North Carolina People; Governor Mike Easley, Governor of North Carolina

Good evening friends and I hope all my have all of us of North Carolina people that you're having a joyful all of they seize every year at the end of the year. Please come over and visit with the governor of North Carolina sort of take a look back at where we've been and a look ahead as to where we're going. Governor Easley has invited us over to have imagine and look forward to talking with him in just a few seconds. Sponsored in part by walk Obeah helping North Carolina people realize their financial goals. Since 1879 and through the financial contributions of viewers like you who invite you to join them in supporting U.N. CTV. Governors grand to see you again thank you for letting us come over for a visit. Happy bit I've been fine enough for you we're going to get to me this year.

Oh no we wouldn't dare mess but we have the Christmas decorations up for you to get in. I understand you've had hundreds of people come through the mansion on the annual tour and every minute that they're here you have a different school group singing Christmas carols. I don't know there are many different ways to sing jingle Wilson to this man. Well I really look forward to a few minutes here with you and thank you for giving us a task like everybody else the first question that governs everything else is how is the revenue picture coming up I think you know I think it looks pretty pretty good. We're above projections. Money's coming in a little bit more than we projected but we projected very conservatively. I generally do that but about three and a half percent growth. So we're above that. I think this year will be will easily get through 06 and 07 budget with all the expansions. My goodness the things that are being cut in Washington we have to pick up on the state level.

I think it'll be tight. But that's that's not always bad. But we will be fine. That's good news to hear. Well you've always worked so hard to advance a school's done a lot on your terms here in the mansion. Where are we now and where do you want to go next two years. Well we're way ahead of where we used to be but not nearly where we need to be. I think education is one of those one of those critical items that's part of not only learning and and helping people reach their God given talents but it's a great economic development too and it's helping us change our economy. It's getting more expensive as more people are going to college but that's a good problem to have. The Roman increases alone this year will be twenty five million dollars more than they were last year just taking care of those Kids Company K through 12. So that shows you how much we're growing.

But over the next two years we have to continue our focus on getting kids out of high school and into college. And you know right now we have this Learn and Earn program that's really working well. We're working with the universities with the community college systems and we have at the end of this year 53 learning are in schools where a lot of kids can go one extra year and they take in college courses all along one extra year and they graduate not only with a hospital degree but with a sub in associate's degree in college and then they can move on to one of our public or private universities. Two more years to get that degree unit. It helps a lot of these children who are just overwhelmed by the thought of trying to figure out how to go to college and where's the money come from how do I get there and intimidated by it. And in this program before they can turn around say scared they graduated. And that's what we hope to continue over the next couple years as well as continue to improve our pre-K.

Now pre-K through 12 system I sense that you found across the state real enthusiasm to keep keep the momentum we started there is North Carolinians are out. They know education is our way out of the woods. It's part of our internal constitution. And occasionally people will say world I appreciate the courageous things you've done and the courageous votes the legislature have taken on education is what would be courageous is to not do it because people expect them they want to try our legislature has stepped up. They've they've done everything that education has asked of them. And the thing that we have to make sure we do is use every dollar wisely because they are very precious dollars and is a big grab for me as you well know and build that seamless system the more we build a seamless system from early childhood through the university system the better those dollars are spent and the less there is fighting over and the

more people understand how putting somebody in pre-K to day helps us graduate them over here and college 18 years from now. You go you've always made the point that what you just said that the education of substructure is so essential to economic growth how have how has industrial recruiting gone this past year. Is it changing it's a different type of industry coming to our state. It is and we want it to be different. We have as of this year been able to bring 35000 jobs directly as a result of our job development investment Grant and one North Carolina fund that the legislature gave us in 2001 2002. But they don't come unless you have the workforce unless you have an educated population. And every time we make a job announcement the CEO is there. It's their turn to speak I used to get make the announcement and they speak and they talk about we're here because of wonderful workforce in North Carolina

