action to -- we certainly restored in my case before i came in, the state government had taken about a billion plus out of the state transportation fund and put it elsewhere in the budget. we started to restore that because we wanted to rebuild our bridges and our roads and our freight rail and our ports and our airports. we do that, we could compete globally and we saw our exports grow this last year, almost 12%, i think it was tied into enhancing the trapgs system. plus in terms of the unemployment rate going up, in our case below 7% for the first time since 2008, we particularly saw a change in altitude. two years ago when i ran, our state wide chamber of commerce did a survey and 10% of our employers thought we were heading in the right direction. last month that same survey came out and 94% of employers thought we were headi ining in the righ direction. i want to know what's up with

the last 6%. but we're improving the prime sector employees are the ones that are going to drive that development. we're proud of the fact that we used to be -- we're not proud of where we used to be, we're proud of -- year before that 41, year before that 43, this year we're up to 20, we're in the top 20, and i would love to be competing with gary and other guys in the top ten for the best state to do business in the country, but it's not only about changing the attitude, it's about changing the -- the best idea that wasn't yours, governor. >> i'm sorry, i forgot about you. >> sonny perdue did this program in georgia called georgia went. we adopted a similar thing called nebraska wins. one of the things we heard particularly from small

businesses was unemployment compensation was a barrier to employment. people would say it's a lot easier to collect unemployment, would you sign off that i sought to get a job because for a lot of people, the concern that if they went to a job that required some training to get into that, then if they didn't -- if that didn't work out, they wouldn't be able to go back on unemployment. so we patterned this after the georgia wins program. we created a bridge for about six weeks where you can stay on unemployment, you can still get assistance, but you can get the job skills you need and not risk losie ining your unemployment w is hopefully is enough time to get you in the door and get that job. >> the lame duck session from helle it was clear to me that congress was going to delay dealing with until after the

election. he came one a much more vivid metaphor calling it the fiscal click. what i want to ask the governors, because i hear this all the time in washington, sometimes you hear things in washington that sound true but may not be true. and governors i want to ask that people who are out creating jobs which can only be described as the real economy. this element of uncertainty, with tax policies and all the things that are due to expire this year, actually create tension, anxiety and a drag on economic development in our state, or is this something like washington tends to do obsesses about but may not have as much consequences as washington tells itself it does. governor? >> one difference is, in our states, in fact 49 of the 50 were required to have a balanced budget. and b, i think it was gary that talked about the element that provided certainty. that's a big part of what we have to do is make sure that the

employers in our state, the businesses in our state know exactly what they can expect with respect to regulatory policy. with respect to tax policy. with respect to continued improvement in schools, i mean it's all the issues that we talked about earlier. and so i think generally, i mean uncertainty absolutely discouraged business, whether it's at a national level or whether it's at a state level. so one of the things we absolutely have to do is provide that level of certainty, not just in one area, but across a whole range of areas. >> do you agree, a, that there's uncertainty, and b, do you think it intensifies the closer we get to this termination date, december 31st.

>> i think people who talk about this talk about uncertainty around the world plays an impact on any decision out there. june was a big month in terms of the settling unsirity. last tuesday, gave people a clear answer in what was going to happen in wisconsin in terms of our recall election. i mentioned in that survey where 94% thought we were heading in the right direction, a survey was done that said that 87% of our employers said that they were going to add jobs, but the biggest thing that was going to keep them from doing it was elections at the local level. i visited every day two or three employers who were anecdotes of what we're hear across the state. we like where we're headed and we think it's going to continue. it was about the other big thing

that the nation's always going to be looking at and that's what the supreme court is going to do and that's the affordable care act. there's a whole lot of employers i talked to that are for or against or anywhere in between, obviously against the mandate, but just in general, the uncertainty of not knowing what's going to happen next, whether it's through the supreme court or the fall eselections, anything that can be done to provide certainty for employers across america will definitely have an impact. and the last part, i think not only with the issue, i think of many ways here in washington, they look to their own, and they don't get the big picture. ten years ago unemployment was 10%. when ronald reagan's -- from '83 on, brought about the largest peacetime economic boom in american history. that was after we signed a measure that slashed the

marginal tax rate, put more money back in the hands of american entrepreneurs. i think we're looking at an extension. the only way you improve not only the economy, but the fiscal mess we're in is through growth, not just through attrition, but growth. and you have to put money back into the hands of the people who actually make it happen, the entrepreneurs, the consumers of america, not just in washington, but around the country t better off we'll be. >> to answer your question, uncertainty does impact the marketplace. you'll hear from the entrepreneurs and the business people out there that uncertainty is what causes them to withdraw. forbes indicated up to $2 trillion of venture capital sitting on the sidelines because of uncertainty, not knowing what the rules are of the game out there and we're going to sit back and play it close to the

