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Navigating North Carolina's Healthcare Storm · The SEANC View

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Music.
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Hello and welcome to another edition of the Scenic View podcast.
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We've got what has become somewhat of a normal crew in here for us, the usual group.
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I'm Jonathan Owens, the communications director here at Scenic,
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alongside Artis Watkins, executive director, Suzanne Beasley,
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the government relations director, and Sam Klein, our digital communications
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specialist slash podcast producer. How are you folks doing this morning?
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Great. We're doing well. Finally warmed up. I feel like we need to tell people
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when we're recording because a few times we'll say like today or yesterday.
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So we're recording on Thursday, January 9th. And with things changing so fast,
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at least you'll know when we're recording.
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On what would have been the ceremonial inaugural weekend.
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But the weather had other plans, we found out last night, right?
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It's going to be cold, maybe icy.
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Governor Josh Stein announced that much of his, I guess all of his inaugural.
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I mean, the whole thing, all the events. The Black Party.
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The ball? Are they going to reschedule? They said the ball would probably be
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rescheduled for the spring.
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This happened once before, I remember. I think it was maybe McCrullough.
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Well, I mean, we've had lots of things happen. We've had COVID.
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Yeah. And there has been a winter weather event. I remember that a few years back.
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I feel like whenever we get a winter weather event, it always falls near MLK Junior Day.
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It is a big time. time for, because I always, I think of things in terms of
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basketball games and it's always around the NC State game, the caravana,
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which is this weekend, two state universities will be facing off on the hardwood,
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but it's always either the state or the Duke game.
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So we have DOT crews out salting the roads and getting ready for this weekend's weather event.
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Do you think it'll be enough to make a snowman? I doubt that.
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And you know, we don't usually get the nice fluffy snow, even when it snows
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enough, there's always ice in the mix, so it's not a good snowman.
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Lots of memories of making really pitiful snowmen out of a half inch of ice
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when I was younger. Anyway...
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So we're going to move on to the top. Wait a minute. The DOT guys out there.
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It's not just guys out there for DOT, to be clear. So I apologize.
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But the DOT folks working the roads. It's a thankless job on a good day.
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But considering the vacancies they have in some of the maintenance yards and
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some of the places that are so vital to keeping our roads open and safe,
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and especially those secondary roads.
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Yeah. And they're still busy up in the West trying to rebuild a lot of roads, too.
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Absolutely. They've made a lot of progress, from what I understand,
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but there's so much damage up there.
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I wonder if you can even build roads while there's snow, you know,
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while you're— Oh, that's true.
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So maybe they have to slow down that operation, but— It's a lot of roads. It's a lot of roads.
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But, yeah, so hats off to the folks at DOT and be safe. We're thinking of you.
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I know that's not—you know, you have our thoughts and prayers,
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but you need better pay. We're going to work on that, too. Heck, yeah.
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Speaking of pay and everything that we do— Well, you have to pay for life.
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Yeah. So everything does come back to, can you pay?
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So this episode will focus a
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lot on health care, the state health plan and just health care in general.
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If you're not a state employee and you found us somehow, just keep listening
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because we're going to we're going to talk about the whole shebang, if you will.
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We're going to talk about the whole system and just how it relates to state
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employees and retirees in North Carolina as well.
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But I think that they're experiencing a lot of the same problems everyone is with health care.
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Yeah. If you don't know a state employee, you're not a state employee. You don't even know one.
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You're not related to one. And you think, why do I care what happens in the
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state health plan? We'll tell you why.
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The state health plan is about 8 percent of the market for health care in North Carolina.
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So as goes the state health plan, pretty much so go your costs.
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And as John said, it's a nationwide problem. The American health care crisis
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is one of our own making by allowing absolutely no holds barred taking advantage of the citizens.
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And we've been fighting this issue for years. It does seem to be getting more
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and more attention from the public, I think, because we've gone beyond the breaking
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point where too much of people's wages is taken.
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So we're going to talk about the state health plan, but understand anything
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that's happening there will affect your health care.
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And kind of the impetus for this discussion is the story this week from the
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Carolina Public Press that a new state treasurer, Brad Briner,
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wasted a little time when he got into office.
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A week after taking the oath, he's already talking about raising premiums for state employees.
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We will kind of delve into that issue first, I guess.
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As you said, the state health plan covers about 8% of the state's citizens.
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You know, the folks who have health care in this state.
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About 743,000 people total, 256,000 of them are retirees. So it's not just state employees.
