August 27, 2010 (---Herbert 1st year---)

"I support parents' choice, and people have a right to choose whether they want to be in a traditional education environment, in public education, charter schools, private schools, religious schools." -Governor Herbert

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KEN VERDOIA, KUED-7: Governor, thanks for joining us. You've asked for some time at the outset of this news conference for an opening statement.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Thank you, Ken, I appreciate that. As most of you know, my son's been in the news recently, and rather than taint the news conference here today, I thought I'd just make a statement so you know where, as a father, I'm at on this issue. Nathan is my son, he's my adult son, and I love him dearly. I support him. And as in most of these kinds of instances, there are two sides to every issue, and there's two sides to this story, too. I believe that the allegations against my son will be found to be without merit. But that's why we have a process, a court process that allows that to play forward. So I will not be making any more comments regarding that case. I'll refer you to Nathan, to his attorney. I know his attorney has issued a statement. Again, it's up to him and his attorney to decide how to go forward on this issue. But just know that we love and support Nathan, and I believe he's a wonderful son.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED-7: Governor, I don't want to get into specifics, but I want to ask you this question that's in the same realm. What does the public have as a right to information when a public official, sitting public official, standing for election runs, what right does the public have to know about family matters?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: I think family matters should be kept private, and really shouldn't be part of the public domain. I think the issues regarding me and my performance are fair game. I do believe that children, and to some extent spouses, my spouse happens to be the first lady, really are off limits. I think that's what most people would expect in a civilized society, and particularly here in Utah. And I think those are the rules of conduct that we ought to follow.

ROBERT GEHRKE, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: But Governor, your campaign the other day said that Peter Corroon can't speak in an informed manner about education issues because his children go to private schools. Is there an inconsistency, there?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: I don't think there's any inconsistency at all. I am not talking about Peter's children. I'm sure they're wonderful people, and he has a wonderful family. My issue of contention with Education Excellence Commission was his charges about the ineffective public education system we have here in Utah, and allegations that I don't care about public education. That was the opening salvo at his press conference, that me, the sitting governor, does not care about public education. The facts would belie that. I've been a very ardent supporter of public education, I've fought for their funding, I received recognition from the UEA and others because of my staunch support of public education. My only concern was when he, I think, distorted some of the facts. We all know we're the lowest per pupil spending in America. But that doesn't mean we have the lowest quality of education in America. We're right in the middle of our achievement scores, in fact above average on many ACT test scores. We, in fact, are recognized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as the number one best value for education. Business Facilities Magazine just recognized us as the best, second best climate in America for education. So I was concerned about the distortion, and the attack on me as not being a supporter of public education. And the irony being that I am accused of not supporting public education, my children are in public education, my grandchildren. His experience as a student himself and as a parent has only been in the private school sector. And I think there's a disconnect there, and his accusations about this lousy education environment here in Utah is a slam at teachers and public education, and the efforts we're making and the unique challenge we have here in Utah.

RICHARD PIATT, KSL-5: Because the budget is so tight, and options so limited and the need so great, how many differences are there, really, between you and Education Excellence Commission on education?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, I think there's a number of differences. At least based on what he unveiled with his education plan here this past week. One, he says we ought to do away with business incentives in corporations. That's, clearly he does not understand how the incentive program works here in Utah.

RICHARD PIATT, KSL-5: I don't know if he's saying do away with business incentives. He's saying be a little bit more careful about them. I asked for clarification yesterday from his campaign.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, maybe he's clarified it since he had the press conference. That may be true. But doing away with them or modify them means you don't understand how the incentive system works. It's all post performance. It's new money that's being generated that we're, in fact, returning. Just look at Adobe, that's one that he's used as an example. My gosh, we're giving them $40 million. That's not coming out of some private pot of money, where we're writing a check out to incentify Adobe from coming. It's if Adobe performs as they said they will do, and if they create a thousand jobs, if they create $150 million in corporate income tax, we'll give some of it back. But in addition to that, we have probably a billion and a half in additional wages, and $2 billion plus ripple effect in the economy, meaning that there's hundreds of millions of dollars in additional income tax, private income tax, that's going to come in because of these incentive programs to help fund education. So that's a significant difference in how we're doing it. His belief that we're going to find some $200 million in efficiencies in state government to fund it, again, belies the budgetary process, and the reality of what we're doing in the state government today.

