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Legislature proposes amendment lowering the state income tax cap · The SEANC View

• 0:00
  Music.
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  Hello, and welcome to another edition of the Scenic View podcast.
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  Joined today by Sam Klein, our digital communications specialist,
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  who's first on our list today.
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  Oh, and I'm Jonathan Owens, by the way, communications director. She beat you this week.
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  Yeah, top billing. And Artis Watkins, executive director of Scenic and government
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  relations director, Suzanne Beasley. How are you folks doing today? Good.
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  Pretty good. Great. Chilly. We're in a new office here, a new setup for our
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  podcast, so it may sound different, hopefully better.
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  And you guys, it is episode 30, from what I can tell from my statistics.
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  We made it 30 episodes. This is all in one year, too. How about that?
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  Are there still people listening? Hopefully.
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  According to this list, our most listened to episode was previewing the legislative
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  short session in April 24th. Interesting.
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  And here we are. And speaking of the legislature, the Senate did come back this
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  week, right? Just the Senate, right? The Senate had votes.
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  Yeah. Yeah. Suzanne was nodding. I'm like, no one can hear the nod.
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  So, Suzanne, what happened this week at the legislature? So,
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  the Senate passed legislation to put three constitutional amendments on the ballot in 2026.
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  Y'all may remember us talking about that a little bit. last session,
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  but those three constitutional amendments are voter ID, which is already law.
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  So again, we talked about this before. You super, super have to have your voter ID. Yes.
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  Yeah. So voter ID, congressional term limits, not North Carolina term limits,
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  but congressional term limits and the tax cap, the income tax cap.
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  So before we talk about them, is there a reason that they had to do it with
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  such urgency? Like, why do they have to do it this session and not wait a month
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  and do it next session? Well, the General Assembly is going to change.
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  Yeah, but it's not going to change that much, right? I mean,
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  is there a reason to get it like on the ballot or anything like that?
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  Well, there's technically not a super majority in the House come January at this time.
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  Okay. All right. So we'd have some room to work with people.
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  So back to the list. What was number one? Voter ID.
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  Yeah, voter ID, congressional term limits, and the income tax cap.
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  So our current income tax rate is 4.5%. The current cap is 7%. Yeah.
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  And they want to move the 7% cap to a 5% cap.
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  Which, I mean, it's already lower than 5%. It's already lower than 5%.
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  I guess the thinking is you can never go above that, right? You just want to lower the cap.
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  And we, you know, we always, our conversations with legislators and when we speak up in committee,
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  you know, don't hamstring the next General Assembly in this case,
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  but don't hamstring yourself by putting a constitutional amendment in place
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  that's going to cap what you can make in revenue because we don't know what the future holds.
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  Yeah, wasn't there kind of a push from that side to move to sales tax, right?
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  So, you know, if there was a problem and we needed more revenue,
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  would they be looking at maybe increasing the sales tax to raise that?
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  Well, I'm sure, especially if this passes and they can't go but so far.
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  Yeah, so it really inhibits your ability. Yeah, but there is a lot of talk of
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  the Republican legislature would like to move away from the income tax and base
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  everything on sales tax. I think Florida is like that.
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  A bunch of places. Toll roads. You know, Texas.
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  Yeah. Oh, yeah. And both of them. All those kinds of things that still bring in revenue.
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  You know, visiting family regularly enough in Texas, I can tell you they get it from you.
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  Yeah. They don't get it the same way. In some shape, form, or fashion.
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  Yeah. So what are your thoughts on the whole tax amendment?
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  I mean, I think we have to look at the budget in a year in two ways.
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  One is what you're bringing in, so your revenue, and then what you're spending.
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  And so if you look at revenue versus expenses, this is a perfect storm.
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  You've got 27 counties that were economically devastated, whether it's tourism,
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  agriculture, any number of things.
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  In those counties, so many of the businesses in the second quarter of the fiscal
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  year for the state, because the fiscal year obviously starts July 1, they were devastated.
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  So the third quarter, I don't anticipate being a whole lot better.
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  But if you lost every pumpkin you had, every Christmas tree you had,
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  every apple you had, or the tourism industry, some of it we've seen is bouncing
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  back. But it's not bouncing back in the same way.
