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State Budget Debate Moves to the House · The SEANC View

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Music.
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Hello, and welcome to this week's edition of the Scenic View podcast.
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I'm your host, Jonathan Owens, Communications Director here at Scenic,
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joined by Executive Director Artis Watkins, Government Relations Director Suzanne
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Beasley, and podcast producer Sam Klein.
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Welcome, everyone. Hello. I got to say, it's much easier to do when it's scripted out for me.
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I think it's a lot faster, though. Maybe I need to slow down just a little bit.
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But today is Wednesday, April 23rd. It's spring break for the legislature,
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from what I understand. It is. It is.
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What does that usually coincide with? Easter and school breaks?
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Yeah. I bet a lot of the legislators now don't have school-aged children,
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though, right? I don't know. We've got a lot of new people.
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Oh, okay. Yeah. Maybe that was a thing.
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Yeah, I think it actually kind of started because they were...
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It became a tradition, I think, when Speaker Moore had kids in school.
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Yeah, because his kids were young. Kids in school.
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Okay. Because they've only been in college. Yeah. So, yeah, they're on spring
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break this week, which gives us a minute to catch our breath.
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But we've still continued our conversations with legislators,
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keeping things fresh till they get back next week. Just a quick recap.
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The governor's budget obviously came out. The Senate budget came out.
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We weren't happy with either of those.
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You know, so now the budget has moved over to the House. It's going through its process there.
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We've heard from some staffers that the House is actually running a little farther
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behind than they wanted to be at this point.
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I know Artis and I have got some meetings set up next week with some of the
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appropriations chairpersons, so we'll get some more information there.
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But that's where we are as far as the budget journey.
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So the goal is usually to have a budget by June 30th or whatever for the new fiscal year.
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How likely do you think that is this year? It seems like they'd be ahead of
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schedule, especially with the Senate already passed. Well, I mean, we'll see.
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The House isn't going to rubber stamp anything that came over from the Senate.
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There's going to be a lot of discussion, you know, things that the House wants to see in the budget.
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So that's going to take some time, but that's a hard call. Are we actually going
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to have it in place because it could happen?
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Or are we going to have one at all because that could happen?
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Or are we just going to be late?
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It depends how many differences there are. And I think you have to first figure
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out what your differences are on what you want to bring in.
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And how many tax breaks you might want to give, and that brings in less.
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So then you have to figure out how to spend a lot less.
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And then you have to make sure you're planning out from that so that you continue to spend even less.
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So I think there is a little bit of difference of opinion in terms of revenue,
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how much of a tax break they're talking and how quickly they want to keep whittling
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away at the tax rate. So just a question.
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I know, like, last year they didn't even pass a reconcile budget,
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right? So this year they have to do a budget, right? I mean,
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they have to pass something or no?
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Yeah, well, there's nothing in place. I mean, they're not going to continue
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spending at current levels. That part is clear.
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And they can't. They don't have the money. Yeah, by year two,
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they would be. I mean, they would have to put money. Yeah.
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I guess the question I'm asking is like, do they have to meet that July 1st
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deadline? No. Clearly no. Okay.
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Yeah, clearly no. Yeah, so I don't know. We've had, what, almost a Christmas
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budget before. One thing we've seen, though, like Suzanne said,
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there's a lot of new people.
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And if you want people to run for the legislature, you can't be around the whole year.
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That's not what a citizen legislature is supposed to look like.
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They're supposed to have jobs back home.
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Yeah. So really, you know, we had gotten down to where if you weren't independently
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wealthy or retired, there was no way. Couldn't serve.
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Yeah, you couldn't support yourself and your family and serve.
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And so a lot of people have left the legislature, not because they didn't like
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it, but because they could not sustain that for them and their families.
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So it's going to be interesting to see how much push there is from some of the newer, younger people.
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Who have families and jobs and lives that want to get the business done and
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get out. Yeah. I mean, it's definitely not a lucrative job.
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No, it's less than $14,000 a year. I mean, that's given up a lot of your life
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just for $14,000 a year, right? Well, and that's a whole debate.
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You know, oftentimes state employees will say, you know, are we getting a raise?
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And then they'll wonder, is the legislature going to give themselves a raise?
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And I'm like, you want them to give themselves a massive raise.
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Because honestly, you need people who understand what it's like you have to
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have a job to get by or just a regular person.
