Latest / The SEANC View / Opening Day: Speaker Destin Hall on State Pay, Budgets, and Public Safety

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Opening Day: Speaker Destin Hall on State Pay, Budgets, and Public Safety · The SEANC View

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Hello, and welcome to another edition of the Scenic View podcast.
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I'm your host, Jonathan Owens, along with Artis Watkins, Suzanne Beasley, and Samantha Klein.
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Today is opening day at the legislature for the short session.
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It's Tuesday, April 21st.
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So we're here today with House Speaker Destin Hall, and he has been gracious
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enough to give us a few minutes in his conference room to talk about the session
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and what he expects and what we'll be looking for.
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And I know your time is limited, so let's just jump right in.
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And Artis, do you want to start off?
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Sure. Speaker Hall. First of all, I'm with John.
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Thank you so much for taking time out of what I know to be one of the craziest
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days of the year for anybody down here, much less the speaker.
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Glad to do it. I think my first time on y'all's podcast.
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It is. And hopefully you'll be on many more times. Amen. Glad to do it.
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But today, being that it's the first day of session, is a really great time
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because we need to talk to you about this budget.
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We need to talk to you about the concerns we're hearing from state employees and retirees.
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But first, we want to talk to you about public services, like the shrinking
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nature of public services.
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We talk about this a lot these days, that looking at the General Assembly's
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website under fiscal research, It shocked me that since 2009,
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the number of state employees has not grown.
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I mean, we have the same number of people, more or less, right now less,
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serving 2 million more people than they were serving in 2009. And that's not good.
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There's a lot more roads, prisons, schools, everything.
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And I'm wondering, how does the House look at that gap in?
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And is closing it something you see as a priority?
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Well, I think the first thing we look at on the house side, and one of the reasons
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we don't have a budget right now, is taking care of the employees that we do have.
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And I know we'll talk more about that in the podcast today.
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But, you know, in terms of, you know, how many employees we have and the services
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that are offered, it's an ever-changing issue.
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Of course, you know, as time goes on, technology changes things.
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There are things that make things, you know, a bit more efficient now.
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And you don't need as many employees because of computerization. AI is coming.
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Allegedly, none of us are ever going to have jobs again once it gets up and
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running is what they say. I doubt it works out that way.
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But it's something we have to constantly watch. You know, top of mind is the state trooper issue.
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If you look at the number of troopers we have in the state compared to the population
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growth, we're way behind on that issue.
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And obviously, one of their big jobs is public safety on the roads.
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The roads are more busy these days. A lot of people may say,
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no, we don't want more state troopers. We don't need, because they don't want to get pulled over.
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But yeah, the fact is there are spots in state government where we probably
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do need to add to the number of employees.
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Times constantly change. Healthcare is a big thing right now.
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The entire country has an aging population.
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Because of that, there's going to be more and more stress on the healthcare
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system, and the state obviously plays a major role in that.
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But even within that, you know, within DHHS, you know, we're dealing with a
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Medicaid issue right now where the costs have gone through the roof.
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I mean, a billion-dollar cost overruns, and all of those things make it more
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difficult to pay our state employees what they're worth. that we're spending
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a billion dollars over what we should be on Medicaid payments.
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That's money that we could be paying our current state employees,
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that we could be attracting U.N.s as well.
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So we've got to be dynamic with it. It's got to be a data-driven operation.
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You know, it's a useful comparison to see how many employees we used to have
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versus what we have now in our population.
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Of course, that doesn't tell us the whole story because we want to get to the
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areas where the need is, where we don't have enough in whatever given agency
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that really makes the most difference in people's lives.
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And you all do a good job with helping us with that and, you know,
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hearing from folks on the ground.
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And I also find that, you know, from time to time, I hear from various state
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employees in my district or elsewhere who say, hey, you know,
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here's how things have changed over the years. And, you know,
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we need some help with whatever the case may be.
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That kind of stuff, It really is helpful because it's impossible to just go
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in and look statewide and say, we're going to increase the number of state employees
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by 10% or whatever the case may be.
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But what we need to do is have a targeted approach in those areas where the
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greatest demand is currently at and increase there.