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  I think a lot of people for right now have crossed North Carolina off their
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  list, especially when you consider the fact you still can't drive I-40 from Points West to Gittier.
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  So 27 counties out of 100, so more than a quarter of your tax base. Devastated.
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  And then the taxes were reduced in the last few years. Correct.
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  So also in terms of what you're bringing in, you knew you were going to bring in less.
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  So you were really, if you bring
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  in less, you have to hope for tremendous production, tremendous sales.
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  And so overlay that with the 27 counties who are not able to do what they normally would economically.
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  That's bad. And then you have to consider federal cuts are probably coming to
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  things that we've gotten money for as a state.
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  And Medicaid expansion is an example. I don't think anybody argued that they
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  did a great job in a bipartisan fashion of expanding Medicaid.
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  But there is more talk of Medicaid and Medicare and what to do with those than
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  I think I've seen of anything else at the federal level in terms of people who
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  are going to be leaders incoming in January in the new administration.
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  You know, what are we going to, our state's not going to get the same matching funds we did before.
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  So there's all those questions in terms of revenue. And if you look at expenses,
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  we know the storm itself is, it changes every day in terms of what the storm costs North Carolina.
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  But people are pretty much saying 50, 60 billion dollars.
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  Again, as Senator Heist pointed out, only the federal government can write a check that big.
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  But are they going to when they're announcing they want to cut everything to
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  the bone? I hope so, but you can't count on that.
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  And then we've talked about this, the half a billion dollars that just went
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  out the door in opportunity scholarships.
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  I'm sure looked like a great idea at the time, but now that's out the door. So that's an expense.
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  Again, we talked about expanding Medicaid. And then what if the tariffs that
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  have been talked about happen?
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  Well, the state has to buy an awful lot of stuff. And a lot of this stuff has
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  to come from some of the companies mentioned for tariffs. So just like all of
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  us businesses, the state will have to consider their expenses will go up should
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  those tariffs be put in place.
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  So overlay all of that with an idea of an income tax cap.
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  It just doesn't seem, I mean, practical. Well, I don't know.
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  Where do you get the money for state government to function?
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  The state is already in part living off of not having the state employees they're supposed to.
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  So with that 23, 25 percent, whatever it is today, overall vacancy rate,
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  the state has lived in part off of that, those vacant positions.
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  Again, we just had a disaster where those vacant positions matter.
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  I mean, they matter every day to North Carolinians, but they're especially hurtful
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  when you don't have the same.
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  You should be as nimble as possible if something happens to your people.
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  And we can't be if we don't have a full staff.
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  So living off that kind of supplemented things in a way where you could do some
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  of these tax cuts and things, that's not going to be the case at this point.
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  So what happens? I mean, I think that we're looking at, no doubt,
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  some people will say, let's privatize a bunch of this stuff.
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  That conversation's coming.
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  Yeah, I thought you laid it out very well to our board a couple weeks ago.
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  I wanted to get into that. Those points that you made about the presidency,
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  the school voucher program, and the hurricane damage.
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  And one thing you mentioned was that those vacant positions may be in jeopardy for not filling, right?
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  Right. Because, again, I haven't heard a plan on what do you do?
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  What do you do with all of these things happening and you still have all these
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  vacancies? I haven't heard a plan yet, and maybe they have a brilliant one.
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  She's not sharing it. But I don't know how you fix that.
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  So in talking to our board and talking to people who are out there trying to do these jobs,
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  in talking to people who are among the people who have tried to rescue and help
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  people in the western part of the state put their lives back together and are
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  so demoralized by doing that while understaffed,
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  you know, it's important for them to know.
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  What's coming, and they absolutely were pretty adamant they better be a priority
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  because these folks and their experience were more critical than ever when this storm hit.
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  And we just can't afford for any more of these experienced state employees to
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  decide the state doesn't care about me, I'm out of here.
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  Because I can tell you folks, contractors coming in from other places,
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  they don't care about their neighbors here the way people from this state do.
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  It's not that they're bad people.
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  They're just out to make. But they have to care about the bottom line.
