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The SEANC View's Year-End Special · The SEANC View

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  Music.
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  Hello, and welcome to a special edition of the Scenic View podcast, year-end edition.
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  I'm Jonathan Owens, the communications director here at Scenic,
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  here with Suzanne Beasley, our government relations director,
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  Artis Watkins, our executive director, and Sam Klein, our digital communications specialist.
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  I changed it up a little bit there. I saw Suzanne first out of my corner of
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  my eyes. Hey, everybody.
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  Hello, everyone. This is the last week of 2024. 24, I thought we'd take a little
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  look back at what happened this year.
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  I did spend eight years at newspapers.
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  And let me tell you, the worst time to work, well, not the worst,
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  but one of the worst times to work at the newspaper are the last two weeks of
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  the year when nothing's happening and you have to be in the newsroom by yourself
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  and you have to write all the year-end review stories.
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  So that's what we're going to do today. We're going to plow through the biggest
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  stories from the last year and talk about kind of what happened and the outcome and where they stand.
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  Wanted to do this kind of in chronological order so we're not making any statement
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  on whether this is the biggest story of the year.
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  I think you'll know what the biggest story of the year is, listeners,
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  but we'll let you judge that yourself.
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  Not that anything didn't happen for the first three months of the year,
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  but on the five stories that I found that I wanted to talk about,
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  The first one in chronological order is around March and April when the state
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  health plan ended its coverage of GLP-1 drugs for weight loss.
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  That was a huge story, kind of launched our podcasting careers.
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  Our first episode was on that topic.
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  We were able to get some celebrities involved in that.
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  Well, not celebrities, but important people onto our podcast to talk about it.
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  We even got CVS, who is that? KVS Caremark, yeah.
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  Yeah, an executive from there to talk to us about what
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  deal was and what how prices are set and things like that.
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  So what are your thoughts on that? That was kind of interesting.
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  A lot of our members had no idea they'd never heard of the term,
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  the acronym PBM, Pharmacy Benefit Manager, or what they do. Yeah.
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  Being the kind of the middle person between the health plan and their prescriptions.
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  Yeah. And on, was it April 1st, they ended that coverage entirely?
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  I thought it was the 30th of April. I was gonna say, That the weight loss drugs were no longer covered.
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  Maybe. Either that or that's something they were talking about in the state health plan. Yeah.
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  So we're still hearing from members who are upset or, you know,
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  have opinions on that decision, especially since Medicaid is now covering that
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  for folks in North Carolina.
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  So folks, you know, our members are saying, well, how can someone on Medicaid
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  get this drug and I can't?
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  Because Medicaid obviously is a federal program.
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  No, it's state. Oh, OK. So it's run their state employees administering the program.
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  And that was kind of the argument, like, we're going to have state employees
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  administering a program to give medication to folks that they can't get.
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  But the rationale of the board of trustees of the health plan was,
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  look, we can't do it. We don't have enough money in the health plan.
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  And in fact, the health plan's going to be $1.7 billion short by the year 2027
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  in terms of money just to keep on going and without shifting a bunch of costs to the members.
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  That being said, there would have been an immediate doubling of premiums,
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  according to the health plan, if they kept covering these weight loss drugs
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  out of the sheer cost of them.
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  I thought it was interesting that that decision wasn't a larger part of the
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  treasurer's race in November.
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  And I thought that, you know, one candidate would take a stance that we had
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  to provide these drugs and really make an issue about it, but they didn't.
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  Well, I think they realized if they had done that, they would have saddled themselves
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  with an even more monumental problem.
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  And no matter who won that race for treasure, as far as the health plan goes,
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  they were going to adopt, by sheer virtue of winning, a massive issue with the health plan.
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  Yeah. Because it's not sustainable the way we do it now.
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  And the reason Scenic says it's not sustainable is this secrecy we talked about
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  on the last podcast and the secrecy that's making the whole country mad.
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  That big corporate health care is making tons of money and not sharing what
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  their actual prices are.
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  So it's the only place, as Treasurer Falwell always said, where we go and purchase
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  something and have no idea what we're getting ready to pay.
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  That's right. And that's kind of insane health care. So do you see any changes
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  coming in the coming year about that policy? I don't really think I do.
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  About covering the GOP ones? I don't think anytime soon. I think about health care generally we will.