vest until we in fact get some certainty and know what the roles are so is that we can actually invest our moneys with risk and reward when it comes to the free enterprise system. we have a lot of medical device companies in the state of utah and we export those devices not only around america, but around the world. our business has grown by 31%. we have embraced the nature of global marketplace. in the affordable care act there's a medical device tax that's embedded in the program that in fact says we will tax you on your revenue, not your profit, but on the revenue on those devices. that's going to stifle the ability for us to have research on new devices, it's going to cause companies like medical or life sciences or companies in

utah to say we need to go outside of america to do our research and development and manufacture our medical devices. that's a part that ought to be repealed. regardless of what happens with the affordable care act. that part needs to repealed. that's stifling innovation and the ability for us to produce product here in the united states of america. so it's caused a lot of uncertainty and angst in my state because of just that thing. not that we could replicate that many times over so the uncertainty is stifling economic expansion. >> go ahead, governor. >> let me just add a little bit to what everybody said, there's absolutely no question that the uncertainty of taxes, regulation and health care has had an impact on businesses all across america. there's a reason we have more cash sitting in corporations than ever before is because of this uncertainty and the best thing the president and the congress could do right now, i don't expect this to happen because normally they can't make any decision, but they could

stand up tomorrow and say, at the end of this year, we're not going to raise taxes on any american, and secondly we're going to put a two-year moratorium on all regulations. think what that would do to the business sector of our economy. jack and i are respectively the chair and the vice chair of the nga this year. just a couple of weeks ago we were up at "the washington post" doing an editorial meeting. i said what most governors would like out of the federal government is for them to make a decision, the tough decisions that we make every day, realizing you can't please everyone. when are we as governors going to know the funding of the various programs that we depend on? it's very difficult to do it when it's a continuing resolution for every couple of months and then of course, the health care program, the new federal health care program, the biggest thing that disturbs me as the governor of nebraska, we

have got our budget in balance and that particular program, the affordable care act is a 5$500 million to $600 million unfunded medicaid mandate. that's unfair. we do our job right at the state, and the federal government sends us a bill for $500 million or $600 million. they need to make the hard decisions just like we do every day. >> governor, do you want to weigh in on the affordable care act. >> i heard from the small businesses throughout the state every single day that they couldn't afford tin creases. the people couldn't, you know, young people were -- who weren't on their parents plan were having difficulty getting access. we're moving ahead, we're planning, you know, the exchange. we'll see what happens with the lawsuit. but i mean, if it doesn't -- if

the supreme court rules against it, we cannot go back to the way it was, because the way it was was miserable for small businesses around the country. so my view we don't really have a health care system in this country anymore, we have more of a sick care system, because most providers, and hospitals and the like are getting paid based on how many procedures they do. and i think we have got to do a much -- i don't know another industry where there's so much of a disconnect between what we feel in our own pocket when we get a service and what that service actually costs and for most of us who have that kind of insurance, when the doctor tells us to go get a test, we have no idea what it costs because it's not touching us. so we have got to figure out a way and i'm very interested in what governor patrick was doing in massachusetts, he's trying to get away from the fee for service model. i don't know how it is in these states, i guess it's not too

different. but in our state, if you think about all the people who have some order of health coverage, taxpayers pick up the cost for 40% of it. when you have state employees, retired employees and the like, we pick up -- we have got to do a better job in delaware for sure of leveraging our roles in health care. so regardless of what happens with the affordable care act, there's a lot to be done in the vivid states. >> i want to ask all four of you very quickly. we don't know what the supreme court is going to do, but if the supreme court does overturn some or all of the law does that create more uncertainty for your residents and your businesses or less? >> i think there's plenty of uncertainty and i think the health care issue is the single most complicated public

challenge we have, i think it's more than education or transportation and the like. and i think this idea of sort of dealing with the cost, and making sure we're doing a better job of paying providers to keep us well, rather than doing procedures when we're sick is something -- there is a lot of uncertainty about how we're going to get there, but if we don't get there, i don't see how what we have is sustainable. >> i talked to most people and i certainly agree myself. i hope the court rules it unconstitutional, but i will tell you either rule it unconstitutional or rule it constitutional because anything in between will create more incertainty, more complexity. part of the -- the debate was focused on the wrong issue, we focused on access, when we should have been focused on cost. we're trying to focus on wellness and prevention. i can walk down the hall in my