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I'm sure y'all can tell me where those places are too. And the house will work.
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We have some ideas. We do. We'll leave a list.
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So moving right along and being timely here, the budget.
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Is obviously the big issue right now. I know session is crazy in any time,
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but the short session is really hectic.
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Just seeing today move the way it has. We know that and know that putting the
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budget together is not easy.
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State employees know they didn't get anything last year. They know there wasn't
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a budget last year. And so they're looking for what's coming this year.
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What can you share about state employee pay raises?
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Well, I can tell you that on the House side, you know, we're still fighting
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to get greater increases in pay to all state employees.
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I am optimistic that we're going to get a budget done in this short session.
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I have every reason to think that that's the case.
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You know, we've started that discussion with the Senate during this short session
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and really started it before we got into short session.
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And some progress has been made. And I think every member on both sides of this
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building understand that we really have to pass a budget.
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And, you know, a lot of the breakdown and not getting one last year,
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really for a number of reasons.
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You know, in 2023, we passed the state's largest budget we've ever had.
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There was a bunch of federal dollars involved.
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That was late in the year in 23. So we came in in 24.
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Less pressure then to do the budget update we typically do in the short session
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because we had just passed the biggest budget the state had ever had.
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Then we get into 25 and inflation was still going on.
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We'd been through a period of time of really great inflation,
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very high all across the country and also here in North Carolina.
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And so, of course, we have a tax policy right now that's based upon the state
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hitting certain revenue thresholds.
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Those numbers are static, meaning they're not indexed at all.
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So a dollar in 2023 is really not worth the same today than it was back then. So we recognize that.
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And on the House side, we've tried to, look, we want to continue to cut taxes,
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which we think is good for everybody. State employees get a tax cut too.
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But on the House side, we want to do that in a responsible way,
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which is really following the policy on tax cuts that we've done for 15 years,
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which is a slow, gradual decline.
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The state's population, its growth both in people and in business,
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it helps make up for the reduction and the tax rate in terms of state revenue.
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So that's been a critical component of it. But I mean, frankly,
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among the big issues that have been in dispute, there's no question that state
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and police salary has been right there at the top of those lists.
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And from our vantage point on the House side, you know, we obviously want to have greater races.
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Speaking from my own experience, you know, I'm a small business owner.
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I have a law firm at home. We've got many employees. And I've seen over the
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course of the last several years, you know, what you paid people in the past,
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you no longer can do that.
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I mean, you've got to give folks pay raises because their cost of living is
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going up, just like it has for everybody. Right.
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And so, you know, we on the House side, our budget approach has been just that,
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both on the tax triggers,
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acknowledging the inflationary issues, but also to make sure that we,
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the state has the revenue to help with those salary increases while also acknowledging
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the impacts of inflation on state employees.
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And so it's something we're standing firm on. It's, you know,
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in my mind, it doesn't do us much good to just pass a budget to say we passed a budget.
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The key is what's in the budget. And for us on the House side,
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that means passing something with meaningful raises in it that accounts for
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the reality that all of us have faced with the inflationary pressures that we've seen nationally.
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Yeah, and we appreciate that work. And another group that often feels like they're
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just forgotten, and sometimes they just kind of are retirees.
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They haven't had a true COLA since 2017. That was a 1% recurring COLA.
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And every other year, there's been some type of bonus. Is there any discussion
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of what there might be in the budget for retirees?
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Yeah, so I'm confident that there will at least be a bonus for them.
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And I think that sometime very soon, we're going to need to do the true COLA increase.
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Because again, if you just compare inflation to the COLA increases that we've
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seen, again, 1%, I think in 2017, and it's time to get one passed.
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And I think there's a lot of support for that among members of really on both
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sides of the General Assembly.
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The key is, you know, getting to a budget deal and getting an actual broad scope deal done.
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But there's no question that we're going to have to do something on COLA.
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And we need to do it very soon because you can't just go forever and not do
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those things. And with inflation being what it what it has been,
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the one time bonuses that they get largely are eaten up by those inflation pressures.
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Yeah, very quickly. Thank you. Sure.
