Latest / The SEANC View / COLAs, Health Care, and the Fight for State Workers and Retirees in 2026

Transcript

COLAs, Health Care, and the Fight for State Workers and Retirees in 2026 · The SEANC View

0:00
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another edition of the Scenic View podcast.
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If you are hearing the sound of my voice, you survived New Year's and you're
0:07
ready to tackle 2026. So let's get to it.
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All right. As I did not mention before, my name is Jonathan Owens.
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I'm the communications director here at Scenic alongside Artis Watkins,
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executive director, Suzanne Beasley, government relations director,
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and Sammy Klein, our podcast producer.
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And we have a special guest, the specialist of guests.
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Scenic president, the esteemed Wendell Powell joining us on this first episode
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of the new year to talk about what's going to happen in 2026 and what we're
0:48
looking forward to and what we're excited about. So how are you guys doing?
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I'm glad to be here. I mean, being here in 2026, we survived the new year.
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So, hey, we're ready to get busy.
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Let's get down to it. How about you folks? We're always excited.
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But I know, Wendell, you worked your hiney off ending 2025.
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So, yeah. It was a very busy end of 2025.
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Meetings, a lot of holiday get-togethers and showing my face and getting out
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across the state and still doing work in the prison.
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So it was a lot to get done. But I'm happy that things have calmed down.
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Yeah, we always talk about on our social media every holiday.
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We throw a shout out to the folks who have to work on holidays.
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And you actually yourself had to work this year, right? Yep,
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Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
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I always shout out to people who say, hey, make sure you're state employees that are working.
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Save them on a plate or bring them a plate. That's right.
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Remind everybody what you do, Wendell. I'm a correctional captain at Harnett
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Correctional. So like I said, I run shift.
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And, you know, we make sure that everyone's where they're supposed to be.
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If you're part of the North Carolina political world and you have happened upon
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this podcast, this is a great example right here in the room with us.
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State employees, you don't really think about them. You would think about them
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if they weren't there, but you don't think about them. They went without a raise this year.
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They got their premiums increased on their health care.
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And everybody thinks all of this is okay. But remember, when you're home on
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Christmas Eve, wrapping last-minute presents, enjoying some eggnog,
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There are many, many people like Wendell, not just in the prison system,
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but all over state government who have to work.
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And that's not true of most of the private sector.
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So just remember, this is part of what it looks like.
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You're essential, and yet you're not treated as essential when it comes down
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to paying you and giving you your promised benefits.
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You would actually be surprised how many state agencies are actually working during the holidays.
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Ensuring the roads are clear, all this inclement weather, making sure certain
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services are being done, you know, the troopers are out.
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You know, we're still doing what we do in prisons.
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We're like a little city. We're 24-7.
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HHS facilities. Yeah, DHHS. I mean, all of that doesn't stop just because holidays happen.
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Hospitals, you know. So there's a lot of agencies that just.
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And we have the conversation regularly, too, that public perception works.
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Of state employees is not widely understood or widely appreciated, clearly.
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And it would be nice if one day, you know, we can get groups to just walk a
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day in the state employees' shoes just to see the day in, the day out, start to finish.
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This is how I start my day. This is what happens during the day.
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This is how I interact with the public.
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What's important? What's not so important? What are our things that we must get done?
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Because we're all mandated to do certain things that you don't think,
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you might think is menial, but we're mandated to make sure these things happen like clockwork.
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So things you take for granted, you know, you think, oh, well,
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it's supposed to be that way.
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But there's people who are trying to make sure that that happens.
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Your services aren't interrupted.
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Can't just shut down the prison and send people home, right? Oh, no.
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And y'all are doing all of this in a staffing crisis. Yes. Yeah.
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Not to be flippant, but I'll bring some levity to the discussion.
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Are the inmates any nicer on Christmas Day?
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Actually, during the holidays, they're actually more chill during the holidays
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than they are in the other times.
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Most of them, you know, they're focused on their families.
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They've heard from their families. You know, they get their Christmas meals.
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We have different churches, organizations that come through and do things for
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the offenders. So, you know, they're more laid back. You don't really have as many issues.
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During the holidays. Had a little extra joy. Yeah. Yeah. Well,
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that's nice to know. Most of them were festive.
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Yeah. Like I said on this episode, we do want to kind of look ahead at 2026.
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Since you'll be listening to this on the second day of the year.
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And we've already got a little bit of foreshadowing of what's to come this year.
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Two items out of the state treasurer Brad Briner's office about what's to come in 2026.
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Possible premium increases yet again, and he is not supporting a COLA for this year.
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So those are two. I just want to maybe jump out and we'll talk about that first.
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I think there's going to be a lot of people upset because I already have staff
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reaching out to me about what's going on with our premiums. Health care is the
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biggest thing right now in these premiums.
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And to hear that you're going to increase the premiums on top of what's already
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increased for 2020. And no pay raise.
