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Signed Budget, Small Raises: Why State Employees Are Angry · The SEANC View

• 0:00
  Hello, and welcome to another edition of the Scenic View podcast.
• 0:03
  I'm Jonathan Owens, along with Suzanne Beasley, Artis Watkins, and Sammy Klein.
• 0:08
  We have a lot to talk about, and we're going to answer some questions from our
• 0:12
  Facebook viewers, or what do you call Facebook folks? Our Facebook folks.
• 0:18
  Yeah, that's good enough. It'll be an informative episode. Facebook fans.
• 0:21
  There you go. Commenter, followers. Yeah.
• 0:24
  So that. So stay tuned. Thank you.
• 0:36
  All right. So, like I said, we are going to talk a lot about the budget on this
• 0:40
  episode because it has been signed into law. I guess that was Tuesday, right? Correct.
• 0:45
  Governor Stein has signed it.
• 0:47
  He was pretty positive about it. Well, yeah. I mean, it's been a long time since
• 0:51
  we had a budget. So I don't think there was any possible way he could veto that
• 0:54
  budget after everything that the state's been through, what, since 23?
• 0:59
  Well, I mean, OK, so let's talk about how this budget is being talked about
• 1:03
  by the people who wrote it.
• 1:05
  Like literally on a weekend show, the political weekend show last weekend,
• 1:09
  the message basically was, hey, it could have been worse.
• 1:12
  And that is what I feel like is the messaging we're getting as lobbyists from
• 1:17
  folks is, yeah, I know you're not happy, but it could have been worse.
• 1:20
  I don't think it could have been. I mean, like, it's almost like they're saying
• 1:23
  you should accept this because it's the best you're going to get,
• 1:26
  you know, and could have been worse.
• 1:29
  I mean, but think about that. If state employees went out there and paved the
• 1:33
  road and said, I know it's bumpy and the potholes appeared right away,
• 1:37
  but hey, hey, hey, it could have been worse.
• 1:40
  It took me three years to do it, and you're going to be happy with it.
• 1:43
  Yeah, yeah. In two weeks, it was a big fan, but, you know.
• 1:47
  So I feel like that's not going well. Yeah. With our members, there's no question.
• 1:53
  No question. There is no love for this budget.
• 1:56
  And I've had a lot of questions, too, the whopping 3% that's in the budget.
• 2:01
  Now, keep in mind, state employees didn't get a raise at all last year,
• 2:05
  so it's 3% this year, which basically breaks down to a percent and a half,
• 2:09
  you know, over the two-year budget, if you look at it in that perspective.
• 2:15
  And people know that. They know that. So 3% is what we get after,
• 2:19
  you know, completely skipping us.
• 2:21
  And it's not retroactive. And a bonus is supposed to make up for that.
• 2:24
  Oh, and guess what? And they won't see it in their July paycheck.
• 2:27
  That's right. Yeah. There's that. Yeah, I posted something about,
• 2:30
  you know, good news, you'll have your, at least you'll get the raise soon because
• 2:34
  you'll be in your July paycheck and I got to...
• 2:36
  Stern email from, I think it was the state controller's office,
• 2:40
  that that is not the case, that the raises will be in the August paycheck.
• 2:44
  You'll still get the raise for July. It'll just be in the, the extra part will
• 2:50
  be in the August check. So remember that because your check will be a little
• 2:53
  bit bigger than it's actually going to be in August.
• 2:56
  September will look different. And then the bonuses will be paid out in October, October 15th.
• 3:02
  Saw some comments on Facebook that, you know, that, oh, what else is happening
• 3:07
  around that time? Early, early November. I wonder why they would wait till then,
• 3:11
  to give. That's always. Yeah.
• 3:13
  That's convenient. Yeah. But you're right, Suzanne. You have no raise last year.
• 3:18
  Your health care goes up. Barely a raise. A raise that doesn't match inflation this year.
• 3:23
  Never mind last year's inflation. And you can't even get it in July. Yeah.
• 3:28
  Well, I think it's, I mean, state employees are already in the hole.
• 3:31
  Way in the hole. Way in the hole. Before we even didn't get a budget last year, they were in the hole.
• 3:37
  So now, even though they got a pay raise in this budget, that whopping 3% we
• 3:41
  keep talking about, they're even deeper in the hole.
• 3:44
  Yeah. Is the hole going to get deeper, though? Yeah. I mean,
• 3:47
  at some point, you're going to toss a rock in it and never hit bottom at the rate we're going.
• 3:51
  Dive into some of these questions from the Facebook. Several of these were repeated
• 3:55
  over and over again. Suzanne and I have been battling as hard as we could to answer all of them.
• 4:00
  Thank y'all for commenting. We love to hear.
• 4:04
  Like I said last week, I contend that we have the most active Facebook page,
• 4:11
  in state politics. And I think that is the truth. I think it's true.
• 4:14
  Well, I think we have the angriest constituency in state politics. Right now, yeah.
• 4:17
  So the first question, you just kind of touched on it, but is it a 3% raise
• 4:23
  or is it 1.5% this year and 1.5% next year?
