Transcripts For CSPAN National Governors Association Winter

[indistinct chattering] [indistinct chattering] the funeral mass for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia a has come to an end here at the basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and washington, d. C. Justice scalia will now be laid , thest at a private burial location for that burial has not been announced. The justice is survived by his wife, maureen, 9 children, and many grandchildren. Every weekend on American History tv on cspan3, feature programs that tell the american story. Some of the highlights for this weekend include this afternoon at 2 00 eastern, president Woodrow Wilson nominated a boston lawyer to the u. S. Supreme court great he became the first jewish justice to sit on the nations highest court. Of hismoration nomination, Brandeis University in massachusetts hosted a panel, including ruth bader ginsburg, to discuss his contributions to american democracy. At 6 55, professor joanne discusses the evolution of Political Parties and partnership. Sunday morning at 10 00 on right road to the white a South Carolina republican primary debate featuring Texas Governor george w. Bush, arizona senator john mccain, and alan keyes. Cnn hosted the event in columbia and larry king moderated. He went on to secure the republican nomination. At 6 00, american artifacts set selections of objects left at the Vietnam Memorial wall, including letters, photographs, artwork, and metals. The collections include a couple hundred thousand items, all stored at the National Park Service Resource center in maryland. For the complete American History tv we can schedule, go to www. Cspan. Org. Weekend schedule, go to www. Cspan. Org. The National Governors association is holding its annual winter meeting this weekend in washington, d. C. Coming up, a session focusing on state strategies for Economic Development. It should get started in just a few moments. Live coverage on cspan. Good afternoon, everyone. Its my pleasure to serve as vice chairman of the Economic Development and commerce committee. I now call this meeting to order. Governors, i want to thank you for joining us this afternoon. To my left is a legislative committee. R the eec before we get started, id like to recognize our Committee Chair , Maryland Governor larry hogan, who is unable to be with us today. Before being elected governor, Governor Hogan was a lifelong Small Business owner. Lookinge was really forward to sharing his experiences with us today, and talking about how his administration is working to make maryland a more competitive and more business friendly state. Unfortunately, Governor Hogan is doing one of the toughest jobs we have ever had to do as governors. , two Hertford Countys sheriffs deputies were killed in the line of duty. Our hearts go out to the families of these officers, the Hertford County police department, and our Law Enforcement community nationwide. Please join me in a moment of silence as we honor these two maryland heroes. Thank you. Full agenda,ave a so we will go ahead and get started. Our mostors, one of important responsibilities and certainly one of our largest challenges is to promote Economic Growth and development in our states. These work sessions give us a great opportunity to share best actresses practices. And share our successes with each other. Newre working to attract business, and encourage existing companies to grow and expand. Governor hogan recently shared the maryland has announced its best year in eight years, celebrating growth of some of the states most important brands and employers like under , andr, mccormick, fedex amazon, who have increased their investments and job numbers in their state. Im excited to share what we in West Virginia are doing to strengthen our economy. Through the years we have worked hard to bring jobs to West Virginia for West Virginias. West virginians. Today nationally and internationally recognized toyota,s like macys, and now proctor and gamble all call western virginia home. As those of you around the table know, these kinds of investments dont happen overnight. Hardare a result of the work and positive changes we have made in West Virginia over the years. Thanks to partnerships between our states and technical colleges, career and Technical Education programs, and business and Industry Partners and West Virginia, we now have more job Training Programs in place than ever before. Since 2007, West Virginias community and technical colleges have developed what hundred 33 you programs specifically tailored to support Workforce Development and training. Job procter r gamble has partnered with Blue Ridge Technical Community College to create specialized Training Programs to train workers and will comprise the companys fifthlargest workforce in the country. The certificate and degree programs in place years before the plant was fully operational are preparing our workers for good paying jobs in engineering, computer science, and electronics. And training our students to become skilled operator technicians. In 2012, West Virginia lost a new Workforce Training Program called learn and earn. This Program Helps students receive classroom instruction and hand on experience hands on experience while earning a competitive salary. While learn and earn has only been in place for a few years, we are seeing incredible success. One whichsuch as manufactures autoparts are taking advantage of this program to create skilled training opportunities. Through a partnership with Bridge Valley community and technical college, students can get handson training and earn a oneyear certificate, an associate degree, and a journeymans card. State state of the address this january, i introduced jamie thompson, a learn and earn graduate, who is now a staff employee helping to train 12 new students at the companys manufacturing plants. The plant opened in 2013. Its plant has tripled production and more than doubled its workforce. Today in employs more than 700 West Virginians. These training opportunities are giving hardworking West Virginians opportunities to find , career in high demand fields and helping Companies Operate in their state grow and expand. While major Economic Development announcements have grabbed headlines, we are working to support our states entrepreneurs and strengthen our local economies. Workforce Training Programs are critical to our continued growth, but we cant overlook the training and skills so many West Virginians already have. That is why this year i introduced a piece of legislation called the selfemployment assistance act, to make it easier for West Virginias receiving unemployment to get the help they need to open a business. As our panelists with us today can attest, starting a new can be hard, no matter how great the idea may be or how hard you work to make it a success. This legislation would allow you Business Owners to use the skills they already have two open a new business, reinvest in their company and their employees, while continuing to receive Unemployment Benefits to support their families. This is just a few of the many programs we are supporting in West Virginia, and i look forward to todays roundtable discussion to answer any questions that you may have, and learn more about what other states are doing to strengthen their economies. At this time im pleased to introduce one of our guest panelists today. Jeff is president and ceo of the international