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 Hello |
Goodnight |
| Intro Benson |
founders |
| Benson Part 1 |
WEB PROMO |
| Benson Part 2 |
key: State Politics / Government |
| Benson Part 3 |
Tonight 10:00 |
| Tomorrow |
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| Hello |
Goodnight |
| Intro Benson |
founders |
| Benson Part 1 |
WEB PROMO |
| Benson Part 2 |
key: State Politics / Government |
| Benson Part 3 |
Tonight 10:00 |
| Tomorrow |
| Hello Return to index of stories... |
Hello. I'm Allison McNair. Welcome to NH Outlook. |
| Intro Benson Return to index of stories... |
A lot has happened, since Governor Craig Benson took office back in January. The United States is now at war with Iraq, NH reservists and national guardsmen have been called up to serve and the state of New Hampshire is facing a fiscal crisis. I sat down with New Hampshire's 79th Governor last Thursday and we talked about the budget, pending legislation, homeland security, his plans for re-election and how he thinks his first few months in office have gone. |
| Benson Part 1 Return to index of stories... |
Benson: Well, it's been interesting to say the least. We've had to prepare a budget. The budget doesn't even start till the end of June and it goes for the next two years. We've also been dealing with a lot of legislative issues that has been going on, both in the House and the Senate. So trying to get a handle on all that and when I started this, this all started right off the bat so there wasn't a day to get familiar with the place. But it's been interesting and there has been a lot of great people to work with, course I get out and see a lot of people on top of it, so that adds another dimension to it too. Ally: What has been the most rewarding for you so far do you think? Benson: Well, two things probably one of the hardest jobs and maybe one of the most rewarding jobs is the same job and that is I'm commander in chief of the reserves in the state of New Hampshire. And as a lot has been activated I've gotten the opportunity to go meet with them right before they ship out and as part of that their families are there too. So it's a sad but happy in some cases because these people are going over there to fulfill a mission. But it's hard for those families to embrace that change because they're going to lose a loved one for some period of time which is unknown in many cases. So that's one of the hardest yet one of the more rewarding jobs that I do because you're going over talking to one of these families giving them reassurance. Right here in my office now we are collecting supplies for those families. One of the best times though is some troops that just came back from Bosnia when I welcomed them back home, they came right here to Concord, got off the bus from New Jersey and I was the first one that shook their hand and welcomed them back to New Hampshire that really was a lot of fun. Ally: is there anything in particular maybe your keeping your eye on that your worried about that might go astray and what might that be? Benson: I think the biggest challenge in these very, very difficult times, clearly the budget is one of them, but homeland security is by far the biggest. And the biggest challenge, and Tom Ridge said it the best, there's probably a thousand different security risks around the united states everyday and their job is to make sure not one of them turns into anything bad so they have to be perfect a thousand out of a thousand times. Now we're much smaller than the rest of the United States. We don't have near the number of opportunities that Tom Ridge is dealing with but I feel the same way. One of the things that we rely on the government to do a good job is provide us safety and security. I've spent an awful lot of time, as has my entire staff, and all the different department heads in the state trying to coordinate, find ways we can prevent bad things from happening. Talking between federal and state and local organizations. It's a cumbersome job because you can't guess how many different things might happen. So, that is perhaps one of the most challenging. Ally: Well, lets do a scenario, if your okay with this. Say there was some chemical or biological, heaven forbid, attack in Manchester. Say cerin gas or something happened. What, as governor, would you do or would we be prepared? Benson: We are. In fact Tom Ridge told us we are one of the best offices of emergency management in the entire country. We've gained quite a few different things already. Prevention is by far my favorite things, that is where nothing bad happens but mitigation is if something does happen how do we handle it? How do we handle it efficiently? And there's a lot of different scenarios and game plans that we've already done to sort of prepare for what might happen. Now Rudy Guliani actually talked to me about this and he said "now we could have never guessed that an airplane would have crashed into the world trade center." And he said, "we've tried a lot of different things in New York cause we're prepared for people doing types of aggression like that but," he said "because we practice this, that and the other thing we can draw 15% from that and 20% from the other thing so while we've never prepared for a world trade center collapsing by an airplane