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And we haven't even had a budget or a pay raise yet. So everybody's holding
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their purses. Let me ask you this, Wendell, since you're here.
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You supervise people in a lot of different pay grades.
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The way the treasurer's office had the board do the increases for premiums this
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year in the health plan was dependent on wage. So the lower you made,
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the lower your increase was.
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Their idea was that that would only be fair, that people who could afford it, quote, should pay more.
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Although I do want to say the CEO of a health care system making $25 million
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a year, we're not asking him and his system to afford anything else. But hey, I digress.
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So what are you hearing from folks? Are they like, yeah, OK,
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I like it better because it's.
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Well, from what I'm hearing, I mean, this is coming from wardens.
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You're talking about people, you know, who are higher level in the state.
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They're all complaining because they're like me.
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They're supporting the family. You know, I have the high option family.
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So I'm paying the high option.
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So I'm paying more than an officer or a sergeant, you know, people on those pay grades.
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So it's a lot just to support your family. And that's monthly,
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you know, coming out. So you take a big hit, and then you're talking about everything's
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going up, the prices of food, gas.
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So you have to factor all that in, and that's a nice chunk out of your day-to-day
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living and trying to foreshadow for the year the kids need.
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You know, how's this year going to look?
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Well, and I think, you know, John said possible health plan premium increases in 2026.
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What the stated intention sounded like. The treasurer did a call with the media
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where they could ask questions this past week,
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And he was kind of sounding, Suzanne, like it was very likely that what the
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treasurer's office will ask the board to do is increase those again.
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And I think he said by at least $20 a month.
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An unrealistic for us not to expect that. Oh, yeah.
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And you already have state employees who are complaining about issues going
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to the doctor and the health care and their co-pays are up.
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So now you're adding more fees, more money coming out their pocket.
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You know, it shouldn't cost you $100 to go see a doctor. when you're sick.
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We understand the co-pays. We understand specialties or something like that.
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But just to have you to see my doctor, I got to pay you $100 to $200 just to see a doctor.
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It's not feasible to be out of work, especially if your job says,
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hey, I need a note because you're out for a couple of days and now you're spending money.
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You're getting it from both directions. It's a lot. And again, I say no pay raise.
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Yeah, it's unfair. So it's interesting, though, a lot of the way this has been put out there.
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And it has been, oh, this is because Dale Falwell didn't increase premiums on
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state employees for seven years.
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Thomas Friedman, the executive administrator of the plan, was quoted in a story
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by Rose Hoban last week saying, I keep saying today, y'all, because here's the deal.
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We record this ahead of time to go out January 2nd.
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But Rose Hoban wrote a story for, I think it's North Carolina Health News.
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She was at our board meeting of the Board of Trustees of the health plan.
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And she said, yep, they talked about the financial issues with the plan.
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And she quoted Thomas Friedman, and I'm paraphrasing here, as saying,
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you know, if we'd been raising premiums every year on state employees this whole
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time, we wouldn't be in this fix.
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Well, there's nothing to say that's true.
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We love Thomas. We've had him on this program a number of times,
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but let me tell you why there's nothing to say that's true.
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We have no evidence, no proof of what we pay, you know, healthcare systems.
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We talked about on one of these podcasts recently, one of the CEOs of those
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systems makes $25 million a year.
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But we can't see what we're paying them with our state money that's meant for this employee benefit.
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So they're overcharging us is the almost 100% likelihood here.
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And by multiple times what they should be charging us.
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So to say if the employees had paid more premium, we would be okay.
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Sounds like a bunch of hooey to me, because what would have happened is those
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guys would have just kept overcharging more.
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And you really know that when you look at North Carolina being the number one
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costliest place for health care in the country, period, not even just looking
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at state employees and retirees.
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So Dale Falwell, did he cause that too? Did Dale Falwell not increasing our
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premiums make North Carolina the most expensive place for absolutely everybody,
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even if they work in the private sector.
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It's silly. It is absolutely silly to say, we just haven't been taken enough
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out of the wallets of our state employees to make this system work.
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But hey, don't make us show you what we're paying for your health care.
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So the other thing about Rose's article that was interesting to me,
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she went to this health plan meeting, listened to the whole thing,
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and did her research elsewhere to write this article. And I didn't see,
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anything about what has been very public, the $25 million salary,
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other huge healthcare executive raises.
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That can only happen if your profit is way out of whack.
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Not a word to that in the article. So it is just a given out there right now
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to let it go and not talk about that piece and only talk about.
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Yes, state employees don't pay as much premium as we think they should or as
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much as some people think everyone,
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everyone in the private sector does, which is also not true because I have friends
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who work for some companies who provide amazing health care and even their dependent coverage is very,
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very low because it's a benefit to be competitive.
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So it's not true that everywhere else that people pay huge amounts for their
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health care, but it's also overlooking the fact that state employees take less
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salary, supposedly for better benefits, but it's not better benefits now. It's not.
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No, it has eroded over the time. And I think, like you said,
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artists, they need to look at the profitability and versus what the actual state
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employees are contributing.