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Well, and I was really, you know, to piggyback on Suzanne saying,
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hey, thanks for recognizing some of this stuff. It's.
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A lot of times, just like in real life and politics, people say it's not what
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you say, it's what you do.
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But honestly, over here with someone in your position, what you say really does
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matter so much more than for most people because people are listening to you.
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And that's going to carry weight. It's going to drive the conversation.
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It's going to move policy.
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And so I saw you recently on WRAL did an extended interview,
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and we were all incredibly pleased. Number one, to be really frank,
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you're the first politician I've seen in years, maybe ever.
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Who in talking about all the public employees, all of whom matter,
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instead of saying, you know, the teachers and state employees every time, you mixed it up.
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You know, sometimes you said the state employees and the teachers,
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because none of us can argue with the fact of the importance of teachers.
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Most of us are parents. Sammy, I know we're not pushing you yet,
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but most of us are parents.
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And so the teachers of our children are about as important as many people we could think of.
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But there's so many public servants that feel like they get just lost in the shuffle.
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And people who work in the public schools who feel like if their title is a teacher, they get lost.
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So it meant a lot to people. And I know that may seem kind of silly to say,
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but it really was an important moment in many ways.
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Well, I'm glad to hear that. And, you know, and I do feel that way.
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The fact is, you know, as you say, everyone agrees teacher pay is important.
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And we obviously think it is on the House side. We're proposing relatively high raises for them.
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But state employees, they're also part of the state's employment ecosystem.
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And, you know, in many ways, this body sort of, you know, is the employer in some sense.
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You know, we're sort of setting those pay rates. And, you know,
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you can't, you know, think about one set of employees and not the others.
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You know, the fact is everybody's set by that inflation, whether you're a teacher or state trooper.
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You know, I think about the correctional facility officers who,
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you know, We've done some over the years have tried to increase,
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but those are tough jobs and the pay is not enough for what they have to do.
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And we've got a lot more to do on those things.
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And everybody is for public safety. And, you know, especially folks in my party,
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we're completely for public safety.
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And if you're going to be for public safety, unfortunately, you've got to have prisons for some folks.
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But if you don't have people to work there, it just doesn't work.
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And so there are many areas like that that are the state employees outside of
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the education system where we've got a lot of work to do.
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State troopers, again, I mentioned those earlier. I mean, you know,
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the kind of folks who put their life on the line, you know, to do these jobs.
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And that's just the couple of examples that people think about a lot.
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But I know there are others throughout the system.
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And candidly, at least my take on why you always hear the whole,
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you know, teachers and state employees comment, it's easier to raise the teacher
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rate because there's fewer of them than the rest of the state employees.
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If you're looking at the budget math, you know, a 2% raise for state employees
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is a bunch of money. and, you know, the equivalent may be five or six percent
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for teachers, depending on what you're doing.
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And I think, you know, in the past around this building, it's just been easier to say teacher raises.
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It doesn't cost the state as much money, even though it's a larger increase.
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But we can't just simply let the rest of the state employees go.
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And that's why on our side, our proposed raise was greater than the governor's.
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And I don't know that that's happened since I've been here, although he's got
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a new set of raises, I heard. I mean, I guess you can just keep saying higher and higher numbers.
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But it just reflects, you know, my caucus and my own beliefs that we,
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as the state employer, we have to recognize if you want good folks to work these
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jobs, you've just got to pay them.
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That's just the reality. Any business owner who operates these days understands
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that as well. And we should operate the same way.
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And the last thing I'll say in that long extended answer is that the state has
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the money to do these things.
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And that's one of the reasons we've had this tax policy fight between the House and the Senate.
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We both want to reduce income taxes on those. Neither side is going to increase those.
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But it's the difference in the pace at which we reduce those.
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For 15 years, we've had a general gradual pace of reductions,
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and the Senate wants to go much further.
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And the problem with that is, you know, if you do that too quickly,
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then we wouldn't have the money to be able to give.
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You'll have a whole lot more DMV situations where the public is up in arms and
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doesn't understand what's wrong with their government. Yeah, absolutely.
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You know, because it sounds, yeah, we all want our taxes lower,
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of course, but we also want our services efficiently.