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It's state employee families, dependents. A huge swath of North Carolina is
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affected by this plan and by the decision of whether or not to raise premiums
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and out-of-pocket costs.
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So what were your takeaways?
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Did you expect him to come out this soon calling for a premium increase?
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Well, I think the article's kind of unclear about what Treasurer Briner at the
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end of the day is going to suggest. We don't know that yet.
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We don't know how much he wants to come out of the pockets of state employees.
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But I think his statements are kind of clear. That's where they're going to look.
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But without putting words in his mouth, because I don't know what his plan is
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going to be. He did say he will have a plan to revamp the way we do things.
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It will not be Treasurer Falwell's plan. What will it be?
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I don't know. But when the headline says uncomfortable things are necessary
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to fix the North Carolina health plan, new treasurer says. Uncomfortable for whom, right? Yeah.
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Well, I guess maybe we should back up and point out what the main topic is,
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that there's a $507 million debt in the state health plan right now,
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according to this article.
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Yeah, by fall of 2026. Yeah.
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And Briner's comment was the expectation that the General Assembly can or should
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fix this problem is not based in reality. We are going to have to do a number
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of uncomfortable things with a $507 million shortfall.
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The uncomfortable pieces are now inevitable.
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The obvious one is premiums. Those have been held flat for a decade,
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and I commend Treasurer Falwell for focusing on that.
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But unfortunately, it's time that we keep up with inflation.
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That sticks with me because state employees are already running 9% below market in salary. Okay.
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The issue I take with that statement, it's time that we keep up with inflation.
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The only fact we have about the health plan, because remember,
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these are secret contracts.
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And these days, it's super, super unpopular and talked about a lot because of
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the efforts that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy and others, the Doge efforts.
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And on the state level, folks wanting the state auditor to look at the money
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that's going to be spent under Governor Stein's watch on hurricane relief.
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Why is no one concerned that these are secret contracts between the insurance
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company for the health plan and the providers?
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Because the only piece of information we have
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comes from Siegel Consulting that works for the plan and said, hey,
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the range of what providers, meaning hospitals or doctors, is paid can go from
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anywhere as low as 80-90% of Medicare reimbursement, as a reference point, to 800-plus percent.
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So if we're talking about keeping up with inflation, we have way overcompensated,
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very clearly, according to Siegel, a good number, or I don't know how many,
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actually nobody knows how many providers.
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So how can you come to the employees for anything until you know exactly which
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providers are getting what.
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Shouldn't that be your obvious first uncomfortable conversation?
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And this should be a concern for taxpayers. Yeah, it should be.
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You don't know what you're paying for. There's just no oversight.
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It's the Wild West. That's been our argument for, gosh, two decades now. Since I've been here.
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It used to be you couldn't even see the third party administrator,
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so the insurance company contract.
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Couldn't even see that. We had to fight tooth and nail to make that open.
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Well, that only tells you what you're paying them.
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It doesn't tell you what they negotiate literally on your behalf.
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So the state's paying it, but this third party's negotiating it.
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Taxpayers should want to know. Again, not only is it taxpayer money,
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but at the end of the day, if they negotiate prices that stink for the consumer,
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taxpayers are getting hit not only in their tax money that goes to the health
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plan, but they're getting hit because their prices are going to go up.
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And costs in North Carolina are especially bad.
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Forbes had a study in 2024, I guess we'll call that last year now,
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that North Carolina ranks as the most expensive state in the country for health care.
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Another study said that our performance and what we're getting for that is among
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the bottom of the nation.
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So crazy. That's consistent. That wasn't just last year.
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I mean, we've consistently for a while now been the expensive place for health
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care and the place where the outcomes aren't considered the best in the nation.
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What we do have is a lot of places to get it.
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So we rank pretty high in a pretty good way on availability of health care.
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But availability just means there's a place there you can go to.
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Can you afford it? Is it going to bankrupt you?
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That's a whole other question. So these are the things that, again,
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I am astounded that people who are concerned about transparency and about monitoring
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public nickels and dimes and dollars are not keyed in on this mess because that's
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where the big, big money is, y'all.
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And back to the statement that you asked about a specific statement,
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that asking the General Assembly to fix it is just not based in reality. So let's talk reality.
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The reality of this situation is we do need half a billion dollars to make this
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fund hold by fall of 2026.
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So that's two budget cycles. The state health plan, though, is still owed $323
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million that the legislature got specifically from the federal government to
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pay for state health plan costs.
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They gave some of it, but $323 million of it never made it to the state health plan.