hitting it we were prepared for some aspects of it because we had practiced different things." And that's what we are trying to do here in the state of New Hampshire. We're probably, I'm pretty sure that nothing bad is gonna happen, but if anything does happen we're probably not gonna guess it exactly as it happen but because we have experiences in so many different areas, we can apply those experiences to the task at hand. Ally: What would your role be as governor? Say something did happen in Manchester, the city of Manchester, you'd get notified but what would you do? Benson: Well depends upon the severity of it. We have an emergency center here in Concord. I may be deployed to that or I may be deployed to the scene, again each one is specific. It may mean no action by me depending upon how severe the activity is, but my role is to work with the department of emergency management as closely as possible. I'm not an expert in emergency management issues, that is what the office of emergency management does. But I have a role to go to that particular operation center should that be the situation and work to make decisions whether its declaring a state of emergency or dealing with the families or making public statements or in fact doing other things along those lines. Those are the types of roles that the goveoner would have. Ally: You mentioned the reserves and as governor you signed an executive order that says for any state employee in the reserves or the guard and their activated or deployed the state will make up the difference in pay. Why'd you do that? Benson: It's one of my favorite things I've done so far. When I was at Cable-tron in the early 90's when the turk troops some of my employees were called up for the gulf war, we started this thing called deferential pay. If they made 50, 000 at cable-tron yet they made 30,000 in the military, cable-tron made up the 20,000 dollar difference so they were whole financially, we also extended their benefits and their options and what have you. Well here we are 12 years later I get to do it all over again. And what I had found out is while I had thought this deferential pay had become much more widespread, it hadn't spread to the state of New Hampshire. So when I found out on Thursday, on Friday I ordered an executive order to extend to the people that had been called up to active duty so they wouldn't have to worry about their families that had been left behind making sure they were whole financial both in pay, in benefits and in retirement. And by doing that they can focus on their task at hand and I'm proud that I got a chance to do it twice. I'm sad that I had to come along to the state of New Hampshire and it hadn't moved ahead some time earlier than this, but at least the problem solved now. Ally: You've also have you not called on business to follow suit to do the same. Is that a lot to ask do you think? Benson: Well, Ally, it actually isn't because let's use somebody whose going to leave the state. If somebody's working in the state of New Hampshire and they are called to active duty we really don't know how long they are gone for. So, we probably don't fill that slot and we leave it open because we're expecting that they are gonna come back. So we are actually saving money by the fact that they're gone. So I don't think it's a lot to ask for to make up that difference in pay. It may be that the savings aren't as great as they might have been but the fact of the matter is what we're trying to do is make our soldiers feel very strong about their opportunities when they come back that will help their morale when they come back, but more they feel better that their families are well taken care. They shouldn't have to worry about they're financial obligations while they are fighting. I just don't think that's right. Ally: You've gone from a CEO to becoming governor. Is it working for you? Benson: Some people are very open to change, but others are taking the latency attitude, still others are people who don't want to change. I call that the status quo and we're always gonna have people who want to maintain the status quo. My hope is that if we encourage enough change agents throughout the state that most people will come over to the side that wants to try new things, wants to be involved. Ally: Now a CEO, you have people working for you, if they don't like what you say and they don't like it strongly enough you can fire them but you can't do that with the legislature. Does that make it tougher for you? Benson: well, you'd like to think that you have complete control of a CEO, but you know companies these days are not that way, it's more about the art of persuasion. We used to have an expression at Cabletron, you've got to sell them, not tell them and that got people excited, I mean you can't order people, some people you see can order people to do whatever they want, you can't order people, or two people in a garage to grow to 7,000 people and become a NY stock exchange company, I mean if you could do that, then anybody would do that. The fact is you have to get people fired up and motivated and believing that they have a role and a mission and their going to make a difference and that works in state governments, in non-profits and in the business world and by doing that people feel good about what their role was and their task at hand and that's exactly what were trying to engrain here. Now, we have a huge legislature, we have 424 members of the house and senate so it's tough for one person to get around and talk to all of them, but that's just what I've been doing lately, I'm trying to sit down with smaller groups and here what they have to say and engage them in what's going on. |
