Latest / The SEANC View / State budget passes, but state employees and retirees deserve better

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State budget passes, but state employees and retirees deserve better · The SEANC View

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to another edition of the Scenic View podcast.
• 0:03
  We have big news this week, so let's get to it.
• 0:17
  Okay, so exciting week in state government, and we're here to talk about it.
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  But the big news I have is not what everyone is thinking. It's actually that
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  we are back in our studio.
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  We are home, home sweet home. We're back.
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  Just like, it's a little different, but not much different. And we're excited
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  to have a permanent home to do our podcast.
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  But no, the real big news for the week is they finally passed a state budget.
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  What are your thoughts, Artis? No, I just... Yeah. But yeah,
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  it was released on Monday, right? There has been some talk in the last two weeks
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  that they were very close to a budget.
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  No, it was released on Tuesday. No, Tuesday. Yeah, Tuesday. I guess on Sunday
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  night, we had heard that the compromise had been fully reached and they were
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  just ironing out the details.
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  They dropped it on Tuesday morning. Most of the items from the May announcement
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  on pay translated into the budget. There's no real big shock on what the races,
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  are. So we already knew pretty much.
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  Unfortunately, there was no surprise, no rectifying what was announced a couple
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  of months ago. Yeah, this is
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  the one time we were actually hoping for a surprise, right? Right. Well...
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  That upon further reflection, maybe they realized, and having heard from so
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  many scenic members who came to our lobby day and have called and tried to get
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  through by email, those tend to disappear with the spam filter.
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  But, you know, people tried to let them know. Yeah. But. Didn't matter.
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  Well, apparently, because a billion dollars got left on the table at the very
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  end, right? Didn't even get spent.
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  Let's get into the details then. And so for state employees,
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  it's a 3% across the board raise for most, well, for all of them.
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  And then there's others on top of that, right? Or are they concurrent?
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  So most state employees will get 3%.
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  Yes. And a bonus. And a bonus of $1,750 for employees with salaries, $65,000 or less.
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  And those over $65,000 would get a $1,000 bonus.
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  Retirees will get a 2.5% one-time bonus.
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  And the law enforcement section is kind of convoluted, but suffice it to say
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  that they're much larger raises for some law enforcement.
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  Oh, yeah. Some of them up to, what was it, 27%, I think, was where some of them topped out.
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  Which, you know, great. But there's a lot that goes into reducing your crime
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  rate and keeping it down.
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  Absolutely, part of it is paying law enforcement enough that you get quality
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  law enforcement personnel on the job.
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  But I really thought there might be more investments in doing things that have
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  been shown by research to help prevent crime and make your society healthier to where.
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  There's less crime from mental illness and things like that.
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  So that was surprising to me.
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  Yeah. Correctional officers get an average of 15.4% raise, and probation and
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  parole officers will get an average of 10.1%.
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  A lot of angst on our Facebook page from folks who work in corrections but aren't
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  classified as officers.
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  As well there should be. Yeah. I mean, as well there should be,
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  because the officers absolutely deserve, and honestly, we won't have any left
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  if they hadn't done something drastic like they did.
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  So, you know, congratulations, yay, thank you to the General Assembly for giving
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  correctional officers that kind of bump. But there are, in fact—,
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  so many more people within the walls, as we say. If you're within the walls
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  of a prison, you're in danger all day because anything can happen.
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  I think this was very played out publicly this week, what we saw with the detention
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  center in Bertie County, the jail where three people were working there with 88 inmates.
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  So, you know, you just about had a community that had an entire jail get out
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  and the except for one guy who got out and was able to call 9-1-1.
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  So yeah on that situation so I saw a lot of tweets about they only had three
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  officers on duty like and and say acting like that was a failure of the center or the place.
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  Yeah but I mean obviously they have to do an investigation into exactly what
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  happened but three people with 88 people incarcerated in there.
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  We're not surprised by that because we know that's the way prisons are staffed.
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  And sometimes in a prison, you'll have one officer for over 100 people. And it's no secret.
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  People didn't try to talk about it much for years because it was like,
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  oh, we don't really want inmates to know. Well, the inmates can count. They know.
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  And they've known for a long time. In fact, we have members routinely tell us,
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  routinely, and have for years, that inmates are telling them,
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  look, you go home at the end of the day because we let you.
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  And no lie there. I saw some of the clips of the, I guess the inmates being
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  carried off in buses and they were like screaming, excited, like a party atmosphere.