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And if we want to open a small business, we don't want there not to be enough
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people at the Secretary of State's office like Secretary Marshall was telling
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the committee. So y'all have a tough job.
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I don't think anybody has any question about that. I will say one thing that
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does affect the state employees and the teachers is the state health plan.
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And as long as we've been doing this, and I'm looking at Suzanne,
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the state health plan has been a question because it costs a lot of money to
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have a health plan for that many people.
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And one of the things over the years that was kind of a fallacy that was thrown
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around was that somehow the users of the health plan were either more negligent,
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you know, went and saw, went to the ER for a headache or just were frivolous
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with their use of health care.
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And the data that we most recently saw at the Board of Trustees of the health
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plan shows actually it's the opposite. The utilization's going down.
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It's going the right way. But the prices keep going up. And North Carolina being
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number one, costliest place for healthcare in the country, that's not surprising.
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You've got the health plan in front of you now as part of the budget.
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Last year, employees and retirees had to pay who were in the health plan,
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who were not Medicare eligible yet.
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Their prices went up, but they didn't get a raise.
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Their premiums, rather. So how do you look at the health plan this year?
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I mean, what we've always wanted is transparency. If we could see what we're
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paying at these public contracts, we feel like that would fix it right there.
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Because some of the vendors are definitely charging the state too much. No question.
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I think the treasurer's office is doing an amazing job of trying to use the
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power of the market to drive that down in terms of cost for y'all figuring out budget issues.
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What are you looking at this year with the health plan? Do you think that's going to be a big hurdle?
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Yeah, so I think in the past, we've had to supplement and send money to it from this body.
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And there's a number of reasons for that. Again, inflationary pressures,
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the cost of health care continues to go up everywhere, but especially here in North Carolina.
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And so it is something we watch pretty closely. And I know it's a separate issue
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from the Medicaid issue.
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But one similarity is that we see in Medicaid, certain providers and the way
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they bill, and you may see a spike in the data.
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And we think probably the same thing going on with some of the providers that
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are within the state health plan.
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And not to say all those folks are doing anything improper. And I would imagine
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the pool of people in state health plan probably have a lower utilization rate
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for healthcare than the rest of the population.
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But anything we can do to promote doing away with waste, fraud,
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and abuse, if it's a provider who's billing unnecessary necessary things.
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But fundamentally, it goes back to an issue of the cost of health care going up so much.
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And we're not going to fix that through the state health plan.
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We can help with that because they've got the market share to be able to negotiate
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a lot better contracts with various entities.
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But more things we can do in the health care space to lower the cost in this
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state. And I know a number of our members are working on those things.
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But as to the premium increase, first, Everybody, I think, understands still a great deal.
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I mean, what state employees pay for our health plan relative to most folks, the private sector.
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But my hope is in this budget that we pass a budget in the short section, which I think we will.
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Number one, looking at how we can do some of those things retroactively as to
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pay and or some sort of bonus that takes into account the increase that they've
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had in their premiums. Yeah.
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Yeah. Because if you compare it to the private sector, it doesn't look like a bad deal. Thank you.
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But you don't get the wages of the private sector. So, yeah.
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Y'all have got something to wrestle with there.
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I think that's probably one of your tougher. And I do want to point out,
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too, while we're here, a lot of people think that it would be a great idea if
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legislators had to use the same state health plan that they do.
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And so we try to make that clear that you do so that you do actually have a
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vested interest in it. Sure.
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Yeah. Yeah. A lot of the members of this building use it.
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And so, yeah, I mean, you're exactly right. You know, it's great compared to
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the private world, but in the private world, as you say, you know,
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people will typically make more money.
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But what I hope that we can do in this budget is to do something about at least
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trying to hold folks harmless for some of the premium increases and not just
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doing a prospective pay increase,
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because at least I recognize that
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we've got a gap in time now where those increases were not implemented.
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And so the salary increases, that is. whether that's a bonus to try to make
18:46
up for some of that or whether it's a retroactive pay increase,
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the hope is that at least that much will help them deal with some of these healthcare costs.
18:55
And long-term, I like the work our state treasurer is doing.
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I think he understands these large complex operations.
