Latest / The SEANC View / No Budget, Big Questions: North Carolina's Turbulent Year in Review

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No Budget, Big Questions: North Carolina's Turbulent Year in Review · The SEANC View

• 0:00
  Hello, everyone. Welcome to another edition of the Scenic View podcast,
• 0:04
  special year-end celebration edition.
• 0:06
  Your presents are all opened, and you are full of Christmas feasts,
• 0:11
  so you can settle in and listen to the Scenic View podcast. Let's hit it.
• 0:26
  I was trying to go with something like up on the housetop. You hear the click,
• 0:30
  click, click, and it's artists' boots.
• 0:33
  I assure you I'm not going to be up on the housetop. Those days are over.
• 0:37
  Well, I hope you had a great Christmas or any holiday that you celebrate.
• 0:40
  And now we can try to wrap up the year in this special year in review episode
• 0:46
  of the Seed at View podcast.
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  We did this last year, and I thought it was easier last year to come up with
• 0:52
  because we knew the number one.
• 0:53
  It was the Helene. And yeah, but this year was a little bit more difficult.
• 0:58
  But I have developed a short list here of five top stories for us to talk about.
• 1:03
  Do you want to go in ascending or descending order? Don't care. Let's start with five.
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  How about that? And we'll work our way up. So I have a number five.
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  And it's kind of funny just knowing the impact of this one story that it would
• 1:16
  be number five on the list.
• 1:18
  But we got a new governor and his new cabinet and a new state treasurer this
• 1:23
  year. And that's following the results of the 2024 election.
• 1:27
  Governor Stein took over for
• 1:29
  Governor Cooper. State Treasurer Brad Briner took over for Dale Falwell.
• 1:34
  So we had some change in the cabinet positions as well. Let's maybe just talk
• 1:38
  about what happens if you're a state employee when massive change happens like
• 1:43
  this at an agency. Does it affect the rank and file workers?
• 1:47
  Oh, they get nervous. Well, yeah, I mean, because something we point out,
• 1:52
  and even people who don't like politics, if you work for state government,
• 1:55
  your job is political, period.
• 1:58
  But I know this past year, you know, we faced an issue at the auditor's office
• 2:02
  where they were looking to take a lot of employees out from under the State Human Resources Act.
• 2:07
  So that was something they immediately tried to change. We worked on that and
• 2:11
  kept that from happening.
• 2:12
  And Auditor Bullock's made the comment multiple times that he was shocked that
• 2:17
  when he walked in with what he deemed as an incredibly different philosophy
• 2:22
  than the office had operated or ever before.
• 2:25
  That he thought there would be mass resignations being handed in.
• 2:28
  And he was shocked that state employees didn't do that.
• 2:31
  That's not what happens. People are really dedicated to their job and the mission,
• 2:35
  and that's his point in all of that. And he's glad to see that.
• 2:39
  But they're nervous every time because you just never know.
• 2:42
  Well, it's unsettling. Yeah. They tend to be lucky. It's usually good leadership they get.
• 2:46
  And we had Auditor Bolick this past year in one of our episodes.
• 2:49
  Scroll back through if you want to hear him.
• 2:51
  Yeah. That's true. So there's obviously not a major ideological shift between
• 2:57
  Governor Cooper and Governor Stein, but I think there are different.
• 3:01
  Oh, it's a different approach, though. Yeah.
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  What are some of the differences that you've seen this year so far?
• 3:07
  Well, number one, the way Governor Stein works with the legislature is completely different.
• 3:13
  Yeah. Let me just say this, his approach to the legislature and the legislature's approach to him.
• 3:18
  Uh-huh. And I'm not entirely certain why that is.
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  But I know Governor Stein has
• 3:23
  been outspoken about not trying to be adversarial with the legislature.
• 3:28
  But look, as time wore on during the year, you started to see the cracks. Yeah.
• 3:33
  Well, I mean, goodness, when you're seeing the legislature, the House and Senate
• 3:38
  are both one of them super majority Republican, the other functionally super majority Republican.
• 3:44
  And when they are starting to be adversaries at times with one another,
• 3:47
  you can bet that the governor of the opposite party will start being adversaries
• 3:52
  with them on issues right now.
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  I do think it's been mainly about issues. There's always, in modern times,
• 4:00
  been this push and pull where the legislature, if they're controlled by one
• 4:04
  party, wants to take powers of the governor of another party.