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Because if you're making wide
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profit margins, that means you're making money. Nobody will show that.
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So it's easy just to say you should have been paying more all along,
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but we're going to fight back on that, but I said I wasn't going to rant and
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rave because this is the new year, and we're going to rant and rave plenty of
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the year, and you're going to be our partner in that if you're a state employee,
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retiree, or a friend or loved one of a state employee or retiree.
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Hopefully, you will listen to this podcast and know when it's time to rant and
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rave, but what we need to do is keep framing the issues for what 2026 is going to bring.
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And Sammy was a little perplexed over here. What were you thinking?
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I saw the wheels turning in your head during that. My thought process is,
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okay, so they're saying...
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Del Falwell should have raised premiums. That wouldn't have made state employees any happier. No.
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If you just kept doing it every year. Well, no, no, no. They don't think it
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would have made state employees happier. The point is they don't care.
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Well, why are we playing the blame game?
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Because it's easier. Either way, no one's happy. Because it protects the massive powers that be.
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The powers that be that pay $25 million salaries to one person.
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It protects them. I believe former
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treasurer of Falwell called that the cartel. He called it the cartel.
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And what his issue was, when Dale Falwell was treasurer, is I'm not going to
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stick it to the working people, to the police officers, to the teachers,
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to folks working in prisons, to folks working in HHS institutions.
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I'm not going to stick it to them when I can't say what we're paying to these
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massive corporations running these hospitals.
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So to say something like that, wouldn't you think that Reiner and Friedman have
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kind of an idea of what they think premiums should be? And are they working up to a level?
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And it's because if you said that Falwell should have raised premiums for eight
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years, what if he did that like $20 every eight years?
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It would be up to $160 a month. I'll tell you how we should look at this.
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When the school vouchers, when that bill was passed, private schools cost what they cost.
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And what happened to private schools the next year after we said you can have
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some money to send your children to private schools? The state will pay for part of that.
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Exactly. The tuition went up. Tuition went up. So you could increase the premiums
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on state employees, and I promise you now.
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The price that we're paying for health care will go up yet again.
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And that affects every single person in the market, not just state employees.
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Yeah, the providers are going to take what they can. I mean,
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it's just free market economy, right? I mean, it's like capitalism.
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You get as much profit as you can. It's becoming a monopoly that kind of lies
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in the face of capitalism.
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Yeah, because people can't not have health care. Right, and then you'll hear,
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oh, you know, we've got to take care of these health care systems because otherwise
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we won't have rural health care.
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Who's been buying up and often closing facilities that provided health care in rural areas?
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These health care megacorporations.
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If that solved the problem, we're overpaying now.
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If overpaying was solving the problem and providing plentiful health care in
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our rural areas, we'd have that now, and we don't.
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We wouldn't be the bottom of the list. Yeah. I grew up in a rural area.
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My primary care doctor was bought by UNC once I went to college.
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My mom, her company just sold their practice to a large facility,
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even though they were a small private owned practice and catered to the people in that area. Yeah.
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And I was talking to someone probably like a month ago.
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We were just talking about history. And I remember when certain areas like in
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Greenville, their health care, their hospital was small or certain areas.
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You had these little outfits and now or they were like urgent cares and now
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they're like huge complexes.
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I mean, you see these and it's everywhere. They're just I mean,
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they're huge. So they're getting money.
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They're building new facilities. So there's money in health care.
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So you can't say there's no money or you're struggling when you're buying.
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You're creating new. Buying and building, yeah. Yeah, using spreads.
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With grand pianos in the lobby, right?
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Back to what you said, Wendell, about.
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State employees' benefits eroding. Interestingly, I had a conversation with
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someone last night who has been offered a job with the state and declined it
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because of the provision in 21 when they stopped giving health insurance at retirement.
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Yeah. It's like, yeah, that's a big deal. But this person would not refuse to
16:40
take the job because that was the point in coming to work for the state.
16:44
They knew they weren't going to make a ton of money. That was the original promise.
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The original promise was, hey, we're not going to pay you a lot,
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but your health care package and your benefits, their health care was supposed
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to be better than the private sector. Right. And retirement. And retirement.
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Now, when you look at the overall, it's way worse. It's not beneficial.
17:06
No one wants to come to the state because they're like, I can work at Burger
17:09
King and make more. I was just out west last month, and basically the prison
17:15
couldn't even compete with the fast food and the job fairs.
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Because Burger King, Subway, Sonic, they were making more than correctional staff.
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With benefits. With benefits in the area.
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So state employees and some of the job fairs they couldn't even go to because
17:34
this prison wasn't paying enough.
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I thought that blew my mind. I said, how can the state agency not pay enough
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that you can't go to a job fair? Right.
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Yeah, that was just incredibly telling to have that conversation last night.
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Yeah, we've got a huge problem. So in 2026, one of the issues that will be hopping,
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and I mean hopping, is going to be health care because the legislature needs
18:03
to weigh in at this point.