• 4:28
  Yeah, so people have gotten confused and it has been confusing. It's 3% for this year.
• 4:33
  Long session starts in January and that will start the budget process all over again.
• 4:37
  So, yeah, that's important to note that this budget is only really for the next six months, right?
• 4:43
  Right. I mean, right. Yeah. It's the first budget passed since 2024.
• 4:48
  Here we are about to be time to start talking about it again.
• 4:52
  But yes, it is a three percent raise right now.
• 4:55
  This question was a good one. The governor said that inflation has been between
• 5:00
  six and eight percent. So shouldn't we get a six or eight percent raise?
• 5:05
  Yeah. One would think. Next question. At the very least.
• 5:08
  So the question that you and I have fielded a few times about probation and
• 5:13
  parole raises, I think there's a lot of confusion because of the step plan.
• 5:19
  It would really be just like a 6.5 percent raise from.
• 5:22
  Right. And folks are really upset about this, that the legislative leaders were
• 5:26
  saying it's a 10.1 percent raise. But there is a reason for this.
• 5:31
  There is. And I think everybody, you know, you stop because it sounds good at
• 5:35
  10.1 percent on average. Average. People are missing those two words,
• 5:39
  on average. So everybody in probation and parole is not getting 10.1%.
• 5:44
  The step increase is 6.5%.
• 5:48
  And then there's an average for each, how many people are in each year,
• 5:52
  each band of that step pay plan, and that is added to the 6.5%.
• 5:56
  So, in some cases, people will see 10.1%. It depends on what you're making and
• 6:01
  where you fall within the step pay plan. So, it isn't cut and dry,
• 6:06
  just 10.1% across the board.
• 6:08
  The step increase is 6.5%, and then wherever you fall within the step plan.
• 6:14
  There's confusion everywhere. Where same thing, we have people from the public
• 6:17
  schools thought teachers were getting 8%.
• 6:20
  Yeah. Not every teacher's getting 8%. Yeah.
• 6:23
  It's that very same, very same thing. So correctional officers and correctional
• 6:28
  staff, there's a lot of confusion around those right raises too.
• 6:32
  So an average of 15.4% for correctional officers.
• 6:37
  Now, that doesn't include staff at all correctional facilities.
• 6:41
  It's just the officers. And there's a lot of heartburn about that.
• 6:45
  And there is. Ever since the step pay plan was implemented for correctional
• 6:50
  officers one, two, and three, it didn't include sergeants, lieutenants,
• 6:54
  or admin staff, anybody else who works inside of a prison.
• 6:57
  People teaching, yeah. Yeah, they aren't in that step plan. It's just for correctional officers.
• 7:02
  And again, the on average is just like the probation and parole step plan.
• 7:07
  You know, not everybody's going to see that. Yeah. Top amount.
• 7:10
  But yeah, it is unfortunate. It's a huge problem with wage compression.
• 7:14
  We have wage compression issues anyway. I mean, that's always a thing.
• 7:18
  But this is just compounded that issue immensely.
• 7:21
  And, you know, we need a step pay plan for everybody who works in state government,
• 7:27
  frankly, but everybody who works inside a prison faces the same daily,
• 7:32
  you know, challenges that,
• 7:34
  there's no segment of employee in a prison that's less important, you know.
• 7:40
  Well, and at any moment, every one of them. That's right. So that's right.
• 7:44
  I mean, I think we saw at the Bertie County Detention Center just a few weeks
• 7:48
  ago that there could be at any moment.
• 7:51
  You know, the whole place can become taken over. And that was a county jail,
• 7:57
  but that certainly speaks to the, I mean, this is an issue everywhere.
• 8:00
  So that, yeah, the raises are for correctional officer one, two,
• 8:03
  and three, plus youth counselor and youth services positions at juvenile justice.
• 8:08
  And you remember we talked to Billy Lasseter there. Yes.
• 8:12
  So that may help him some. We sure hope so. Now, sergeants, lieutenants,
• 8:16
  captains, certified staff will all get the 3% raise.
• 8:20
  Right. Why isn't there a step payment plan for those folks? It seems like if
• 8:24
  you're a sergeant or a lieutenant, you're still an officer. It's just never
• 8:28
  happened. It just never happened.
• 8:30
  You remember when we the tragic murders at Bertie and Pasquatank?
• 8:34
  That's where some traction was gained for a step pay plan, at least for the
• 8:38
  correctional officers.
• 8:39
  And, you know, the talk back then was to expand it. And here we are.
• 8:44
  Yeah. I mean, right after a tragedy, everybody's ready to do what needs to be done.
• 8:49
  But I'll tell you, anytime you don't go the whole way and fix the whole problem.
• 8:53
  It will end up not fixed. And that's just, that's the way of the General Assembly.
• 8:57
  No matter who's in charge, no matter what's going on, I'm telling you, if you don't fix it.
• 9:01
  So this is a group that I think they've been traumatized by budgets of the past
• 9:06
  as non-certified school employees.