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  They're trying to make money.
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  Yeah. And state employees, this is their state. And these are their,
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  they feel like. They're personally invested. Right.
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  This is, it's like my family. I need to protect my family and not the shareholders of somebody.
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  And we're not just saying that, y'all. We have a, our membership is a cross
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  section of what North Carolina looks like. So we actually hear this firsthand.
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  Oh, gosh, yeah. Yeah, our membership is every political party,
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  every race, you know, they're very, very representative of the state.
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  Yeah, I see here that I saw a tweet from Erin Perret that she's been named to
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  a House Select Committee on Lean Recovery.
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  Is the Senate doing that as well, or is it? Okay.
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  So maybe we'll get a chance to visit that committee and impress on them the
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  need to, you know, just what our people have done up there. We did get a report
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  from Cliff Johnson, our Western Region Representative, and Jamie Robinson,
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  our Retiree Council Chairman, and District 9 Chairman.
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  They review kind of what we've done up there, and it's pretty amazing what they've
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  done this in the last, what, two months since the—or three?
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  It's the end of September, very end of September. So two. But yeah,
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  we've delivered lots of relief up there.
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  He showed a video of a relief site they've set up at Black Mountain that was
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  pretty neat. They've got all kinds of rooms with different items in them.
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  We also had an event at Mountain View Correctional. So I think Brad Longhans,
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  our staff member, he sent me some pictures yesterday that he had delivered the
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  last of the items we've collected so far.
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  So we're still working for you, Western North Carolina.
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  And I know that recovery is happening, but it's slow. You guys have any thoughts on that?
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  Yeah, it is slow. But the place that they have set up at Black Mountain is really
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  cool. You can go in and shop.
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  Yeah, that's kind of cool. Obviously, you don't have to pay anything for it. But yeah.
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  And that was a state employee taking that on themselves and the state saying,
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  OK, you know, you can do this.
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  And I think the advocacy we do for state employees and their pay and benefits is vital.
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  But I think the thing that is the most amazing about Scenic is that the community
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  and state employees in general, the community service, they will do again because
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  these are their communities.
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  This is their home. That's right. They will move heaven and earth to try to
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  help their neighbors. And I think that's...
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  That's a pretty special thing. But yeah, I'm really proud of all of our members
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  involved in that, Jamie and Cliff and Brad.
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  And it was very impressive at the board meeting when they listed everything they've done.
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  And it was very moving to hear from some folks. Yeah, who were impacted,
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  like District 5 chair Willie Jo. Oh, yeah.
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  That was touching stories. It's hard to hear. Yeah. But, man,
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  what amazing attitudes the people in the West have.
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  They've picked themselves up and are ready to build back.
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  They're very resilient. Yes, they are. I mean, very, very resilient.
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  And they're not expecting anybody to come wave a wand and fix everything for them.
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  But they definitely are aware this is too big for anybody to do alone.
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  So was that the last session of this legislature? No, so the legislature will return next Wednesday.
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  The House will take up the constitutional amendments.
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  Do you think that'll be the last of it? Gosh, I hope so.
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  We'll see. So, yeah, so I guess they have to be out by January, what, 16th, right?
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  Well, what was I reading about congressional?
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  So there would have to be a convention of states in order to change the U.S.
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  Constitution. And that requires 34 states, I think it is, and 19 are in.
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  What is the goal? Right. What exactly are they? So that term limits would fall under?
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  I mean, if they had a convention of the states, they could address anything
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  they want. So when you're talking
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  about the term limits, that's a broader thing than the term limits.
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  Yeah. I mean, if they have a convention, then they can come in and address anything they want to.
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  Yeah. Who would decide representatives to that? And there's a lot of questions
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  involved in that one. I mean, I've got some things I'd like to change.
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  You know, like maybe the Electoral College doesn't need to exist, but I digress.
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  But anyway, so that's interesting.
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  That's some major change there.
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  Yeah, that's a big deal. Are we one of those 19 states? It depends on what the
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  House does. Oh, we might be one of those 19 states.
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  If you're in the legislature and you're listening, I beg you,
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  please, please focus on North Carolina right now. We, again,
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  we have so many issues, but things are dire out there.