old office and in ten seconds maybe a financial transaction to beijing china. because we have got a common political platform. if i'm in beijing, china, and i needed my medical records in 24 hours, i would die weight for it to get there. but we have seen in our own state health insurance focusing on wellness and prevention can help drive down costs. >> and i think the vast majority of utah it would appreciate a reset, you know, they pushed the reset butt tocon and started ov. going back to square one is a better place than we are now. this was a 2,500 page bill that nobody even today knows all that's inside or what the meaning of the law is, we're

still getting uncertainty as we ask questions of the department of health, because we're trying to get medicaid reform, which is unequal irritation in bipartisan budget buster for all of us in the states. i believe that it should be state driven. i understand the need to have health care reform and utah, we have tried to find ways to in fact improve health care. and we have probably the lowest cost health care with the highest quality in the nation. so whatever we're doing seems to be working pretty well in utah. but nobody even asked us what's your opinion? what do you think you can contribute to the debate? the governors were shut out of this discussion. so i would like to push the reset button, let the states as laboratories of innovation find ways, what i have is a demographic in utah which is a very young population, my median age is 29.2 years of age. you go to governor sandoval in neve ne, he has an older population.

we have created an exchange way before it was ever thought about with the affordable care act. we have an exchange in utah that's all privately driven, it introduces defined contribution as opposed to define benefit. we have companies out there competing for their customers. it's not perfect, but it is a way, it may not be the way, but it is a way, and if the states were out there doing that, we would learn from our successes and from our failures and we would have health care reform that would actually get a passive result. unfortunately, in my view, the patient protection care act is significantly stunning, and we need to press the reset button and bring it back and start over. >> governor? >> i have now doubt whatsoever that if the affordable care act is thrown out, it would provide greater certainty and greater

stability for employers. one thing in particular jack is exactly right. even if that were to happen, you can't go back to the way things were before. i think there is no doubt, in fact one of the first things i said, it's not a suddenly very bullet for everything, the first thing was the repeal of a state tax. we were the one state that repealed the tax on the savings accounts. me and everybody else out there to have more skin in the game is better off. the more we make things transparent and the more we engage citizens about their health and their wellness. the better off we are. when you think about everywhere else in life, if you all hopefully turn them off, if you reach in your pocket and turn our your iphone or your blackberry, you probably know more about your plan for that cell phone than you do for your

health care. i know if i have teenagers, i have to have unlimited texting or i would be in the poor house. but if you ask what the procedure for the health care plan, they can't tell you -- roaming charge or texting, if you got teenagers, maybe equally as important. and i think about in health care already, now granted not everything is elected. you can't shop around when you're having a heart attack. but most of us don't have emergency situations, most of us have elective procedures. one of the best examples in health care right now, years ago corrective eye surgery cost a couple grand per eye. today it's a whole lot less than that. it's not $50 and somebody gives you a coupon in the phone book for two for $25, because you want quality. good people in medicine knew that if they lowered the cost and made it affordable not just

for the wealthy, but those who could save up for it. if you could get more consumers using that,a was where the market could help drive up quality. i think there's got to be better ways to do that that are market friendly wrrks a government can play a role in enforcing greater transparency so consumers will really know it. and i think you said as well, i think as governors, we can play a direct role and as we look at med indicaicai medicaid, and many of our employ-i was at one of the my bestest employees in wisconsin. they are a model for a lot of other companies that are trying to adopt that where wellness is a factor. we can learn a lot from employers that can help us not just engage in wellness, but in

in government health care cost. >> tort reform, i've been in washington since 1990, that issue rises and falls on the congressional radar screen, and it gets closer, and then there's some other conflict. but governor walker, what's been your experience with it, what lessons have you learned from it and how valuable, relative to other things you've done has it been in building economic growth or encouraging it. >> in tort reform specifically? >> i follow my lead very much from the business i pay to -- i have probably visited 750 since i became governor 3 1/2 years ago. i try to visit them every week. and when i visit, i ask one question, which is what can we do to facilitate your success. because that's the only thing that matters these days, in this economic climate, if a governor is not asking that question and acting upon it, then we're probably not doing what we need

to do. what they talk to me about, they talk to me about having access to really great schools, they want a terrific quality of life because they're going to able to attract better talent. they want to be in communities with a link between strong institutions of higher ed and they want to be in a state where there's really responsive government. i don't know of a single one that's brought up tort reform. and maybe in other states, it's a bigger issue, but in our state, it's not something that has come up. but of course these visits are to democrats, republicans, i could care less who the business leader is and i could care less where a good idea comes from. but those issues i just mentioned particularly around workforce and making sure there are workers that are skilled to do the jobs that are needed today and in the future. that's numbers one, two, and three, and i have heard virtually nothing about tort reform in my state.