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And at $14,000 a year and having to be away from your family so much of the
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time, you're not going to get many regular Joes and Joeds in the legislature making laws.
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And that means you're increasingly going to get folks who are not really in
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touch with your average North Carolinian.
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So the Senate's budget, we talked about last week that it did include all the
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DAVE initiatives, the Division of Accountability, Value, and Efficiency.
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Is that right? That's right. And in that, the state auditor will be tasked with
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finding cuts in government.
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But the Senate's budget itself also called for some positions that I don't think
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we touched on a little bit, but maybe we should review that a little more.
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It seems like there's a concerted effort to call state government bloated from what I understand.
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I'm seeing that a lot.
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That's the buzzword. It's bloated. How do we feel about that? Well, it's incorrect.
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Yeah. I mean, bloated, it's an interesting term, first of all,
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to use on a non-living thing. But if you're saying, hey, bloated,
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you think a lot of waste, a lot of just built up over time, unnecessary waste.
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And we've already established that if you go to the General Assembly's own website,
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you can clearly see the size of state government over the last 15 years has decreased.
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It has not increased. It has decreased by a lot, almost 24 percent.
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Less positions than we had 15 years ago. But the population during that time
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has grown 16%. So we have 24% less people to serve 16% more people.
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That's the opposite of bloat, of starving. So we have a very svelte state government.
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It's gone beyond svelte into starvation mode. Yeah.
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Well, and it's hard for me to, we are still having the conversation about the
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vacancy crisis that we have in state government.
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And to talk about bloat at the same time that we're talking about a prison that's 67% understaffed.
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Well, my concern is it creates with the public.
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It intentionally creates with the public. The idea, it perpetuates this idea
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of state government as just tons of people doing nothing.
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And that's so, first of all, disrespectful. But number two, dangerous.
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Because if you don't have enough public servants, what are you going to do when
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you have a crisis and you need them?
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Or just every day, day-to-day things that affect their safety and public health.
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And folks aren't going to know that until they stop getting those services.
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And then you cut stuff and businesses aren't going to find North Carolina to
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be attractive. infrastructure is a key reason businesses give for why they locate somewhere.
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So you could throw all the money you want to, whether it's the innovation fund,
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or if you take that money back and you decide to create a different thing than
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the innovation fund to throw money at corporations to come here, that is a losing game.
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If you have a good climate, which we do, climate climate,
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but also the good economic climate where the infrastructure's in place,
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you've got an educated workforce, you've got roads that are functional and nice,
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and you've got services, then that's attractive to businesses.
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That's when they want to locate here. So it's just not prudent at this juncture,
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as a past president would say.
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So the Senate's budget specifically states, according to NC Newsline,
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and I cite that because I haven't totally read the Senate's budget,
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but you guys probably have.
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But it says that it pledges to slash obsolete programs and bloated bureaucracy,
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that it's actually in the budget.
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Right. Obsolete programs? I don't know.
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I'm not saying you're not going to find something. some little program,
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maybe a two, three person program that none of us have ever heard of that might still be out there.
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I think I'd be shocked though, honestly, the way appropriation subcommittees
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work when they pull agencies in.
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You know, these appropriations chairs don't just throw darts at a dartboard
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to create the Senate and House budgets.
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They bring agencies in over a period of weeks in committee and have them give information to them.
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And so if there's something that looks like, what is that? It seems like the
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question would have been asked. If not, we have a different problem.
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But I don't know what would be obsolete out there. And certainly some of the
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things on this list we're looking at with the Senate cuts.
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And again, these cuts are prior to any efficiency efforts taking place.
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But as you look through that list, I am not sure what is considered obsolete
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on this because all of these things are needed every day.
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So let's take a look at the list then, again, to cite NC Newsline because I
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haven't specifically searched these out.
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It says mental health, developmental disabilities, and substance use positions
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or positions that deal with those topics.
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That's the largest group that's being cut, I guess, is 290 positions.
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That's number one, I guess, on the list here.
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That just seems like very necessary positions, right? Well, I mean,
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mental health certainly isn't obsolete.
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Yeah. And I think I brought this up to y'all earlier, but just because they're
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not filled doesn't mean the departments aren't trying to fill them or really need to fill them.