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  People are going to continue to protect us, to serve us, to make sure when we
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  pull up at a gas pump that what we're getting is what it says we're getting.
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  And if some, you know, if we lose a loved one, we don't know if somebody sold
• 14:03
  them fentanyl or something and we need the autopsy.
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  We need to be able to get that in a timely fashion. I mean, there's so many
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  things in North Carolina that.
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  To solve. I think the big trend right now is for everybody to look at some big national overhaul.
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  But in North Carolina, we've got an awful lot of plates spinning in the air on sticks.
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  And I beg you, focus on North Carolina to the degree that that is possible and
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  workable, you know, for the caucus.
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  That's an important thing. And by the way, I would love to see that camaraderie
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  they had in October when they came back there. Right.
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  It was amazingly bipartisan and honestly focused. Everyone was focused and determined.
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  And I felt so safe about this state can come together.
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  And I think we had a spirit left by the time we left the building that day because
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  it was like, whoa, they were they were a body working together to do good things.
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  And that was the exception rather than the norm, right? Well,
• 15:04
  I mean, in recent times, you know, not even recent times.
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  I mean, it's always been whoever's in charge, especially I don't care if it's
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  Democrats or Republicans.
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  When you have a super majority, it's very, very hard to not just let that be
• 15:19
  something that makes you involve the other party an awful lot less than you
• 15:24
  otherwise would. And again, it's been that way with both parties.
• 15:27
  However, I don't think we can afford that anymore as a state,
• 15:31
  either financially or policy wise.
• 15:33
  I just don't think we can afford it. I don't think we can afford it as a country.
• 15:36
  But we have got to figure out a way for everybody to come together.
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  So North Carolina actually is part of the 19.
• 15:44
  Yes, I was just kind of reading up on it here while you guys were discussing that.
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  And through my limited knowledge, now having read this one story,
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  it says that I guess the reasoning would be for term limits on Congress.
• 15:58
  But once you do a constitutional convention, you can do whatever you want.
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  Well, I mean, my question about anything a state legislature does is what's
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  in it for North Carolina.
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  So term limits, I mean, is that what's in it for us? Anyway,
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  please focus on North Carolina.
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  Well, I mean, there kind of was a chuckle in the Rules Committee on congressional term limits.
• 16:22
  It may have been, I think it was Senator Chaudhry who said something about term
• 16:25
  limits for Congress, but not us. Yeah, that's ironic.
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  See, I don't think you'd have a legislature if you put term limits in place
• 16:34
  because it pays nothing, practically. Exactly. And it's so much time.
• 16:39
  Well, and the part of that, too, is, I mean, I get, you know,
• 16:43
  when people are talking about term limits, but you've also got to have institutional knowledge.
• 16:48
  You've got to have experience and leadership.
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  We need to pay our legislators enough to make it worth the kind of commitment it is.
• 16:56
  I mean, there's only 170 of them. We can pay them appropriately. Yeah.
• 17:01
  Yeah, it's totally. Right along with other state employees. That'd be nice.
• 17:05
  It's not feasible for a mid-career person to run for office in North Carolina,
• 17:10
  run for the legislature at least, you know.
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  It is absolutely. No normal person, average person rather, can run for the legislature.
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  But a young person, number one, a young person with a young family,
• 17:24
  what a brutal, tough thing that is to try to balance. And then young people
• 17:29
  building their careers, they can't just walk away from them four days a week.
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  And that's what they'd have to do. And in return, we give them a pittance.
• 17:37
  And that doesn't work. You're not going to get a representative government.
• 17:42
  And you need, frankly, you know, you need some of these people much younger
• 17:45
  than we are to come in there and speak for their part of North Carolina.
• 17:51
  So surprisingly, we still have one election that isn't completely decided either,
• 17:56
  right? We have the judicial race.
• 17:58
  Spring-Fort. I saw that there's another hand recount called for that race.
• 18:03
  Is that right? Some of the ballots are being challenged.
• 18:06
  The funniest thing, I just, the only reason I bring that up was the funniest
• 18:09
  thing was Allison Riggs' tweet that her parents were on that list.