>> governor walker, i think you had a different experience in wisconsin. >> i don't hear as much now. but last year our -- lowering the tax burdening, a number of things that were bottled up when it came to controlling frif louse and uncontrolled lawsuits. we have corrected much of that. but i hear a couple of things, as jack mentioned, all four of us could say, the number one issue we hear all the time is workforce. i have jobs, i just don't have enough skilled workers to fill them. if we get that, we can lead the country, we can lead the world in plugging people in and in improving our economy. a good example, i was at a company the other day on the northwest side of milwaukee, a small company that literally does the buckets for cyrus which is two of the world's largest mining companies that are based in wisconsin, they make the buckets for the front of those gigantic mining pieces of equipment. they have got two shifts of

about 30, the employer there said he could add a third shift, and he probably could add a whole other weight as well. he didn't have the guarantee of enough skilled welders to fill those positions. that's one of these things that that like i said makes you want to bang your head against the wall. we know we have got people with the work ethic, we know we have got people who are willing to work, so i hear about that the most. i hear about stability, which is why we did so many of the things we did to get our fiscal house in order. and in general, it's not about tort, it's about the cost of doing business in our state. so it's the tax burden, the burden of complying with legislation, we tried to tackle each of those three to lower the tax burden it's not specific to tort, but particularly for small business, i hear from small manufacturer who is say, i would like to have a person on staff that was just focused on sails

sales instead of the stack of paper work that we have to do to deal with all the legal issues out there, if we could get that down, we could focus on sales and production and putting people to work. >> maybe tort reform, we're maybe the unusual state, it doesn't appear to be an issue because we did major tort reform 20 years ago. what i hear almost every day is the tax and regulatory burden in the climate and one of the things you cite in your enterprising statement board is the recent tax foundation study that rank the states around existing firms and new firms, around existing firms we were ninth best in the country in terms of the tax and regulatory environment. and for new firms, nebraska was number one in the country. i would like to focus, lower taxes, less regulation, i hear that every day from our businesses. >> did that tort reform 20 years ago change the business climate in any way? did it have an incentive to move

companies to -- >> we don't allow trial lawyers in nebraska. and in all seriousness. we put down a great tort reform environment 20 years ago and we stayed away from these frivolous lawsuits by and large and some of the other lawsuits that you have seen so there it's no question it made a huge difference in medical arena in particular. >> governor herbert? >> well, similar to what dave said, historically utah has been a pretty good environment, it's not been excessive as far as the legal profession taking advantage of the issuers, but it's a growing concern in utah. we have doctors who haare sayin i'm now practicing preventative medicine, not that we're trying to prevent cataclysmic health problems, but they're trying to prevent themselves from being sued. so instead of doing one or two tests, they're doing 15 tests to

prevent someone from coming back and saying you were somehow negligent because you didn't have this test. because of that i have tasked the lieutenant governor to go out and do a study and review in utah if we need to in fact have some tort reform, to make sure that we have an environment that's fair for the attorneys and for those who have claims and yet still not inhibit the practice of common sense, good medicine. one of the areas that we're looking at for example, is what we call the i'm sorry law. we have doctors that cannot say i'm sorry, because that's prima facia evidence that they did something wrong. so we're going to take a look at that and take a look at tort reform and see where this task force leads us. but it hasn't been a big problem, but it seems to be a growing concern for our medical doctors. >> just one quick thing, gary reminded me of something on both medical and manufacturing. on the medical side, we passed part of that in part of our overall package that it really

enhances quality care so that medical professionals are not afraid to get together to actually have peer assessments to try and improve the overall quality of care provided, but what we particularly found is some of the changes we have made in the past in terms of improving medical malpractice cases, it wasn't just a cost factor and a job factor, it was access to quality health care, that one of our biggest draws to attracting people into our rural parts of our state is because they felt comfortable practices in the state because of the fact that there are reasonable, responsible standards when it comes to medical malpractice cases. that was an issue where it wasn't just about jobs, it was about quality of life and quality of square. care. sometimes it seems like it's ten years since i was sworn in as governor. so a lot's happened.

before our changes last year, we had examples where we had one of those cases "the wall street journal" talked about where they went back 25 years and they said because of lead paint that a manufacturer had, anybody who had made paint at that time or what had done anything in the state of wisconsin is now liable for that. that's one of those common sense checks that people looked at that and said are you craze? that just doesn't make any sense. those were the sort of excessive lawsuit reform that we have made. employers don't talk about it because they're not upset about it, but it certainly was a major stop sign, particularly for business looking to come into the state of wisconsin to say, wow, that's something we're very concerned about, it's gone now. and we have moved on so quickly from that. but sometimes forget about what we had before. >> i want to try the read the mind of those in the audience. but some of you might be saying to yourself, do