| Benson Part 2 Return to index of stories... |
Ally: what it is like for you to present a budget and then watch as house and senate finance committees, really they pick it apart. How does that feel? Benson: they do, well, it's part of the process and no budget is perfect, especially as one as large as we have here, I believe we delivered over 1,200 pages. Although I'm very much against printing it. I put it out on the internet and on cd-rom, but 1,200 pages for budget, but clearly there are probably areas for differences of opinion and for improvement, but the fact that their going through it line by line and item by item I think it only adds some value to the process. Now what we all have to understand and we were talking earlier about the kitchen table that I carry around with me, this really is a kitchen table exercise, where you have to sit across from the kitchen table and make tough decisions about our future and what everybody has to realize is that we are in a very tough situation right now, we have a $230 million deficit staring us in our face which is the biggest in NH by any measure, so we have to decide what we want to do, when we get to where we want to be. And that doesn't mean putting the burden on our children's back by continuing to differ those decisions, so what we need to do is live within our means, and I'm going to hold everybody to those standards sow e can move things around but by the end of the day were going to have to live within our means just like our families have to do. Ally: I wonder, you know Neil Kirk who is the head of then house finance committee said, you know gee, were looking at $60 million shortfall and then the issue of taking money from the reserve account of state employees to help pay for health insurance, most people have said we don't want to go in that direction on the finance committee, so now were talking some $90 million dollars, so where are we going to get the money for that? Benson: well, Neil's estimates are a tad bit off and in fact we met today and we have become very close in how we are dealing with this and that's the great news about that we have some great people. Neil Kirk happens to be an excellent example, he is very bright and he gets it and when you sit down with him you don't have to do a lot of explaining, he knows things cold and I think he appreciates the creativity in the way we are trying to do things and he said to be, boy you bring a lot of new ides to the table and that's great, so the number is. Ally: so would you say that $60 million isn't accurate? Benson: we've got, we've changed priorities and were moving together to move things around and I think were going to be in pretty good shape, were submitting some new ideas today as to what we can to in lieu of some of the idea that we have talked about. Ally: so it's then alternative plans then as to where you're going to get the money? Benson: well, tough decisions are tough decision and maybe you don't want to make this tough decision and you'd rather make this tough decision over here and that's fine, it's an alternative, and Neil understands that and I think he gets the point that were trying to be as cooperative as we can to provide other alternatives and hey if you don't like this one then how about this one and that's the process right now. Ally: where are we going to get the money from though, we started to here some suggestions of taxes, a cigarette tax, Nick Veilis with health and human services head there, said gee, maybe we should take that money and use it to pay providers, instead of giving them a 5% cut because that may affect care to the poor, you said no taxes, are you still saying that now? Benson: I am, the reason being, you know there are a lot of great reasons were doing what were doing, but we have a chance of being historic and that's to make the state of NH more efficient and effective then it is and what the legislature has done in the very recent past and actually for quite some time is to continue to find new ways to finance the old ways of doing things. Crisis sometimes means change, and I'm trying to drive change and change is sometimes painful, but in the end it's rewarding because it's an efficient, and effective and a better way of doing things and that's exactly what I'm trying to do with this kitchen budget exercise. Families cannot go out an say I need an $1000 to be able to do what I want to do, they have to be able to live within their means and that's just what the state needs to be able to do too. Ally: I want to ask you, I went to the public hearing or when they had the public hearing on house bill one or on your proposed budget, it went during the afternoon and during the evening hours with lot's of people coming forward saying gee, I'm worried about my program. There was one woman who said I kept my mom who has Alzheimer's at home with me, but thanks to adult daycare, I can bring