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  And that definitely was something we saw play out this year.
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  Another position that didn't change parties, but I would say that Treasurer
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  Bronner and Treasurer Falwell are very different.
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  Am I right in thinking that? Or maybe just on issues? You know,
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  I think when Treasurer Briner came in, everybody thought they were way more
• 4:29
  different than they had turned out to be.
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  I think, I don't know, he can come back and speak for himself.
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  Treasurer Briner's been good enough to come on this podcast.
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  I hope he'll come back as many times as he wants.
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  But I think even Treasurer Briner would tell you that after a year in the job,
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  there's some things that he kind of sees where Dale Falwell was coming from.
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  There's others in which he's completely different. And the main one would be investing.
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  Because that was his world Treasurer Bronner had a whole career In investing
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  And so he's really different philosophy And how aggressive we should be And
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  things like that But he's not nearly as aggressive As some of the previous treasurers
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  We saw prior to Dale Falwell He's not a gambler.
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  But he's more aggressive than Treasurer Falwell was with that.
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  On the health plan, I think Treasurer Falwell wanted extreme reform.
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  Treasurer Briner, I think, wants reform and understands there's a need for it.
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  I think his theory about how to get there is, look, we will see nothing but
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  a brick wall if we take on this massive power of the hospital industry.
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  And we just, you know, run at them with our spear. Yeah. They're a windmill.
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  So we're not going to get anywhere that way. So his idea is you've got to start
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  with some small battles you can win and try to force some competition that way.
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  But at the end of the day, I think he has seen a lot of what Treasure Falwell
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  was dealing with in terms of prescriptions, in terms of unwillingness to work on issues.
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  Yeah. I mean, you know, you can't mess with those sandboxes of money that you're
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  talking about between the pharmaceutical industry and the health care industry.
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  You can't go messing in those sandboxes without causing a lot of dissension.
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  And I will say Treasurer Briner stood up for state employees when Duke Health
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  said, look, we need more money or we're going to kick y'all out of network midstream.
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  And he stood up and he sounded very much like Dale Falwell, I thought,
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  in one of his messages to members about that. So it's been interesting.
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  And we have started out with a great relationship. We have an open door,
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  open dialogue between the treasurer and his leadership and staff.
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  So we remain hopeful for good things. So I think this one dovetails nicely into
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  number four on my list, which was the efficiency efforts that were all the rage
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  in February, March, April, maybe have cooled off a little bit.
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  But although they did have a meeting, I guess, of.
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  Less than a month ago, right? Yeah, they did. It's the House Select Committee
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  on Government Efficiency.
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  We've dubbed it SCOGE, but, you know, that's just our little internal nickname for it.
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  Yeah, there was presentations from the new commissioner of DMV,
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  Paul Tine, who we've worked with before when he was a legislator.
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  So some good things are coming out of that. I think that's been an interesting
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  discussion because a lot of those things were stuff that everybody already knew
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  needed to happen. Are some good things coming out of it, though?
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  Well, they hired more examiners.
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  Oh, you're talking about just DMV. Yeah, they've at least got more people working at DMV.
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  But DOT actually, presenting DMV obviously is under DOT.
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  And we come right back to transparency and contracts. They're not going to touch that. They're not.
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  Yeah, and I think there were other efforts, announced efforts in the Senate,
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  and also the governor even had an efficiency thing he was going to go into.
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  Everybody said that. It was all the rage there for a little while. Found it so good.
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  Yeah, I think everybody saw all the publicity around, you know,
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  the Elon effort and kind of jumped on the bandwagon. But as that kind of cooled
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  off, maybe this kind of cooled off as well.
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  But I think even we would applaud, yeah, support efficiency where possible.
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  Yeah, if there's waste and fraud and abuse going on. So let's talk about what
• 8:09
  the ultimate efficiency flex would be.
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  If you wanted to show efficiency, there's all this discussion around tax cuts.
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  Mm-hmm. Well, if you cut taxes and you cut services, have you actually done anything, right?
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  Besides maybe the state worse. And services are being cut.
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  But the flex would be cut taxes without cutting services.
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  We're not getting at that. And part of the reason, Suzanne just mentioned these
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  contracts, a ton of what happens in DOT is contract. But nobody ever opens those
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  up and peels back the layers.