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  And you know, that's what our people are facing every day. Yeah,
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  and so, I mean, I think that shows you.
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  Yeah, you better give some good raises. But again, everybody within the walls
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  is in danger and everybody wouldn't recognize the same.
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  Same thing with the raises for schools. You know, teachers, not all teachers
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  get a good raise. Newer teachers get a good raise so that we could try to keep them. That's great.
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  But you need to keep your veteran teachers, too. And the raises get less impressive
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  with the more experience you have as a teacher. And then if you're not a teacher
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  and you work in schools, you get 3%. You get 3%.
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  So starting teacher pay is raised from $41,000 to $48,000. Across the board,
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  the average raise for teachers is 8%, which is more than 3%.
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  But you're right. It seems like there's more of a push to get newer,
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  maybe cheaper teachers than to keep the ones you have, right? Right.
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  Think about that. Really let that sink in for a minute. It's like we were talking
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  about with bridge inspectors for DOT, because that one terrifies me.
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  The idea of getting the cheapest state employee we can and having them inspect
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  a bridge that we're going to drive over.
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  But think about the cheapest teacher you can find. That's scary.
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  But it's just as scary to me to think about getting the cheapest janitor for a school you can find.
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  These are people who are going to be around our children. Bus driver.
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  Right. Bus driver. Yeah. People who take care of the bus maintenance.
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  Even the people in the front office, for goodness sakes, they have to make so
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  many judgment calls about our children.
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  And so this idea that we'll give good, it sounds good in a soundbite.
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  8% teacher raises, and then you find out very few teachers are actually going to get that much. Yeah.
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  15% correctional officer raises, and then you find out most of the people in
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  a prison aren't going to get that much.
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  You know, that are working in a prison. You've got so many people in prisons
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  who are in jobs that are supposed to help educate or rehabilitate people so
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  that when they get out of the prison, which they will in most cases,
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  they don't hit the streets unprepared,
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  to make a living and not end up back in the system or doing something that harms
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  another individual or somebody's property. Yeah.
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  So other categories that may be of interest, the university and community college
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  faculty and non-faculty personnel get 3% raises.
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  The UNC employees, both under and exempt from the State Human Resources Act, will get 3% as well.
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  The governor gets 3% and the Council of State members as well.
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  So that's a little cleanup, I guess. Our reaction to it, we released a statement
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  and it was actually picked up pretty much by everybody.
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  We had a lot of media clips on it. And your take was basically like,
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  this is not a budget from a state with an economy that is thriving,
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  right? I mean, if— I mean, you can only have it one of two ways.
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  Either our state's not on the fiscal footing we're being told it is,
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  which is, oh, it's going great.
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  Or it's going great, and therefore you just don't care about these state employees.
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  On the one hand, you say we don't have the money to do better.
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  If you don't have the money to do better, there's a problem.
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  There's a fundamental problem.
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  If you don't have enough revenue coming in to do better than 3% when you gave no raise last year.
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  Well, this is how I said it on the radio the other day. If you had a business
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  and that business gave no raise one year, and then they cut the workforce and
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  give a tiny raise, jack up the health care prices for their employees.
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  If you're looking at that business on paper, you're not going to want to invest
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  in that business. That's a business that's clearly struggling. Struggling. Yes.
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  And so every marker of that would be a warning bell.
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  But that's how the states operate. That is literally the scenario.
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  There was no raise last year, jacked up how much the employees had to pay for
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  their own health care, just recently got rid of the health care benefit for
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  retirees, and then the next year after no raise, you give a raise that doesn't match inflation.
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  Things are not great. I mean, it can't be true. If it is, then it's just flagrant.
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  Not just flagrant disrespect for state employees, but it's flagrant negligence,
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  actually, about public services. Remember, the people getting 3% that we're
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  having a hard time retaining are these people inspecting bridges or making sure
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  infant formula is not tainted.
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  I saw a statement from, I think it was House Speaker Hall, that the bonus is
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  kind of seen as make up for last year. How in the world?
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  That doesn't add anything to your base salary. And then after the taxes get
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  taken out of it, it's really not anything to write home about.
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  I mean, I know everybody will be glad to get it because who doesn't want a little bit extra?
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  And then let's look at the $65,000 thing. The ones making over $65,000,
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  they get $1,000 and then after taxes, that'll not be near that.