her there and rather then institutionalizing her, and the state having to pay $200,000, I've save you that money. People like that came up and spoke, we also heard from people that are involved with mental health care services that are afraid that their services will be cut, the peer and support communities, is that going to happen? Benson: You know, there is a lot of stories going on, what ifs? Of course a lot of these people that are making and saying these stories haven't read the budget so they don't know what's going to happen to those departments. Health and human services is being funded by the state to the tune of $520 million dollars this year and the next year the first year of my budget, there actually going to $540 million, so were actually stepping them up. Now that's in contrast to every other department in the state which did take a cut of about 5% to their budgets but we wanted to give health and human services more money because we understand the dire needs that are out there. You put a dollar in the top and you get a dollar out of the bottom to those in need as close as possible and so if the bureaucracy eats up a lot of those dollars, then those funds are not available to those in need and that's really what I'm trying to drive and I think health and human services and other departments in the state have the exact same issue with making sure that we efficiently and effectively deal with the resources that were given and get the most money possible to those that these programs are set up for, so that's where the changes need to happen. |
| Benson Part 3 Return to index of stories... |
Ally: So, would you say their wrong then to anticipate, I mean I guess the other day there were some folks out in front of the state house, saying gee, services will be cut, to people, mental health support will be cut. Any concern about the peer and support programs, half of them closing down around the state, are they wrong for saying these things? Benson: in a lot of cases they are and they have been fired up by people that are taking half information and running with it again, we funded health and human services more than they ever been funded before and it's tough times and were doing the best we can to fund this and in spite of that we gave health and human services the call on where those funds should go, so we didn't tell them where to put them, so they made some decisions about how they want to fund whatever their funding from that particular budget but in like other states which are cutting health and human services dollars, were actually adding health and human services dollars. Ally: I want to ask you about the nursing bed tax, I think it's somewhat complicated, can you explain it and what do you think about it? Benson: I wish I could explain it to you, I'm actually studying it right now, because it does seem like a tax to me and therefore it would fall in my no new taxes, but I've been assured that it isn't a tax, but I'm actually studying it right now. But if it is a tax and will hit individuals, then it won't be part of the budget exercise. Ally: from my understanding and correct me if I'm wrong, it would be levying a tax on nursing home beds and on other facilities, either private or public, and then we would get matching federal money, but not necessarily would that money go back to those nursing homes it might be used for something else. One legislature said, you know, their calling it medisacm? Benson: well, their not wrong and that particular issue is one of the issues that I'm looking at very closely, I'm trying to live within our means and we always try and find a new way of doing things but this particular bed tax has come up fairly recently and you've basically said what I know about it. Ally: so you don't know what you're going to do if it comes before you, whether you'd say "A okay", or would you say no way? Benson: well if it's a tax, I'm pretty sure it's going to go down, but if it's a way in which we can help nursing homes and providers be able to make and meet their needs, then maybe it deserves some consideration, but I'm too early to say right now. Ally: well, I want to talk about other legislation and the parental notification bill, it was a very close bill in the house and it did pass and you have said that you will sign it if it comes to your desk, why? Benson: absolutely, I have two daughters, and parental notification just means that you know what's going on in your child's life, and as I like to say, god gave me the right of being a parent and nobody should be able to take that away from me and I do believe it's important for parents to know all the things that are happening in their child's life and any medical procedures, even in my school today if my daughter needs and aspirin, I have to sign a note for that, so I think it's important to know what's going on in a child's life so I can properly parent that child. Ally: some people say, gee, it's NH and we don't have government intruding on our personal lives and our decisions that involve our self and our family, don't you see this as somewhat of an intrusion? Benson: actually, I see it the other way around, I know that I love my children and I know that the state doesn't, so why should the state make a decision about my child's future when they don't