RICHARD PIATT, KSL-5: But governor, some of the ideas sound very similar to what former Florida governor Jed bush was talking about with regards to things like greater rig or for high school seniors as they approach college before they graduate.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Listen, I understand that we need to raise the bar, and can raise the bar in education in Utah. That's why I convened the governor's Education Excellence Commission, which I chair. We've got people from different persuasions around the table, participating, having discussions, seeing if we can find a Utah unique solution to a Utah unique challenge. Rigor is certainly an important part. We've talked about the fact, making a better curriculum. But in that discussion, at least his proposal says we're going to have more rigorous curriculum, eliminate electives, which, again, as we look at the system that we have currently in place, means you've got to give up some electives, and that electives you're going to have to give up in Utah under his proposal are going to be some arts, and probably seminary time which means, I don't know that everybody in Utah is going to think that's a good idea to give up art and seminary released time in order to have this more rigorous curriculum. Now, again, that's why we have the Education Excellence Commission. Let's see if we can work together and find a way to raise the bar. But in the process don't distort and make it worse than it is. I mean I believe, you know, we give Peter a dozen donuts all he's going to see is the hole when it comes to education.

JOHN FLOREZ, DESERET NEWS: Governor, you mentioned his plan. What is your plan, and what is your vision for education?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Our vision, again, is what we've got with the Education Excellence Commission. One, I understand that we need to hold the line on funding. I went to the mat in this past legislative session in making sure that education funding was not cut. I also understand that you're not going to, in fact, help education by raising taxes. I believe Mayor Corroon, with all due respect, is a tax cut, excuse me, a tax hike waiting to happen. And that will, again, be counterproductive to our economic recovery. Governor Huntsman and I have proven with our economic plan that we've put in place that we can grow the economy, and in doing so we're able to increase public education funding by $900 million. And even with the cut that took place in Huntsman's last year in the legislature, which was $194 million, we're still over $600 million to the good in public education. We've increased public education funding by 300 percent more than the student population growth. We've increased teacher salaries at the largest amount ever in the history of our state. How we fund education, in my view, is grow the economy, create more income tax that comes into the state coffers, and fund education that way. Not raising taxes.

CHRIS VANOCUR, ABC4 NEWS: Governor, there's been some talk in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere about repealing the 14th Amendment, specifically as it deals with children born in this country. Do you favor repealing the 14th Amendment? Do you think children born in this country are, and should be, U.S. citizens?

OVERNOR HERBERT: Well, until there's a repealing of the 14th Amendment, absolutely I believe that they're citizens of the United States by birth. I don't believe that was the intent when the 14th Amendment was created. It certainly had more to do with the slavery issue at the time, and going forth, making sure that slaves had the opportunity, considered citizens as they were born here. So again, I think there's an issue of whether that's a carrot, where there's an incentive for people across the borders to have children here, and then have them as a way to become citizens quicker than those who have to queue up and get in line. So I think it's a healthy debate, and I believe that's going to be a discussion that we're going to see in congress.

CHRIS VANOCUR, ABC4 NEWS: You almost sound like you think that should be looked at.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: I think it should be. It's out there in the marketplace. And the market needs to have the discussion, the pros and the cons, and come up with a resolution so that the debate subsides. Because if we don't we're going to have this animus out there, and I think people will have this festering issue. It needs to have some resolution to it.

CHRIS VANOCUR, ABC4 NEWS: Do you personally think it needs to be changed?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: I think there's merit in having it looked at to change. I'm not ready to come out and say absolutely I'm four square behind it. I'd like to hear the pros and cons in the debate. But if it, in fact, is incentifying people to make illegal behavior, in other words I'm going to break the law for the reward of having a child born in America, that probably is the wrong incentive.

CHRIS VANOCUR, ABC4 NEWS: Sounds like you're leaning that way.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Yeah, I would be.