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The problem we had where Dale Falwell had said, I'm not going to put it on the
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backs of these average working state employees,
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is because he was told he could not make public this information about public
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money that was being spent on this health care. And he wanted to make that public.
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He wanted to be super transparent.
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And he was met with resistance at that time from the folks who were in the legislature
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at that time. Now, that's not this current legislature, so it's not anybody's fault right now.
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But the people who are there right now in 2026 have some work to do.
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They can either decide they continue to sweep all that under the rug and,
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you know, keep this stuff hidden and make it fine and legal to keep it hidden
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or they do something about it. That's where we are.
18:53
Just feels like even nationally, the leaders don't want to pay for health care
18:58
or subsidize health care because they say it costs too much. Right.
19:02
It's too much of a burden. It does cost too much. But why does it cost too much?
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Well, we're having a whole debate over whether to subsidize when the debate
19:11
should be, why in the heck does it cost what it costs?
19:15
Yeah. And that's what no one wants to discuss, John. That's my whole thing.
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My problem with this is that if you won't put the numbers out there and it's
19:24
public money, we're in an era in North Carolina politics of transparency.
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Except where we don't want it. Except where we don't want to look.
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And that's where the big money power people are. And nobody wants to look at
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them. But for the average person...
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Listening to this right now, they don't give a poop if somebody makes $25 million
19:45
to run a health care system.
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They care if they can put food on the table for their family.
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Yeah. You know, this is just wrong. A slight tangent.
19:55
We regulate energy costs, electricity costs, right?
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Why do we not regulate health care costs? It's just as important.
20:03
I think you can. It's too much money in it. You don't even have to go that far.
20:07
Just make them say what you're paying them.
20:09
Yeah. That'll be embarrassing. Just tell people what you're paying them.
20:13
It will be embarrassing enough. Yeah.
20:15
That's all we need. Because you see those stories all the time.
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We're not looking for more regulation, to be clear.
20:20
We're not looking for more government interference. In fact,
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we're looking for government to stop interfering by stop hiding things.
20:28
That's all we're asking for. Just put it out there. They don't want to show the money.
20:31
They have to show their hand. So what this says for us in the year 2026,
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this doesn't have to happen to you as a citizen.
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It doesn't have to happen to you as a state employee or retiree.
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We have ways to fight back.
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Listen to this podcast. If you're not a member of Scenic, join Scenic.
20:50
We will be more active than ever on the issue of health care.
20:54
And I know the other issue you just mentioned, John, that is equally important
20:59
is cost of living adjustments for our retirees. Mm-hmm.
21:04
So, in a story from December 17th on the carolinapublicpress.org,
21:09
State Treasurer Briner opposes COLA for state retirees, which is not a great
21:14
headline for a state employee and, I mean, for the state retirees to hear.
21:19
Yeah, retirees are going to be very much in an uproar. They're already done
21:23
their service to the state. And, you know, you have to think about that.
21:26
You know, you work for the state 30-plus years back when some of the salaries
21:30
were lower than they are now. So how are they getting along?
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It makes a big impact. And it doesn't entice people to become state employees
21:40
because they're looking at, okay, long range for your retirement.
21:43
If you're not even trying to give them COLAs or have the adjustment for their
21:47
living expenses, then what was the point?
21:50
Yeah, we've got a chart, actually, that, you know, it's the history of COLAs. A nice table we made.
21:57
2017 was the last time that a true COLA was given to retirees.
22:01
It was 1%. and then there's a bunch of zeros in that column of the table where
22:05
there have been no COLAs. Now, part of that time was,
22:08
was during a period where we didn't have money, so you can't have a COLA.
22:14
Money meaning gains profit off of our investments.
22:18
So we can't have a COLA because we're not making the money in the system.
22:22
You guys have heard me say it before. The system is built to produce its own
22:25
COLA from gains from investments. So that's been the problem.
22:30
Not enough money can't have a COLA. Here we are.
22:33
Was it $14 billion? I believe the number was just a few weeks ago.
22:36
In investment gains that have been experienced in the retirement system,
22:41
and we still can't have a COLA.
22:43
So, you know, the basic gist of the story was that the state retirement system
22:48
has gained about six and a half or seven percent, which is about 16 billion
22:52
dollars, which we talked about a few weeks ago.
22:55
And then they asked Briner, you know, well, that's great.
22:58
And the retirees get a COLA now. And he turned to the unfunded liability and
23:02
the debt and said there's still a lot of work to do on that.
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And then you, Suzanne, were actually quoted in the story. Thanks for doing this interview.
23:12
Sure. You said everybody's not going to retire at the same time.
23:15
So while it's important that we get back under control, the sky is also not
23:19
falling. That's right. Good job. They need a cola.
23:22
They need a cola. There's money. The treasurer's department has reported that money. It's big money.
23:28
When do we get a cola? And you also got the word but into a story. Did you know that?