• 9:09
  There was a question about, do they get the bonuses? Because I think in the
• 9:14
  past they've been left out of things.
• 9:16
  So we reached out to fiscal research and got an answer about these folks' bonuses.
• 9:23
  The non-certified staff paid from state dollars are eligible for bonuses based on income.
• 9:30
  Local districts have the option of providing a similar bonus to non-state non-certified staff.
• 9:37
  For those paid from local or federal dollars, only school nutrition and custodial
• 9:42
  staff will receive the bonus. All over the board. Yeah.
• 9:46
  Feels very picky and choosy. Yeah.
• 9:49
  Who gets the bonus and who doesn't. Well, you know, back in the day,
• 9:53
  non-certified school employees fell into the state employee bucket of,
• 9:57
  you know, pay increases, whatever. Our line item. Agency. Yeah, our line item.
• 10:01
  Those school employees also got that. And in 19, when minimum wage was increased
• 10:07
  to $15 an hour for state employees, they cut out the non-certified employees
• 10:11
  from our line item, as we say.
• 10:13
  Yeah, that's what I was referring to when I said they're traumatized.
• 10:16
  I think that was a big, big deal. All over the board, every local can do something
• 10:20
  different on that level.
• 10:22
  There was a few questions about the $65,000 threshold, and I think that artists as eloquently.
• 10:29
  It is such a pet peeve. I've seen comments on our social media about that.
• 10:33
  Somebody said, oh, yippee, 3% literally throws me, you know,
• 10:39
  just above the $65,000 mark. Oh.
• 10:42
  And so that cost me, what is it, $700 in bonus? Yeah, yeah.
• 10:47
  $750. Right. So it's kind of one of those things like if you get a little tiny
• 10:52
  raise and it changes your IRS tax bracket, it's kind of like that.
• 10:56
  So I have a pet peeve about $65,000 being the number the state health plan board
• 11:03
  of trustees picked last year to be, these are the folks doing so well off.
• 11:09
  That we're going to charge them a lot more to subsidize other folks' health insurance.
• 11:14
  And then the legislature turns around this year and says, these are the folks
• 11:18
  that are so well off because they're making 65 grand that we're not going to
• 11:22
  give them, you know, we're going to give them two-thirds of,
• 11:24
  not even two-thirds of the bonus. So that's kind of chump.
• 11:28
  If you think about the fact that $65,000 makes you rich in the eyes of the General
• 11:34
  Assembly, only if you're a state employee and you must subsidize other things
• 11:38
  by getting less or paying more.
• 11:40
  But if you're a multimillionaire, we will subsidize you.
• 11:44
  If you want your child to go to private school, North Carolina will hand you taxpayer money.
• 11:49
  We will subsidize it and make it easier for you to send your child to private
• 11:54
  school, no matter how rich you are.
• 11:57
  But if a state employee makes $65,000, by God, we're going to punish them.
• 12:01
  That's not right because that makes people have no reason to want to stay.
• 12:05
  You pointed out that that's the average salary for North Carolina.
• 12:09
  Yeah, sorry, I left that out.
• 12:11
  Yes, in North Carolina, the average person working makes $65,000.
• 12:17
  It's quite literally in that middle of the average. And yet for a state employee,
• 12:23
  you're rich. if you get that.
• 12:25
  I just don't understand that, why you would in a million years do that,
• 12:29
  unless you want to run people off and not keep them. That's certainly a way to do it.
• 12:33
  So obviously retirees were not happy with the one-time bonus that was in the
• 12:37
  budget, as they shouldn't be.
• 12:39
  There were lots of comments, lots of questions concerning retirees,
• 12:44
  but they all obviously centered around the one question.
• 12:47
  And I thought this question kind of summed it up, but why do retirees only get a one-time bonus?
• 12:51
  We have bills all year. Fair question, because most people don't understand
• 12:55
  everything that goes into providing the COLA.
• 12:58
  It's not as simple as going to the General Assembly and, you know,
• 13:02
  banging on the doors for funding there.
• 13:04
  There are other things that go into it. At the end of the day,
• 13:06
  because the system has not produced money in years, you know,
• 13:10
  in an amount large enough to pay out a recurring COLA, we have to depend on the General Assembly.
• 13:16
  2017, they did, you know, put in enough funding to provide a 1% recurring COLA.
• 13:22
  That's been the last COLA.
• 13:23
  And it was a long time before that, honestly.
• 13:26
  So why do we think that is? We think it's because we pay, historically,
• 13:31
  I'm not saying we do now, no one knows.
• 13:33
  I think it's because historically we paid, as most public pensions do,
• 13:37
  fees that were way too high and that did not yield the results we would be looking for.
• 13:42
  Because if we had just put the money in a Vanguard fund, it would have made
• 13:48
  more gains than we made for decades.
• 13:52
  So that's why we think it is. We can't prove it because a law was passed,
• 13:56
  gosh, late 90s, to keep anybody from seeing that.