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  Why are they wanting to punish? Remember, anybody making over $65,000 is already
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  paying a lot more for their health care than people making under $65,000 as of this year.
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  And it seems like there's some sort of intention to punish people who stay long
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  enough to get to where they can make over $65,000. Yeah.
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  And it's crazy to me that somehow that's considered wealthy for state employees.
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  But I could be a multimillionaire and the state will give me money to send my
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  child to private school for free. But state employees are rich if they get $65,000.
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  Stop with the double standards. It's gross. Like, it's embarrassing.
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  Yeah. Speaking of the state health plan, you mentioned it. Treasurer Brad Briner,
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  came out very supportive of the budget. He said that the legislature put in,
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  increased funding this year for the state health plan.
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  And his statement was if the legislators had not made this additional investment,
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  of about $4 billion, it could have meant increased premiums by as much as $38
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  per member per month. Mm-hmm.
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  Well, they could also require transparency of the fees we're paying to hospitals,
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  and we could probably reduce the cost for the state and every plan member.
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  Yeah. So I don't know if that's supposed to be a thank you. No,
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  seriously, I don't know if that's supposed to be a thank you from us.
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  We still want transparency. We know we're overpaying. The health plan has sat
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  right here in this podcast room and told us, oh, yeah, you're overpaying. Yeah.
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  So no, we're not going to thank you for paying an outrageous amount. You don't have to pay.
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  You could fix that. Stop subsidizing these $26 million a year CEOs of hospitals
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  you turn around and give the order of the longleaf pine to.
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  I mean, I don't know what in the world. This is the most upside down world where
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  state employees and retirees are supposed to thank the legislature for having to overfund
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  a system that is only expensive because you're overpaying hospitals and not
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  because of the care the members need.
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  And that money could have been used for better raises or colas.
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  It could be. Yes, it could be used for.
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  Anything that would be a public service and something vital that could help
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  a majority of the people and not just line pockets of hospital administrators. Yeah.
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  And we expect, I guess, after the holiday, July 10th, the state health plan
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  board of trustees will meet to, I guess, they're going to talk about the structure
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  of the plan for next year, right?
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  And the premium structure. Right. And the fact that costs will go up for everybody.
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  And we're expecting costs to go up. Right.
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  So that's the next hit state employees will take. Yeah. So they can see that 3% going bye-bye.
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  Yeah. So we don't have the exact numbers on that, but we're pretty confident
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  that it'll be another increase, right?
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  I mean, well, that's... Another premium. We're pretty confident because of comments
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  publicly that have been made in board meetings that seem to be kind of setting
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  the stage for that. Yeah.
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  So in essence, you got a 3% raise to pay for an increase in health plan. Probably.
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  Not a good situation for state employees. Yeah, they're not gaining a bit of
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  ground. Yeah, and a retiree...
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  So more people will leave. We're still in this cycle.
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  And then as you're experienced people leave and you hire the cheapest people
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  who don't really want to make a career, who don't really give much of a poop
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  and just need a job for a little bit,
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  you're going to get the kind of outcomes you get with that, which affects the
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  public in their health and their safety. Look at HHS.
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  HHS runs facilities that care for our most vulnerable citizens.
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  Those folks doing that vital work, which is dangerous work sometimes, are getting 3%. Yeah.
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  So what we're going to have working with our most vulnerable populations is
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  the cheapest people we can get who can literally go down the street to a fast
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  food restaurant with benefits and make more.
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  Yeah. So don't tell me the state's in great financial shape,
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  because if we are, then we've got a screwed up set of priorities.
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  Exactly. But the cuts are more concerning than anything to me.
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  Yeah, we want to get to the cuts as well.
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  I think a net of, I think it was 742 positions were cut, around 500 from Department
• 14:49
  of Corrections, and then I think there was like 364 from DHHS.
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  They added some positions in other areas. Okay. All right. So let's,
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  again, let's really think about this.
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  So huge emphasis on law enforcement raises. We're trying to do something about crime and about this.
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  A lot of this started, you know, tidal wave of interest got born in large part
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  from the Irina Zerutska incident in Charlotte, where she was murdered on the light rail.
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  And her assailant had a long history of documented mental illness and interactions
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  with law enforcement because of that mental illness.
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  So that starts off this renewed vigor around let's increase our law enforcement
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  pay and, you know, appropriate so that we can have enough people and have them
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  be good law enforcement.
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  But there's the other pieces to that that I mentioned earlier that are getting left behind.