at the educational level. We've done a tremendous job in changing elementary education middle schools are still a bit of a challenge. But that seems to be nationwide so we're putting these we called literacy coaches in all of our middle schools now that teach those teachers how to teach reading because some of the kids to fall off. Then we reform the high schools more than anybody else in America and that's a that's really a lot of fun. But we're seeing kids make that connection now between the job they want and the courses that they take. At the same time we're trying to bring in new and better. Industries those that require knowledge and talent and skill because they will study here. We can compete with anybody in the world on knowledge jobs a knowledge based economy. But on the cheap labor and the low skill low skill jobs we can't compete with China Malaysia and Singapore and Vietnam. We know that those jobs are gone they're not coming back. And I'm just pleased that I can be so many

people have gone back to the community colleges and upgraded the schools. They certainly are an essential part of this picture out there. Those institutions are done everything everybody hoped they would. The community colleges certainly been great. Well they often every time I walk out of this library that we're in right now staring right at Terry Sampras picture. Yeah and I remember they beat up on him forever after nineteen sixty one when he came in office and they had they called it the terror attacks there but they built this great community college system with it. And when I came in off the 2001 if we had not had the community college system because we've been hit worse by naphtha than anybody else we had had that retrain people. I don't know what we would have done but we've recovered better than anybody else who who's had that trade problem. And it's because of what people did 50 years ago. I remember Dallas herring and Terry Savage right here in this very room planning those days. The highway system what's next for us and doing

the work on the highways North Carolina where we have to figure out exactly what the costs are going to be. As most people know when the price of oil shot up when you Bill and how were you sitting safely talking about petroleum when that went up the cost of highways went up. We have to find a way to prioritize and Dio TI is working on that you know they had a moving ahead program that let us go out and help a lot of the rule roads widen him a little bit better bridges and all sorts of things. Now they've got off moving ahead and doing thinking ahead. We know what the wish list cost is but that's a little bit of a wild estimate when you have a 65 billion. What we're trying to do now is get real prioritization of where we need to go including mass transit is going to be some of that and they're looking at things I don't like Toll roads but a lot of these are urban centers do like them because they feel like we can build faster if if

they have the authority to do the toll road so we've been looking at that and getting federal authority to to use it. As you know better than in the rest of us the states and a growing substantial population growth especially in the big urban areas we've got problems that come with that. I call them opportunities to the highways pollution problem for water supplies. The legislature's never funded the progress board that way but where do you see now the state going to grapple with this business of planning his future. Where are we going to go. Well I think you hit on a key point. You really do have to plan and we know based on a lot of feral gallery's work there we're going to be number seven in population. Not for down the road. That's right. It's happening right now. We're not really able to absorb the people coming in as fast as a company and right now everybody wants to come to North Carolina. I'll give you an example we had one month about two months ago we created 15000 jobs in one month which was

phenomenal. But we had 35000 additional people come out. And the problem is of course they'll stop paying taxes and it comes into the system. But it's always a lag and a little bit behind. So you have to sort of bet on the future a little bit. We're going to have with that a lot of those retired age and we need to find ways to take advantage of that knowledge just coming in here of those talents that people have and how we can use them on the state level. We also have to make sure that we're producing enough people in health care. Nurses are hard to find right now and on occasion we have to change the income level form the state employees just to keep some of the state hospitals and some of them are very demanding jobs. Those are some of the issues we're having to deal with as well as infrastructure when you talk about roads and bridges and highways the one rule won't let is never get caught behind the curve. And that's one thing we can't do. If

you do nobody has ever successfully gotten out from behind it yet and you can look at the big cities around the country and you see they haven't so we're committed to not getting behind. And right now I think the committee this working with local state revenue. And responsibilities coming up with an idea of just who really ought to have this Medicaid piece. Should the state have all of it who ought to be involved and how at least should the locals do more. And what should the tax base look like should that one cent that the counties have be moved to the state the state pick up more responsibility. So we have a good group of folks looking at it and I think we'll have I think some recommendations and hopefully some solutions by the time we go into session this year. You made a mention of it a moment ago. Recently the carol Woods retirement center in Chapel Hill had held a major conference with people like Secretary Odom and the head of Blue Cross Blue Shield. People like that