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  Because then, talk about sandboxes.
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  You've got some big company with massive contracts. They're not going to like
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  that. And so politicians are going to get pushback.
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  So I'm still waiting for somebody to really perform that ultimate flex and cut those taxes,
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  Without cutting what people get. I mean, we can bring it back to that same Blue
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  Ridge Road construction that's been going on that's been interrupting state fair traffic.
• 9:10
  Exactly. We're not over that state fair traffic. Truly.
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  It's not just the concerts. We're not forgetting. So, you know,
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  we'll continue to watch those and those efforts in the coming year.
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  Do they set another meeting or are they just playing about here these days?
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  Okay. Number three on the list is a continuation of our number one story from
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  last year, the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and the recovery that's been ongoing
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  this year in the Asheville and western parts of the area of the state.
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  It had a huge impact on the state budget, right?
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  Was it $60 billion? And counting, we're still ticking that up.
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  And what we expected when we started the year to come from the federal government
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  has not appeared in any significant measure.
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  We went up there for the UNC Chancellor's golf term and driving through the
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  area, you can still see a lot of damage.
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  But it seems like it's federal money, like meaningful federal money that we
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  just haven't got. Look, I went to a Christmas party, obviously,
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  before Christmas, where they were collecting toys to take to our neighbors in the West.
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  And the lady who was the head of the organization that had that party said there
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  are people still living in tents. Yeah.
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  I saw a news story about that as well. So there's still need up there.
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  Still so devastated. Yeah.
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  There's areas that probably won't ever recover. Yeah, that's true.
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  But I did see a story on, was it Chimney Rock?
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  Did see that too, yeah. There's been a rebirth there.
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  That's nothing short of amazing. Yeah, that place was wiped out.
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  Because it was gone. Yeah. And you see it now and it's like.
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  Everything was wiped away by the river.
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  Yeah. So we're glad that you're recovering. But we, you know,
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  and Scenic did a great job of recovery efforts we had.
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  Lots of donations. We had a lot of members that pitched in to help up there
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  with state employees who had been affected in the Black Mountain region.
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  And still will contribute where there's a need. Yeah.
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  So number two on the list is, I really debated about making this number one
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  or not, but I think it was trumped maybe by the other issue.
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  The health care premiums increase for the year.
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  That was a huge issue. The state treasurer's office of the state health plan
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  board of trustees voted in August to increase premiums based on a tier.
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  Yeah, it's a sliding scale based on your salary. Yeah.
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  So some people saw as much as $200 a year, right?
• 11:39
  Yeah. I think generally it came up to be, what, $30 to up to $200 a month for some folks.
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  Yeah. Yeah. So nobody's happy to hear about that for sure.
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  I guess it hasn't taken effect though yet, right? Like it hasn't been taken
• 11:52
  out of paychecks yet. It will.
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  It will. The January paycheck. January. So we'll probably hear more.
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  We've already heard. Yeah. So I was talking. For months.
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  Yes. I was talking with someone in what I call our membership department.
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  It's member relations department, but membership. And our phones have been off
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  the hook for the last couple of months over this.
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  People are hopping mad. And the problem for this is it's become lumped in with
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  the pay. Yeah. Because there was no pay.
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  It kind of goes hand in hand. So they're already, you're making less money than the private sector.
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  You're now in the hole, whatever your premium increase was. Inflation's kicking.
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  And there's no pay raise. And there's no pay raise. Yeah. Yeah,
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  imagine opening your check and it's $200 later.
• 12:37
  Right. It's going to be a tough. And for no reason anyone can articulate to
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  you. Because guess what?
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  During the December meeting of the state health plan, usage rates of the plan
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  by members in terms of medical care and pharmaceutical care.
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  The plan's actuaries presented to the board and showed these slides about where
• 13:00
  they had expected usage to be, the trajectory they had expected versus the trajectory
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  that actually happened.
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  And wonder of all wonders, usage was less than they expected.
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  So premiums aren't going up because y'all are just going to the doctor too much
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  or you're too sickly or using too many pharmaceuticals.
• 13:19
  So it must be because the cost is going up, right?
• 13:22
  Well, and they said it's cost. But saying cost can lead somebody to believe,
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  oh, it's costing a lot because the members are specifically unhealthy or they're using too much.
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  They're just carelessly going to the ER for something, an earache.