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So that's... That's a whole. That's, yeah, that's 323 of that half a billion.
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And then more importantly, these staff vacancies we keep talking about.
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The Office of State Budget and Management in August of 23, so it's gotten a larger number by then.
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But in 23, the Office of State Budget and Management said over a billion dollars
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had been put in the reserves because of vacancies.
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Because of staff vacancies. What does that mean? Over a billion dollars got
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put in North Carolina's reserves because state employees were doing the job of more than one person.
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And trying to provide the public services taxpayers expect, taxpayers have no
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idea there's all these vacancies.
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So if you look at the $323 million still owed for COVID,
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the $1.17 that went into reserves at least by 2023 because of vacancies,
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you're looking at about $1.5 billion that went in the state's coffers or stayed in the state's coffers.
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So $1.5 billion, roughly, is still held by the General Assembly of money that
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would have gone to state employees, $323 million of it, specifically designated for the health plan.
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So to think it's not reality to go to folks who keep holding state health plan
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money, and I get it, the General Assembly's got a hard job.
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They're trying to make everything work. And you know what?
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That $1.17 billion plus that went into reserves, that sure was needed after the storm.
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But the bottom line is, let's be honest about where it came from.
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Those reserves didn't come from just, hey, everybody made great decisions.
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No, state employees were doing the work of more than one person.
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And to not seek that money and instead go try to get that money from,
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you know, state employees who already don't make what their private sector counterparts
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make and are suffering under inflation, it just seems wrong to me.
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See, I'm confused because if the General Assembly and the state received so
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much money for pandemic relief and it hasn't been paid back to the state health
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plan. Who else are we supposed to go to for that money?
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Right. Well, traditionally, the idea is in politics, you go to the path of least resistance.
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And the fact of the matter is, if you were to try to go to the health care industry,
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again, we don't know what we're paying them. We just know the range.
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The range tells us we're wildly overpaying some of them.
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But rather than go to the ones that are being wildly overpaid and say,
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we're not going to do that anymore, or all of y'all have to take a cut of some
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kind because it's got to be, quote, uncomfortable for everybody.
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That's a really resistant path. They have, and good on them.
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They've got a really organized, deeply, deeply funded lobby.
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They do. And I think that's the source of not only state employees and retirees,
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but the whole country's frustration against.
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Americans are fed up. Yeah. Hey, Donald Trump agrees with us on this in terms of drug prices.
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I'm not sure he knows what he was.
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Well, no, I mean, he and he had said things in his previous term that indicated
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on pharmaceutical pricing, which is a big piece of the whole health plan problem,
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the health care problem in this country.
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But he had been critical of why are we spending more than other countries?
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Obviously, President Biden.
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Had been the same page. So you've got two very wildly different men,
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different presidents who are on the same page with, why are we doing this?
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I think that's just a little tangent, but I think that's kind of,
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I mean, it is why Trump is so popular with everyday people is sometimes he does
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just step out of line and say things like that, that no one has told him that
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the corporation wants you to say this.
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Sometimes he does like take a stand that usually gets Well, I agree.
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And that's one of the reasons I don't think it's not reality to go to the legislature.
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I've talked to, I know, Suzanne, you surely have had conversations with legislators
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in the North Carolina General Assembly who say this isn't right.
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They're not comfortable with it. They're not comfortable with going to state
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employees or anyone else in
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their community that makes working folk wages and asking them to pay more,
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knowing full well that we're not going and asking anyone else to sacrifice ever,
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ever, ever. They're uncomfortable with that themselves.
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So, I mean, what's your... I mean, they know. Yeah, we're having a lot of conversations.
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There's a growing amount of dissension over just looking the other way.
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And it's on a national level, too.
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I think everyone would appreciate someone standing up for...
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Well, I mean, the bottom line, I think you may have said this already,
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though, but if it's affecting the state health plan in North Carolina,
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it's going to affect everybody else's insurance at some point and the country.
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And I know, I mean, we've had some really good conversations with Senator Berger
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and his staff in the past that gave me great hope.
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Obviously, we've not closed that deal because they've still got an awful lot
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of the money that should go to the health plan. Now, do they have it anymore?
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No, probably not. Yeah. But does that mean, oh, well, then we have to go to the employees?
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No. Not at all. The piece of this that doesn't get talked about is the piece
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that's holding all the money.
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That's the industry. Have we seen any projections for surplus this year or if there will be one?
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I know we've talked about there'll be a lot of strings on it with the hurricane relief and whatnot.