23:34
You said Treasurer Briner is obviously kicking butt with his investment strategy.
23:39
All right. What we would like to see is that money used in a way that directly
23:43
affects the pocketbooks of retirement.
23:45
Yes. Yeah. Our territories are struggling.
23:47
Why do we care if you make 50% in returns? If people are going to turn around
23:51
and say, no, we've got this other thing we need it for, which,
23:54
by the way, when Dale Falwell was focused so intently on the unfunded liability, no one cared.
24:01
Yeah. So this is another case of where, look, the goalposts are moving for state
24:07
employees and retirees.
24:09
They're just moving. If we make money, I don't know, we've got to fund the unfunded liability.
24:13
If we don't make money and we say the unfunded liability matters,
24:17
you can't have anything because of all that either.
24:20
Briner thinks that 2027 could be a more appropriate time for the legislature
24:25
to approve the COMA. It's always the next year, right? The next year.
24:27
It's always the next year.
24:28
Always. Always has been. We'll go to Disney World next year, kids.
24:33
Exactly. Y'all just be good. I gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.
24:37
Yeah. That's a bad concept to run the state on.
24:41
And retirees lost 30% of their buying power. Guess what?
24:46
2027, the electric company won't want their money. They want it right now.
24:50
That's what retirees are facing.
24:52
So, yeah, Suzanne and I worked a little bit on this chart together this week
24:56
that she was mentioning.
24:58
And I thought it was interesting just looking at the numbers.
25:02
Retirees have lost buying power every year since 2001.
25:08
And in 2011, they actually went below zero. So they actually started having negative.
25:16
And so now they're 30.7 percent below the cost of living if it had kept up with inflation.
25:25
Right. And as we talked recently with the secretary of the Department of Military
25:30
and Veterans Affairs, we were talking about how we want North Carolina to be
25:33
a place retired military would want to come because they're such a big part of your economy.
25:38
Retirees spend money. Same is true of state employees, and we talked about that
25:42
on this podcast recently.
25:43
If you're not increasing what the retirees are bringing home,
25:47
that's money literally not going into your local economies. Yeah.
25:52
You're hurting your economy.
25:53
So that means that no tax revenue. Sometimes you can spend a dollar and you don't get it back.
25:59
But that dollar you give to a retiree, the state's going to get back.
26:03
Yeah. They're not going to Cabo. Nope.
26:06
So that means that retirees check from 2011 bought 30 percent more than it does now.
26:14
I like to do that. That's a good way to write down.
26:18
Different ways to think about that. So in 1999, retirees, the raise was 12%
26:25
more than the cost of living adjustment.
26:28
So those were good days.
26:31
Okay, that's enough math talk for me. But I did like doing this table.
26:35
And it's on our website, too. You can go check it out. And then there's the other piece.
26:39
You know, if you're doing a math equation, you have to have all the variables.
26:42
And the variable we still don't have on retirement is the same one we don't
26:46
have on health care. What do the contracts with the investment managers investing
26:50
this money? What do they say?
26:53
We don't know. It's public money. It's not just public money.
26:56
It's public money. And then it's 6% of every employee's paycheck every month.
27:01
So some of it's your money. You know, double your money.
27:05
Your money as a taxpayer, but also 6% of your paycheck has to go into this system.
27:10
But then you can't see where it's being, what the terms are of how it's invested. Yeah.
27:16
That's what would irritate me. I'd be sitting there like, give me my money back
27:19
then. This probably, I mean, I'm sorry.
27:21
I'm not calling you old. artists, but this predates you, but maybe you have some insight.
27:32
Like, why were the Colas so much more in the 80s and 90s than they are now?
27:37
So the system was funded fairly consistently.
27:42
And it was also invested under treasurer Harlan Boyles for years and years in
27:47
a really conservative way, kind of the way Briner's talking about wanting to conserve now.
27:54
Harlan Boyles was pretty much a 65-35 split investment-wise,
27:58
and I think Treasurer Briner's talking about something like a 70-30 split in around 2001.
28:03
Yeah, that's pretty much the change section.
28:06
You can tell I'm old. In 2001.
28:09
No, that was the year then-Governor Easley escrowed some retirement funds,
28:14
which Scenic had to sue, and it took years and went all the way to the Supreme
28:17
Court to get that money properly put in the system, get that money back.
28:21
But in addition to that, that was the year the state took a complete holiday,
28:26
didn't put anything in towards their employees' retirement. Now think about it.
28:29
If you did that in your personal investment, you'd throw yourself back deeply
28:35
if you weren't putting anything in for a year.
28:38
Well, the next year, I think it was less than a quarter percent,
28:41
and we inched up from there. Now you're seeing the legislature put in big amounts.
28:46
But it's out of desperation and necessity. Again, how much desperation and necessity?
28:53
We're not sure because we can't see the contract. So we don't know what we're
28:55
paying people to invest this money.
28:57
You could be paying people any number of hidden fees.