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  Yeah, as far as that specific prescription.
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  Okay, well, that was our fifth story, or first story in our chronological order.
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  In May, I think I have it here, the beginning part of May, it may have been
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  the last part of April, we had the murder of four law enforcement officers in Charlotte,
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  two of which were state employees and members of the Special Operations and
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  Intelligence Unit from the Department of Adult Correction, Sam Pelosi and Alden Elliott.
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  That was a huge deal, a very sad, incredibly tragic. tragic event.
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  I remember that happened on a Saturday, and you had called me that night because
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  we had to put some statements out about it, and it was just kind of,
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  was it Saturday or Friday? It was a weekend.
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  I can't remember exactly, but... The attack at Bertie recently was on a Saturday,
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  but I don't remember that one being on a Saturday, but it was... Quite a tragedy.
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  I think those... Yeah, it was a huge tragedy in Charlotte.
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  They were serving a warrant on a person in East Charlotte, and I guess gunfire
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  just kind of erupted and everyone.
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  They were waiting on them. I mean, they were up in the windows upstairs and
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  seemed pretty clear that they were kind of ambushed.
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  Yeah. Oh, I was completely wrong. It was on a Monday.
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  The opposite end of the weekend. Yes. Yeah. Horribly tragic.
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  Yeah. So that was a big story.
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  Yeah. We talked about that a little after in terms of that unit and the work they do.
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  And it brought to light, among other things, that the equipment they have to
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  work with is not able to sustain the impact of certain kinds of ammunition.
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  And so if somebody's using one of those long rifles and they've married it,
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  you know, there's grades of vests you can get and the grades of vests they had on.
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  And that's routine. And that's one of the places we need to spend money.
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  It's routine that they're using to go out and do these really dangerous jobs.
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  And this attack highlighted how dangerous these jobs are. You go there and you've
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  got a vest on that may or may not protect you, depending on the weapon people
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  might have and the people in the house you're going to. And you have to go to houses in that job.
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  May or may not be waiting for you with a gun when you get there.
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  It's incredibly dangerous work.
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  And was it the leader of that unit? He reached out to you with a letter that
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  was very rewarding for us that we were able to bring.
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  Yeah, we have to and we have to bring in 2025, y'all,
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  it's time to bring even more attention to the work of folks in that unit to
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  everyone working in any of our community corrections type jobs,
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  as well as our correctional facilities.
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  This is work that is far from over.
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  Which that brings me to the third story on my list here. The legislature fails
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  to pass an amended budget with raises.
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  No expansion budget. So, you know, state employees got 7% over the two years.
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  They got 4% in the first year and 3% this year.
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  There was nothing in the year two for retirees.
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  And unfortunately, and necessary, you know, necessary focus had to be directed
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  to storm relief and recovery. So didn't get back to the issues that were already
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  there before the storm hit.
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  I think at the beginning of the session, we were optimistic because there was a large surplus.
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  I think it was up to like $1.4 billion, and then it was kind of revised down.
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  And a lot of that surplus came from the jobs being vacant. Yeah.
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  Literally, these folks are working understaffed. So whether they're in a prison
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  like Bertie, where the officer was stabbed with a broomstick over the weekend,
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  or if they're out there trying to rebuild every single bridge in the West after a hurricane,
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  they're doing it way understaffed.
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  And then what's done with that money that should have gone to staff?
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  It went into this surplus, and then the surplus did not come back in terms of
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  bonuses or anything that might keep the people.
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  So it's a terrible cycle we're in. Yeah.
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  So this will be another story next year when we try to get a budget again, right? Indeed.
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  So, the fourth story on my list is, I'm kind of debating whether to use it last
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  or, I think it's the biggest story of the year, but it would be chronologically the fourth story.
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  Hurricane Helene's impact on western North Carolina, I guess it's ongoing,
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  so I don't think that's the biggest story of the year.
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  Oh, you mean chronologically when it hit in the year, okay. Yeah.
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  So, yeah, that just, I mean, what else is there to say about that?
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  Yeah, I mean. $60 billion worth of damage, lots and lots of lives destroyed.
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  But do we have death toll? Yeah, I think it's like— 103.
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  Okay. But then there's still a couple hundred missing, I think.
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  Yeah, I mean, you can't include them in the death toll until you find them and identify them.