have the same emotional tie that I do, so I think that when the state takes over for me as a parent that they have intruded in my life. Ally: well, what about families that have problems and aren't like or don't have the same relationships that you have with your daughters, I know there's the option of going before a judge, do you see that as workable? To say that to a judge, I'd like to have this procedure or not, can you really see teen's doing that? Benson: you know, were trying to make laws that apply to everybody, for a very, very, very, small percentage of the cases so for that one bad parent, all the good parents have to suffer and so if there is an out for this to go to the courts, and maybe we need it, that's fine, but were penalizing all the good parents in the state of NH, for what might happen because of a bad parent and I don't think that's right, I think we've got to give good parents, the opportunity to be parents and that's through good times and bad times and we all know for those of us that have children that there aren't always great times with our kids and that sometimes there are some tough decisions to be made, but it should be the parents that make those decisions because they love those children and they want the best for them. Ally: it was a really close vote I think a six vote difference. Did you weigh in before the vote and let folks know that this was something that you wanted to see go through? Benson: I sent a letter to the members, to the caucus, so they could know… Ally: That's unusual, isn't it, from what I understand? Benson: Honestly Ally, I've only been here for a short I don't know what's usual and what's unusual but I did think that it was important that they knew where I stood on this and again I think that the state of NH shouldn't be a parent, I should and I thought people should know that. Ally: do you think it will pass in the senate, any predictions? Benson: I don't have any predictions, I'm hoping it does, I'm very anxious to have it signed. Massachusetts has a similar law in the book as what were passing here, so our neighboring states have taken the same tact were taking hopefully with passage from the senate, so I think were consistent with states too. Ally: Where are we at with education funding? I just figured I throw it on you, instead of on me. Benson: It's only been 20 year odyssey. Let me tell you where we are right now. There still are a number of different proposals out there right now, including one from me. My proposal being that were trying to hold the cities and towns harmless from what happened in the past. Now I happen to hate the past system, but the fact of the matter is that cities and towns have cranked into their budgets, numbers that they expect from the state and we already voted in many of our towns in March, to go forward with budgets so any changes to that will screw up the process in local cities, well mostly towns throughout the state. By flat funding education, were not giving anymore but it's better then taking away, Massachusetts is taking away two and a half percent from their cities and towns and their cities and towns are having to scramble to make up the difference, were also starting a targeted aid program where we target aid to cities and towns that need it as part of this particular budget, now we can start down the path of giving the funds to towns that need the money and the last portion is reducing the state wide property tax. Over the next five years were going to cut it in half, I want to save the tax payers of NH, about a billion, almost 900 million dollars over the next five years. Ally: what about the house resolution that basically says we do not have to go along with Claremont One and Claremont Two, we don't have to listen to what the courts tell us to do, isn't here some risk to setting up some kind of Constitutional crisis with all of this? Benson: Well, if we don't get one set of chefs in the kitchen, then were never going to get this done because there is always going to be differences of opinion, so I believe that we do need to leave to the elected set of officials to find a solution to this Claremont thing for once and all. I'd also love to put it on the ballot because the one set of people we haven't asked how they feel about this, is the voters, so I'd like to see a Constitutional Amendment to this that finally answers this, puts it on the ballot, everybody gets to answer this and then were done, but I do think it's up to our elected officials to drive the vote on this and get this done. Ally: do you ever wake up in the morning and say gee, what have I done? Benson: Yes, pretty much every day. Ally: Do you really? Benson: I've had some interesting mornings, when I've gotten up, I get up pretty early, I get up at four in the morning and I go pretty late at night sometimes, but I'm excited by what's going on here, there's a lot to do, there's almost too much to do, if you've ever dealt with a really messy room you're trying to clean, you don't know where to start, and we have a lot of opportunities to make things better, that's the excitement, the pain part is looking around the room and saying where do I start, but we've done in a lot of different areas, were getting a lot of people to help and I'm feeling good about the progress we've made