• 14:00
  And then an attorney general's opinion was put out when Richard Moore was treasurer
• 14:04
  saying, yeah, we're going to consider what we pay to investment managers with
• 14:09
  the pension money, consider that a trade secret. And so it's exempt from the
• 14:12
  public records law. But it's public money.
• 14:16
  Yeah. And not just public money. What really gets me is,
• 14:20
  6% of your paycheck as a state employee goes into funding that.
• 14:25
  So it's public money, but it's also really very directly connected to individuals.
• 14:31
  So I'm kind of, I still believe there's a lawsuit there. I saved this question for last.
• 14:37
  What do we know about the insurance rates for next year?
• 14:41
  The state health plan premiums, I guess, is what they are asking about.
• 14:46
  And I say this for last because this episode, we're recording on Thursday, July 9th.
• 14:52
  And tomorrow, July 10th, the State Health Plan Board of Trustees are meeting
• 14:57
  to talk about the premiums for next year. And the cost for next year.
• 15:02
  So we don't know exactly what they're going to be, but we know from what we
• 15:07
  are hearing, there will be increases across the board, right?
• 15:10
  And benefit. Benefit changes.
• 15:13
  So tomorrow, the Board of Trustees will vote on provider contracts.
• 15:17
  They will vote on 2027 premium rates, benefits, 2027 benefits,
• 15:23
  and the third-party administrator contract and the pharmacy benefit manager contract.
• 15:28
  It's a big day tomorrow at the state health plan Board of Trustees.
• 15:33
  While we can't say for sure what's going to be in it, we do have State Treasurer
• 15:37
  Brad Briner and Thomas Friedman from the State Health Plan scheduled to come
• 15:41
  next week for our podcast to break it all down with us.
• 15:46
  It'll be all things State Health Plan related next week, for sure.
• 15:49
  So stay tuned for that. And the information will be in the scoop this week.
• 15:54
  So you may have gotten this recording from the scoop. So we'll have all the
• 15:58
  details in there as well and on our website. But definitely a big day tomorrow, right?
• 16:03
  Yep. And Artis is scheduled to speak to in the public comments section,
• 16:08
  right? That's correct. I think, yeah, we're asking to. There's usually a public
• 16:11
  comment section and we're asking to say a few words for sure.
• 16:15
  I hope public comment comes after. I mean, we can't really comment on what we
• 16:18
  don't have as a certainty on the. Interestingly, it does not.
• 16:22
  Public comment section is at the beginning of the agenda.
• 16:25
  You know, it's not the retirement system. When they meet, public comment is at the end.
• 16:30
  So you actually can comment on what's, you know, been discussed in the meeting.
• 16:33
  But the state health plan always has public comment at the beginning of the meeting.
• 16:37
  Well, I really don't know how to comment on what has not been presented.
• 16:41
  So that'll be an interesting quandary. Oh, you know how to comment on it.
• 16:44
  You just, they won't like your
• 16:46
  comment on it. Well, I mean, I can't speak of what I do not know. Yeah.
• 16:50
  And at this point, the materials have not been shared publicly.
• 16:54
  So we won't know exactly what's up for tomorrow until tomorrow.
• 16:59
  So stay tuned and tune in next week for an all-state health plan issue.
• 17:03
  Yeah, that'll be a good one. Episode.
• 17:06
  So before we move on from the budget, let's talk a little bit about just kind
• 17:09
  of the sentiment that we had on our Facebook page.
• 17:12
  We've talked about how active it is. Seems like a very anti-incumbent sentiment from what I've seen.
• 17:19
  I think I see some that are kind of, I've supported you in the past,
• 17:24
  but I'm no longer going to support you directed at legislators. Yeah, and,
• 17:29
  And some folks who are a member of the Republican Party and have voted their
• 17:33
  whole lives for Republicans won't vote Republican anymore. I mean, there's, yeah.
• 17:38
  So we posted a story about Governor Stein signing it.
• 17:41
  And there were even some comments of, you know, Governor Stein messed up again
• 17:46
  and all this thing. And I guess there is a lot of blame to go around.
• 17:50
  Governor Stein did not write this budget, but he did sign it.
• 17:56
  Well, yeah. Look, the anger is big and deep and wide, and it gets anybody within
• 18:02
  reach. I mean, it cracked me up. Some of them were, you know,
• 18:07
  seen it because, like, we, you know, voted on the budget.
• 18:11
  Yeah. So here's one from Tiana, who said, This isn't about one profession asking for special treatment.
• 18:17
  It's about demanding that every state employee be treated with dignity,
• 18:21
  and paid a wage that reflects the value of the work we do, Divided where easy
• 18:25
  to ignore United where impossible to overlook,
• 18:29
  That's true And that was a good And that was a lot of likes And a lot of Heck
• 18:34
  yeah, Tayana Well, there's comments too about Let's walk out for a couple of
• 18:37
  days And see what happens Obviously, we don't encourage that,
• 18:42
  And state employees are not going to do that These are not the kind of jobs
• 18:45
  That you can walk out and go on Some kind of protest for You can't close down
• 18:49
  a prison For a day to protest But I hear them Yeah, I'm And,
• 18:54
  what a slap in the face for every single employee in the state of North Carolina,
• 18:58
  especially retirees who don't even get a raise. And that was from Mark.