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His background is in the financial world. And I think if anybody can work and
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use all the tools we have now to lower costs for the state health plan,
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I think it's him. And I know he's working towards that, and we've partnered with him to do all we can.
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But if anybody figures out how to lower health care costs in this country,
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then I want to talk to them.
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But long term, it's something we've got to get our arms free. Yeah, that's right.
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All right. So there's real concern among state employees that State Auditor
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Dave Bullock's lapsed salary report will be used to justify job cuts.
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In the House budget, you did call for cuts when you put out a budget and the
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Senate put out a budget last year, but you couldn't get a compromise.
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What's the House's approach to these concerns? Because we were just talking
19:50
about the public still needs these services.
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And cutting, it's kind of like the personal income tax. Yes,
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it sounds good to cut, but what's the impact?
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So if you cut some jobs, it might put money on paper.
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But are you concerned about an impact on the public? Yeah, sure. Always.
20:05
Anytime that, you know, you're making cuts to state government, we have that concern.
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I think many of the jobs that we had, that is the open jobs or the lapsed salaries
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we had cut in our budget, were those that had been vacant for five years or somewhere there about.
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And I also recognize, you know, the counter to that is just,
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well, they don't pay enough, so you can't get anybody to come into them.
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And I think our thought process has been that, you know, first sort of get our
20:30
current employees where they need to be.
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And part of that may be using some cost savings from lapsed salaries,
20:37
getting them up to the right rates, while at the same time continuing to work
20:42
with the auditor and others in state government to see where are the critical
20:45
points where we really need to add folks. DMV was obviously one of those.
20:49
We've done some of those things. It's been improved quite a bit.
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I've talked about the highway patrol here today, the correctional officer staff.
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Those are some things that we know we need to increase.
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But you get into other areas, getting back to the healthcare space,
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DHHS, and this labyrinth that they have over there and dealing with Medicaid.
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And then it becomes a question of, is it a matter of giving more employees to
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them? Are we just making a bad problem worse?
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Or is it a matter that we need to get their cost under control?
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So it's not a one-size-fits-all, I guess, is what I would say to it.
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I don't look at it personally as if a job's been vacant for forever,
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it just means they don't need it.
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But the way we looked at it in the short run was if they've been without it
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that long, maybe we could take those funds, give it to the current employees
21:36
as pay increases, and continue to assess where we need to add employees.
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The key is, though, is this building's apt to do, you know, don't take the lapsed
21:43
salary money and spend it somewhere else and, you know, give a pay raise otherwise. wise.
21:48
The goal is that money that's sitting on the sideline, give it to those employees
21:52
who we have because, you know, if they're weathering the storm, keep them there.
21:55
They're obviously good folks and we don't want to lose the good people that we do have.
21:59
We've been in such an inflationary environment that it's every year.
22:03
I mean, it's such a huge increase that, you know, the raises,
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in my opinion, that we need to do.
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I mean, frankly, I'd like to do more than what our budget ahead of it.
22:12
But, you know, I'm one of 170 people. And so I put in there what I think we can get done right now.
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I hope we can actually do a little bit more than that now, you know,
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some times past since our budget.
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But yeah, I think you got to look at it as smart cuts, not just the chainsaw
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and go in and cut out every single lap salary.
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And I know it's something, frankly, y'all can help us with as well,
22:33
where you see those needs within state government.
22:35
But there's so many tools now with AI technology and data that we can look at
22:40
to figure out which of those, there's certainly some of those jobs that are
22:44
lapsed that are not necessary.
22:46
Times have changed, the technology's changed, but some of them,
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they probably are necessary, but the pay on it is so low that,
22:52
you know, nobody who could do that job is going to go take half the money,
22:57
you know, when they go to the private sector.
22:58
Or the agencies. I mean, what we're hearing is in candor from agency heads is
23:04
that we haven't been funded enough as an agency.
23:08
Our budgets haven't changed with the times. And so we're literally paying the light bill.
23:13
One agency head said, look, to comport with federal law.
23:16
This was juvenile justice. So they have to, they're in charge of the lives of youth offenders.