ROD DECKER, KUTV-2: There is now one permitted place to put high level waste, nuclear waste, in America, and that's the Goshute Indian reservation. Mr. Corroon has been after you a little bit, saying you're not doing enough to keep it out. What are you doing to keep high level waste out of the Goshute Indian reservation?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, we're doing all that can be done under the law. You can't do more than what you're capable of doing from a legal standpoint. We have, I've talked personally with Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar. This is a lawsuit between PSF and the Department of Interior. We thought we had a way to block PSF from transporting nuclear spent rods on to the Goshute Indian tribe. I personally believe that is a wrong location for nuclear spent rods, too close to Salt Lake City, too close to a bombing range. It doesn't make any sense. I've asked the secretary to appeal that. We've talked with him just in the last 48 hours, they have not made a decision yet, but it should be appealed, and hopefully they'll come back, if needs be, and correct the process if, in fact, it was flawed going forward in the first instance.

ROD DECKER, KUTV-2: My understanding, Utah probably could have intervened in that lawsuit, but chose not to. Now, if the Had Utah intervened, Utah could appeal. Now, it's up to the Obama administration whether there's an appeal, and you say maybe they won't appeal. Did we This was before your time, or before you were governor. Did we make a mistake in not being part of that lawsuit, and not having an option now to fight on our own?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, again, you can always Monday morning quarterback and say we could have done it better, and that was on somebody else's watch, so the decision was not mine. Again, I think it probably would have been wise to be a part of it so we had rights of appeal. But it really was, the decision has been the arbitrary and capricious manner that the interior department went through the vetting process. That's the challenge. And whether that's right or wrong I guess will be determined on appeal. But again, in hindsight, we probably should have joined with them.

RICHARD PIATT, KSL-5: Governor, may I combine a couple of the issues that we've already talked about education and immigration. At the same time you're talking about stimulating Utah's economy through business incentives in order to generate more money for education, there are proposals to deal with the illegal immigration problem. One of them being penalizing business owners who hire illegal immigrants as part of their work force. A lot of businesses that I've talked to, many businesses I've talked to are afraid of unintended consequences with that. And the immigration debate here in the state setting the tone for the business climate. Are you concerned about how those two issues are going to interact and mesh?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, sure I am. Again, any immigration reform that we're going to be talking about, and I would emphasize, illegal immigration reform, has got to be holistic in its approach. That's why I put forward six guiding principles that I would expect and encourage those involved in this, particularly in the legislature, to use as guiding principles. And the burden on the taxpayer is one of them. Making sure that the business community is involved, and the outcomes and the intended or unintended consequences to the business community have got to be considered. But we need to uphold the rule of law. I think everybody agrees with that. We need to do it in a humane manner. This ought to be, in fact, race neutral, there ought not to be any hint of some kind of bigotry in any action that's taking place here. But those principles will help us. And I'm here to tell you that I think the legislature is doing a pretty darn good job since the round table that we had, of bringing people together, hearing different points of view and different perspectives on this issue. I think you'll find that Representative Steve Sandstrom, on the one side, and Senator Luz Robles on the other side, are working in parallel tracks, whether they ever come together entirely on this thing I'm not certain, but they may come up with complementary bills. And there's other ideas out there that have to do with guest worker permits, and opportunities that would give us a unique Utah solution to a problem that is very difficult because the federal government is absent. They are AWOL. They should be taking the lead on this and they're not, and it's forcing states to step up, as we've seen in Arizona, and now Utah, and others, to do something as some kind of a band aid approach. The public is demanding some kind of resolution, I think Utah's going to come up with, I think, a good solution, a model solution, one that I hope that the people of Utah will, in the vast majority, embrace, and something we not only feel good about today, but we're going to feel good about tomorrow, looking back.

RICHARD PIATT, KSL-5: It sounds like you're- -

JOHN FLOREZ, DESERET NEWS: Has your office done any kind of impact analysis on the economic impact of the immigration reform?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: There's been an attempt to do kind of a cursory look. What is the impact, positive or negative, because of illegal immigration? It's just hard to quantify because it's hard to know who's illegal and who's not. Immigration clearly has been a positive, I think, for our country. Certainly for the people of Utah. We've had migrant farm workers since I was a kid, some of my best friends growing up, in fact, were migrant farm workers.