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  That's not the usage experience according to the plan's actuary.
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  It's the price of the. So that only leaves. Yeah. Yeah. That only leaves.
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  Which takes us right back to contracts and transparency.
• 13:49
  Thank you. So it all leads back to health care, except the last topic,
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  which is number one on the list.
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  No budget, no pay raises, no COLAs for the year.
• 14:00
  Suzanne, I'll ask you, because you're down there every day. Did you expect when
• 14:04
  this session started in January that we would have no budget?
• 14:08
  No. For it to be late, yes. Okay. You always expect that. Yeah,
• 14:12
  it's not unusual. So you don't plan anything for the summer.
• 14:14
  You might not plan anything for the fall. You know, we have been there at Thanksgiving
• 14:18
  before, but there have been late budgets where they were retro'd back to July 1.
• 14:24
  That has happened before, but for there not to be a budget at all.
• 14:28
  I did not see that coming. Do you think that just at some point they were like,
• 14:32
  we're just not going to reach a budget?
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  Or do you think that all along they thought this could happen?
• 14:37
  No, I think at some point, you know, lines got drawn in the concrete,
• 14:41
  not the sand so much. There was a pivotal moment.
• 14:44
  They were already kind of having a hard time agreeing.
• 14:47
  And then the federal government started coming down. It was like drinking from
• 14:51
  a fire hose as the changes in Medicaid, the change of the big,
• 14:55
  beautiful bill and what that would mean for the states.
• 14:58
  And at that point, it was pretty clear. That's when they threw up their arms
• 15:01
  and thought, there's no way. Because at that point, you were looking at Medicaid.
• 15:06
  I mean, that gap was approaching a billion dollars before they partially filled it.
• 15:12
  Remember, we expanded Medicaid a couple years ago. And then now we were facing
• 15:16
  this shortfall for Medicaid that was insane.
• 15:20
  And so between that, these, I don't know what they're going to do with these
• 15:24
  opportunity scholarships that are, what, $700 million.
• 15:28
  And then these tax cuts and, frankly, the tariffs that ended up coming out affected
• 15:34
  companies, including in North Carolina.
• 15:37
  And North Carolina is the number one producer of soybeans. Yeah. Huge issue.
• 15:42
  You find the legislature thinking, no doubt. And we said it to him at one point,
• 15:47
  Suzanne. And we were sitting in Speaker Hall's office with his staff and him
• 15:50
  and said, look, we kind of feel sorry for you because we don't know how y'all
• 15:55
  are supposed to do a budget with all this.
• 15:57
  I mean, not an easy job in the first place in the best of times.
• 16:02
  Now, what we did want was a mini budget that did state employees and retirees.
• 16:05
  But I don't know how they're going to square all of that.
• 16:09
  There's going to have to be a difference in how they look at funding things, period.
• 16:14
  I don't think we've been very upfront. We don't think we have money for these
• 16:17
  opportunity scholarships for rich people.
• 16:20
  You know, school choice. I think everybody could agree. Sure.
• 16:24
  Everybody should have school choice. But paying for that no matter how much
• 16:27
  you make, we're not sitting in a position to be able to do something like that. At all.
• 16:31
  So there's hard choices. Yeah. So we've covered this on every podcast pretty
• 16:35
  much all year. So maybe we just look ahead.
• 16:39
  What in the coming year are we going to have a budget, do you think?
• 16:42
  So while all of this has been happening in the past year, when the legislature
• 16:46
  did break off in August and just went their separate ways for a period of time,
• 16:50
  I had someone in leadership tell me that it would be the short session before
• 16:55
  we would see any kind of discussion start again regarding budget.
• 16:58
  So kind of knew that was what's going to happen.
• 17:02
  Yeah, so basically starting a continuation budget from that point.
• 17:06
  And I think what you're going to see, Governor Stein has been clear about teacher raises.
• 17:10
  Yeah. I'm hoping, Governor Sunn,
• 17:12
  realizes it's got to be about more than just teachers. And then the House has
• 17:18
  been very open about teacher raises being their focus as well.
• 17:21
  We have to make it clear that, first of all, if you're worried about schools,
• 17:24
  it's bigger than teachers. That's right.
• 17:26
  We think our teachers need absolutely anything you can afford to give them.
• 17:30
  But you can't do that at the expense of other people in the schools because
• 17:34
  you're losing them, too. And you can't do that at the expense of other state employees.