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  If you're cutting HHS, which works to try to make sure you have a healthy society,
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  both physically and mentally, and provides all kinds of services to people who
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  are struggling and who might hurt themselves or others,
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  but you're also cutting the Department of Adult Correction.
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  Yeah. So these law enforcement officers with beefed up salaries take to the
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  streets. They're high quality folks because you can afford them.
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  And they make arrests and they
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  send people to a prison system that's been historically very underfunded.
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  And now you're cutting hundreds of positions from it. What are you doing?
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  And I saw a few tweets that were talking about, well, these are just vacant
• 16:26
  jobs, but they shouldn't be vacant. You should fill them. Well,
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  they are vacant. Okay. We've been through this a million times.
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  We'll go through it a million and one.
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  They're vacant because we can't fill them because they're not competitive.
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  And agencies have not filled them sometimes by choice because the agencies have
• 16:42
  told the legislature until they're blue in the face, you're not giving us enough
• 16:46
  money to operate. We literally can't pay vendors we owe money to.
• 16:50
  So, yeah, we left those jobs vacant because we're the state's not paying its bills. Yeah.
• 16:56
  Now, if that was because of the negligence of the agency itself,
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  why would they come to the legislature and admit it? We're not paying this bill.
• 17:03
  Yeah. Like, that wouldn't happen. And I guess there's an elephant in the room
• 17:09
  with the budget that you mentioned earlier. There's a $1 billion left unappropriated.
• 17:15
  And there was a lot of talk just before the budget was released about this MLB stadium.
• 17:23
  Can't make a direct correlation to that unappropriated money, but it's...
• 17:29
  Oh, the whole building says it's for baseball. I mean...
• 17:32
  You know, because the way Senator Berger and Speaker Hall left this conversation
• 17:37
  was that Speaker Hall said, my caucus isn't comfortable doing that at this time.
• 17:43
  And, yeah, I don't understand why I need to be in this budget anyway.
• 17:47
  Can you just make a guarantee? Why are we paying? No, no.
• 17:51
  The more fundamental question is, why would we pay publicly for a team instead
• 17:57
  of the people who are going to clean up the private equity interest that buy these teams? Yeah.
• 18:02
  And that's a huge problem all over the country. It's always taxpayer dollars that get wasted.
• 18:08
  Sammy's got to... You win one Stanley Cup and you think that you need every
• 18:12
  single major league sports team, right?
• 18:14
  Hey, we've won two. Well, what is it in the past 20 years? What was it in the Roman times?
• 18:19
  The circuses and wine keep us busy so that we don't realize that we have the
• 18:25
  most expensive health care in the country in North Carolina.
• 18:27
  So that we don't realize that our roads are kind of not what they used to be.
• 18:31
  So that we don't realize that we don't have enough people on the job to keep
• 18:36
  our autopsies up to date and things like that.
• 18:38
  But, hey, let's pay for a Major League Baseball team. When you go to South Carolina
• 18:43
  and you can no longer tell the difference between the roads in South Carolina
• 18:47
  versus North Carolina, that's a problem. That's when you know it's concerning.
• 18:51
  That is the best indicator.
• 18:54
  You're right, because you used to go to South Carolina and just immediately hit all the balls.
• 18:59
  Now you're already hitting them in North Carolina. Yeah. And,
• 19:02
  I mean, we got to be better in South Carolina. And I'm, you know,
• 19:05
  I'm tickled that we won the Stanley Cup.
• 19:07
  Well, they also don't pay, like, taxes to keep their, like, for their gas and
• 19:11
  stuff to keep the roads maintained. Yeah.
• 19:14
  We do. Where's that money going?
• 19:17
  Yeah. It's any municipality or, I guess in this case, state.
• 19:21
  But whenever a municipality chases a sports team like that and throws all that
• 19:26
  money at them to keep them, it's just like those...
• 19:30
  Grants we've done under so many different names over the years for companies
• 19:34
  to come here. And then they pick up and leave and we get left with the bill.
• 19:38
  And we had some okay jobs for a little bit. And don't get me wrong.
• 19:42
  I love baseball. You love baseball.
• 19:45
  I spend most of my time in the baseball field. And it would be awesome to have
• 19:50
  a baseball team in North Carolina.
• 19:52
  First off, I mean, I know we got billionaires backing it now,
• 19:56
  and maybe there's a chance, but I still, I'll believe it when I see it.