JOHN FLOREZ, DESERET NEWS: Some of my best friends, too.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Yeah, and I still have good friends that come from that heritage. Again, legal migration is needed and wanted.

JOHN FLOREZ, DESERET NEWS: But has your office done any impact analysis on it?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: We've done some. It's uncertain whether it is a net gain or a net loss.

RICHARD PIATT, KSL-5: It's almost like you're- -

LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET NEWS: Back to education for just a moment. Is there a difference in your mind between someone who sends their kids to private school and someone who supports vouchers to allow the public to send their kids to schools with a tax break?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: I support parents' choice, and people have a right to choose whether they want to be in a traditional education environment, in public education, charter schools, private schools, religious schools. Again, I applaud that, support it. I believe that is something we ought to uphold. How you fund education, there's going to be the great debate. How do you, in fact, make sure that our public education, which is a Constitutional requirement, is funded as appropriately as possible with Utah's unique situation? We have 25 percent more kids per household. So when we talk about, you know, low per pupil spending, we need to factor in, we have a lot more kids. The highest birth rate in the nation, here. That's a unique factor, it's the reality of Utah. If we took 25 percent of those kids out of the classroom, our classrooms would shrink dramatically, we'd say gee, what classroom crowding problem? If we had the same level of funding that we put forward now with 25 percent less children, you know, we'll jump up maybe from 50 to 49 or 48. We'll advance. We have 70 percent of our land mass, and then some, that's controlled by the federal government, that minimizes our ability to develop commerce. We get payments in lieu of taxes called PILT payments, which is like getting 10 cents on the dollar. Man, if I could just get a property tax on this ground out there, I could increase public education funding in a dramatic way. That's why I say, we have a Utah unique situation. Nevada's got as much public land, if not more than we do, but they have no children. We have rising expenses and declining revenues with the economic downturn. We have a unique challenge, here. Even Governor Bush, when he was in town the other day, talked about Florida, and says no, our education expenses are flat. They don't have a growing population in Florida. So we have things that are unique to Utah that's going to demand, I believe, cooperation and collaboration on all parties to work together and raise the bar for education in Utah. Again, a point of having the Education Excellence Commission is to bring those divergent voices together. The UEA on the one side, parents for choice, the voucher people on the other side, the superintendents, school board members, business community, teachers, higher education, UCAT, and say let's work together in a holistic approach for education in Utah. And it's working. We're doing some good things, and I believe we're going to have some great recommendations coming out probably the first of October from all of our subcommittees and the input we're getting to give recommendations to me and the legislature as to how we can move forward in a more collaborative fashion.

ROBERT GEHRKE, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: On that topic, the attorney general's going to be issuing an opinion, presenting an opinion to legislative leaders this week about whether or not the state should enter into litigation to try to reject the $100 million in federal assistance for schools and teachers. You said you're going to go ahead and ask for the money. Should the state consider litigation to try to sever some of the strings or reject the money entirely?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: It might be a curiosity to find out whether they think there's any legal standing on that. The attorney general's already preliminary report would indicate that the chances of that are slim and none. I don't know to what benefit we do that. Even if you found standing to do it, the law certainly allows the federal government to bypass the state and give it directly to school districts and other entities to improve education. And the federal government's been doing that for a long, long time. We call them ear marks in many cases. I mean the federal government can pick out and give money directly and bypass the government, the state government, the legislature, whether we like that or not. And we generally don't, because we ought to be in control of our own moneys and our own budget. The old block grant program comes to mind. I think that's a better way, if the federal government wants to gather money to give it to the states with flexibility, no strings attached, with a block grant. And last but not least, I think it belies common sense to think that we don't take the money, but we have to pay it back. If the federal government is willing to give to us as Utah taxpayers some kind of an income tax credit for the $101 million we didn't take, maybe that would make some sense. But if we don't take that money, it's going to be redistributed to other states and other entities, but we're on the hook to pay it back. I just think that's nonsensical.