on what. What about the problem of the increasing population of older people. People to care for them the geriatric physicians people trained in geriatrics and all the financing of it. I was impressed with what Mr. Odom had say about what's going on in Health and Human Services. I judge this is a priority with you to look into the future we've got a huge population coming in here. We do and I've talked with the sector about this on numerous occasions and she she tells me that you're leading the way with what you're doing over there awards and trying to get out front of the problem. Most people run into it a lot quicker than you did but you're just too doggone healthy that I stay that way I want you to stay that way because you're too valuable an asset to us. We're going to have to produce more health care providers focusing on the elderly. We're going to have to

have some sort of institutionalized transition in place that helps people make that transition. Marian dealing with this some Her parents are getting up in the years and it is difficult to get people to make that transition they don't want to leave their homes to get into to assisted living or any of the other facilities that they feel like they lose in Independence. And I don't think we've done a very good job over the years of preparing our parents for that recognizing this is another and very important and very fulfilling part of life. And it's no need to make it so hard. That's one of the things we do we're going to have to continue to work more on that but Carmen secretary Odom she's fantastic done a great job and is really focused on this and I'm proud of work that the target was done but certainly her leadership and I don't want to leave it out in C R x. You know we had senior care prescription drugs and

then when the Medicare D came in and that took over our responsibility. But as we've looked at it we have a lot of seniors who are under the poverty level so those who A hundred seventy five. Percent and under we take care of that premium form. If we can just get him signed up and that's a date a void in C or X something we hope to get done in the year will be. You know I'm running some ads on it but I can't get everybody about up it just go to your local pharmacy they'll have the application there. You know so tim made an interesting observation. This meeting is to many of us trade all ages illness when it's really a different time of life it's not being sick. Most of the people I know who are 65 and I think that's one of the fictions that you had to retire at 65 not not too many people want to do that this day and time. But anyway it as you say you're right and that problem right now it's a living

experience really what you do in the end the thing that we all think if we were to able to capture. The knowledge and the energy and the resources that people over 65 to 70 and start using that for mentoring volunteer and helping others. That's a great resource that the state in the nation I don't think of taking advantage of right now. But certainly there is a lot left to do in life when you hit 65. And that's why I want to keep working I suppose. But we get we've got to harness that energy. You've done a lot of thinking and working and talking about children in North Carolina not only with reference to schools but how they live. And you and I both know about the recent designation that we have over 400000 children living in poverty. What are we going to do in the state to deal with that problem the next 10 years. How do you see it we have to attack it from a couple of different angles.

And that's a lot that's about 18 percent of our children almost one in five living involves poverty. And first thing people need to understand is. What a crushing weight property is and how difficult it is for people to pull themselves out of it and therefore all of us have to help not only on the state level but on a personal level. The first thing we have to do is make sure that they have health insurance and we have our own Child Health Insurance Program what we call chips. We have 300000 which ships in some we shifted to Medicaid so we could put more chips. And federal government is not making to commit but they need to make on that program they're backing off a little bit it's costing us more I'm hopeful hopeful that they'll pick that up. We're giving more tax credit for childcare. We were trying to also attack it from the education side a lot of this comes from free trade where the parents just don't make what they used to make and they're transitioning right now and hopefully will see more come out of this quicker rather than slower. But. All the

sod of education we have to get to these kids very very early. The two things I think are most important we're doing right now with really three early childcare with a small storm so many other programs then the pre-K for at risk four year olds that really makes a big difference on how they're going to do and lower the class size kindergarten first second or third grade. That will help these kids really pull themselves up at the same time. We have to use these family support systems that we put in place in the schools two years ago so that social services in the county and the schools are now in touch with those families so they can find the kids in the school if not get what they need at home go in to help the parents provide it and if the parents won't provide it with them we don't need to take the children out of the home. And we need to be serious about that. That's very encouraging to hear you say you've been in public life a long time and we've just experienced an election in our country and I want to ask you this question about your reading of the attitudes of people toward government today. You hear a lot of criticism of the meanness