• 20:00
  Let the billionaires fund it. Yeah, exactly. Use public money.
• 20:04
  Let the billionaires do it. Right. Exactly. Because I guarantee you the state
• 20:07
  wouldn't get any profit if that Major League Baseball team won the World Series.
• 20:14
  Give me a break. But yeah, everybody's saying that the billion is being set aside for baseball.
• 20:21
  You know, the billion is there because you have all these vacant jobs.
• 20:26
  That's why it's there. So it should have gone to the people.
• 20:30
  In fact, several billion have gone back to the states in the last few years
• 20:34
  just because of vacant jobs. Yeah.
• 20:37
  And the people who have paid for those billions are the ones doing the job of more than one person.
• 20:42
  And the state, the taxpayers who are getting less services and in some cases
• 20:47
  being put in unsafe situations because we're not properly staffed.
• 20:51
  So billions went back to the state, not because anybody's making great financial
• 20:54
  decisions down there on Jones Street, but because we had a lot of vacant jobs. Again.
• 21:00
  If you looked at that on paper and you're analyzing it as a business,
• 21:03
  that's not a business that's thriving.
• 21:06
  It looks like it does include the Children's Hospital, right,
• 21:09
  for UNC Health and Duke and a rural health partnership for children and for UNC and ECU.
• 21:18
  I guess that's a good thing. But there was a lot of debate and it was holding
• 21:22
  up that budget, right? A lot of that. Yeah.
• 21:25
  Anything else you saw that stuck out? I know that the election part got a lot
• 21:30
  of attention, 21 new positions for the State Board of Elections,
• 21:35
  and I think they were asking for 24 or something, right?
• 21:41
  Yeah, I think that's right, somewhere in that range. To modernize the state election system.
• 21:47
  So that's where all the budget, I mean, all the jobs are going.
• 21:49
  So state auditor Dave Bullock is adding 25 positions and new regional offices
• 21:55
  in Charlotte and Asheville.
• 21:57
  He's really expanding the auditor's footprint. Didn't he get new jobs when he
• 22:01
  first started working at the auditor? How many new positions does he need?
• 22:07
  I don't know. It depends what you want to do with the auditor's office.
• 22:10
  You know, I can't, I don't know anymore what.
• 22:13
  Yeah. These roles of these council estate positions seem to be morphing,
• 22:17
  but not in a, So it's kind of one at a time kind of way, rather than some sort
• 22:22
  of comprehensive overview of what the council estate is and what they do.
• 22:27
  And they'll change on a dime if they ever change parties.
• 22:30
  And that's where people get, I think it degrades the offices if you start doing that.
• 22:35
  People will lose faith in the offices. And one of the things we've always had
• 22:39
  is a tremendously strong council estate that has been, didn't matter who's in
• 22:44
  charge party-wise, governor or legislature.
• 22:47
  They were really very independent folks.
• 22:51
  And so I hope we can maintain that.
• 22:53
  So I guess they're taking the final budget vote right now, right?
• 22:57
  And Suzanne just sent us an adjournment bill for today, right?
• 23:01
  So they're going to leave today and come back on July 27th.
• 23:05
  Oh, okay. After they finish the budget. And then I guess it's up to Governor
• 23:10
  Stein to sign it or let it sit and become law or veto it.
• 23:16
  Yeah, I think he'll sign it. I mean, you know, we hadn't had a budget in several
• 23:19
  years. He's kind of in a position where he's going to have to sign that thing.
• 23:23
  And then they said they'll come back. They'll keep coming back off and on.
• 23:27
  They'll definitely come back after November, they said.
• 23:29
  Oh, by the way, this is important because people will want to know when they
• 23:33
  get their money, their raises and their bonuses.
• 23:36
  Yeah. I think it was October. So that's for the bonus.
• 23:40
  Okay. The raise goes into effect July 1. So it started yesterday and it'll be
• 23:45
  in your next paycheck, right?
• 23:46
  Right. Yeah. Right. So I think people, even the ones who are biweekly,
• 23:50
  probably there's time probably for them to see it mid-July and then everybody
• 23:54
  else sees it at the end of July in their paycheck. Well, that's welcome news.
• 23:59
  And so the, I guess we always try to kind of put it in context for our listeners.
• 24:03
  And so what can you do at this point?
• 24:06
  Well, the budget is signed or it will be signed soon and it'll be law.
• 24:10
  But what you can do is get out and vote and work for impact and volunteer.