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That is a notion that is, you know, that fire's catching, rather,
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that people are throwing out there that these vacant positions have been vacant
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for so long because we don't need them. Yeah.
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And because agencies weren't even trying to fill them. Or maybe it's such a
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hard job that you're not paying enough to fill it.
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Or maybe, you know, I mean, there's, I know people who've worked.
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But that's not what's being thrown out there is the reason. Yeah.
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It's really hard to fill those positions.
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Yeah. And that's the top reason. Right. Ironically.
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OSHR Director Stacey Meyer has talked about how she's, you know,
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going to completely revamp the hiring process, make that better,
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which according to her, it takes about six months to get someone hired.
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Which is insane. In six months' time, that person's gone far down the road.
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Yeah, because who can wait six months if you're looking for a job?
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And then we've got agencies over here waiting for the people that they found
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that could fill the position.
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And that's just a bad situation all the way around. But we're looking forward
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to working with Director Meyer through that.
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I mean, I've heard from our members. I mean, even when they apply for the jobs
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they have, it was really hard.
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It's a lot of work just to fill out the application. So there definitely needs to be some revamping.
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But that's addressed. You've got an OSHR director that says, I'm taking this on.
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We're going to fix this. And you've got the General Assembly,
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who sounded like in the Legislative Oversight Committee meeting,
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they're on the same page with her. So I think that part's going to be good.
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That still leaves the question of, OK, are these jobs vacant because they're
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not needed? And that's not true.
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Like, that's not why they're vacant. Yeah, they need to ask the workers who
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are doing the job of two or three people right now, because those jobs are vacant, if they need help.
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Well, and, okay, so our salaries, we've established, salaries for state workers are too low.
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And they've only increased by less than 19% over the last 10 years,
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whereas the general public's increased like 78% over the last 10 years in terms of private sector.
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But, you know, a lot of people said, but it's not the private sector.
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Well, I wouldn't expect a 60 percentage point difference between public and private, but okay.
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Let's look at the rest of the public sector. So state employees also make less
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overall, you might find some exceptions, but overall than their public sector
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counterparts, meaning city, county employees.
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And that's also crazy. If you look at a correctional officer two in the western
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part of the state, in the mountains, A correctional officer, too,
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so not an entry level, hiring level, makes $15,000 a year less than a Buncombe
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County Sheriff's detention officer starting salary.
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Starting out, $15,000 less. And statewide, a starting correctional officer makes
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$5,000 less across the board than average county detention officer's starting salary.
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It's a huge difference. And what are you going to cut it? Like,
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Craggy was the example we got. You know, they have almost 70% vacancy rates sometimes.
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I mean, what are you going to cut from that? Well, I mean, this is literally
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not something that you can cut your way out of and kind of ignore any longer
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and hope it just gets better.
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The only way this gets fixed is if we fall into a dire enough recession slash
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depression that people are desperate enough to want those jobs.
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And I don't think that's what anybody wants for North Carolina's future.
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So that's the only way out of this without spending some money.
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We do have some extra, some surplus this year. And there's a lot of proposed
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spending going on in these budget plans.
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So our argument is you don't need to be spending on anything else until you're
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taking care of the basics.
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It's no different than our own household budgets in that regard.
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We probably don't need to go buy a boat as much as some of us would love until
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we've taken care of the light bill.
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You know, I mean, that's where we are. So it's bad enough that we cannot compete
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with the private sector, but we cannot even compete. You know,
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we're getting folks stolen from the other public sector jobs. The local government.
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And speaking of DAC, Department of Adult Corrections, the Senate budget cuts
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136 positions there. We just talked about that.
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The Department of Public Instruction cuts 63.2 positions there.
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I don't know what .2 means.
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Maybe one guy just works one day a week.
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The point somethings always make me laugh there. He just works one day a week. Yeah.
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And then it just goes from there. I guess DHHS is broken up into several different parts.
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Be interesting to add all that up, but there's some major cuts to that as well.
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So some of these are really curious to me.
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Cutting jobs from child and family well-being.
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But then again, there's at least one bill out there that's got bipartisan support.
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The all pro dad. Yeah, how to be, you know, like how to be a dad.
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Yeah. And so we're proposing millions to go towards things like that,
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but you're cutting child and family well-being from HHS.
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So sometimes I'm having trouble making the policy fit the actions.