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  But I believe Representative Prather said on the floor yesterday that the 103 was the death toll.
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  So I haven't been to Western North Carolina since then. I think Sam has.
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  I have. What's it like? Where I went, I went to visit WCU.
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  By that point, they seemed to be pretty much back to normal at the university
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  and at that small area in Jackson County.
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  However, when you're driving up there, it's not like when you drive to the beach
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  after a hurricane, you can see the devastation from the interstate.
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  You see where landslides took
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  out parts of the road and they had already rebuilt some of those parts.
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  But you saw where houses were destroyed, where the river had moved and completely
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  adjusted and how high the water had gotten in the river because you would see
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  how low it is. And you're like, that's really low right now.
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  But you can see the top where it had gotten to and just driving through,
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  you could see how devastated they were just from the interstate. Yeah.
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  I mean, we've talked a lot about that.
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  Again, that'll be one that I think that'll be number one addressed for years.
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  Yeah. We were fortunate enough to have members who stepped up and donated to
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  our relief efforts and lots of members in western North Carolina who took up
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  for each other and looked after each other during the whole recovery that's still ongoing.
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  But there were some beautiful things in terms of the way people took care of each other.
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  And those communities really showed how tight-knit they are,
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  because they are. But there was also some ugly stuff.
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  Oh, definitely. There was people who took advantage of it. There was tons of disinformation.
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  We had legislators calling that out, who were from the West,
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  saying, this is absolutely not true.
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  We're here. We're on the ground. And we can tell you it's not true.
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  We even had a gubernatorial candidate go so far as to say Florida was going
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  to rebuild North Carolina's roads.
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  You know we'll never get over that but see we'll never get over that statement
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  because let me tell you something,
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  Talk about a slap in the face to the people who were pulling bodies out of debris
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  and trying to put roads back together so people could put lives back together
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  and so that people could be saved.
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  It was devastating enough, but then for it to get politically used the way it did was gross.
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  I was going to say it probably would not have happened.
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  I mean, I can't say that. I mean, you never know these days.
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  But if our last story wasn't happening, which is the election.
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  If that was not going on, I wonder if there would have been as many complaints.
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  But the election was in November, early November. And not that the world has
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  stopped since, but that's probably the last big news story of the year for us so far, at least.
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  What are your thoughts? We have a new governor coming in. We have a new attorney
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  general. New attorney general.
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  Did the Council of State change a lot? I guess it did. We have a new auditor.
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  Treasurer, public instruction. It's going to be interesting.
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  Again, labor commissioner. Yeah.
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  You know, we talked about how the treasurer is going to be, and Brad Briner won that race.
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  Treasurer-elect Briner is going to be looking immediately at massive problems.
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  He's going to be looking at the health plan issues still needing to be fixed,
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  again, mainly because there's no transparency. So according to the little bit
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  we do know from actuaries, we're probably wildly overpaying for the services for the members.
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  But then he's also got issues with the retirement system. Retirees do expect a COLA.
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  The system was built to be able to provide those so you didn't have to go legislate
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  your Suzanne with your staff and beg for money from the general fund.
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  And that's another case where we don't know what would be in charge to this
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  day for those contracts with investment managers.
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  So Wall Street is kind of known around the country for having a,
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  it's like a sandbox for them to get into these public pension plans and have
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  layers of costs for them to do the business of making your investments.
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  So he's got that ahead of him.
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  Governor Alex Stein has a lot ahead of him as well. I think when.
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  Again, going back to because of this Bertie thing is weighing heavily on our
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  minds, because again, people have been saying this is coming for a while.
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  And I think that's one of the first things he's going to have on his plate as a governor.
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  Ironically, it was one of the first things Governor Cooper had on his plate,
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  because the year that Bertie and
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  Pasquatang murders happened was Governor Cooper's first year as governor.
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  So Governor Alex Stein has a lot of decisions about leadership of the agencies
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  and about policy of these agencies that he's going to have to,
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  it's a lot on him, obviously, and I knew that going in, but then with these
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  other roles changing so much, with the legislature changing some of the duties,
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  I think everybody will have to settle into all that, the new roles.
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  Yeah. And the legislature, the House will no longer have a super majority,
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  theoretically, I guess.
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  I mean, the practice they may have. I mean, technically they don't.
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  Will somebody flip and become a Republican? Maybe. Who knows?