• 24:17
  And because we have an election coming up November 3rd. So.
• 24:21
  Yeah, I think that we have a lot of people, my goodness, we have a lot of people
• 24:25
  expressing themselves on our social media about they can't wait to vote.
• 24:30
  I think that the important thing to remember is to check on every one of your,
• 24:35
  representatives or senators in your area, what they've done for state employees
• 24:42
  or retirees, what they've said about those issues.
• 24:45
  And educate yourself before you make that vote because it cannot be about party
• 24:51
  because there's no political party coming to save you, state employees and retirees.
• 24:55
  The Democrats were in charge for a long time before the Republicans,
• 24:58
  and it looked a lot like this. Teachers get a really big raise.
• 25:01
  State employees get a very tiny one.
• 25:04
  At that time, we still had some money left for colas in the system,
• 25:08
  but they were dwindling.
• 25:10
  So, you know, no party's coming to save you. You have to look at every single
• 25:14
  one of the people in the legislature, and if you need information on that,
• 25:19
  contact your district's MPAC representative.
• 25:23
  Yeah, and that's the beauty of MPAC, is that we are, our PAC is nonpartisan,
• 25:29
  and they work for, they work to endorse candidates who support state employees
• 25:34
  and retirees, regardless of party.
• 25:37
  And I'm sure we'll be releasing a list of our endorsements closer to the election.
• 25:42
  Our impact board is, I think they had a meeting a few nights ago.
• 25:46
  So they're steadily meeting and they're starting their interview processes.
• 25:51
  They're very thorough. Everyone, they don't look at the R or the D beside the name.
• 25:57
  They will interview anyone who is seeking our endorsement. And you can rest
• 26:02
  assured that the people they endorse are people who support state employees and retirees.
• 26:08
  So go to impact.scenic.org if you want to find out some more or maybe get involved
• 26:12
  with Impact. And we should do an episode where you read a bunch of the comments
• 26:16
  from our social media because they are...
• 26:19
  Not seen it to this level ever where people are saying, look,
• 26:23
  I'm a lifetime Republican, but I've had it, you know, or, you know.
• 26:31
  I would tell everybody not to work for the state. I've never seen it to this
• 26:34
  level of unhappiness. Am I going to have to find a bleep button for those comments?
• 26:41
  The good thing about Facebook is it automatically. I was going to say,
• 26:45
  I don't see I don't see any cuss words. Sometimes they do hide comments,
• 26:48
  though, that also have nothing bad.
• 26:51
  Yeah, they do sometimes. Weird. I don't know. I feel like it's,
• 26:55
  I'm going to closely follow these comments, though, because,
• 26:58
  again, I've been around for a long time.
• 27:00
  I've never seen anything quite like this. And it's not anything that there's
• 27:04
  no organization driving it in terms of the parties or anything.
• 27:07
  This is just people's gut reactions.
• 27:11
  I guess it's mirroring what we're seeing at the federal level,
• 27:14
  though. There's definitely an anti-incumbency wave. People are just feeling
• 27:20
  like they've been trod on a bit.
• 27:22
  And it's every post. Like, every time I post or we post something about anything,
• 27:28
  like long-term care insurance, there's a bunch of comments, you know.
• 27:32
  So people are very active, very angry. And that's a good thing.
• 27:36
  I mean, not a good thing that they're angry, but at least they're active.
• 27:40
  But that was what was weird to me. I kept thinking, it seems to me,
• 27:44
  you would think legislators are seeing this too.
• 27:47
  Not just our page. I don't imagine they're.
• 27:50
  Looking at our page to see what state employees and retirees think.
• 27:53
  It's up to us to go lobby about that.
• 27:56
  But we've been sharing with them. Our people came down on Lobby Day and shared with them.
• 28:00
  And surely they see just generally out there the sentiment from the public in
• 28:04
  North Carolina is not happy.
• 28:06
  I'm going to throw something out there that may or may not be true.
• 28:11
  I think our Facebook page is the most active in state government.
• 28:16
  I have no idea. I don't know of any other group that gets this many comments on everything.
• 28:23
  And it's mainly the retirees. They are so mad. Yeah. Retiree.
• 28:27
  I think people are underestimating if these retirees all come out and vote together.
• 28:32
  Yeah. And you look at like when a news source puts out a post,
• 28:36
  they'll get a few comments and they have more followers than us,
• 28:38
  but it's nowhere near as active as ours.
