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Morning News

Governors Gather in Washington to Discuss Key Policy Items

Aired February 23, 2001 - 10:33 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The nation's governors convened in Washington this weekend to compare notes about health care, education and the economy and what the new Bush administration is doing to help improve the quality of life at the state level.

Our Jeanne Meserve is in Washington with one of the participants -- Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, that's right. Governor John Rowland, a Republican of Connecticut -- a close friend and confidant of President Bush -- in fact, considered to be labor secretary at one time.

Thanks a lot for joining us.

GOV. JOHN ROWLAND (R), CONNECTICUT: Thank you, nice to be here.

MESERVE: Education, one of the top concerns of the governors; also one of the top concerns of President Bush. And he's proposed more testing to ensure that there's accountability in education. But Rod Paige, the education secretary, has indicated that the cost of designing and administering these tests will have to be largely borne by the states.

From a governor's point of view, is that bad news?

ROWLAND: Not at all; glad to do it. As a matter of fact, we'd rather do the testing and be able to use the results to improve our own schools. And I think you'll most find most states have some diversity; for example, in Connecticut we have some very, very substantial education systems in our suburbs and we have some very tough school systems in our urban communities -- we've got some very poor communities.

So I'd rather be able to do the testing so that I can see where the problems are -- is it reading, is it math? You know, where to need to apply our resources? So I'd much rather keep the federal government out of education as much as possible.

MESERVE: Energy, another key concern; and one of your NGA members, Governor Gray Davis of California has had huge problems with this. There are indications the problem is only going to spread and perhaps become nationwide.

The Bush administration's approach to California was, it's your problem, you fix it. Is that the right approach?

ROWLAND: Well, I think that we have to allow the Bush administration to develop their own national energy policy. We've not had one in the last 10 years, and now it's time to really have a national focus.

President Bush was criticized as candidate Bush when he talked about reaching out to finding more resources, and that's really part of the solution. You'll see 49 states very much focused on California, why they had the problems that they're having -- it seems to be getting even worse. So I'm very enthusiastic about working with the federal government, working with the administration to make sure that we've got a good national policy.

MESERVE: Economically, your state in terrific shape -- the lowest unemployment in the country, I believe. But some states are facing a pinch; the economy's slowed down, and I know some have had to evoke emergency powers. Is there a risk that, sooner or later, because of the economic slowdown, states are going to have to cut programs?

ROWLAND: Well, I think we're all going to be very prudent with our budgets. I think if you look across the states, you'll see all of us are being a little tougher, we're -- you know, the increases in our budgets aren't nearly as high as they were in the last few years. Some of us are still cutting taxes, but we're preparing for -- I wouldn't say, necessary, a slowdown, but certainly things are going to even out a little bit.

We've had great surpluses, most of our states have cut taxes and have had major surpluses, and I hope that most of our governors will support the tax cut for the president, because that will help the economy and keep it going and we'll be the beneficiaries of it.

MESERVE: And the president agrees, I'm sure; he'll be meeting with you all on Monday.

ROWLAND: Republicans and Democrats.

MESERVE: Governor Rowland, thanks so much for joining us.

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