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 "We
will not be an anti-solution group.
We will not automatically oppose revenue enhancements, but we
put up a vigorous fight to keep the tax relief gains we have
achieved for businesses and individuals during the past six
years."
Phil
Kirk's Legislative
Conference Speech
Below
is the text of the remarks NCCBI President Phil Kirk (above)
had prepared to deliver at the association's Legislative
Conference last week. However, the program ran long and Kirk,
who was the last speaker before the luncheon, gave up his time
so the food wouldn't get cold.
Thank
you for being here today and for staying with us throughout a
"bad weather" morning. I'm sure you've gotten the
impression this morning that serving in state government is
neither a pleasant nor easy job these days…if it ever was.
Budge shortfalls - congressional and legislative redistricting
- health care, transportation, education, environment - you've
heard perhaps more than you ever wanted to know.
Let me point
out that many of our legislative positions require funding and
many do not. The positions were arrived at after considerable
study and conversation last fall. That was before the
seriousness of our state's financial picture was known.
Rather than drop the
spending issues, we will not be advocating strongly for them
until the budget picture improves considerably. However, we
want to keep them on the radar screen.
I am pleased to report that we are making progress on
defeating the ergonomics rule on the state and federal level.
As George Teague told you, in Washington we have joined in a
lawsuit to overturn the rule if Congress doesn't … although
we haven't given up on them yet. Please contact your
congressman or congresswoman and senators and ask them to vote
to overturn this rule.
In North Carolina, we are working closely with our new
Commissioner of Labor, Cherie Berry - a member of NCCBI - to
get rid of the state ergonomics regulation.
The former Labor
Commissioner filed a suit against the Rules Review Commission,
which helped us stop the rule before. Commissioner Berry
wisely dropped that suit in her first major regulatory action
in office. Now we have filed a legal document asking her to
drop the rule entirely. We are hopeful for a positive ruling
from Commissioner Berry soon. The battle is not won yet, but
it is both helpful and refreshing to have a Commissioner of
Labor who is intent on keeping her campaign promises.
As you know,
NCCBI enjoys our role of leadership in education reform. As
has been mentioned, we led the successful $3.1 billion bond
campaign for the public universities and community colleges
last year and the $2.75 billion campaign for public schools
K-12 and highways in 1996.
We joined
with Governor Hunt and the bipartisan leadership in the
General Assembly to bring strict accountability to our public
schools through the nationally-acclaimed and much copied ABCs
program. We support the State Board of Education's policy
ending of social promotion and requiring the passage of a
rigorous exit exam and a computer competency exam in order to
get a diploma.
We worked
hard - again with Governor Hunt and the legislature - to get
our teacher salaries from 43rd in the nation to 19th or 20th -
the national average.
At the same
time, we have increased standards for students, we have also
done the same for teachers. Our tests for teachers to enter
the profession are among the toughest in the nation and so are
our requirements for staying in the profession.
Outside,
objective observers give the business community much of the
credit for our schools being "First in Progress" in
many areas, along with Texas.
But let me
tell you, our job is far from finished. Too many of our
schools are not performing at the level we need them to
produce world-class graduates for you to hire. To maintain and
strengthen the standards and accountability, we need your
voices to be heard again.
Please tell
your legislators and educators-- We're doing better, but we
can't let up. We need to stick to the reforms and higher
standards and expectations for all children and all educators.
I can tell you that the anti-accountability whiners and
complainers are being heard.
I'm not only
asking for your help, but I'm begging for it. Our students and
educators need your advocacy and your pushing and prodding. We
can't meet our audacious goal of being First in America by
2010 by backing down or weakening the tougher standards we now
have in place.
NCCBI also
supports expanding the number of charter public schools in
North Carolina now because we believe in choice and
competition within the public schools. We support remediation,
intervention, and more early childhood education, and we
support changing the statutory requirements for being a local
school superintendent in North Carolina.