• 28:42
  And again, I think that's a good thing. First Amendment. It's good.
• 28:48
  So there's a lot of fervor in our membership, angst, maybe if you will.
• 28:53
  And they just need to channel it towards the election and make change. We're working with you.
• 28:58
  So definitely get involved. So the only other story beside the budget that I
• 29:03
  saw that you, I guess you brought up to me, actually, I can't take credit for
• 29:06
  it, was that Governor Stein established the Health Care Affordability Commission,
• 29:11
  that is going to be co-chaired by the DHHS,
• 29:15
  secretary and the state treasurer.
• 29:17
  So kind of a nonpartisan committee.
• 29:20
  What are your thoughts? I know you had some thoughts. Yeah. Well,
• 29:23
  my very initial thought when I saw the tweet the other day, and it was the same
• 29:26
  day the budget came out, that this was posted, I thought—.
• 29:30
  Okay, we're doing this again? Because do you know how many of these committees
• 29:35
  we've had on affordability under different governors?
• 29:39
  And guess what the committees are usually made up of? The committee members.
• 29:43
  Execs and hot folk. Yeah, you got it exactly right.
• 29:47
  So, sure enough, you know, I thought when I first saw it, I really did say,
• 29:52
  are we really doing this again?
• 29:54
  Because it's usually a dog and pony show. It's a bunch of propaganda.
• 29:57
  And nothing becomes, obviously nothing becomes more affordable after any of
• 30:01
  these committees because we're still number one most expensive in this state.
• 30:04
  But I decided, let me look at the voting members before I pass judgment.
• 30:08
  And you're right, the co-chairs are Treasurer Briner and Secretary Sung By.
• 30:14
  So that sounds good. They certainly know what they're doing.
• 30:17
  And then they're joined by several members of the House and Senate,
• 30:21
  as well as Kristen Walker, who's the director of the Office of State Budget and Management.
• 30:26
  Now, those are the voting members.
• 30:29
  That's fine. But the advisory members, the ones they're taking advice from,
• 30:33
  take a look at that list. First one, Josh Dobson, president and CEO of the North
• 30:38
  Carolina Health Care Association. And then John Green, CEO, Iredell Health System.
• 30:43
  And CEO of the Nurses Association, president of the Medical Society,
• 30:50
  several doctors, Blue Cross and Blue Shield CEO.
• 30:54
  CEO of UNC Health and dean of the UNC School of Medicine.
• 30:58
  CEO of Impact Health, president of Well, which I assume is some sort of health care situation.
• 31:04
  Yeah, there's no, why wouldn't Artis Watkins? Gary Salamone.
• 31:09
  No, I didn't need to be Artis Watkins for sure, but let me tell you something.
• 31:12
  What I don't see on it, well, I don't see anybody from labor on here.
• 31:15
  So nobody who would represent workers.
• 31:17
  And I don't see anybody like Barack Richmond, such a strong voice.
• 31:22
  He works at Duke, and he's a national expert that people often ask for comment.
• 31:27
  I don't see anybody who would be a voice for the consumer.
• 31:31
  And I actually had somebody ask me this week, well, don't you mean patient?
• 31:37
  No, because sometimes everybody buys health insurance for the most part.
• 31:41
  Whether you use it in a given year or not, you're paying for health insurance
• 31:45
  almost always, or your employer is.
• 31:47
  So you're a consumer whether or not you go to use the health care.
• 31:51
  The health care system is costing you money. If your employer is paying for
• 31:55
  it and you never go use it, it's costing you in wages because your employer
• 31:59
  has less to pay you in wages because their health care is so expensive.
• 32:03
  And I think we forget that, that everybody's a consumer. This is an aside,
• 32:07
  but I did see a TikTok this week just asking why is health care connected to
• 32:13
  our employment? It would be like.
• 32:15
  Yeah, well, that's the system. It's a whole other issue. System we set up in this country.
• 32:19
  It's very unique to other industrialized nations. And I think,
• 32:25
  you know, it's been a good run for the folks running the system.
• 32:28
  But I do think this thing's coming to a.
• 32:31
  To a screeching halt. I think so, because the public just can't withstand it anymore.
• 32:36
  And if anything, they could have put our last podcast guest,
• 32:40
  Dr. Brian Miller on the deadlift. Brian Miller would have been an excellent, excellent addition.
• 32:46
  You know, I'm not excited about the advice the voting members are getting.