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  But will they have a functional majority even if somebody doesn't flip on paper?
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  Maybe. I don't know. I think at the federal and state level, we've talked about it,
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  if folks don't start to work together, you're going to see more of the dissatisfaction
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  that the public is expressing on issues that affect their everyday life.
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  It's very unsettling. It is.
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  And we have a new president and all that entails, including probably lots of
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  cuts, which you've mentioned will probably be pushed to the states.
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  Yeah. I mean, a lot of the things that we've had public statements from people
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  who are either rumored to be or have been tapped subject to congressional approval
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  to be leaders in the Trump administration have expressed things that would end up, if you cut them,
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  necessitating increased costs at the state and even the local level.
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  So how that would play out is going to be very interesting. Destroy some programs.
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  Well, that's my list, but that leads directly into my question of the week.
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  Music.
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  What are you hopeful about in the coming year? I'll start. I'm hopeful for my UNC football team.
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  I don't really care about— If you start coming in here with your sleeves cut off.
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  You're going to change the dress code. Now, I'm not a big college football fan.
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  I mean, I'm interested to see what happens to basketball now that it's not the
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  top billing at Carolina anymore.
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  But it'll always be the top. That's what I think, right? Yeah.
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  But anyway, I guess as far as politics are concerned, you know,
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  we'll have to wait and see. I don't really have an opinion either way.
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  What are you excited for in the coming year, Sam? I was about to say,
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  there's two different things. For excited, I'm always excited for something new.
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  But when I hear hopeful, I'm like, I don't know. I try not to get my hopes up
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  too high for any coming year.
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  That's the saddest thing I've ever heard. If I get my hopes up too high,
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  then I get disappointed easily.
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  You keep your hopes low, you don't get as disappointed. We were talking about Gen Z earlier.
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  And expectations. I actually hear that a lot.
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  You keep your expectations low and then you're pleasantly surprised. That's kind of sad.
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  COVID was kind of at a big time in their lives. And then, I mean,
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  they've been through a lot at a certain age that might make you kind of wary
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  of getting too hopeful. That's just wild when you think about it.
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  And we're going to get into a huge philosophical discussion.
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  But I'll say the thing I'm most
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  excited for is that I'm getting the opportunity to go to Oahu, Hawaii.
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  Nice. My dad's going there for work. And me and my mom both said,
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  hey, we're going to come join you because it's an opportunity that we probably won't ever get again.
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  Is work paying for his work? Yes, it is. Nice.
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  Not for me and my mom's portion of the trip. We got to pay for that ourselves.
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  But it pays for the hotel and our food for the most part. Wow. Nice.
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  Can a scenic convention be in there? Yeah, it was a good shot,
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  John. Enjoy that Greensboro convention, John.
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  Because that's where it's going to be. What are you doing?
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  I am hopeful for a third grandbaby.
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  Oh, she's shaking her head. More than one year for that.
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  We'll wait and see how things shake out with our country before we talk about
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  more babies in the Beasley family.
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  And that's not my decision, obviously.
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  Yeah. But yeah, the kids are there cool with waiting a little bit to see.
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  But yeah, I would be tickled if there was another grandbaby.
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  But, I mean, I'm hopeful for, you know, new relationships, new friends at the legislature.
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  We've got a new General Assembly coming in. You know, I'm hopeful that we walk
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  out of the long session with, you know, some good things.
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  And maybe we'll have a little bit of an opportunity to make some good policy
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  since the supermajority in the House, at any rate, is broken by one.
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  So, yeah, I'm just, you know, hopeful for good things to come out of our session.
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  You made us all look bad in front of our boss saying something scenic.
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  Oh, I'm sitting here all so wondering. I mean, I'm hopeful, and it might be more prayerful.
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  Maybe that's the word, yeah. That the division in this country that never,
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  ever, ever, ever, ever dreamed we would see.
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  I don't think it's going to go away by waving a wand, but I am hopeful or prayerful
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  that we can find a way together to somehow get through it.
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  Because it seems dangerously close to getting beyond repair.
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  All right well everyone enjoy your new years and we'll see you in 2025 wait
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  no no no we can't not so fast oh no let's let's have a resolution from you john
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  what's your resolution for 2025 my resolution for like the last since 2006 like
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  18 years it's been to lose weight.