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Yeah. And, you know, public health, health benefits. These are things.
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Again, we're the most expensive state in the country for health care.
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So it's particularly vital that anything addressing public health that can be
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provided by the state not be cut or else you just got more and more people who
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cannot even come close to affording health care in this state.
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And so they're going to go without until they end up in the emergency room and
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it costs a zillion times more to care for them.
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So some of these, again, I'm not sure if they're pennywise pound foolish in
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some cases. And then, you know, adult correction, how in the world can you cut
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136 people out of an agency where we are running a vacancy rate over 30 percent?
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And they are doing an amazing job at Department of Adult Correction right now
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trying to market these jobs. But how are you going to sell that?
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You can't sell poo-poo if you're paying that much less than a comparable job
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at a detention center at the county.
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Who's going to want to do that? So I don't know how they can put enough lipstick on that pig.
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Looks like there's about 19 cuts at the Department of Insurance,
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but in a smaller department, that's a pretty big cut, right?
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Yeah, and I think those jobs are around the SHIP program. Yeah.
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So it's super, you talk about something that would leave a lot of seniors in a bind.
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That's what those jobs are. I'm not sure about these, it's almost 36 jobs from
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the treasurer's office. I don't know which jobs those are in the treasurer's
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office, but again, I think that's a really important agency.
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And then there are some agencies that are actually growing larger in the Senate budget.
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Well, here's a side question. The budget calls for the creation of the investment authority.
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Is that still going to be part of the state treasurer's office?
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If not, would that be where the cuts?
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Would it just be shifting those positions to somewhere else?
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Will the board structures not paid? So, no. Well, I was just thinking maybe
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they move all the investment people into a separate entity.
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I don't know. I really don't know what the. We haven't seen details of what. Yes.
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But we're going to be doing a series of videos on what these cuts mean.
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These specific agency cuts for the public, because we're curious ourselves and want people to know.
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Because it always sounds, it does sound really good to the taxpayer.
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Cut government. There's too much. I'm sick of my tax dollars going.
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They have no idea their tax dollars are going in a number of other directions
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outside of state employees.
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They think that's where all the tax dollars are going.
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But we're going to look at what do you lose if you get rid of these jobs immediately.
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For the public. Some agencies do gain positions.
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Specifically, the state auditor gets 44 positions. I assume that's for the DAVE program.
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Yeah, probably. I don't know if we know any details on the natural and cultural
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resources getting more positions. Maybe we bought a new battleship or something. I'm not sure.
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I really don't know. I mean, that's great. Yeah, that's good.
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And then the administrative office of the courts and indigent defense services, both court-related.
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I mean, we need growth everywhere in state governments. Yeah,
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the court system is overburdened. There's no question.
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But I will be interested for the administrative office of the court's positions,
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how many of those are going down to the level folks in the clerk's office who
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are so frustrated and overworked.
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I'll be interested to see how far down this goes.
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As Artis said, we'll be doing some videos on exactly what the cuts are,
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and I'm sure we'll do lots more videos on cuts as the session progresses.
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Yeah, we still got a ways to go, so you've got to get your ring lights set up.
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Yeah, we got you some equipment artists that we're going to work on here. Good.
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But what else is going on, Suzanne? I know we talked a little bit before. What's going on?
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So tomorrow, the retirement systems boards of trustees, because there is more
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than one system handled into the treasurer's office, you know,
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we'll push out any information that comes out tomorrow.
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I do expect probably the treasurer, maybe himself, but his staff will report
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on legislation that's moved, the things that set up, you know,
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the new investment authority division that will handle how money is invested with the systems.
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Kind of the governing structure, the board that we've had a different setup
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right now with the board and then a separate body to decide some of the more
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specific investment calls. And this would change.
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So, I mean, basically the treasurer does it himself, right?
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I mean, he's the sole. So fiduciary. I mean, I'm sure he has advisors and things
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like that. Yeah, there's an entire staff.
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There's a chief investment officer. But then there's an investment advisory committee right now.
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That makes decisions, hears reports, and gives their input, this would change
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having a separate investment advisory committee and board of trustees and kind
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of merge those into one group that would be kind of a super group governing body.
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So yeah, I expect we'll hear maybe some details tomorrow on how that's going
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to play out in the, obviously, the normal reports on where the systems are financially
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right now, the reports that they always give at the board meeting. So stay tuned.