23:22
And so they, I mean, they have to keep it staffed. So they've been hiring temporary
23:26
staff, which costs so much more than just hiring people.
23:29
So a lot of these decisions, at the end of the day, get a little frustrating
23:33
because the last time we saw a number on the cost of turnover was the Purdue administration.
23:40
And at that time, it was over $400 million a year was the cost of turnover.
23:45
Vacancy rates then were a fraction of what they are now. So the frustration
23:49
we sometimes bring to the table is,
23:51
we're paying for this. You could either pay for people and give services to
23:56
folks, or you can pay for the lack of people, which means you're in a constant
24:01
cycle of interviewing and training and watching them walk out.
24:06
So I think that's kind of the challenge that we wanted to point out to the members,
24:13
and we'll try to keep doing that.
24:14
But we would love to know, what are your thoughts on that, on something like
24:18
a turnover cost? Is that something we should be factoring in.
24:21
Well, it certainly should. And I know I've seen and heard some reports of the
24:26
length of time that it takes some agencies when they go to hire somebody and
24:29
how long it takes them to get up and running.
24:31
And again, that's one of the reasons why my take on it is the good folks that
24:37
we have there currently don't lose them because they're the folks who are helping
24:41
train new ones who come in.
24:43
And you're right, it costs money to deal with vacancies. it's a time issue.
24:48
You've got to learn how to do the job. It's just like anything else.
24:51
I mean, you've got folks who have been there a long time and they're experienced
24:53
and they can create smooth transitions for folks who are coming in.
24:57
But some of these agencies, it may be a year before the person's really up and running.
25:02
And that's where it becomes a complicated analysis in the sense that I don't
25:08
think you can apply that equally across every single agency.
25:11
Every agency is different. They have a different level of issue that they're
25:15
dealing with. I mean, again, DHHS, there's
25:18
know, thousands of different issues that their employees are dealing with in different positions.
25:23
And if you sort of break it down to, I think, the subsets, like if you just
25:26
looked at state troopers, for example, you can do that analysis and say,
25:29
well, how are we losing people and how much is that costing us?
25:32
But there's no question that the vacancy issue costing more money is something
25:37
that I don't know that this body looks at enough, quite frankly.
25:41
But I think it's a symptom of our initial problem being most of us feeling like
25:45
our current employees are not making enough money and trying to fix that issue
25:49
before we can get our arms around, you know, the next step of these vacancies
25:52
and how do we get more. Well, amen to that.
25:55
I mean, you're saying a lot of things in your tenure so far,
25:59
one year and some months into it, that are honestly pretty exciting for us, that are different.
26:05
We had a great relationship with Speaker Moore, but it's always different when somebody new comes in.
26:11
But honestly, you're also a new generation of speaker.
26:14
And I think that that matters. We usually have a Gen Z moment on our podcast.
26:19
We're not doing that this week because we have an important guest.
26:22
But we're trying to talk a lot at Scenic about how a new generation looks at
26:27
government. And so I can't think of anybody better to tell us.
26:30
What are your thoughts about how we can get people more interested,
26:36
the next generations interested in public service, and how can it be meaningful for them?
26:41
Well, so I'm of the millennial generation, of course, and it's an interesting take.
26:47
I mean, I've had my own experiences, you know, practicing law,
26:50
and I started in Charlotte, and I came back home and worked there.
26:53
And, you know, there's certainly a different mindset of folks my age than there
26:57
might be of the generation ahead of me and the folks behind me,
27:00
and I guess which is Z or what I get them all mixed up, but they're a lot different as well.
27:06
And so just like every other employer, and again, I employ folks of multiple of those generations.
27:11
And you notice that they value different things. I find that especially younger
27:17
folks value having flexibility in their time.
27:20
And again, they grew up with technology. And so, you know, they don't think
27:24
it's as critical to have, you know, an in-person meeting, you know,
27:27
once a week in the office and it's, you know, email works and,
27:31
you know, they have Microsoft Teams now.
27:33
And so as an employer, the state's got to sort of be flexible as well to get
27:37
these folks to come do those jobs.
27:40
And it's, you know, whatever generation you're in, the first thing you want
27:43
to know is where are you going to pay me? That's right. And,
27:45
you know, you can deal with a lot of ills if you get paid enough.