of politics today. The harshness of it but the voting numbers drop every time seems likely. What's your sense of the public's feeling now about government both state and federal. Well I think people are seeing two things. I thought this time you had pretty good turnout and people turned out not for a democratic mandate. I think they turn out for change. Right. And I'm surprised it took him this long. I thought they would want to change up you know for I guess was good for me that they did. But the the thing that that I think people are seeing is the erosion of the middle class the erosion of the programs they've been put in place that has helped the middle class and low income. And when you when that starts happening people fight back after a while they say you know we've had enough we go fight back but put you in you've got to do right because of what. If the Democrats would just win and don't get the job

done they'll throw them out on their ear just as quick as if they did the Republican Congress. But I think it's extremely important that we get back to some of the basic things we're doing restore those foster care cuts that's ridiculous to the child health insurance cuts restore those. Restore the childcare tax credits all of these things that the Pell Grants for college scholarships. All these things the middle class has been counting on to help them climb that ladder a little bit. They've lost and that's why you have so much personal debt right now. Well people think well it's because they're over consuming buying TVs and cars and it's not just because they're trying to get the kids educated trying to take care of their elderly parents and they're trying to afford health care at the same time. And I believe that if Washington gets that message people feel a lot more confident about their government and sort of be willing to participate in any way make any sacrifice if they have to. Well you put your finger right on two things middle class worries about paying for health care and paying for college. And both of those has skyrocketed in the last 10

years which is the amazing increase factor. You know we try to keep the cost of college down now that I'm having to pay it. I see how much it cost it just the one thing I wanted to tell you is not just the tuition you know we will keep tuition down but once you get you know tuition and books and fees and and I'm not complaining because this is something I can handle OK. But then you but then you got to have a place to study and some to eat. No lecture sort of stuff and it adds up pretty quickly. So we're going to start featuring more what state can do to help kids get to college pay for stay there graduate. That is the best indicator of how much wealth you're going to have in your state and how little poverty you're going to have is what is the education level. So we're Hold on let you move around the state an awful lot. You talk to a lot of people. What's the mood of North Carolina right now. That is good. People feel like we're making progress good progress.

And they feel like they are part of it. They they know we've accomplished a lot. They know we have a long way to go. They see our teachers getting paid a decent wage and now we know that we're committed to do more and I think. That it is long as we can keep the jobs company and keep the education level one up. We'll see the people prosper because they have great values in this in this state. Have you ever seen anything blossom the way the tourism industry has. Your term here in this it is taken off. Last year I think we were the sixth most visited state and for this great revenue. The people come down to spend the money. You don't have to educate your kids you don't have to take care of you don't have to provide childcare or any of that you just need go back home make more money come back we love it. That's one of those things it says be about preservation of what you've got to do as it does and. And we're committed to that. Everything from the clean smokestacks initiative which is really been good giving us an ability to leverage on some of the

states now to make sure that we maintain our clean water as we go forward. And it is the same time a highway system is going to have a lot to say about what the air is like. It's obvious in that you've got some things in mind for your next two years it had a plan already ready for the General Assembly in January where we got to we're going to have an ambitious and aggressive plan and I'll tell you the truth the legislature will be commended gasbag over there with anything this not aggressive and not ambitious. They're rejected. They've gotten they've gotten pretty aggressive over there and pretty demanding of the governor and that's good because the people are demanding of them. And I think you'll see North Carolina continue to make progress not only the rest of my term but in the future is so embedded in everybody's attitude right now. And I we've got about two minutes left here this nice visit and I want you to look into the camera here and tell the people of North Carolina what you want to say to them this holiday season if you will please sir.

Well appreciate that I don't get a chance to look directly into the camera but I certainly want to wish everybody happy holidays but this is the time of year when we get together with our family and our friends and we think about all those more than we think about ourselves and we learn in the spirit of the season that the joy really is in giving. And I hope that we can remember that throughout the rest rest of the year that here in North Carolina we are about watching out for us because if we watch out for them they'll watch out for us. And I'm looking forward to a great new year. Well we thank you for that Mrs. Ray's And thank you for this jazz to come and start to reminisce a bit and look ahead a bit and I know friends you've enjoyed hearing our chief executive and I know that on your behalf I wish for him and his family the best of New Year's and the half a holiday season. So until next week then and I sponsored in part by walkover via helping North Carolina people realize their financial goals since 1879 and through the financial contributions of

viewers like you who invite you to join them in supporting UN see TV.