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And does the state health plan meet tomorrow too? State health plan does not meet tomorrow.
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The former treasurer, Treasurer Falwell, had started doing the retirement systems
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and the state health plan board
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meetings on the same day, which was convenient, made for a very long day.
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Treasurer Briner has not been doing that. So while it takes up another day,
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it also gives you a little more time to... So when is the health plan meeting?
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It's coming up. Yeah, it's next month. Which, by the way, the Senate budget,
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we really like that they funded the health plan appropriately.
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Yeah. From what we understand. The treasurer put out a statement lauding them for investment.
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So they got one thing right in the Senate budget.
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Well, I mean, I think it's hard when you're writing a budget.
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It's no doubt really, really excruciatingly difficult. And so you're looking
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at things that you think the public's going to like.
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And the public does, again, tend to like the idea of let's get rid of state employees.
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I know that no one obviously wants waste. I just think you also have to be cautious about haste.
20:43
Because it's put us in a mess because DMV is the poster child for this.
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We've not funded DMV to meet the growing demand of a much expanded population.
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And so what do we have? We have a mess at DMV offices and know everybody's pointing
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the finger at each other.
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The bottom line is the thing didn't get funded. I don't care who you blame.
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And so you choke out the funding for something and you're going to get what
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you put into it, which is not enough.
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And the public is really upset about that. And it's something they do connect
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in their mind to state government.
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But they get mad at the folks at DMV, which is a bunch of horse hockey because
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that is not the fault of the people doing the jobs.
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They're just as upset and frustrated as the taxpayers. And they are taxpayers,
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by the way, everybody that works there.
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And we got in kind of a discussion with some folks on X this week over the weekend
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about DMV, just some falsehoods that were being put out.
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And it seemed like people were ready to pile on to the employees.
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And maybe even they have like stories of an employee who was rude to them or whatever.
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But if you were dealing with the public eight hours a day in a job where you're
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already grossly understaffed and you're already dealing with angry folks who
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have waited in line all day, you're going to have some issues come up.
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Well, they're human. They're human. But you know what I always keep in mind,
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too, when you hear people talking about grumpy people having a bad experiences,
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those are the folks that you always hear from.
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Right. Yeah, exactly. That one person, there are thousands of people that came
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and had a fine experience.
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Even hotels, restaurants, all that stuff. Everywhere.
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If you're going to write a review, usually it's the people who are the most
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upset who are the loudest. Yeah.
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But DMV, there's no question there's issues. There are structural, fundamental issues.
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And again, politicians are all pointing the finger at each other.
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Look, guys, it really doesn't matter who's to blame. It has been through democratically
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controlled legislatures and Republican controlled legislatures,
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Democratic governors and Republican governors.
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So point away. Yeah. Because guess what? It's been neglected under everybody.
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The funny thing is, across the United States, DMV tends to be underfunded.
22:53
It is the most bizarre thing to me, because if I was a politician,
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I would want everybody really happy with their DMV experience.
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It seems like that would be, because that's probably one of the most accessed
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part of state government.
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Absolutely. I would want them very happy. Most people are going to have some
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kind of experience at the DMV. I had to go yesterday. Yeah.
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How was it? It actually wasn't awful. I was just getting my title changed over.
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She went to a playoff. Oh, you went to a playoff? I went, like,
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first thing in the morning as soon as they were opened, got in, got out pretty quickly.
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Well, I had to make an appointment, but I got my license renewed back in November,
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and I was in and out in less than half an hour.
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Yeah. I was, too. I will tell you that that's not always the case because I
23:32
drive by the DMV in Sanford every day, and in the mornings there's just people everywhere.
23:38
Shout out to the DMV in Sanford. Yeah. Sorry. And I just feel so bad for the
23:42
employees in there who are working. There's usually only like four or five of
23:45
them in there, and there's like hundreds of people waiting that long, you know?
23:49
There were three. But I think the walk-ins, I think they have special hours.
23:52
The walk-ins are the problem. It's either first of the morning or last of the day.
23:57
And, you know, you can't always make an appointment. Sometimes you need to go
24:00
to the DMV for, you know, something that can't wait. And it doesn't pay well enough.
24:04
Yeah. And examiners, by the way, have to go with strangers. Yeah. In cars.