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I don't see how you have a surplus in this situation.
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I mean, that's great if we do. But I mean, you need to look.
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Everything is always on the table.
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And tax cuts are great. But tax cuts, no matter how great you make them,
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probably never put back the amount of money that those increased health care costs on everybody.
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So if you're losing more and more of your wages to health care and your taxes
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go down a little bit, are you better off?
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The priorities, I think, are going to be reexamined by the General Assembly.
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Yeah, I've done a lot of surface level research this week trying to find out more about this topic.
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And what I found is North Carolinians pay about 14 percent of their income on
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premiums and deductibles right now.
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And that's up from 11 percent in 2008. And it's steadily increasing.
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And that's a percent. So that's not like. And that's North Carolinians.
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That's not just the state health plan. And that's all North Carolina,
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not just state employees.
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So 14 percent of your salary is a large. I mean, that's twice what you pay in taxes, right?
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The state taxes, at least. Oh, it's more than that. And state employees are
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making 9% under market, so... Right, right.
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So if you think about it, 14 percent of your income is going to health care costs.
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In 2025, the state income tax rate is 4.25 percent. So that's three times what the tax rate is.
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In 2026, that's going down to 3.9 percent. There's a amendment on the table
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right now to set it at 5 percent capped. Right.
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So this is a way to understand for families than even your tax rate.
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And people get so mad about taxes, you know.
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Well, yeah, yeah. It's like, look over here. Look at the taxes.
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They're killing you. No, health care is killing you. Yeah, exactly.
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Health care is killing you. But I think that more and more people are starting to understand that.
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And that's why I do think you will see some changes, if not in this year,
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in the next few years in the General Assembly.
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I think people are going back home and more and more people,
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more constituents, more people on the campaign trail are saying,
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look, this is killing me.
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And, you know, you don't get a lot out of your I mean, you you obviously get
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a promise of paying health care costs whenever you have a problem.
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But at least with taxes, you're getting like roads to drive on and prisons to keep you safe.
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And, you know, we've always fought the public perception of state employees
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and public services and what the general public thinks they're getting for their tax dollars.
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A lot of them just don't understand all the services that are provided.
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By state employees. But if they were not there and if there's not money to fill
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vacancies and, you know, something to entice more employees,
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you know, public services suffer.
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So, listeners, we warned you before you started this podcast that we're going
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to go on some tangents. We're going deep and there will be some tangents,
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but we think it's important.
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Obviously, we're impassioned about this and you should be, too. So, yeah.
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Where do you see this fight going? that.
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Okay, so to wrap it up, Tresher Reiner, I mean, we said it at the beginning
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of when he first was about to take office. Look, he's going into a terrible
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situation, but he has to figure out how he addresses it.
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We don't know exactly what he's going to do yet, so we can't judge what he's
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done because he hadn't done it yet.
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The only thing we know is his public comments in the last week, and those are not great.
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There hadn't been one word about going to the industry for anything.
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I'm hopeful he will indeed say, look, I hear what the entire nation's saying. Right.
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That, you know, multi-million dollar CEO salaries for these hospitals and all
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of these things we've talked about before in terms of spa-like birthing facilities and stuff like that,
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that this is not OK when we're talking about going to some of the state's lowest
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paid folks and asking them to give even more of their hard-earned dollars for health care.
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So we've got to give him a minute to figure out what he wants to do.
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But we have to be clear from the beginning. I mean, it's not fair to him if
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we don't make it clear that our folks are because our phones did ring off the
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hook after this article came out.
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People telling us exactly what we would expect.
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We've talked about health care a lot over the last 10 years here.
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So it's not surprising that people call us and said, I hope you are doing something
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about that mess right now.
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So we are. And honestly, it's kind of like any time you take a new job or a
19:45
new adventure in your life, you know, I'm sure he goes into office and he sees
19:49
this terrible debt coming up and he wants to react and fix that problem.
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And I commend that. Yeah. But he also needs to realize the largeness of the
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system and how much power he has. Yes. Yeah.
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And I think that, you know, I've made the offer to him and also for Thomas Friedman,
20:07
the executive administrator of the plan, that they're welcome to come on this
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podcast because we're not going to just talk about them.
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We would love to have them be able to have their voice at the table and say,
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what y'all aren't thinking about is X, Y and Z.
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Let's have that discussion. I think discussions are what has to happen. They have to happen.
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We may not know everything about the situation and they cannot imagine it.
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But yes, I mean, that's not totally not the case, right?