29:00
And the reason we say this is not just to be conspiracy theorists,
29:05
but because there is proof of other public pension systems doing this.
29:10
And what tends to happen is most people have very similar contracts all over the country.
29:13
Guess what? the teaser's total increase in 1989 was? Do tell.
29:19
6.7%. That's the highest on the list.
29:23
Yeah, but remember, when you retire in North Carolina, you start out well behind
29:29
what you would in any other state in terms of how your retirement check will be calculated.
29:34
Yeah, that year did include a formula increase, which is what you're talking
29:38
about, the starting formula.
29:40
So yeah, so for 2026, you know, the gauntlet's been thrown down,
29:44
that you're not going to see the treasurer's office apparently fight for a COLA.
29:48
If you don't have the treasurer's office fighting for a COLA,
29:50
it is beyond impossible to get one out of the legislature, except it's an election
29:56
year. And retirees, you need to get vocal.
29:58
Yeah, yeah. And that brings us to our next topic, which it's an election year.
30:02
And I guess all of these things tie into that.
30:05
Well, I would say before you even get to that one, pay would be the next. Oh, yeah.
30:09
Yeah, let's talk about that. I mean, obviously they have to do something about
30:13
the, or I guess they don't have to do a budget, right?
30:16
You would think they would, right? Well, I mean. You thought they would this
30:19
year. Yeah. I'll shut up. You know, you can think anything you want to. You don't have to.
30:24
Yeah, they don't have to. And we were told at the end of June,
30:28
I think it was, maybe it was in August.
30:30
Anyway, when they took their break, was told by someone in leadership,
30:33
actually, that they would not be talking about a budget until they came back
30:37
for short session. And it does appear that that's the way it's going to play out.
30:40
Any idea what we're talking about percentage wise or anything?
30:44
No. Oh, my guess is if they throw anything out there, they'll throw 2% out.
30:48
2% is the standard. The standard election year 2%, if anything.
30:52
And then that's going to, state employees are going to have fit.
30:56
Now, I don't know, they'll propose probably a one-time something for retirees,
31:02
which after taxes of that won't change their lives. Yeah.
31:06
But all of these things, the thought
31:07
will be this might be just enough for people not to be super angry.
31:10
And I'm thinking this is what's going to come out of both the governor's office,
31:14
which is a Democratic governor, and then the Republican-run legislature.
31:18
I don't think anybody's going to come out of the box saying,
31:20
yep, give those state employees 8%. I might be proven wrong, and I sure hope I am.
31:26
I hope that they all hear people like Wendell talking about what they face and
31:30
the dire situation they're in staffing-wise, and realize that as important as
31:37
teacher raises are, that there's other roles.
31:39
Public employees out there just as important, doing tremendously vital work.
31:45
And they're going to quit those jobs if you don't do so.
31:48
So that means Senate members and state employees, you need to be prepared.
31:53
You need to be knowledgeable about your voting practices and who you're voting for.
31:57
You need to understand, you know, what districts you represent.
32:01
You need to understand, you know, what your health care actually looks like
32:05
and what you're signed up for or what are options?
32:08
You know, right now we have Lantern going on. They're starting up January.
32:12
They started January 1st. So if you have procedures, they are offering free options.
32:18
Please take advantage of anything that's out there that'll help you as a state
32:22
employee to, you know, get further ahead because as you can see that you're
32:27
not getting any help from our leadership.
32:30
So I have a question for y'all. There's a chance this could be a close election
32:34
or closer than in years past at the legislature,
32:39
does that multiply our effectiveness as a nonpartisan or bipartisan group?
32:47
Like, are we a big pool of voters that are attainable for both sides enough
32:53
so that they will listen to our concerns?
32:55
Well, our success rate is pretty high when it comes to races.
33:00
You're asking about in terms of raw numbers or what could...
33:03
So there are certain legislative districts in which state employees and retirees
33:08
are not as significant a presence, but there are more districts than not.
33:15
In which if you had state employee, their spouse, or retiree and their spouse,
33:20
any adult kids they have, or people.
33:23
Neighbors and friends that love them and listen to them, voting for the person
33:27
those folks say treats state employees and retirees well, it is enough people
33:31
to make a difference in a vast number.
33:34
Because you've got to remember, it's going to be low turnout.
33:36
It's a midterm election. It's going to be low turnout.
33:39
And so any group, whether it's state employees or any other group,
33:42
If they can marshal their forces together and get them all educated and out
33:46
to the polls for whoever it is that is throwing down for them,
33:51
they can move the needle.
33:52
So the areas like that, I guess, would be like Raleigh.
33:56
It's actually, see, it depends.
33:58
Yes, obviously you think Wake, Burke, Granville, Wayne.
34:03
Those come to mind immediately as huge concentrations. But that's not where
34:07
it's limited to, because you have to remember, so many retirees have gone and
34:11
relocated from wherever they worked.
34:14
So there are a number of communities where it's more than you think,
34:19
and especially in terms of people who turn out and vote.