24:09
I mean, that is a dangerous. No, thank you. That's a high-risk job.
24:12
And they are not paid accordingly.
24:14
I have some facts about it, actually. The starting salary is approximately $38,000 to $40,000.
24:21
To put up with all that hate from the public. But it can vary. But it's up in danger.
24:24
Yeah, and it can vary by county. The range can be $31,000 to $51,000 annually.
24:30
And state law caps the number of employees at DMV to 568, but DMV has asked for at least 638.
24:38
But I think we need to get like somebody that works at DMV, somebody that works
24:44
at HH, somebody that works at a couple of agencies to,
24:47
Get them in here and let the listeners hear from them what it's really like inside.
24:53
Yeah. That's a great idea. So we'll try to line that up for y'all.
24:56
And just another aside, humor me, if you will. But like with all the Elon Musk
25:01
doge efforts and it seems like everything is focused on cuts,
25:05
but you could really use technology and AI and things and really make something
25:10
like DMV much more efficient without cuts.
25:13
You know, you could probably streamline a lot of processes if you just approached it in the right way.
25:18
A huge part of the DMV issue is technology.
25:21
Everyone's been clear about that in legislative meetings. That part is undisputed.
25:25
However, technology can only get you so far.
25:29
I mean, we don't yet have robots to get in the car with people who are,
25:33
you know, doing a road test.
25:34
So the problem is you still have to be able to afford competent people.
25:39
And look, people are hanging in there, and we're lucky because some of them
25:43
have been there enough time they're hanging in there for their retirement benefits,
25:46
their health care when they retire.
25:47
But remember, since a few years ago, we can't hire people with those benefits
25:52
because they don't get the same benefits.
25:55
Yeah, what, 2021, I think is when they no longer get health care at retirement.
25:59
Yeah, so if you're not going to pay enough, you can't take benefits away,
26:03
which happened, or else you get this perfect storm and you get a very angry
26:07
public. Well, that's a melancholy place for us to stop, but we'll stop there. It's real.
26:13
Real talk with Scenic. Let's get to my Wacky Weird question of the week.
26:18
Music.
26:23
So this may be kind of an obscure question, but I'm asking it because we haven't
26:28
heard much from Sam today.
26:29
And I know this is one of her favorite topics, so I want her to chime in. Take a swift.
26:35
Yeah, what'd you think of the latest? Does social media make you happier or sadder in general?
26:42
And if sadder, why do you keep participating in it? I think it's both on occasion,
26:47
depending on the content.
26:49
Sometimes I get happy sad just from seeing puppies and stuff on that.
26:54
I think for me, most of the time, it makes me happier because I see other people
26:58
out there who've dealt with the same things that I have.
27:01
I've also seen things that I look up to and wish that I could do.
27:05
And it's made me more open to trying new things.
27:09
There are still some times where I'm getting on there and I'm like,
27:12
oh, this makes me lose all faith in humanity.
27:15
And those are the days where I'll just pretty much stay off.
27:18
But if I'm having a good day and everything on there seems pretty happy and
27:22
cheerful, I'll hang out for a while. What do y'all think?
27:25
And is it a generational thing? That's exactly what I was about to say.
27:29
I think there's a generational part. Well, I mean, we're all addicted.
27:32
So let's just go out and throw that out there. It is truly an addiction.
27:36
That's why I'm still on there. And that's why I'm still going to scroll.
27:39
Even if it makes me mad or sad.
27:41
But yeah, I have had to take steps to limit my social media because it does
27:47
take a toll on your mental health.
27:48
And there's so much going on in our world, in our nation, in our state right now.
27:53
And, you know, you hit Twitter. What she said.
27:55
It's hard because of the work we do, too, not to, you know, sink into it and
28:00
just read everything that you're scrolling past, you know, and it's all up in your head.
28:04
But at the same time, you just have to put it down and step away from it.
28:08
If you were 30 years old, I would stay triggered by most things.
28:12
I really would. Well, I think that they do. I mean, I think a lot of people
28:15
really do just stay mad. There are so many issues. Yeah.
28:20
On both sides, I mean, on both sides. Oh, any aspect of it.
28:25
I don't know if it's helping or hurting, but I really wish that the old Twitter was back. But that's.
28:31
I think one of the things for me is that I do typically stay away from the platforms
28:35
that are more likely to make me sad based on the news of what's going around
28:40
the world, the country, the state.