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I think the treasurer Falwell even didn't realize at first that he represents
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10 percent of the state's health commercially insured people.
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Yes. Yeah. And that's a huge that's huge. It's huge power. It's it's insane.
20:45
He can affect change. He can make he can affect. He can make pharmaceutical
20:49
companies squirm. You know, he can.
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So I think that maybe he's just got to gain his footing and.
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And we'll give him a minute for that. Yeah. Look forward to talking with him. He's a personable man.
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Another thing that changed in the state health plan was the new administrator
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took over on January 1st.
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Aetna has now taken the reins of the state health plan over from Blue Cross Blue Shield.
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We've seen a little response from some employees who've had some issues.
21:15
Not a wave of problems yet, but as we were talking, it's early, right?
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People aren't even using their health care. I mean, it's a massive plan.
21:26
Anytime an employer switches over a health plan, period, I don't care the size
21:30
of the employer, you're going to have some hiccups.
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But with this size plan, you would think there'd be a fair number.
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But our phones, like you said, it's early. Our phones are not ringing about that right now.
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So have we said it? Health care is so frustrating in general.
21:43
Tell us a little bit about that, Sam. Well, I have underlying conditions that
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affect my body in drastic ways.
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I skip most of my appointments for that. I have the medications that I need in case it messes up.
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And there are certain appointments that I'm supposed to do every six months, once a year.
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There are so many issues within health care that I'm like, I'm not going to
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get blood work every six months when the company that my blood work goes to
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tells me, hey, you didn't pay the $30 you owe us. And I'm like, I paid it two months ago.
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And they're like, we didn't get it. And so I have to pay a second time only
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to get one of those eventually refunded after another four months. So you're saying.
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And then also just some of the cost of these appointments.
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I can't afford to go get an ultrasound every single year. There's the big thing.
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It's $800 for me to get an ultrasound with my insurance.
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I can't afford to do that every single year when I have other doctor's appointments that I have to make.
22:34
Well, I think therein lies the problem. Health care is out of reach for people
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who need health care. One of my friends we were talking about last night.
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Perfectly put. One of my friends, one of my really good friends,
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her family member had a lot of medical bills and another family was covering
22:50
those for her and could not afford to take herself to the doctor.
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And by the time that family member had passed away and she was no longer covering
22:57
those medical bills, she went to the doctor.
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She found out she was in stage four cancer.
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Oh, my God. Because she had. Because she was not taking care of herself because
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she had to take care of this family member because that family member could
23:09
not afford to take care of her own medical. So many sad situations.
23:13
Goodness. It is. And I think that, you know, we're going to try on this podcast
23:17
to have more experts around the table because, you know, we said it jokingly,
23:21
but none of us are health care experts.
23:23
Unfortunately, we've had to learn more about the health care system and how
23:27
it affects employees than we ever wanted to. But we need some experts around
23:31
the table and we need some policymakers around the table.
23:34
So somebody from the General Assembly to talk about health care and what they're
23:37
doing or, you know, what their plans are for this year would be really big.
23:42
Yeah, I find myself kind of in the same mindset as everyone on this.
23:46
I'm no expert on this. And it just seems from the outside looking in that health
23:50
care is something everyone needs.
23:52
And the people who provide it know that and can charge what they want to for
23:57
it. And we're all, I think everyone just feels kind of helpless, kind of powerless.
24:03
That's where CDE comes in. We're not powerless. It feels anxiety-inducing.
24:08
Of course it is. Every time I have to schedule a doctor's appointment for anything,
24:11
I'm like, how much is this going to cost me? Yeah.
24:14
Yeah. It could be a general— And you have insurance. What if you didn't have
24:17
insurance? It could be a general appointment, and I'm still sitting there.
24:20
Okay, that's a question.
24:22
When you think to yourself, how much is this going to cost me,
24:24
do you call and ask them? How much is this going to cost me ahead of getting the treatment?
24:28
I'll usually look through like the papers that I have and be like, OK, how much do they pay?
24:34
How much this is typically cost? And I have a mom who works in health care.
24:38
She's a nurse. So I'll usually contact her and be like, how much do you think this is going to run?
24:42
And the reason I ask is because, of course, that was the big issue that Treasure
24:47
Falwell was obsessed with,
24:49
was the fact that you could call different places within a 10 mile radius in
24:54
a big city and get prices that were very wildly different for the same procedure.
24:58
But we don't know what it's going to cost us.
25:04
But he always pointed out in the grocery store, we wouldn't go up to the cash
25:07
register unclear about what the can of peas is going to cost.