34:22
What we have noticed with scenic members is they're not just registered to vote in huge numbers.
34:27
They actually vote. They do vote, yeah. Yeah. They vote. And that's the gift
34:31
that we have. So I guess our challenge as an organization is to educate those
34:36
folks and get them all on the same page and voting as a block, right?
34:41
Always a challenge. And also to get involved. And we're going to have the Impact
34:45
Chair, Junior Hewlin, on here soon to talk about that.
34:48
Because getting involved is where a group like Scenic that's so big can make
34:53
the difference by boots on the ground, making phone calls, talking to everybody
34:57
you can find, being really active in elections.
35:00
I was listening to a podcast on the way here, Chuck Todd's podcast,
35:03
and we're going to talk about podcasts in a second.
35:06
But he was saying, you know, nationally, even, you know, like $100 donors don't matter at all.
35:12
$10,000 donors don't even matter that much anymore.
35:15
It's like the huge numbers that really matter.
35:19
But groups like us have an advantage that we've already discussed this on on
35:24
the podcast that, you know, our strength is our numbers.
35:27
People. Yeah. I mean, you see commercials, every other commercial at election time for somebody.
35:31
It's the net effect at this point is just noise. All the money you spend on
35:35
signs, there's always the age old debate.
35:37
Do signs work? No matter where you come down on that, that's a ton of money.
35:41
All these things are a ton of money, but nobody can really show the huge impact
35:45
of that compared to who are voters most influenced by.
35:49
It's not any piece of election advertisement you come up with.
35:54
It's somebody they know, trust and respect telling them about a candidate and
35:59
believing in that candidate.
36:00
And we hate to say this, but, you know, there's a lot of state employees who aren't scenic members.
36:05
So talk about this to your co-workers and get them to join first off.
36:09
You have to get active, you know, if you know Senate members,
36:13
at least educate them on our, you know, go to a meeting, find out where the
36:16
local meetings are in your areas and go and become informed because at our meetings,
36:20
we do give our information, what's going on in the area, what's going on across the state.
36:25
You know, what are going on in these state races, you know, how to get involved
36:29
in impact and to affect, you know, your family.
36:33
Because who you choose affects how your family is taken care of and the future of our state.
36:38
So like I was saying about the podcast we were discussing before we went on
36:43
air here, it's important that you know who you're getting information from, too.
36:48
And I think that we could, you know, suggest a few good places other than the
36:53
Scenic View podcast, which should be first on your dial.
36:56
You know, that should be your go-to. But if you want to learn more about elections and health care.
37:03
Politics in general. Politics in general, news in general. But with the issues, yeah.
37:08
Yeah. Make sure you're listening to and getting news from reputable sources.
37:14
And that doesn't mean like one side or the other. That just means someone who's
37:19
telling you real information, not something with an agenda.
37:24
I guess here in North Carolina, we have some good political podcasts.
37:27
Journalists, yeah. Yeah, journalists.
37:29
I like Colin Campbell's WNC podcast, State Politics.
37:33
The Under the Dome, Raleigh News and Observer podcast is always kind of a staple
37:38
for everyone. And Tim Boyum.
37:40
Yeah, Tim Boyum's Spectre News podcast. What's this called?
37:44
Tying It Together. Tying It Together. That's right. I'm sorry, Tim.
37:47
I listen to it every week. But yeah, just make sure you're listening to,
37:51
just don't listen to some crazy person talking about God knows what.
37:55
Make sure that the information you get is right. Well, if you want to maximize
37:59
your ability to contact your elected representatives.
38:03
And be knowledgeable on the issues and feel confident doing that.
38:07
Again, we would suggest first join Scenic because we will get you all that information.
38:11
We communicate all of that with our members all the time.
38:15
But in addition to that, if you have time, you like to listen to podcasts,
38:20
maybe you'd like to try them out, those are some good ones because that's just
38:24
journalists talking about the issues.
38:26
And when you call, you'll be amazed how much more confident you feel talking
38:29
to elected officials. Yeah.
38:31
I always think it's funny when someone, you know, spouts off that you have an
38:35
agenda, you're scenic, you know, you have a.
38:38
We sure do. We sure do. Like that's the thing that I always want to say.
38:42
Protecting state employees and their families. Everyone has an agenda.
38:44
But the thing I always want to chime back with is like, yes,
38:47
our sole goal is to protect and enhance the benefits and rights of state employees. And our retirees.
38:54
So if you're one of those groups, you should listen to us because that's all we're trying to do.
39:00
Well, and I maintain that you don't have to be a state employer or retiree to
39:04
care about what we're saying because you're paying taxes to get public services.
39:10
Yeah. So, you know, we talked about it again a few weeks ago.
39:13
If your taxes are cut, but your services are cut so deeply that you're thinking,
39:19
this state doesn't seem like the state I used to live in.
39:22
We're not getting much. It's getting kind of wonky. Yeah.
39:26
Well, you have to follow what happens with public employees because that's who's
39:32
providing the services your taxes go towards.