• 18:14
  Did you see that? Oh, goodness no. And she was standing with her parents.
• 18:17
  Like, they are on the list of challenged voters. Challenged ballots.
• 18:21
  No, I saw Representative Murray had put on there that a county commissioner
• 18:25
  in Lee County, my county, was on the list. Oh, my.
• 18:28
  I do have one more little tidbit from, well, it's a big tidbit,
• 18:32
  from the legislature in the Senate.
• 18:34
  The Democrats voted on new leadership, and Sidney Batch is now the new minority leader.
• 18:40
  That's a big switch after a whole lot of time.
• 18:45
  Dan Blue's gone through. How long has he been there? 40 years. Wow.
• 18:49
  In the legislature. Oh, in the legislature. Yeah, not just. I mean,
• 18:52
  he was Speaker of the House years ago. He's done everything over there. He has. So that's.
• 18:57
  Had quite a storied career in the legislature. And is still having a career,
• 19:02
  but has had one of the most storied careers over there in the legislature.
• 19:07
  And Sidney Batch is, she's got kind of a phenomenal story in the short time
• 19:11
  she's been there. She absolutely does. I look forward to working with Senator Batch.
• 19:14
  So Senator Blue said he's excited to pass the torch to Senator Batch.
• 19:19
  So you've got a new speaker this year. I've got a new speaker in the House.
• 19:23
  But the minority leader on the House side stays the same, Robert Reeves.
• 19:27
  Yes, and we have a new rules chair, John Bell. That's right.
• 19:30
  Yay, John Bell. Long time friend of senior. Great friend. I have the new leadership
• 19:34
  now in the Senate with the Democrats.
• 19:37
  The Senate majority. Minority. They stay the same, right? Senator Berger still
• 19:41
  stays in control of the Senate.
• 19:43
  Yeah, Senator Raven, rules chair. Okay. A new governor? Yeah.
• 19:47
  And a new governor? New list. It's a different face than the dais in the Senate.
• 19:53
  Very true. Do we have any insight on how they get along with Josh Stein?
• 19:57
  How who gets along? The leadership in the House or the Senate. I don't know.
• 20:02
  I know that Governor-elect Stein had an awful lot of Republicans involved in his campaign.
• 20:08
  And he has an awful lot in his transition team. In fact, Senator Britt is a
• 20:12
  member of his transition team who's obviously a Republican.
• 20:16
  So it'll be interesting. You know how these things work. They get along till
• 20:21
  they don't get along, no matter who's in charge.
• 20:23
  And I feel like the next two to four years are going to be as partisan as ever.
• 20:27
  Well, I think what's going to happen is in state level, state legislatures are
• 20:32
  going to have to be wildly reactive. They're used to being, you know,
• 20:37
  they know the federal stuff's going to stay fairly consistent. And so they're active.
• 20:41
  They're active figuring out what their priorities and policies for their state are.
• 20:45
  They're definitely going to be reactive this time because.
• 20:49
  You know, again, every single noise coming out of anybody that's been nominated
• 20:54
  for a cabinet post or who's in the inner circle for President-elect Trump's team,
• 21:00
  the kind of things they're saying would have significant impact on states.
• 21:04
  So states are going to have to be nimble, be able to react to those things.
• 21:08
  Again, our poor state got kneecapped by this storm and it remains to be seen.
• 21:14
  But to me, that means the legislature, again, they're going to have to work
• 21:18
  together because they have to be reactive.
• 21:20
  Right out the gate. You know, there was money moved from one reserve fund to
• 21:24
  another reserve fund for healing damage, but it wasn't appropriated.
• 21:28
  So the new legislature will have to come out the gate, you know,
• 21:31
  doing something with that. People waiting for the help.
• 21:34
  Well, I mean, we're kind of at a wait and see on all of that, right?
• 21:38
  Well, we got less than 40 days until a new year. Well, and don't forget,
• 21:41
  the other thing that is, and I should have said this when we were talking about
• 21:45
  the expenses column, the state health plan needs in the short run at least $800 million.
• 21:52
  In the next few years, by 2027, it's well over a billion.