25:12
We would never accept that no price on the can of peas.
25:15
Sometimes if you have to go to a specific doctor, they'll only give a referral
25:19
to certain places for you to get something else done That they say,
25:24
oh, you need a follow-up test. We don't do that here. We'll send your referral.
25:29
And they don't necessarily give you a choice on where your referral is sent
25:32
to say. No, because they probably own the place they're sending you to.
25:36
That's the bottom line this day,
25:38
more and more and more. And we're on a tangent right now. Big tangent.
25:41
Another tangent. But insurance companies, you know, they've negotiated whatever
25:46
this test or procedure is going to cost.
25:49
And the cash price of that may be completely different. So you see all that
25:53
connection with, you know, providers, hospitals.
25:56
Gets a problem when you can save money by not using your insurance.
25:59
Yeah, by not using your insurance. That's crazy.
26:01
And, you know, well, this is a really deep. Tangent on. Tangent on.
26:05
We're really deep, and maybe this will stay in.
26:08
But when things are this complicated and this huge, you need government to step
26:15
in and regulate, especially the health care industry. Well, I mean,
26:18
it's the Wild West right now.
26:19
So, again, let's see what Treasurer Briner's wanting to do.
26:23
Let's see what the legislature says about it. Because, obviously,
26:25
it doesn't sound like Treasurer Briner wants to ask them to,
26:28
the General Assembly being them, to bridge any of this half-a-billion-dollar
26:32
gap. But we're certainly asking them. Yeah.
26:35
We need the treasurer to ask them, to be clear. That would be huge.
26:38
And if I'm the legislature, I am probably going to say I'm not doing that. But y'all need to go.
26:43
You know where the deep pockets are. But the legislature has to say we're fine
26:48
with the secrecy being taken away from these contracts.
26:52
The legislature does have to do that. They don't have to come up with half a
26:55
billion, but they have to say we we will not stand in the way of making these
26:59
things transparent so the public
27:01
knows what tax dollars are being used in what way on this health care.
27:04
So if if he won't go to the General Assembly and ask for that funding,
27:09
maybe he'll go and ask for raises to make up for the premium.
27:13
That's just that perpetuates the cycle.
27:16
At some point, you have to, we do need raises, but raises to make up for the
27:20
overpriced health care just keeps it going, right? Doesn't change anything.
27:25
Because then they start raising health care again. And then they're like,
27:28
if you don't get the raise the next year, your health care is still gone up.
27:31
I guess that's how inflation happens, right? Yeah.
27:34
Oh, what a topic. Yeah. The health care, we're now three hours into this. Right.
27:41
Remember the SpongeBob thing is like three hours later.
27:45
Here we are. Well, if you are a state employee, we are probably going to be
27:50
putting together, I would imagine, some town halls on this issue around health care.
27:53
And so we will be able to hear from you.
27:56
And that's the most important thing. I have a question.
28:00
How does this happen? So what needs to happen? I guess the board of trustees
28:04
will have to make a decision on increasing premiums, correct?
28:07
On what they will recommend.
28:10
What's the timing on something like that? So it's usually the January meeting
28:14
where they make those kind of decisions.
28:16
I'm not sure, y'all, what this specific date of the meeting will be.
28:19
It's not posted on the website yet, but it's generally at the end of January.
28:24
But, yeah, that's where they make those decisions, which technically doesn't
28:26
change anything there. But that's what they recommend to the General Assembly
28:29
to make their decisions on.
28:31
So it's, you know, really important that the trustees take this to it.
28:35
So would the premium increase have to be approved by the legislature in the
28:40
budget? It would be appropriated in the budget. Anything that has to do with
28:44
state health plan, retirement system, it all has to come through budget and be appropriated.
28:49
And usually that means that if there is a premium increase, that would happen next year, January 1.
28:56
So you would see increased costs in January. We have a year, well, not a year.
29:00
We have about 15 days to talk about it. But we will still be advocating at the
29:06
legislature regardless of that.
29:07
Stay tuned to this issue. Speaking of the legislature, they did come back this week for one day.
29:14
One day. Swearing in. So we have a new legislature that came in.
29:19
We do. What are some of the changes?
29:21
So leadership changed in the House. A couple of things in the Senate.
29:25
But the House, they obviously have a new Speaker of the House.
29:28
Former Rules Chair Destin Hall, Representative Destin Hall, is now Mr. Speaker.
29:33
Majority Leader John Bale is now Mr. Chairman of the Rules Committee.