39:34
No matter what your tax rate is, it's to provide services.
39:38
Those are provided by people. And those are the people we're representing.
39:42
And I'm going to tell you something. Let these services start dwindling.
39:45
Yeah, it's already happened.
39:47
Yeah. Then, you know, North Carolina is going to quickly not become one of not
39:51
be one of those states people want to come and live. Right.
39:54
It's already DMV was the big uproar because everybody knew that state employees.
39:58
But Wendell, y'all are so understaffed and it it has been it's affected y'all
40:03
in terms of staff and inmates getting hurt.
40:07
It's affected y'all in all kinds of ways. But let somebody escape from the prison
40:11
due to the understaffing and then hurt somebody. And let's see.
40:15
You're going to see hell raised from beneath the earth's surface.
40:20
Yep. But nobody can act surprised when that happens. Took six weeks to find
40:26
that kid in Craven County.
40:28
Yeah. But I'm telling you, if that were to happen, it would be outrageous for
40:33
any politician to act surprised.
40:35
Yeah. I think that's their biggest fear of something actually big happening.
40:40
I mean, there's been a lot of things that's happened, but it doesn't make the news.
40:44
There's a lot of things that happen inside and outside of institutions and state
40:48
agencies that don't make the news, but there are things that would be concerns
40:53
to the public if they understood the magnitude of if it went wrong.
40:58
How that would affect their families. Well, we had a thing recently about infant formula.
41:05
And, you know, the Department of Agriculture has scientists who make sure everything's
41:10
cool with certain products that are sold, that they don't have bad things in
41:14
them, and that they have what they say they have on the label.
41:17
And we had an issue about infant formula that people from DHHS and Department
41:23
of Agriculture would have been part of the protection for us so that our infants
41:27
don't get formula that has something harmful to them in it.
41:31
And that was an eye-opener. But those kind of things, unless it's happening
41:35
to you, you don't really know about it.
41:37
And it's just like, even like the DMV issue, like going back to that,
41:42
you know, all of a sudden it's like a huge uproar about how long wait times
41:47
are and all that, you know, just.
41:49
But no one ever mentioned that they haven't been funded properly.
41:52
Well, we didn't increase the number of people serving the public,
41:56
despite the public increasing by, I think, 20% during that period of time.
42:00
So they're serving 20% more people.
42:03
The same number of. Again, to act shocked and outraged is funny to me.
42:12
You're facing like a war of attrition. You can add more kiosks,
42:16
but you still don't have the people that serves the kiosks or bandage.
42:20
So it's like, you're really not helping me. It sounds great.
42:24
And yeah, it's a good technological advancement, but who's running it?
42:29
You still need the people to run it and maintain it.
42:34
And again, that's a bipartisan issue, too, because we've had DMV just languished under both parties.
42:42
And so this is all like people have got to speak up because politicians, period. I don't care,
42:50
Who your legislator is, what party they affiliate with, what consonant is next
42:55
to their name on the ballot.
42:56
It's going to be the same old, same old until the public demands more.
43:00
Well, before we go, I just want to talk a little bit to Wendell here about what
43:05
he has planned for this year for Scenic.
43:07
I think that's an important thing.
43:09
Put me on the spot. Well, for the 2026 year, like I said, the biggest thing
43:15
is getting people informed, making
43:18
sure information gets out about what's going on with our health care.
43:23
Getting our retirees organized and understanding what they're facing and how
43:28
we can help better get their situation supplemented and find avenues to get
43:33
them active within the organization.
43:36
And just get active in our communities because they need to hear,
43:39
people need to hear their voice.
43:40
You know, our people need to have their voices heard and they need,
43:44
we need, like I said, we need to understand what's, what we're facing.
43:47
You know, there's an economic downturn, things that cost more.
43:51
You know, services are going up.
43:53
So we need to be smarter as state employees and as consumers on how we can better
43:58
take care of our families and make sure that we're still performing at a high
44:03
rate for our state agencies to make the state better. Because at the end of
44:06
the day, we care about the state.
44:08
We want the state to prosper, and we want to prosper with it.
44:11
But we also want to make sure we're taking care of our homes and we're handling
44:16
our affairs accordingly.
44:18
And one exciting thing that I know of to help with the old informing our members
44:23
is we are launching a new website in January, February, Q1.
44:28
We'll say Q1, 2026. It's going to be awesome, and you guys are in for a treat.
44:34
Super excited for that. Yeah, I'm pretty excited about it as well. And that website is at?
44:39
Scenic.org at www.scanc.org. I've noticed whenever you like spell out scenic,
44:46
this is a tangent, like on your email address, you know, J-O-N-S-C-A-N-C.
44:53
It always sounds like S-C-A-N-C.
44:56
So I've missed a lot of emails that way. So I always pronunciate the E, but I digress.
45:02
So I think we'll leave it there. It's been a long episode. Maybe we'll just
45:06
not have a question this week. And we'll see you next week.