• 19:02
  This is a joke. Yeah.
• 19:06
  Yeah. One guy said to me, hey, Watkins, if the full-time people can't survive
• 19:11
  on 3%, how can retirees survive on a one-time bonus? Yeah.
• 19:15
  I am in agreement with you, sir. Yeah, we even get. You must miss about 50%
• 19:21
  of my messaging. But it's cool.
• 19:23
  God bless. So, yeah, that's a thing, though. We do get comments a lot.
• 19:29
  Why aren't you giving us raises to us? We would totally do that if we could do it.
• 19:35
  So I think people need to realize that we don't make the laws.
• 19:40
  They don't. And they have a lot of opinions, from what I can see,
• 19:43
  about the billion dollars that was not spent.
• 19:48
  So maybe we can, instead of the comments about the billion that just pop up
• 19:53
  in our other threads where somebody just mentions it, why don't we do this?
• 19:58
  Give everybody the email again for the podcast, and if you have a suggestion
• 20:04
  for where that billion that's been set aside is.
• 20:07
  What can be done with that? Yeah, that's a good one.
• 20:10
  Email us, and then we'll share those on a future podcast. If you had a billion
• 20:16
  dollars, what would you do with it for state employees? Yeah,
• 20:19
  and it doesn't have to be for state employees or retirees.
• 20:22
  If you're listening to this and there's something you think needs to be done
• 20:25
  for the state, let us know. But we want to know where your head's at.
• 20:29
  It's, what is it, podcast at scenic.org? Yep, podcast at scenic.org.
• 20:32
  We'll put it in the description of this episode. But, yeah, if we read it on
• 20:37
  air, we might send you some scenic branded items if we can find it in all the
• 20:42
  boxes that we have sitting around.
• 20:44
  But, yeah, that's a good idea. What would you do with a billion dollars?
• 20:47
  I'm looking forward to hearing the answers because we have amazingly creative
• 20:52
  people in state government.
• 20:53
  Well, it wouldn't be a baseball team, I'll tell you that. It would not be a baseball team.
• 20:58
  Well, we are getting a lot of that. We are getting some comments about baseball.
• 21:02
  And I don't know if that's what the billion was set aside for or not.
• 21:05
  We did joke about the fact that, not joke, but we commented about the fact that
• 21:09
  the whole building was saying last week that that's definitely where it was going.
• 21:14
  But nobody knows till it happens. So let's get your input. We'll give it to
• 21:19
  the legislature and we'll read it loud on this podcast.
• 21:23
  And if you know what, if you have an opinion on whether it should go to a baseball
• 21:26
  team and if that's a great economic move for North Carolina,
• 21:29
  go ahead and email your response in, Sammy.
• 21:33
  My question is, why does that whole building seem so happy and proud of themselves
• 21:37
  for saying it's for baseball?
• 21:40
  I mean, I don't think it's the whole building, but, yeah, you're right. Yeah.
• 21:44
  Well, I mean, OK, you come off of the Stanley Cup win. Everybody's on a sports hunt.
• 21:50
  And sports make people happy. And people aren't happy about gas or groceries or anything like that.
• 21:57
  So. You know what else makes people happy? Dividing that money amongst the people
• 22:01
  who are working for the state. Right. That makes people happy.
• 22:03
  That would make people very happy.
• 22:06
  I still have my doubts about whether the baseball thing is going to happen or not.
• 22:10
  But at the same time, it just seems weird that you would, at this early in the
• 22:16
  game even, sports reference there, that you would set aside a billion dollars
• 22:20
  when there's so many other needs. Well, they could not do a budget, though, John.
• 22:24
  Yeah. I mean, that budget had to get done. And quite frankly,
• 22:28
  it had to get done right then because we were reaching the deadline.
• 22:32
  Because it had been years.
• 22:33
  Yeah, it had been years. We're creeping up on the deadline. They're going to miss it again.
• 22:37
  Our Facebook page is, you know, a prime example of what people were thinking
• 22:41
  about the legislature not doing their work on time.
• 22:45
  State employees certainly can't take off time and not do their job and expect
• 22:48
  to come back and not have trouble. So I feel like they had to get a budget done.
• 22:54
  And so that part of it hadn't been worked out. So we're going to shove this
• 22:57
  money over here, you know.
• 23:00
  So for reference, a 1% COLA for retirees would be $586 million.
• 23:07
  Yeah. So that's a huge number. That's just one percent.
• 23:12
  So even if they did use all that money for retirees, it wouldn't go very far. Yep.
• 23:19
  But they'd take it. Yeah, definitely. They would take it over going to something else.
• 23:25
  Yeah. Beyond the budget, another story that came out this week,
• 23:29
  Governor Stein signed Senate Bill 1041, which is the Public Workforce Modernization Act.