For example, Governor Hunt could not be hired as the
Superintendent of Wilson County Schools if the School Board
wanted him and if he wanted them. Neither could a Bill Friday
or Elizabeth Dole be a local school superintendent in North
Carolina. They could be one in Seattle, Los Angeles, New York
City, or Washington but not in North Carolina.
That is archaic - it makes
no sense - we will work to change it!
We are
pleased to stand side-by-side with our new Governor - Mike
Easley - and his plans to reduce class size, to provide more
early childhood education, to require the teaching of
character education in every classroom, to stay the course and
strengthen accountability and standards, and to require the
local adoption of dress codes.
The business community is concerned about health care costs.
Legislatures and the U.S. Congress addressed this problem many
years ago, and one way they did so was through managed care.
Just think what health
care costs to you and your business, industry, non-profit, or
education institution would be today had this action not been
taken.
Of course,
the managed care system is not perfect. It has made its share
of mistakes over the years. I might add, the horror stories
are what you hear about, not the many stories of success and
satisfaction. Bashing HMOs is a popular past-time for many
politicians, and they are aided by the national news media.
Governor
Easley's HMO reform bill has been introduced into the
legislature.
While there are elements
of the bill we will likely support, we will continue to
vigorously oppose making our health care system a financial
boon for the plaintiffs' attorneys.
That is
exactly what the Governor's bill does. And unlike what's being
discussed as a compromise in Washington, it places no limit on
the money which can be taken from the HMOs by the courts and
ultimately from those in business.
And let me
tell you another shocker about the Governor's bill.
The right to sue beyond
any limits applies to the private sector, but the state
employees health care plan is exempt. In other words, the
business community and state government are being treated
differently.
That is not
right and NCCBI will fight this huge windfall for plaintiffs'
attorneys and unequal treatment between the public and private
sectors. Passage will ensure higher insurance costs for
employers and ultimately for employees because many small
businesses in particular will lose their coverage.
NCCBI prefers
the independent review panel approach as advocated by such
leaders as Senator David Hoyle. That gives everyone the right
to appeal harmful wrongful actions, and it will be much less
expensive. We will continue to vigorously oppose costly, even
though well-intended, mandates on health care benefits. Again,
actions such as these will drive up the cost of health
insurance and will result in less coverage for more people.
Transportation
issues are big ones for NCCBI and the state. As you heard this
morning, the needs are huge and the solutions are neither easy
nor painless.
We must demand that the
Department of Transportation be more efficient and more
trustworthy with the more than $3 billion they spend each
year.
But we must
also recognize how fast our state is growing - more than a
million people in the last decade.
We have the second largest
state-maintained highway system in the nation.
NCCBI will join a
statewide effort to be announced within the next week or so
which will seek to educate all North Carolinians about our
transportation system and its challenges.
We will continue to play a
leadership role - working with our state and federal officials
- to determine how best to address these challenges.
We'll be
involved in many other issues such as protecting the
environment, limiting the length of legislative sessions,
opposing the use of your tax money to finance political
campaigns, and many more important issues.
In closing,
let me simply say - we've enjoyed some good times in the past
decade.
The economy has been
strong. North Carolina has made so much progress in so many
areas. Hundreds of thousands - in fact, more than a million
people - have moved here to enjoy "the good life" in
the past decade. We face many challenges and the business
community - through NCCBI and other trade associations - will
be a responsible voice in helping to address these challenges.
We will not
be an anti-solution group. We will not automatically oppose
revenue enhancements, but we put up a vigorous fight to keep
the tax relief gains we have achieved for businesses and
individuals during the past six years.
But we need
your help. We need your best ideas, and we need your
involvement and participation in NCCBI and with our local,
state and federal officials.
I can assure
you our adversaries are being heard.
Many of them don't have to
meet a payroll like you do. They have time to be in the
legislature everyday arguing against what we think needs to be
done. If the business community doesn't stay together - if we
don't make our voices heard loudly and clearly - we will
deserve what we get.
Thank you.
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