• 21:56
  It's like one point. Gosh, I can't remember. It's one point something.
• 22:00
  It really doesn't matter when you get into the one-point billions,
• 22:03
  but it is a significant amount of money.
• 22:06
  That's got to come from somewhere in addition to all of the rest of this.
• 22:10
  Even with the talk of overhauling or dismantling the ACA, you don't know what
• 22:14
  else is going to cost the state health plan. Oh, exactly.
• 22:18
  That's why I'm saying a lot of these things that are being said by folks who
• 22:22
  are going to be playmakers at the federal level will definitely have effects
• 22:27
  on a number of issues with our state budget and also with local budgets.
• 22:33
  And when things hit the locals in a significant way, the locals are going to
• 22:37
  have to come to the legislature and say, we're struggling, especially the 27
• 22:41
  counties who just suffered the storm.
• 22:44
  I think that our job as Scenic and my job in particular, I guess,
• 22:48
  will be important in explaining why things are happening the way they are over the next year.
• 22:54
  And we're making that connection with our membership.
• 22:57
  Because of this happening, this is why this will be hard to do.
• 23:01
  Or, you know, I think we're going to have a lot of pressure on us to do that.
• 23:05
  Well, I think we have to explain to the legislature why when they're setting
• 23:08
  the priorities and they will have to be very limited priorities this time.
• 23:12
  We need to explain very well why the priority, one of the significant priorities
• 23:18
  needs to be having a fully functioning, fully staffed state employee roster
• 23:23
  and how that affects economic development.
• 23:26
  Because if your infrastructure struggles, your economic development,
• 23:30
  that's right, they won't come here, but also the ability, again,
• 23:34
  to respond when the citizens need their state to show up.
• 23:38
  And that's going to be on us to make that case. We need to do it,
• 23:43
  especially new legislators may have no idea coming in, I would assume.
• 23:46
  Many have no idea there's even a vacancy crisis.
• 23:49
  Lots of education ahead of us. So hold on, because it's going to be a wild ride, right?
• 23:55
  And our retirees, don't forget them in any of this. Yeah.
• 23:58
  You know, they're... You haven't been forgotten. We've had some calls here,
• 24:02
  but, you know, the legislature didn't pass an expansion budget when they came
• 24:07
  back in the short session.
• 24:08
  So, you know, what's in the budget that they passed in the long session is what we're running.
• 24:12
  Yeah, but let's talk about what, okay, in defense of retirees.
• 24:16
  No, they weren't forgotten because there wasn't an expansion budget,
• 24:19
  but they weren't taken care of in the budget for that. However,
• 24:23
  more importantly, they shouldn't have to go over to the General Assembly,
• 24:27
  hat in hand, asking for something.
• 24:28
  They put 6% of their check in every month that they were working for at least
• 24:34
  30 years, however long they worked.
• 24:36
  And the deal was, at the end of that, they were going to make less money than
• 24:41
  they would in the private sector by about 14% on average.
• 24:45
  But at the end of it, there would be this defined benefit. You'll be taken care
• 24:49
  of. And the fact of the matter is that promise has not been kept.
• 24:53
  If that was because it simply couldn't have been kept, wasn't feasible,
• 24:57
  somebody needed to come out and say it.
• 24:59
  But it's not that. If that was the case, I don't think the legislature would
• 25:04
  have a problem saying we are going to change the law.
• 25:07
  The law right now protects anybody who's investing that money on behalf of the
• 25:12
  retirement system. So those money managers, big money managers,
• 25:16
  New York City, they're protected. They don't have to show those contracts.
• 25:20
  Who knows what's in those contracts? And that's kind of the point.
• 25:23
  Again, we go back, we talked about this on the podcast before.
• 25:26
  You've got at the federal level, there's this big, so much attention over Doge,
• 25:31
  this Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy effort to ferret out waste in the federal government.
• 25:38
  Well, why are we covering up the ability to look into whether we're wasting
• 25:43
  billions on a pension system and then trying to tell the retirees there's nothing we can do for them?
• 25:49
  Open everything up. We need some sunshine.