29:37
Representative Mitchell Setzer, who's been a great friend to Scenic,
29:41
is now the Speaker Pro Tem. He unseated Sarah Stevens for that position.
29:46
Reeves remains the minority leader in the Senate. Not a lot changed.
29:50
The biggest thing I think is Sidney Batch is now the minority leader.
29:54
Senator Blue is no longer going to take that spot.
29:57
Some of our officers made it down to the legislature yesterday for the swearing
30:01
in. I saw some pictures with some of those folks you just mentioned.
30:04
Yeah, and I'm sure we've got a lot more to go through. Sam came down with the camera.
30:09
And, oh, we had such a good day yesterday. First Vice President Wendell Powell,
30:14
Second Vice President Emily Jones, and our General Treasurer,
30:17
Stacey Crabtree, joined the team on the ground.
30:19
And we just really got to talk to so many people yesterday, from Senator Berger
30:25
on down to some of the newbies at the General Assembly.
30:28
I love opening day because it's happy.
30:31
Nobody's getting mad at each other yet. It's very ceremonial,
30:34
the swearing in, and lots of family members are there. So that's kind of fun,
30:38
too, to have legislators introduce you to their family members.
30:42
Was Lieutenant Governor Rachel Hunt there? She presided, yeah.
30:46
Did the governor come over? I did not see him if he did. I remember one year.
30:49
I did not see him. Yeah, I remember one year.
30:52
I remember seeing him over there and swearing in there.
30:55
That doesn't mean he wasn't there. I just didn't see him. But I did run into
30:59
Senator Tom Tillis. Okay.
31:01
Former Representative Beverly Earle, who's one of my favorite people.
31:05
Former Senator Floyd McKissick, who's just an amazing human being.
31:09
I was really happy to see him.
31:11
And then, you know, all of our old friends, we made some new friends yesterday,
31:14
just got familiar with faces, which still will take a little time because there are a lot of new faces.
31:19
But it was a great day. I was tickled to have, you know, some of our officers on the ground.
31:23
That's always important to have that presence. And I think it's always important
31:26
for legislators to hear directly from our people, specifically the folks who
31:30
are leading this organization. So we had a great day yesterday.
31:33
I'm looking forward to anyone else that wants to come and join us at the legislature
31:37
during session and speak to your lawmakers.
31:39
We'll we'll hook you up and love to have you on the ground with us.
31:41
And you say they'll come back January 28th.
31:44
January 28th. And get really get down to business. That's when we get down to
31:47
business. What are you expecting this year?
31:49
Is it going to be a quick session or a long, long, long? Oh,
31:52
I think it'll be long. Okay.
31:54
Look, I've gotten over expecting short sessions. So this past short session,
31:58
which, you know, given they didn't agree on anything and just cut the rope and went home.
32:02
Yeah, that's the first short, short session we've had in some time.
32:05
So, yeah, I just don't expect anything short.
32:07
I go ahead and set my sights on it being long, and then I'm pleasantly surprised
32:11
when it ends. Any other topics we need to get to?
32:14
Oh, I don't think we have time for any more topics. We've probably podcasted people out today Well,
32:19
in honor of this We've already talked about the DOT workers And everyone needs
32:23
to be safe We have employees who will get to the job Lots of essential folks
32:28
Who are going to get to the job
32:29
We always remember the employee who rode to the prison on his lawnmower.
32:34
He sure did and got to that prison despite the weather.
32:37
And, you know, I wish the public knew more about that kind of effort people
32:41
make. And they do that so that their co-workers aren't left in the lurch.
32:45
There are also a lot of college students about to go back to school this weekend and traveling.
32:51
Please be safe in the possible snow. Please pay attention.
32:57
Maybe that's the big thing. Pay attention, y'all. Here in North Carolina,
33:00
when it snows, we all lose our minds.
33:01
Speaking of snow, go ahead. I saw something funny that said,
33:04
the scariest part about driving in snow isn't the road conditions.
33:07
It's the fact that you can't see the lane.
33:09
So everyone is basically out here playing Mario Kart.
33:13
Frogger. But stay home if you can. Yes. Eat lots of breads.
33:18
Get that bread for some of those. And just get fat and happy.
33:20
You know what I was talking about.
33:23
Okay. So our question of the week.
33:27
Music.