DAN BAMMES, KUER: Governor, you have a state board looking at privatizing some functions of state government. It's been looking particularly at the state liquor stores and state parks. What's your view of that issue? Do you think running liquor stores is something the state could appropriately turn over to private contractors? State parks the same.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, I don't know the answer whether they should or shouldn't, but I think certainly asking the question, could they? Is something that ought to be asked and let's see if there, in fact, is a probability to privatize some of government services. Most of us understand, as you look in the private sector, they do it better, they do it more efficiently. Whether we I don't want to denigrate the U.S. postal service, but you know, the success of the Federal Express and UPS and others in the private sector indicates my There's room for improvement out there, and you can do it with a profit motive. So I think, looking at privatization of government services is something we ought to always look at. If there's a more efficient delivery system, again, most folks are interested in spending our dollars as efficiently as possible, because if they don't there's no profit. There's no bottom line. Government has a harder time with those kinds of motivation, because there's this bottomless pit of taxpayers' money we can always dip into. Again, that's one of the reasons I've been so adamant about not increasing taxes, because right now particularly, with the economic slowdown, it would be absolutely the wrong thing to do, or put a dampening effect on our economic recovery that's happening.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED-7: Governor, before we finish today, I do want to go back to the legal issues that your son is facing, not for you to comment on those, but to comment on the fact that you can never be a part of this situation and not be governor, even when you're a loving father at the same time. And so how do you make decisions on drawing those lines, on how you can become involved in a situation without also wielding influence as the most powerful man in the state, essentially?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, I don't know about the most powerful man in the state, but for anybody in public office that's a difficult situation. I'm first and foremost a father. And the head of my household, and with my good wife. And we've got a great family, I've got great children. All six of them. Eleven grandchildren, and two more on the way. So I'm grateful, and I'm thankful for the family I have. Issues happen in families that are difficult. And unfortunately for my son, his dad happens to be the governor, which means it's all of the sudden newsworthy, it gets out there more than it probably would be with any other situation, any other family. That just comes with the territory. I have to be a father, but I need to stand off to make sure that somebody doesn't accuse me and they will of wielding some undue influence that changes the outcome. Unfortunate for my son, it probably even heightens scrutiny, and makes it even more difficult for him to have even a fair shake, certainly in the court of public opinion. That being the case, he's an adult. I love my son, I think he's a good person. He's a great addition to my family, as people know him will say what a wonderful individual he is. He's going to have to handle this on his own, with his attorney, and that's what he's going to do and that's what he is doing.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED-7: Does that mean you'd like to be by his side, but you won't be able to because of- -

GOVERNOR HERBERT: It hampers my ability to participate, certainly, in a more visible way, because people will accuse us of things that are not appropriate. And I don't want that to taint his ability to have a fair hearing, and to be judged fairly based on the merits of the case. And I believe, knowing some of the facts that, again, I think his day in court will happen and he will be vindicated.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED-7: Governor, you have another commission just completed optimizing government efficiency. What are you going to do to make sure it doesn't gather dust, like all of them do? Do you have target dates for completion.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: We do. In fact what we're going to try to do and that's a great question, John again the pleasing report we got was two fold. One, that corroborating what others have said about us as a state, that we're well managed, and we, in fact, really do manage the taxpayers' money wisely in the state of Utah, better than most other states. That was good, and high praise to have an audit, as it were, by very bright people with different perspectives to come and have an outside-in look at the state. So I was appreciative of that. But they came up with 56 recommendations, some of them bigger, and some of them smaller, but recommendations that I think ought to be looked at and considered and incorporated. We're going to try to put up a web site as we go through this process over these next twelve months, and see the progress we make in incorporating those recommendations into, in fact, reality. Some of them will be able to be done immediately, some will take a little longer. Some will have to be vetted with the legislature and make sure that they've got buy in. But we're going to get public input and go through the process. But we're going to try to track it and put it on a web site so people can see, of the 56 recommendations, how many now, by next May, will we have in place? How many by next summer? How many by the end of next year? So we're going to really do something. I am committed to make sure this does not go on the shelf and collect dust.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED-7: Governor, on that that note, we are out of our allotted time. Thank you so much for joining us today, a reminder that a transcript and video copies of this Governor’s News Conference and all preceding Governor’s News Conferences are available online at WWW.KUED.org. Join us there. Until the next time, thank you very much for joining us, and good evening.

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