• 23:35
  And it does a lot of things for state employees. But the one that caught all
• 23:39
  the attention is the extended parental leave.
• 23:43
  What's it called? Yeah. Parental leave. Okay.
• 23:46
  Extended parental leave to 12 weeks from eight weeks.
• 23:50
  And Artis, you went to the signing for that bill? Yes, Scenic President Powell was there.
• 23:56
  And babies, right. And lots of babies. So, you know, it got a lot of press attention
• 24:01
  because it was quite a visual with all those babies at the front of the room. They were adorable.
• 24:06
  And there were some public employees who were speaking about what it would have meant to them.
• 24:11
  You know, when they had their kids or what it was getting ready to mean to them,
• 24:14
  you know, a few of them were expecting. And that was a joyful one to see signed
• 24:18
  because that piece is what the press latched on to was the fact that it had
• 24:23
  the parental leave in it.
• 24:24
  Because, you know, it's been a while since state employees didn't have something
• 24:27
  taken away and just instead got something.
• 24:30
  It was something that felt good. And this bill was basically the rewrite of
• 24:33
  the State Human Resources Act. So that's a wonderful benefit.
• 24:37
  But it also did things like streamlined hiring processes. change requirements for certain positions.
• 24:43
  Make things more modern. Like it was a follow-up to the bill last year.
• 24:47
  Yeah. And it's something that's been long overdue.
• 24:49
  Yeah. And it was passed unanimously in both houses. Yes. One of the only things.
• 24:54
  Yeah. And that's for Director Meyer. That's two of two on bills around the State
• 25:00
  Human Resources Act that had unanimous agreement.
• 25:04
  It's hard to vote against babies, I guess. It is.
• 25:07
  Yeah. It's nice to see something happen. They were pretty cute. Yeah.
• 25:10
  And Senator Corbin, by the way, was the primary sponsor on that bill.
• 25:13
  What else came in that act that maybe didn't get as much attention, anything specific?
• 25:19
  Well, there are positions that currently require a four-year degree that don't
• 25:24
  necessarily need someone with a four-year degree.
• 25:26
  There may be experience and knowledge combined that meets the requirements of
• 25:31
  actually doing the job. So just streamlining requirements for hiring,
• 25:35
  the time that it takes to hire. Mm-hmm.
• 25:38
  So this is the bill that a few episodes back I mentioned that this is something
• 25:43
  that we don't always get credit for, you know, but we saw the first version of this bill.
• 25:50
  There were some things that we didn't agree with. That's right.
• 25:52
  We were able to work with— Directly with Director Meyer and ultimately with
• 25:58
  Senator Corbin, you know, to make the changes.
• 26:01
  Because when you modernize things, you don't want to throw out protections that
• 26:06
  are reasonable protections for people who work for politicians to have at their job.
• 26:11
  That as long as you do your job, you won't get kicked out just because somebody
• 26:15
  from a different party comes in or something.
• 26:17
  You want to balance that with modernizing it so that we're nimble and we can
• 26:21
  hire quickly and we can not be bogged down by red tape that's the wrong kind.
• 26:27
  It's not protecting people.
• 26:29
  It's just kind of slowing things down and making us way too old-fashioned.
• 26:33
  And that takes input from all sides, like you were just saying,
• 26:35
  John. I mean, part of the work that Scenic does that people don't see.
• 26:40
  I would say that's a big part of your job. It is. It is.
• 26:43
  It's not just going on the floor and yelling at things. A lot of it is working on things.
• 26:49
  Exactly. It's working on policy. We work with people more than we have to.
• 26:55
  I mean, you have to, really, if you want to see something move.
• 26:57
  The building is generally a place where people do reach out if they think there could be,
• 27:03
  if you want a bill passed and you think there could be opposition,
• 27:06
  first thing we'll tell you is if we had a bill we wanted passed,
• 27:11
  We would go find the people we think are going to probably have a problem with
• 27:15
  it and talk to them about it and see where their biggest issues are.
• 27:20
  And work on that. Yeah, work those out before you get to committee. Yeah.
• 27:23
  And those are things that, you know, people who are on, I don't want to hate
• 27:28
  on our Facebook followers, but the people that we should be screaming from the
• 27:32
  rafters all the time don't see that that's a huge part of it. I can't blame them.
• 27:37
  When I worked for state government, I had no idea what Scenic was doing for
• 27:40
  me. Honestly, I had no clue.
• 27:42
  I came to work here, got in what we called file cabinets, Sammy,
• 27:45
  back in the day. They held this thing called paper.
• 27:48
  And in those file cabinets, I saw so many things Scenic did to keep bad things
• 27:53
  from happening to me and my benefits or that they stopped.
• 27:58
  Or I saw some things, oh, I didn't know that we only had that because Scenic fought for it.
• 28:03
  You know, you just don't have any idea. You have no reason to know. You're doing your job.
• 28:08
  Yeah. But that's why we're here is to tell folks.
• 28:11
  Yeah. Well, I think that's about all the news items I have this week.
• 28:15
  Anything happen in Gen Z world or Gen...