• 17:37
  This is a bit of a mess. I don't know the best way out.
• 17:42
  Don't see any way they can do it. Just make it all balance with the tax cuts.
• 17:46
  But I see it's an election year and I know why they would want to do it. Yeah.
• 17:50
  Yeah. So if they do a budget in the short session, I mean, it would only be one year, right?
• 17:56
  And then they'd have to do it again next year. And then they'd start every long session, yeah. Okay.
• 17:59
  And by the way, the tax cuts in the grand scheme of things, they make very little
• 18:02
  difference to most people.
• 18:03
  Yeah, it really does. Because the percentage of an income that's not much,
• 18:06
  which is most people. Yeah. It's not making a big impact on your pocketbook.
• 18:10
  Yeah, and the rate is already so low. Like, you know, like one, what are they cutting?
• 18:14
  Like 0.49% of, it's very small. So, yeah.
• 18:19
  Now, if you make a big, big paycheck, then you feel it.
• 18:24
  But most people in North Carolina don't make a big, big paycheck.
• 18:27
  So I think that's our top list of 2025.
• 18:30
  And we'll definitely get to work on 2026 next week, right?
• 18:34
  But in the meantime, I guess we'll do. I want to know what Gen Z is doing for New Year's.
• 18:41
  Like, what is the big trend this year? What are y'all doing these days?
• 18:44
  Because we would have no clue.
• 18:45
  What do cool kids do for New Year's? What do cool kids do? Because the old kids
• 18:49
  are in the bed before me. Yeah.
• 18:52
  I mean, my friend group changes pretty much every year. We usually will do like
• 18:56
  a small little house party at someone's place.
• 18:58
  For me personally, I'm more of, I'd rather be in my own apartment because people
• 19:03
  drive crazy on New Year's.
• 19:04
  That's true. There's a lot of dangerous drivers out there. So personally,
• 19:08
  I prefer to be in my own apartment.
• 19:10
  A lot of us do the 12 grapes at midnight, if you guys have heard about that.
• 19:15
  What is that? You do one wish per month per grape, and you have to eat 12 grapes
• 19:21
  in the first minute to get those wishes to come true.
• 19:24
  Cool. Okay. And you have to, like, sit under a table while you do it.
• 19:28
  I don't know what the significance is of that.
• 19:31
  It's an Italian thing. Oh, okay. It's an Italian thing. Oh, okay.
• 19:33
  Oh, it's culture. That's a little churl. Nice.
• 19:36
  So I've done that the past two years. This past year I had,
• 19:40
  Quite a few of the things actually come true. Love life still non-existent. That did not come true.
• 19:46
  Well, y'all heard it here first. Yeah, it's overrated.
• 19:51
  They didn't put it out there. Let's manifest. Gen Z's, I feel like we're more
• 19:56
  into like house parties and like staying with friends and keeping it close knit on New Year's.
• 20:01
  And that's not just your friend group. Gen Z in general, that's what you see.
• 20:05
  For the most part, there are some Gen Z's who still want to go out to the bars.
• 20:08
  But the bars will charge you a cover fee and we don't make the money to pay for the cover fee.
• 20:15
  Money, money, money. Yeah, I think I saw a story last year where like the ball
• 20:19
  drop in New York City was less attended than the year in years.
• 20:22
  Well, that's just because that's expensive to go to in general, no matter what.
• 20:26
  But even just bars in Raleigh, they'll start charging like $20 covers and be
• 20:30
  like, here's a tiny glass of champagne to celebrate with at midnight.
• 20:34
  And it's just not worth it to us. You remember how they used to,
• 20:39
  well, I guess they still do.
• 20:40
  They do, like, the ball drop at, like, 7 p.m. so the kids can see it.
• 20:44
  That'd be me. So cute. Now we're like, that's our ball drop. The acorn in Raleigh.
• 20:49
  Yeah. The acorn, yeah. Yeah.
• 20:52
  They're for the 7 o'clock drop and home and down. We try, we struggle.
• 20:56
  We try to stay up all night or...