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  Back when i was skinny and now i'm not well glp once yeah but yeah i guess that's
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  probably my Neverending Resolution That's a very cop What about you Sam What's your resolution,
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  Me and my friend kind of have a resolution together to try a bunch of different kind of activities,
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  whether it like active activities, because I'm really into gymnastics,
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  maybe trying like kickboxing and Pilates classes and doing a bunch of those
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  kinds of classes get me into something besides just gymnastics.
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  My nephew is doing jujitsu now.
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  Ooh, that's pretty cool. Yeah. I'm scared I'd die.
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  There's a lot of throwing people to the ground in that. Yeah,
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  that's why, like, kickboxing, I'm just kind of kicking the bag and punching
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  the bag, and there's not another person involved.
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  Scared me when I was in third grade. Scares me now. What about you?
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  I have the same resolution as Sam. I do.
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  It sounded good. It felt good for a minute. Then my body said, girl, sit down.
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  I generally don't make resolutions because I just feel like you're setting yourself up for failure.
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  And I do take that. I mean, if I make a promise to myself, then I hurt my own feelings if I break it.
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  But my girlfriends and I, we choose a word, kind of wait and see what kind of
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  word just in our conversations calls to us that we'll kind of use to guide us through the next year.
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  And a color. I feel like you're more of a vision board girly rather than a resolution. It is.
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  You know, it can be a lot of different things in a year's time.
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  So what's the word and color this year? I don't know. Yellow is my color.
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  Okay. Yellow is calling to me. It was green this past year. So, yeah.
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  Yeah, it's bright. and sunny and not dark, hopeful, hopeful.
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  Hopeful but i have not i don't have a word yet that'll come
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  to me but anyway that's just me
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  artist what's your resolution you know here i
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  am the one bringing it up and i haven't thought about this i'm like you suzanna
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  generally don't make them because i break them but i think if i had to resolve
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  to do anything it would be to worry less because worrying isn't going to change
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  anything yes but we'll see how that goes the only thing worrying changes is your attitude,
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  Well, my attitude today is pretty bad. So, yeah.
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  That's something my therapist told me. Happy New Year. So be happy.
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  Stop worrying. Well, seriously, I mean, you can, instead of saying,
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  okay, I'm really worried. Like, I'm worried about the division we just talked about.
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  I'm very worried about that. I'm worried as a citizen, but I'm worried as a grandmother, a mother.
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  Things that would directly affect you. Yeah, and I'm very worried as the executive
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  director of an association that represents the interests of workers.
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  Because I just feel like it's getting harder and harder for working people in
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  this country, and I don't see anything changing that.
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  But worrying about that doesn't change it.
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  So taking that worry, setting that aside, maybe going to kickbox or something. Just kidding.
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  Some release of some. Some release. And then so we can get back to the drawing
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  board so we can all continue to stay in whatever our, and I hate to use the
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  word fight, but I mean, it's what we've always said when we were talking about
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  trying to make policy change that's good.
• 22:40
  And I kind of want to move away from as much of that language.
• 22:43
  But at the same time, unfortunately, it's a damn fight.
• 22:46
  It's a fight to do anything to help working people.
• 22:50
  It is. But we got to engage more people in that fight. So that part is a positive
• 22:54
  to look at it from a positive standpoint.
• 22:56
  And we have to do an even better job of making our case about why they should care.
• 23:01
  So communications, you're going to have a fun year. Oh, great.
• 23:05
  We're in it with you, John. We're in it with you. All right.
• 23:08
  There is a Bible verse, Matthew 6, 34.
• 23:12
  Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Ooh, I like that. Amen.
• 23:19
  Bring church. All right. Hey, watch Hamilton. Listen to what Aaron Burr says.
• 23:24
  I am the one thing in life I can control.
• 23:27
  Sorry. Worry about nothing else. And then he shots him by the face.
• 23:31
  Don't listen to him.
• 23:35
  I don't know if it was the face or not That's when they have stuck there No, it was the chest,
• 23:44
  We'll cut that out We're loopy at the end of the year We're loopy at the end
• 23:48
  of the day This is what we record in the mornings So thank you for joining us
• 23:53
  for 32 episodes this year,
• 23:56
  And we'll look forward to reaching out to you in the new year Probably next week Bye everyone.
• 24:01
  Music.