so far, but there's a lot more to do. Ally: if someone were to ask you, are you going to run again, I know it's early, but what would you say? Benson: I have a pretty long agenda, I will bet you that I'm going to be here for a while, it's not a two year assignment, I'm here to get the job done and I do spend long hours doing it and even with the long hours doing it but even with the long hours, I'll bet I'll have trouble getting it all done in two years. Ally: you told me once that you hated meetings, I remember you telling me that, you've got to have meetings all the time. Benson: You know what Ally, what I put in my office is a standup conference table, I hate meetings, but when here standup they go a lot faster, so there not as bad. Ally: So that's true, you make everybody stand, anyone that comes in the office? Benson: I'd be happy to show you my standup conference table. But yes, it works out much faster, people get in and out a lot quicker, and the whole idea, I think the biggest value of getting together with people generally happens within the first five or ten minutes and after that, it's a declining rate of return and so lets make it as efficient and as effective as possible, get on, get with what we need to do and then get out and get with what we need to do. Ally: do you really lock people out or not let them in if they show up late, is that true? Benson: I like to be on time for things and I think if I have a room full of twelve people that's waiting for one, for every minute that their standing there actually costs twelve, so if we wait ten minutes for somebody that's late, that's actually 120 minutes or two hours of wasted time, I thinks that's a waste of time and I don't think that's not very considerate of the other people who are on time for the meeting and we do start meetings on time. Ally: You don't lock them out though, you let them come in don't you? Benson: I do have someone that works fro me that is much more strict about it than I am and sometimes she's been known to lock the door, she's serious. Ally: I heard April fools day that the Senate president had a vehicle similar, to, do we call it a Humvee, or is it a Hummer? Benson: I call it a Humvee, but a lot of people call it a Hummer. Ally: I understand that there was one parked in the Senate presidents parking space, what do you think he was trying to say do you think? Benson: He must have Humvee envy, that's all I can think of Ally: Anything that you want to add that I didn't ask you at all, that you want folks to know. Benson: Well I think what they really need to know is that were trying to work hard, many people have complimented me on that I don't have an agenda, I come from the outside, I don't have all these political cronyisms going on. They like that I'm not going to be here for the status quo, to represent the status quo. That I'm going to try new things and not be tied to the old way of doing things. And what I think your audience should know is they might love every decision I make but I hope they respect the fact that I am making decision and we are doing things and we are trying to move forward the best we possibly we can and we value their contributions as volunteers, and as tax payers and as citizens and going back to tax payers, I want to make sure every dollar they give us is used as wisely as it possibly can as if it's their own money, but if that's the type of attitude we take, were going to be very prudent in the way do things but also getting the maximum return in those investments. Ally: Thanks Governor Benson: Thank you. |
| Tomorrow Return to index of stories... |
On the next New Hampshire Outlook - We'll take a critical perspective of media coverage and the war. |
| Goodnight Return to index of stories... |
That's it for this edition of our program. For all of us here at New Hampshire Public Television, I'm Ally McNair. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you next time on New Hampshire Outlook. |
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Thanks to our founding sponsors who have provided major funding for the production of New Hampshire Outlook: New Hampshire Charitable Foundation Public Service of New Hampshire Stratford Foundation |
| WEB PROMO Return to index of stories... |
Tonight on New Hampshire Outlook. Where have you been getting your news about the war? How will its history be written? It's war and the media next time on New Hampshire Outlook. |
| key: State Politics / Government Return to index of stories... |
NEW HAMPSHIRE OUTLOOK Air Date/Time: 4/07/03 22:00 HOST: Allison McNair Length: 19:00 minutes In this edition of New Hampshire Outlook, NHPTV's nightly news magazine, we go one-on-one with Governor Craig Benson. Allison McNair sits down with the Governor to talk about his first three months in office, homeland security, working with the legislature, budget priorities, taking education funding to the voters, the truth about morning meetings and more. PRODUCER/REPORTER: Allison McNair, Jennifer Ellis NAME OF PARTICIPANTS: Governor Craig Benson |
| Tonight 10:00 Return to index of stories... |
Tonight on New Hampshire Outlook. Media coverage and the war. Where are you getting your news? Step inside a journalism class for a new perspective. Join us tonight at 10:00 only on New Hampshire Outlook. |