Economic Development council. Under jeffs leadership, this organization has grown into a 5 million operation known for its work to diversify the field of Economic Development. Jeff his time at the iedc, served for 15 years as president of the american Economic Development council. After we hear from jeff, we will also hear from the founder and ceo of under armour. I know that Governor Hogan was really looking forward to hosting jeff today and introducing a proud maryland or. Whon is an entrepreneur turned an idea for a better global into a 4 billion brand, with 14,000 employees and counting. Under kevins leadership and vision, under armour has become one of marylands most respected companies, recognized across the world for its innovation and quality. Thata visionary investor is personally betting big on his home state of maryland, particularly Baltimore City. Today he and his team are working to transform baltimore, creating thousands of new jobs, green space and parks, and connecting more of the city to its waterfront. Ultimately, generate a significant economic benefit for the region. Please join me in welcoming our outstanding panel. Thank you very much. It i want to recognize some governors that i know, governor withry, you and i dealt each other when you were mayor of charlotte and its good to see you again. The governor and i had the opportunity to visit a few minutes ago, and we work with his Virgin Islands Economic Development team on a pretty regular basis. Its good to see you. Governor walker, you helped kick off our annual conference in anchorage in october. Think you for doing that, and its great to see you. I want to talk briefly about whats going on in the world of atomic developed you call your department the department of , Economic Development, community and economic whatever theynd are doing, etc. He create, retain connex and jobs and wealth in your communities, chances are your professionals are members of the international Economic Development. We serve a greater Economic Development community. This is the 20th anniversary of our organization. While we are not the old profession, we have been around proclaiming and are the week of may the eighth Economic Development week in the United States. If you get the opportunity, maybe you can help celebrate your Economic Developers that week in your state. There are activities starting to ,ccur all around the country and many of your Economic Developers are the unsung heroes, the unheralded people that are preparing the groundwork to retain those businesses that might be potentially leaving, working with the entrepreneurs that could potentially grow exponentially, a company like kevin blanks. Working on the workforce issues when Companies Need additional workers. While we dont lead workforce amenities, clearly our members are integrating with the to tryce organizations to meet the needs of companies in their communities. I will talk briefly about three issues today. I will talk about whats going on in Foreign Direct Investment Economic Opportunity and equity, and Community Resilience and innovation. Are three of the big issues that many of our Economic Development practitioners are working on. Patient was brutal. But one of the things that has become clear in a postrecession is that we still are an important place to do business in this world. We are the number one location investments. Irect in 2013, we had inflows of nearly 200 billion, and are five 8 million american jobs where those people work for international companies. As i talk to our Economic Developers around the country, a deal flow that is significant, at a lot of it is coming from Foreign Investors on a regular basis. Foreign investors are doing a variety of things. They are bringing jobs here. Also acquiring investment in the United States as well, and that includes companies and real estate. Edos need to do to be successful at that . Are of you as governors leading the nation, hopefully set up by your Economic Development offices, and we are seeing a greater number of delegations going internationally. The United States actually has an active presence, which we do before, in the battle for Foreign Direct Investment. There is a Small Program at the department of commerce called select usa. Before that program existed, we majorhe only industrialized country that did not have a foreign and direct investment activity that our federal level. Fortunately they are helping us make inroads with investors all around the world. Are finding a number of our members are working in partnerships with other countries. Many of you have offices overseas or you have delegates representing you in some fashion or other. Using a variety of tools, Foreign Trade zones, in order to help you be successful in that attempt to recruit investors into your states. I want to raise is a question of Economic Opportunity. Surveying of our Economic Development professionals and the things and talking about our issues that are very keen and high on the issues of our members. One of the things that has happened postrecession is we have not returned Many Americans to the economic positions they were in before the recession. Areas and pockets of our community that are experiencing unusually high unemployment, and many people during theed recession have not gotten back to where they were before. They have a fulltime jobs, they are managing a variety of jobs. We are trying to figure out how do we deal with those disparities. I would like to tell you i have the answers and that i can share those answers with you and that i have this magic elixir. What i can do is tell you that we are spending a great deal of time and we are going to be working throughout this year, trying to figure out what are on thet practices Economic Development front to deal with these questions of equities. Gains look at job postrecession, lowwage occupations have dominated the recovery. We have not won back many of the middle class jobs. It is our hope that hopefully with some competition for employment, maybe some inflation , and a stronger job market, we can start to change that formula over time. To be lookinging over the next several months at who is doing a good job of trying to a gear out how to deal with these disparities in their economy, and are there some Economic Development tools being used differently . For, tying business incentives to fulltime jobs with benefits. , governor tomlin talked about the whole issue of workforce. That has come up as the number one issue that many manufacturers, many people in the Service Industry are having to deal with. They are having a difficult time finding people that are able to work in and take on a job immediately without significant training in order to do that. A dislocation of skills versus where the jobs are , and we are having a difficult time tying people to those jobs. The recession washed out a whole number of people. If you think of the tool and die industry or some of the skills that probably were held by people in their 50s and 60s, when they were washed out of their jobs, they are not coming back. The last thing, and i believe that some of you had an opportunity to meet with craig fugate one of the things iadc has spent a lot of time dealing with is this whole issue of the resilient economies. We did not know a whole lot about that until after katrina 5, and ourleans in 200 organization marbleized about 250 volunteers. Orleans. Not say new louisiana, mississippi, and a s