• 25:52
  Those contracts, and I hope incoming Treasurer Brad Briner will be the first
• 25:56
  person over there at the legislature saying these should not be a trade secret
• 26:01
  exception to the Public Records Act.
• 26:04
  That makes absolutely no sense. So I hope he'll be the first person over there
• 26:07
  arguing for that. And we'll have his back if he doesn't. Absolutely.
• 26:11
  Change that we didn't mention was a new treasurer. We've had a friend,
• 26:15
  Dale Falwell, for years there.
• 26:17
  And now we need to get used to a new, make friends with a new treasurer.
• 26:20
  Well, again, I think that's the way for Treasurer Briner to really make his
• 26:24
  mark, to come right out of the gate and say, you know what?
• 26:26
  Similarly to what we're seeing a call for nationally, I'm going to lead that
• 26:30
  charge statewide. We're going to have transparency.
• 26:33
  We're going to actually have sunshine. here I
• 26:36
  offer the contracts and I'm asking the legislature to let
• 26:39
  me offer these contracts so people can see them so people
• 26:42
  can know and that every deal as I make as treasurer will be open I've got faith
• 26:47
  in him I'm hopeful so I think that's about all we have for this week as far
• 26:53
  as the smart people stuff but now to my part yes which is the question of the week John's work we.
• 27:01
  Music.
• 27:07
  It's Christmas time. It's the best time for me. Don't we sound jolly? Don't we sound...
• 27:12
  Let's leave on a merry note. So the few weeks leading up to Christmas is when
• 27:18
  you get all the Christmas movies.
• 27:19
  So my question this week is, what is your favorite Christmas movie? I'll start.
• 27:24
  Die Hard? Die Hard. That is not a Christmas movie. It's not a Christmas movie.
• 27:29
  I should have a decent movie. Love Actually is a good one, too. Love Actually.
• 27:32
  Mine is obviously as Elf, right? I think Elf is like the new holiday classic.
• 27:38
  I think that is the best movie in the last 20 years about Christmas.
• 27:43
  What about you? Polar Express.
• 27:46
  Polar Express is so bad. It's marvellous.
• 27:50
  Sweet. I have grown up on that movie every single year when we're decorating the tree.
• 27:54
  We turn on Polar Express and we do have a Christmas ornament that has essentially
• 28:00
  the Polar Express in a book. And then at the very back of it,
• 28:03
  the bell that he gets, there is a little tiny bell. Spoiler alert.
• 28:09
  If you haven't seen Polar Express. For all the children listening to the podcast
• 28:14
  in 20 years. They're already asleep.
• 28:17
  We lost them in their plan. The little annoying kid is like too annoying.
• 28:22
  The little. Oh, 100%. That's the best part of it. It's unwatchable there.
• 28:26
  I just can't take it. It's sufferable.
• 28:29
  Grinch. I like the songs. I love the songs. We watched Christmas Vacation twice
• 28:34
  over Thanksgiving because we spent a lot of time with our grandparents in one house.
• 28:39
  I don't think I've ever watched Christmas Vacation.
• 28:43
  We might have to just do that one day. Yeah, that's a classic.
• 28:46
  That's so good. What about you? My cousins are obsessed with it.
• 28:49
  I mean, I think Christmas Vacation is a go-to for us.
• 28:53
  But I think for me personally, I love a Hallmark Christmas movie.
• 28:58
  Oh, wow. Oh, yeah. I love them. Did you see the Chiefs one that just came out?
• 29:02
  No. Oh, it's about the Chiefs and it's kind of a play on Taylor Swift.
• 29:08
  I love those movies and my son. See them? I have to sneak them.
• 29:12
  If my son walks in and sees them, he has to say something a little judgmental about it.
• 29:17
  So I sneak those movies, but they're awesome.
• 29:21
  I have no comment on the Taylor Swift, Travis Kelsey inspired Hallmark movie.
• 29:26
  But did you see that Lifetime had one as well that was like way more like it
• 29:31
  was like exactly the same story as them. And we watched that, too.
• 29:35
  And it was not good. I'm not doing either of them. I'll let them have their
• 29:40
  love story and just let it be a love story.