27:48
But outside of that, and again, I find folks in my generation and the one behind
27:51
it, they certainly care about pay, but they seem to care less in some ways than older generations did.
27:58
And maybe it's just a function of they're just less willing to put up with certain
28:01
things if they have to come to the office every single day, no matter what,
28:04
and do these once a week meetings, they don't want to do it.
28:07
But I think we would be wise to remember that and giving flexibility to state
28:13
employees because, you know, there's many reasons to come to work for the state.
28:16
I mean, you know, you still have a great retirement system, the health plan.
28:20
All of those things are solid, as we've talked about, all need improving.
28:24
That's always going to be the case.
28:25
But they're solid jobs that people can rely upon.
28:29
And we need to recognize, though, the sort of the different sensibilities of
28:33
folks in different generations. And I've got them both in this office and in my one at home.
28:39
And, you know, you sort of just learn the different, I guess.
28:42
Preferences of some of those folks.
28:44
Go with the flow. Yeah, that's right. And you kind of have to do that or else
28:47
you're not going to have many of those younger folks these days. I've got some here.
28:51
I can't get rid of them. They show up, you know, from time to time, but I'm working on it.
28:56
But, no, just it really is an interesting thing. But from the state standpoint,
29:00
it goes back to, you know, you got to look at these things with through the lens of reality.
29:05
They got to be paid enough. Yes. But, you know, it's also sort of recognizing
29:09
the changes that a lot of private businesses have already done.
29:13
And the reason they do these things and let people work from home some.
29:16
And I'm not suggesting it all to the listeners that we're going to just make
29:19
all the state employees let them work from home all the time.
29:21
Anyway, I don't need. Yeah.
29:23
Nobody go crazy listening. But, you know, some level of flexibility like the
29:27
private sector, I think, makes a lot of sense.
29:30
Well, we're just so thrilled to get to talk to you about these things and hear
29:34
where you're coming from.
29:36
I think that we've put you through the paces. We haven't held back a bit.
29:40
And as usual, on May 6th, we're having a lobby day.
29:44
First one Scenic's had in a very long time. And I think we're going to have a good turnout.
29:48
So there will be people to come over and talk to the members of the House.
29:52
And they'll stop by your office, too. Thank you, Sarah.
29:54
Well, appreciate you guys coming by. And, you know, it's really,
29:59
it's easy for me to talk to you because, you know, a house side's pretty good on your issues mostly.
30:03
But I also, you know, I feel an obligation to really get some of these things done.
30:06
And I know we've worked on them for a long time. And I think that for a number
30:11
of reasons, I do think we're to a point of finally making some real progress
30:15
on these issues. And I hope to see that in this budget this year.
30:19
So really quickly, I know we're pressed for time, but contrary to my intro,
30:24
I did do a little research on you.
30:25
Every week, I ask a random question for people. And so I did see on your Instagram
30:30
posts about a little baby, and that baby's about to turn a year old, right?
30:36
Just last week, turned one-year-old last Wednesday. So my question is,
30:41
what have you learned in your first year as a dad?
30:44
Well, you know, he's taught me a lot more than I've been able to teach him thus
30:48
far about life. It really, it's our first child and the best thing I've been a part of.
30:54
One reason we'll have a short, short session this year is because I would rather
30:58
go spend time with him than I would all these politicians here.
31:01
But it's been great. It's, you know, people say all the time it changes your
31:05
perspective on life and you really don't understand until you go through it. But it really does.
31:09
I think it improves your ability to sort of know what matters and what does
31:14
in life. And he's been great.
31:16
He's won. He's just about to walk. he
31:19
can he can he's wide open he can hold the chair at the table he can walk and
31:24
he's trying to you know walk without holding anything and it's it's any day
31:27
now he's gonna do it y'all better be ready it's a blast that's what I hear but
31:31
I'm ready for it I enjoy it every month it's like you know they make another
31:35
sort of progress and yeah but it's great really enjoy it.
31:39
That's awesome well thank you so much like Artis said for having us here and
31:43
just enjoy the rest of your week state employees.