• 28:18
  Is that right, Gen Z? Yeah, I'm in Gen Z.
• 28:21
  Did anything happen in Gen Z world this week? I don't know. Like,
• 28:24
  anything big? Taylor Swift got married!
• 28:28
  We know this for sure. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Yes. It was announced on the Kelsey
• 28:32
  Brothers social media. Oh.
• 28:34
  Saying that Adam Sandler was their officiant. Oh, wow. I love that for them.
• 28:40
  They did not do bridesmaids or groomsmen. They had a best man and a man of honor, and that was it.
• 28:47
  The man of honor was Austin Swift, Taylor's brother, and the best man was Jason Kelsey. Yeah.
• 28:54
  And it was, I think, close to a thousand guests at Madison Square Garden. Yeah.
• 29:00
  Yeah, so I saw a TikTok with Ryan Fitzpatrick, who's now an NFL commentator,
• 29:06
  but he was a quarterback, you know, recently.
• 29:09
  And he knows Travis well. He did get to go to the wedding, and so he was kind
• 29:13
  of dispelling rumors. And one of them was that her cats carried their rings
• 29:19
  down the— Oh, God. I would love that. It didn't happen.
• 29:21
  I would love that. I'm sorry. Oh. But yeah.
• 29:25
  We'll see pictures at some point. The Kelsey brothers also posted on their social
• 29:28
  media today saying that Taylor will post whenever she feels like it.
• 29:33
  The boys will not be the ones sharing any of the wedding photos.
• 29:36
  It will be Taylor's call as to when. Oh, they're going to have to edit those Jason Kelsey photos.
• 29:42
  You know he had a good time. And she didn't. They made everyone sign NDAs,
• 29:46
  right? From what I understand.
• 29:48
  I'm not sure about that one. OK. I'm not sure about that one.
• 29:51
  May have been a rumor, too.
• 29:52
  If everyone signed NDAs, clearly there's been a lot of broken NDAs already.
• 29:57
  One other thing, though, he did confirm, Ryan Fitzpatrick, that she did walk,
• 30:02
  down the aisle to a version of Love Story.
• 30:07
  Perfect. So congratulations to those crazy kids. And if they can make it, no one will. That's it.
• 30:14
  So happy for them. They're two human exclamation points, and it's adorable.
• 30:20
  Whole beans. Let's end with the question of the week. John Swanky.
• 30:30
  We'll go back to what we were talking about earlier from the budget,
• 30:33
  since we asked everyone else to tell us what they would do with a billion dollars.
• 30:39
  All right. First off, we'll say, what would you do with a billion dollars, period?
• 30:43
  And then one thing you'd do for state government and state employees and dire issues.
• 30:50
  Let's go first with the period. I would obviously buy a whole section at the
• 30:55
  Dean Dome for the rest of my life, or whatever it's called, the next iteration
• 30:59
  of the Dean Dome. I was going to say, it's not even going to be where we play soon, right?
• 31:04
  I would buy a skybox in our brand new arena. So that would probably take all my money.
• 31:11
  That might be it, John. I would pay my bills off first. That would be my first thing to do.
• 31:16
  We'll come back on the state government thing. You go first with these.
• 31:20
  So personally, I take care of my family.
• 31:23
  No one in my family would have to worry about money anymore. Homes would be paid for.
• 31:29
  Cars would be paid for. The girls would have college funds. Nice.
• 31:34
  Set up. Yeah, I'd take care of my family.
• 31:37
  You got to do something crazy, though. Buy a beach house. There you go.
• 31:40
  That's not crazy. Retire.
• 31:43
  That's still not crazy. That's so boring.
• 31:47
  I object. I take boring. She was boring.
• 31:50
  Well, you can come visit me in my beach house. I will. Then I won't be bored.
• 31:54
  Well, you'll want to come visit me because in my scenario, you're not going to see me again.
• 32:00
  I'm going to say you're going to Scotland. I'm moving to Scotland.
• 32:03
  Probably could buy a little island or something. Oh, yeah. And I'm going to
• 32:05
  run puffin tours. Oh, yeah.
• 32:08
  That's it. I'm going to be with the puffins all the time. You know,
• 32:10
  the puffins have been a big deal this last month. This is their month.
• 32:13
  But aren't they in Ireland right now?
• 32:15
  Well, I think they're in Ireland a lot of the time. They're only in Scotland
• 32:18
  during parts of the year. This is that part of the year. Nice. Yeah.
• 32:23
  The puffins are on the move. They're doing their thing. You could buy a puffin.
• 32:27
  You could buy like a sanctuary. Buy a puffin. Have a puffin sanctuary.
• 32:30
  There you go. You cannot own a puffin. They are freedom.
• 32:33
  You could be like the Joe Exotic of puffins.
• 32:39
  All right. What about you, Sammy? I have always thought about what it would
• 32:43
  be like to win the lottery. And I think for me, the first thing I would do is
• 32:47
  pay for myself to go to grad school in Italy.
• 32:50
  Cool. Where in Italy? Milan. For what? Milan Fashion Institute. Oh, there you go.