33:33
In keeping with the snow talk what is your best snow memory
33:36
sam you gotta have something going to western carolina probably
33:39
slid down a hill right i didn't do that much when it was snowing at western
33:44
i had my dog and he did not like well he actually loved the snow i took him
33:48
outside and he played in the dog park for like three hours and oh that's always
33:52
fun when i came back inside I had to wash him because he was covered in mud
33:56
and snow and it was disgusting.
33:58
But I think my favorite snow memories were growing up when I lived in Tennessee,
34:02
we would get snow almost every year and me and my brother would grab our little
34:06
essentially trash can lids and be like, let's go sled in, go out there, play all day,
34:11
make some snowmen and then come back inside and mom would have hot chocolate ready to go.
34:15
What's it been, like four years since we got to get snow? At least. A long time.
34:20
I think I was a senior in college last time I experienced my snow.
34:24
What about you, Suzanne?
34:25
Snow cream. Oh, yeah, snow cream. Don't eat the yellow snow cream.
34:29
Don't eat the yellow snow.
34:31
Speaking of dogs, that's it. Like I said earlier, we don't usually get that
34:35
pretty white fluffy snow here, so you can't make snow cream with sleet and snow.
34:39
That doesn't work. Hey, but the ground might be cold enough to do it this time.
34:43
Maybe. Hopefully. Because I think it'll actually stick. I also have like a little
34:46
doggy story, like Sam's talking about her dog.
34:49
But I had, I had to say goodbye to Lily, little dachshund, miniature dachshund.
34:52
She was my girl, but it snowed years ago.
34:56
She was 13 when I put her down. So it's been 10 years ago at least.
34:59
And we had snow. Was it 10 years ago?
35:01
Anyway, there was enough snow that when I put her outside, she sunk.
35:05
So yeah, we had to dig out some yard space to accommodate her situation.
35:10
How about you, Arniss? moving to north carolina when i was 12
35:13
from texas just seeing the snow was
35:16
so magical and then friends got together my first
35:19
christmas and bought me a sled oh nice you know but had
35:22
to teach me to sled right right you know a flexible flyer but there were so
35:27
many memories around that that i thought those are just gonna be my best memories
35:30
forever but teaching kids to sled that's what i'll never yeah and i think that's
35:35
easier to remember because at least we have video of that you know As opposed
35:38
to back in the day. But yeah.
35:40
And you have the most awesome place where you live. I live one block,
35:45
you know, one street over from probably the best hill in town for. Wow.
35:48
We had one of those hills in Tennessee that was a hill that my dad would say
35:54
every time we'd go out there. If you're going to be dumb, you've got to be tough.
35:58
You're like on Christmas vacation when he sprays the stuff out there.
36:02
So mine is, my dad and I were just talking about this last night,
36:06
which is why I brought up the question.
36:07
Do you all remember in 2000 when we had that gigantic snow? I do.
36:13
Oh, man. That's my least favorite snow memory because I was shoveling. It was so, so much snow.
36:18
Roof in durham so it didn't cave in it was
36:21
like literally i don't remember that shut everything
36:24
down how were you then 2000 yeah i
36:28
was born three months prior but so
36:32
we were laughing because my dad was like you remember when that happened a week
36:36
before the meteorologist in greensboro was like oh nothing's gonna happen right
36:41
nothing's gonna he's just gonna be a little snow and then it happened and the
36:44
guy and the guy the first episode back was like anyone looking for a meteor,
36:49
i need a new job but our power didn't go out and we lived like out in the rural
36:55
country and all my friends power went out so like everybody came to my house
37:00
it was pretty awesome that would be a pretty epic memory yeah no parties yeah
37:05
i also didn't even live in north carolina at the time We lived in Yuma, Arizona,
37:09
so I guarantee you we were not getting snow. It was unbelievable.
37:14
I think that's probably the biggest snow.
37:17
Yeah, I think so. Oh, yeah. I remember a pretty good one.
37:22
In 2011, I had just moved to North Carolina, and my parents told me,
37:26
they were like, don't expect a lot of snow.
37:28
Don't expect to get snow. Live in here. And that winter, we had just moved there in that winter.
37:34
Huge snowstorm in January. That was the one. We were outside playing all day.
37:39
That was the one where the infamous picture of the bell line.
37:43
Was it the bell way or line? What do you call it? Was it Glenwood?
37:46
Yeah, where the car's on fire.
37:48
That was epic.
37:52
Okay, there's our snow tangent. Snow.
37:55
Well, thanks everyone for joining us. If you're still on here, God bless you.
37:59
And we will be back next week with an even awesomer episode.
38:04
Awesomer. Stay safe. Stay warm. you.
38:06
Music.