• 32:50
  If that tells you anything, well, it tells you everything.
• 32:54
  It looks exactly like every other affordability committee has ever looked.
• 32:58
  Yeah. And setting up a committee is fine, but if you really want to tackle the
• 33:04
  problem, just take action.
• 33:05
  Just actually do something to improve transparency in our health care costs.
• 33:11
  Or, you know, at some point, you just have to take real action and not just talk about it.
• 33:17
  Well, that's not going to happen out of that committee. I'm going to go ahead
• 33:20
  and make a bold prediction that the committee does not say. Yeah. Wow.
• 33:26
  Look at your national ratings on the affordability of your health care and then
• 33:32
  look at your outcomes for patients.
• 33:35
  Oh, my goodness, your patient outcomes should be really towards the top of the
• 33:40
  list if you're the most expensive place, right?
• 33:43
  And that's not what's happening. Our patient outcomes are not on a national list at the top.
• 33:48
  Maybe we should start our own committee. Yeah.
• 33:52
  Okay, well, that's the budget in a nutshell and other items.
• 33:56
  That's pretty much all I have this week. But it is the 4th of July weekend.
• 34:01
  So I guess my question of the week this week is, do you have any big plans?
• 34:05
  I'm going to the beach as we usually do with my mom.
• 34:09
  And then she got mad last year because we didn't go to Lithia Fireworks.
• 34:14
  And I have a thing where I'm like, fireworks kind of overrated,
• 34:17
  but she really wants to go. So you got to take her. Yeah.
• 34:21
  So I think we're going to go to Southport and check that out with every other
• 34:25
  person from North Carolina.
• 34:28
  I don't know the temperatures this weekend. really kind of might dissuade some people.
• 34:34
  And I like fireworks, too, but I got to say, we've been really dry recently.
• 34:39
  Oh, yeah. I'm a little worried about that. Oh, no, you're right.
• 34:43
  Maybe. I wonder if any celebrations have been canceled or anything.
• 34:49
  I haven't heard that they have, but I'm worried about it. But,
• 34:52
  Sammy, you always have a life. Tell us what you're doing.
• 34:56
  I'm going to spend the weekend in Virginia at a lake with my brother,
• 35:02
  his girlfriend, and her parents. That's how you do it. That's how you do the fourth. Yeah.
• 35:08
  Yeah. I got to get into lake life. Oh, it's...
• 35:11
  People are... It's amazing. I love it. People are excited about it these days.
• 35:14
  We can't get the pontoon boat out because the lake is too dry.
• 35:17
  But the speedboat still works. We're good. Just can't get on the pontoon.
• 35:21
  Yeah, the speedboats. Oh, well, I don't know.
• 35:24
  Pontoons are fun. They're fun for the evenings whenever you're going out on
• 35:28
  Fourth of July to watch the fireworks. That's true.
• 35:32
  Little floating living room. Yeah, it's nice. Artis, are you getting into some fishing?
• 35:37
  I haven't been, but you know, when you just said something about the lake levels.
• 35:43
  I used to, when my kids were growing up, I took them out every weekend,
• 35:46
  you know, tubing and fishing and whatnot.
• 35:48
  I bet the lake levels are really low. I haven't been out there,
• 35:52
  but, and I remember that's always when I was most concerned,
• 35:55
  especially pulling the kids on the tube.
• 35:57
  Because that's when you've got sticks and stuff, you know, branches that.
• 36:02
  With how dry we are, I'm more concerned about a bad hurricane season coming up.
• 36:08
  Because typically when it is really dry, we have a really, really rough hurricane season.
• 36:13
  And forest fires. You know, we were talking about the budget this week.
• 36:17
  And one of the things, we have some members from out west who have fought so
• 36:21
  hard for Mark Haskett and his District 1 out west.
• 36:26
  In your favorite neck of the woods, Sammy, they have fought really hard for
• 36:31
  the forest firefighters because they weren't getting good raises,
• 36:35
  and they're going to get a 13% raise.
• 36:38
  Well, I know the eastern part of the state is also, can be a really problematic part for forest fires.
• 36:44
  So I am prayerful we do not have to deal with that, but very glad because they
• 36:49
  are really understaffed. So many vacancies with our folks that fight forest fires.
• 36:56
  And we are so thankful for them Well that's our show this week Thanks for tuning
• 37:00
  in Have a great 4th And we'll see you next week.