• 32:56
  Fashion, branding, communications degree. Nice.
• 32:59
  Be the first person in my direct family to get a master's degree.
• 33:02
  Get yourself a little house in Lake Como. That's a short drive.
• 33:05
  Get a house on the Amalfi Coast. Like, Kama's way better.
• 33:10
  Then buy a house and a car in America. Give my parents some money.
• 33:16
  Give my brother some money. So I want to say something to you,
• 33:19
  Sammy. Yeah. You don't need a billion dollars to do that.
• 33:24
  I'm never going to be able to afford a house. I don't know what you're talking
• 33:26
  about. To go back to the Milan place.
• 33:30
  Like, you could do that now. You don't have, like...
• 33:33
  Do it. I'm sure I could, but a billion dollars would make it much easier.
• 33:37
  You wouldn't even need to do that, though. You could open your own fashion line and I don't know.
• 33:41
  I've actually looked into that program a lot. You need to do it.
• 33:45
  I think you should. It'd be amazing. Please do it for us.
• 33:50
  We got to live through you.
• 33:52
  Live in Italy for a year. I left something out. Oh, okay. The budget.
• 33:58
  Yes, the state budget is going to somehow pertain to my dream of what I would
• 34:01
  do with the billionaires. That was part of the question, right?
• 34:02
  No, no. It's going to be different.
• 34:05
  One of the things the budget did was cut a million dollars from Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.
• 34:11
  You know what? Taylor Swift made up for that and donated two million right before
• 34:14
  she got married. Thank you. All right.
• 34:15
  But that's what I was going to say. Part of what I would do with my billion
• 34:18
  is put that million back. Because Dolly Parton, y'all. Come on.
• 34:22
  In fact, if I got a billion, what I should do with it is just give it to Dolly
• 34:25
  Parton because she seems to know how to make things better around her.
• 34:28
  Which budget are you talking about? The state budget? State budget.
• 34:31
  Took a million dollars from the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.
• 34:33
  Where is this library in North Carolina? It's in a technical correction, actually.
• 34:37
  Where is that? Is it in North Carolina? It's not like a library. Oh.
• 34:41
  It's a program. So you wouldn't know this because you don't have littles at
• 34:44
  this time. But, yeah, you get a free book a month, I think it is.
• 34:48
  Wow. Shame on, yeah. It's pretty cool. Sign your kid up for it.
• 34:52
  It's a really cool thing.
• 34:54
  Yeah. Yeah. You know, and it's Dolly. Yeah. Thank you.
• 34:58
  Whacking at anything about Dolly. Yes. No piece of legislation coming out of
• 35:03
  the North Carolina General Assembly. I know she's from Tennessee, but come on.
• 35:07
  I kind of think that qualifies. She's from East Tennessee. That's just about
• 35:10
  us. She's an American. You should not do anything to mess with what Dolly's doing. Amen.
• 35:15
  I kind of think that will qualify for the second part of the question, though.
• 35:18
  All right. All right. I'm going to pander to the retirees. But I do think that
• 35:22
  they are very much hurting, and that money would go a long way to help them.
• 35:28
  I don't know exactly where and what program, but I would want money to go towards
• 35:33
  mental health resources. Yeah. Yes.
• 35:37
  Yeah. Of course, it wouldn't be recurring money. This would be one time.
• 35:41
  Oh, is it one time money? It's one time.
• 35:43
  It's a lot of money, though. You could do something. It's a lot of money.
• 35:45
  You could do something good. Yeah. And I think, I'm with you,
• 35:48
  John, I would do something for retirees, but it wouldn't be,
• 35:51
  like COLA bonuses. I think put that money in some kind of fund to where you
• 35:58
  could adjust the clicks in the formula.
• 36:02
  You could put that money aside, do a click now and put in, you know,
• 36:06
  have enough of it invested. Yeah.
• 36:09
  To continue because every click in the formula would change the actual check
• 36:14
  like a real COLA for retirees, four tenths of one percent.
• 36:19
  And then down the line, it would benefit the current workforce.
• 36:22
  So I think that'd be a great use of the money. Yeah, that's true.
• 36:24
  So it would not only affect current retirees, but the future.
• 36:28
  Yeah, it would help everybody. That's a good idea. What about you, Sammy?
• 36:32
  I don't know. Because you both said, like, help the retirees.
• 36:36
  And honestly, that's all I'm thinking about, too. They need something.
• 36:39
  You need to give them something. They put in their years' work and are the reason
• 36:44
  that the state became the way it is and is such an amazing state that people
• 36:48
  want to move to. You need to give them something for it.
• 36:51
  Good sentiment to end on there. I think we all can agree with that.
• 36:55
  So thank you for joining us next week. Remember, we do have a very important
• 37:00
  episode with State Treasurer Brad Briner and Thomas Friedman from the State Health Plan.
• 37:05
  Be sure to check out scenic.org for everything going on with scenic and the
• 37:10
  State Health Plan announcement on Friday. And have a good week.