE: Can you talk more about the financial impact on the state of these fires? Are we getting the help we need from the federal government? Is there going to have to be more money allocated in some way?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, the fact of the matter is that we've had three F mag grants, fire management activities grants, and that's kind of unprecedented, in, really, a week's period of time. We have, I believe, the resources on the ground to fight the fires we have. We're at type 2 on some of these fires, we have not gone to type 1, which is the most expensive and most prolific effort. And so knock on wood and hope that we don't have to do that.

That being the case, there's a cost associated with this, and we're all going to share in that cost with taxes. We have resources on hand, I don't worry about our budget, we have a $243 million rainy day fund, we have money set aside for these kind of emergency services which we can draw upon. We have federal moneys that we've paid into an insurance program called FEMA which we're getting some money back with these F mag grants. So I feel good about the resources. But there's going to be a cost and it will be in the millions of dollars.

ROBERT GEHRKE, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: Would the state be better off if these fires were burning exclusively on state land, if there was no federal land there, as has been proposed by some legislators?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, if we had different management, you know, we've got this kind of checker board out there so it makes it a little more difficult to know who's in charge, and it can start in one jurisdiction and then migrate to another jurisdiction, start locally in a county, unincorporated area, go to state lands, go to federal lands. But we have a regional fire response team in place, and Mike Whalen is the head of that. I've met with Mike, I've travelled to virtually all the different counties on these fires to see. And they're doing a remarkably good job. Our people that are fighting on the front lines of this are brave, courageous souls that really are doing good work in a very professional fashion.

ROBERT GEHRKE, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: What I was getting at, though, is the state has asked the federal government to return all of the federal lands inside Utah's border, which means these fires would be burning exclusively on state land and solely a state responsibility if that takes place. Is the state equipped to deal with something like that, should that

GOVERNOR HERBERT: If they had all the federal lands given back to us we would be. I mean that's not going to happen overnight. There's going to be a process involved with, what are we going to take back and manage? You know, 70 percent of our land mass is now federally controlled. Maybe we just go back to 50 percent. Certainly there's no attempt to take over any of the national parks, any of our wilderness areas, which we have 33 of them, and some of the pristine and beautiful areas. So it's not everything back and developed. But we would have the ability to, in fact, keep money home, and that we share with mineral lease money and some of the ability to develop land. We would have the resources necessary to fight the fires.

It's no different than if you're in Texas where they only have 2.9 percent of their land mass that's federally owned. They seem to get by okay. Same with North Dakota with 9 percent, or Virginia with 1.3 percent, or New York with 2.3 percent. You know, they seem to get by okay. We could make the same adjustment here in Utah.

ROD DECKER, KUTV: You said special session. Is that just a possibility, or do you have specific plans for specific measures at a specific time?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: We are definitely a maybe. We are trying to ascertain the need to have a special session, whether we have support with the legislature, and what the issues are. It's not as big a scope. We've banned fireworks really basically throughout the state. There may be a loophole issue with firearms that needs to be addressed. But we'll take a look at that and analyze it and then make a decision. But it's certainly something on the table to consider, and it's something we need to decide in a hurry, because we're getting into the beginning now, and the throes of the fire season.

ROD DECKER, KUTV: You said You appointed a new liquor chief. Could you Are we healed in that respect?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Sal's going to do a great job. He has the background necessary, the experience. I feel good about the steps we've taken. The new legislation's been passed, we have two additional commissioners with specific responsibilities to the all seven now, for oversight. I think we're going to make sure this is more transparent, that we follow procurement laws and I think Sal's going to do a great job in heading that up and making sure that going forward we are dealing with alcohol responsibly in behalf of the taxpayers.

LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET NEWS: Governor, back to special session for just a moment. Is there any chance there might be some health care related legislation? Is there anything at this point I know it's early that you see needs to be dealt with before the general session now that this law's in place?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: If we decide to have a special session, you know, we would take a look at, is there anything else we need to put on the call? Again, I'm not one for putting a lot of things on the call. I think it's, most issues demand and warrant a healthy debate over a period of time, days. Not just a couple of hours. So I'm reluctant to do that. But we'll take an analysis of what's happened in the Supreme Court, the health care issues, and see if there's something else that should be put on the call, if, in fact, we have a call. An so it's a little premature.

The urgency right now is because of the acute fire season that we've got here, and the red conditions we have out there for fire. So that's the only thing that would propel me to do something on a very short term basis. Otherwise, if we were going to have a special session, it would be in August or September.

DAN BAMMES, KUER: Governor, back to the health care issue for a moment. For someone who doesn't currently have health care coverage and there are something like 14 percent of the population in Utah is without coverage do they have some hope now that the law has been upheld, or what are they supposed to think about, "In the future will I be able to get coverage? Will I be able to afford it?" What is the, what should they be thinking right now about their prospects for getting good, affordable health care coverage?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, the question really is, how do you get to the goal of everybody having universal access and coverage? Is that a goal that we want to have, and can we afford it? So it's not a matter of, what do we do to take care of the poor among us? We have a responsibility as neighbors, as part of human kind, to help those who need help. We forget charitable care is a part of that effort. It doesn't have to be a government paid for, sponsored program. It could be us helping our neighbors. We do have programs, we do have emergency room service, which anybody who has health care needs can go to. We have high risk pools that we have here in the state of Utah that people that even have high risk can actually join and be a part of.

But we also have the need that we, whether it's through ourselves as individuals, civic organizations, faith based, church organizations, to help those who need help. And as we do that we need to find, what is the most efficient combination of private charitable care, government assistance, to help us take care of the poor and needy among us? That's the issue. And I would suggest it's a combination of both, and to close that gap to make 100 percent coverage needs to have a significant emphasis on charitable, private care.

We have those kinds of clinics out there that provide charitable care today at no cost to the recipient. I helped when I was a county commissioner to start a volunteer care clinic down in Provo, open a couple of days a week to give preventive care for particularly low income and minorities in the Utah County area. That's a good step in the right direction. We ought to amplify that effort.

Again, I don't know that we have all the solutions, but I believe if we get together, as we're trying to do in Utah, we'll find the best solution that has the best cost to benefit, the best outcome, that we, the people, the taxpayers can afford to do. That's why we had a health care summit last year. That's why we have subcommittees out there working on this issue as we speak today, and why we're going to have a second annual health care summit later this year, to talk about this health care issue.

Utah is on the right road, going the right direction. We will find a solution. I believe other states should join us in this effort, and Washington, D.C. should copy the approach that Utah's taking to health care reform.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Governor, less than 60 seconds left. We spent a lot of time in this setting talking about budget formulation and policy looking forward. We're in the final days of the fiscal year right now. I wonder how we're measuring up as you get these final tally sheets in?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well the report will be coming shortly, as far as how we close out the fiscal year June 30th. My belief is, because we've had a growth in the economy, that our estimates of revenue, we'll find that there's going to be some excess in revenue. The estimations are at least a minus 30 to a plus 60 million. I believe that we're going to have a net increase in revenue to some extent. So I feel good about our budget, I think we budget appropriately, and the good thing is we focused on the economy, which is everybody ought to be focusing, which is providing more revenue. < Dap>N BAMMES, KUER: Governor, thank you for your time, and thank you for joining us. Join us on line for transcripts at KUED.org.

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