28:42
So I don't get on Twitter very often. I don't get on Facebook very often.
28:46
I kind of tend to steer away from those platforms because they have more news
28:50
articles that I'm like, well, that's going to make me feel bad.
28:52
I think that's an age thing, too. I think that more of us are inclined to be
28:55
on Facebook that are our age and Twitter than younger people like Sam,
29:00
who's going to be, you're going to go to TikTok or Insta. Pinterest. Yeah.
29:05
Oh, now I love Pinterest. Pinterest will always make me happy.
29:07
That, I don't think I can find something.
29:10
Well, there's definitely things on there I could find that would make me sad,
29:13
but they're more like quotes that I'd be like, oh, well, that just.
29:16
I mean, there's sometimes, I'm on X is where I like to hang out.
29:20
But there's things that can be really fun and awesome.
29:23
And sometimes uplifting about humanity. But I think what has happened that I,
29:28
at least what I feel, is that it almost sometimes encourages people to bring
29:33
out like the kind of pettiest, worst parts of themselves. It's like groupthink.
29:37
And we just get meaner when we're a collective. It's like swirling down the
29:41
drain, just deeper and deeper.
29:43
And the algorithm takes you deeper into the. Yeah, I was going to say maybe
29:46
that's because I've looked at too much negativity. And my algorithm must just
29:51
be like, you know, grumpy algorithm.
29:54
Just decayed. That's me. I'm on the decayed grumpy algorithm.
29:58
Maybe some people have just gotten way too comfortable with sharing the negatives in their lives.
30:03
Well, we just said it's way easier. But it's like when you're talking to a stranger
30:09
in public and you say, hey, how are you?
30:11
They don't expect to hear your whole day. They expect to, yeah,
30:15
good. How are you? That's what I would say.
30:17
But how are you? They don't expect a whole play-by-play of your day.
30:21
And it feels like social media is where people go to be like, play-by-play of my day.
30:27
Someone said, this dress doesn't look good on me at the store.
30:31
And I yelled and threw my drink at them. I bought it anyway. What do y'all think?
30:35
And then a picture. I think, though, for scenic, it's really useful because
30:39
a lot of things we talk about that state employees know about what they're dealing
30:43
with, it's a way we can try to let the public know.
30:46
Yeah. and I did start us a discord this week you guys so I have to teach you
30:50
how to do this we're gonna play
30:51
minecraft it's kind of like just a message board though yeah but I think
30:56
We could find some value in letting people talk to each other. Properly moderated.
31:00
Properly moderated. It could be cool for convention. Yeah. Saying,
31:04
hey, we're having a cool little performance or something.
31:07
Speaking of your social media use, I did see that there's a new deadline for
31:11
TikTok. Did you see this?
31:13
No. Middle of June. Now they're... Oh, dun-dun. I feel like that deadline's
31:17
going to keep getting pushed because we were only supposed to have this extra 75 days.
31:23
And 75 days is gone. Briefly explain to me the whole Zuckerberg thing, though.
31:28
Apparently, people think that he is behind this.
31:31
People think that there is some deals in the works with Meta because recently
31:38
on a lot of people's TikToks, they have been seeing a little notification pop
31:43
up when they open saying,
31:45
would you like to allow your friends on Facebook to find you on TikTok?
31:48
Okay. And usually platforms get connected when it starts saying stuff like that.
31:55
So people are thinking that Mark Zuckerberg is getting involved. I don't know.
31:59
He was all against it, up in arms about it, all in January.
32:03
I have beef with Google right now.
32:07
They're stealing one of our great employees.
32:12
Hunter. Shout out to Hunter. Good luck at Google. I hope it's more fun there.
32:16
Hunter has been on the podcast before.
32:17
He has been on the podcast. I hope you have more fun in San Francisco with Google
32:21
than here in Raleigh with scenic, which is clearly better.
32:24
But good luck to Hunter. Well, I'm pretty sure his girlfriend also lives in California.
32:28
Wow. I didn't know that. I sure hope she does because we just said that.
32:32
That's a good note to end on an upbeat. We're happy for you, Hunter.
32:36
And send us pictures of the Golden Gate. I think that was a great episode this
32:40
week, you guys. Thanks for joining us.
32:42
Music.