• 29:42
  I don't need to watch people make up big people that are based on these two.
• 29:47
  Well, Elf is probably my favorite right now, but It's a Wonderful Life is...
• 29:53
  And even my daughter liked that last year. She was 11 and we watched it.
• 29:56
  She was like, yeah, I like this. It's so good.
• 29:59
  Every year on Christmas Day, they play A Christmas Story. Yeah.
• 30:02
  They long. That's a good one.
• 30:04
  We'll turn it on and it stays on all day long. My mom is a real life story of that.
• 30:09
  Her brother got her in the eye with a little. Yeah.
• 30:13
  I got shot in my hand one time and I think the BB is still in there.
• 30:17
  She was fine until she got older and then it started to affect her eyes.
• 30:21
  So she actually had surgery last year on her eye too.
• 30:25
  Oh, yeah. Yeah. So she was a real life little story of that.
• 30:30
  And the Grinch. You can't forget the Grinch. Oh, yeah. The Grinch.
• 30:32
  Oh, the Grinch. See, there's two Grinches there.
• 30:35
  Oh, I hate that one. Jim Carrey version. Oh, I love it. It's just too dark.
• 30:38
  That's fine. I love the new Illumination version. I don't love the animation.
• 30:43
  It's good, too. I watched that last weekend with the Grand.
• 30:47
  It's clever. It's really good. Yeah. It's a good version, but I prefer the original Jim Carrey.
• 30:53
  Just doing Jim Carrey things the whole time, you know? Exactly. And I love Jim Carrey.
• 30:57
  In a Grinch suit. Yeah. That's what was so funny.
• 31:01
  I still have a sweatshirt. I mean, I still like Rudolph.
• 31:06
  Okay, I like Rudolph and Hallmark movies. But anyway. And we must mention Home
• 31:12
  Alone, right? Yes. I just watched that.
• 31:14
  Did you? Have you watched the new Home Sweet Home Alone? It's pretty good. No.
• 31:19
  Which Home Alone is your favorite? I've only seen the first one.
• 31:23
  I'll say there's original.
• 31:25
  There's Lost in New York City. That's the Donald Trump one, right?
• 31:28
  That's the one where he's featured in the hotel and he's asking Donald Trump.
• 31:31
  He's like, where do I go? Yeah, he's in the movie.
• 31:34
  There's just so many of these. I would like, if I wanted to see a remake of
• 31:38
  any of them, it would be Christmas Vacation. Yeah.
• 31:41
  There was talk of that. I don't know if it was going to happen.
• 31:43
  I don't think they should touch it personally.
• 31:45
  I think that's just. Just leave it. Leave it alone, huh? One day it'll be the,
• 31:48
  it's a wonderful life of our generation. I don't know.
• 31:52
  What's your favorite Christmas song? Oh, yeah.
• 31:57
  That's a good one. Last Christmas is pretty good. The George Michael song.
• 32:02
  The gift in the spirit. Blue Christmas by Ellis. I like Don't This Style Santa
• 32:06
  Claus. Have you heard that one?
• 32:08
  No. Oh, that's a classic at our house. We have to play that. Oh, Christmas tree.
• 32:12
  Every year at Christmas Eve, my family has a Christmas party and they will call
• 32:16
  every single person in their contacts and sing them Oh, Christmas tree.
• 32:21
  But they only know three words.
• 32:23
  Still, they just repeat them over and over. You know what else I like is the
• 32:27
  drifter's version of like Christmas.
• 32:30
  You've heard that one, right? No. What does it sound like? In the one where
• 32:33
  he's going to like, ah, yeah, yeah. That one.
• 32:37
  Does not sound festive to me. Oh, it's awesome. See, Christmas is my favorite time of year.
• 32:42
  We'll end with that. Because we're way out here. Maybe that's our question next
• 32:46
  week, and we'll play songs with it.
• 32:48
  Happy holidays, y'all. Oh, that'd be cool. Yeah. Yippee-ki-yay.
• 32:52
  Such an informative show. All right, everyone. Have a great run-up to Christmas.
• 32:57
  Don't spend too much at the stores, and we'll see you next week. Bye.
• 33:01
  Music.