• 20:58
  12 but yeah no and then i used to growing up we would go visit my dad's family in indiana,
• 21:05
  and they always did a themed party so i
• 21:08
  remember one year we did like a renaissance theme they've done
• 21:11
  a great gatsby theme 50s and
• 21:14
  it's just all of my dad's family up there i think my
• 21:17
  parents are going this year and might be bringing my brother a fun
• 21:20
  bunch you guys are so that can be artists came up
• 21:23
  with the last question of the year i did there you go
• 21:26
  that can be our question of the week what are your new year's plans oh
• 21:29
  gosh mine will be sitting at home probably yeah we
• 21:32
  usually we used to go questions over quick we used
• 21:36
  to go somewhere with like i guess a friend group that
• 21:39
  we had of younger families but uh everybody's just like nah we'll just stay
• 21:44
  home this year so you do anything cool not unless something changes really quick
• 21:49
  i don't anticipate that okay i'm gonna stay at home what's your favorite show
• 21:55
  to watch do you still watch the rocking new years.
• 21:59
  ABC. We've been watching CNN lately because they get crazy on there. Have you seen that?
• 22:04
  No. With Anderson Cooper and... Oh, you know what? I did see a piece of that.
• 22:07
  They let them drink and it's like wild stuff. Maybe I'll watch that this year.
• 22:11
  I just watch whatever is showing me Times Square.
• 22:15
  Yeah. And then once it gets to midnight, that's when I'm paying attention to
• 22:19
  my phone because I do the 12 grapes thing. And I want that to be exactly at
• 22:24
  midnight and half the time the TV is off by a minute or two.
• 22:28
  So I don't trust the TV and what it says. I'm looking at my phone and saying, okay, it's 12 now.
• 22:33
  And so this past year, we had a friend party.
• 22:36
  And me and my best friend, we had already been under the table eating our 12
• 22:40
  grapes by the time they're doing the countdown.
• 22:44
  We're like, oh, it's already been that, guys.
• 22:47
  Make your first one, your first grape, lower health care costs for all Americans.
• 22:52
  Yeah, just that one thing. It's just one out of 12, Sammy you can come up with
• 22:57
  So that kind of takes the place of resolutions That's kind of what it is for me,
• 23:02
  Manifestations instead of Well try that state employees Get under the table
• 23:06
  at midnight Grapes and manifest,
• 23:10
  My favorite New Year's Ritual is still the Black eyed peas and collard greens
• 23:15
  Oh I do that too I do too but Y'all we do it Where's our money?
• 23:23
  We'll do it again And we'll do it again. Because it's just good.
• 23:29
  I saw something. For the last few years, I've noticed, you know,
• 23:32
  these state agency X accounts, you know, Twitter accounts, their social media is so good.
• 23:37
  And one of the things is about getting out to the state park sites and hiking. Oh, yeah.
• 23:43
  Starting, you know, like try to hike them all in a year. And there's a lot about
• 23:47
  getting out on New Year's and going on a hike. That seems like a cool idea to me.
• 23:52
  It's cool until it's really, really cold outside on New Year's Day.
• 23:55
  Put a lot of clothes on and gloves. Bundle up. You're fine. You don't have to
• 23:58
  go all day, you know. Should we have a scenic hike?
• 24:01
  I'm not talking about a 20-mile hike. It would be a fun thing. We'd go to Raven Rock.
• 24:05
  I love Raven Rock. Oh, yeah, that's beautiful. Harnett County right there.
• 24:08
  Yeah, hike up the street and back.
• 24:11
  Hike up my PJs. Spending New Year's Day in nature is really cool, though. Yeah.
• 24:18
  Last year, I spent it cleaning out the garage. But this year, I'm looking for nature.
• 24:21
  Two years ago, I spent part of it in nature when I was standing on the side
• 24:26
  of 440 because my tire blew. Well, that's not good. There's nature.
• 24:30
  But keep that in mind, y'all, because isn't it on January 1st,
• 24:33
  whatever you're doing January 1st is what you'll be doing the rest of the year?
• 24:36
  Well, I remember my grandma said don't. I'm trying to clean out the garage for
• 24:38
  the rest of the year. I wonder if I can get into it. I said don't do laundry.
• 24:41
  I'm like, well, I'm still going to do laundry. So I never quite understood.
• 24:44
  I wonder if I can get into cycling class that day and just be doing that for the rest of the year.
• 24:49
  And for all of you state employees out there, make your resolution to get involved
• 24:54
  in Scenic and stand up for yourself at the legislature and email your legislators.
• 25:00
  And have a great 2026. Happy New Year.