Plenary Session Transcripts

Governors Attending:

Guests:

Discussion Subjects:

Transportation, commerce, and technology; natural resources and environmental management; executive management and fiscal affairs; human resources; rural and urban development; and law enforcement, justice, and public safety

Conference Theme: The States in the '70s—Catalyst for Action

Points of Interest:

The association's Transportation Committee reported out a proposal to the full membership to give states flexibility in the use of trust monies for highways, airports, and urban mass transportation. But some Governors objected out of concern that one or more of these modes of transportation might be shortchanged in the process. Consequently, the proposal was amended to endorse the existing Highway Trust Fund and the creation of separate Airport/Airways Development and Urban Mass Transportation Trust Funds.

Governor Stanley Hathaway of Wyoming relayed the recommendations of the Public Land Law Review Commission, which included establishing federal guidelines to ensure management of federal public lands so as to enhance environmental quality; and enacting federal legislation to provide flexible mechanisms for federally owned lands to be made available to state and local governments for public purposes when not required for federal purposes.

The Director of the Office of Management and Budget told the Governors of President Nixon's efforts to eliminate federal red tape by establishing common regional boundaries for all of the federal departments and agencies that dealt with social issues, and reducing and streamlining federal grant and federal paperwork requirements. He noted that legislation was pending in Congress to consolidate federal grants, as well as to consolidate environmental programs in a new Environmental Protection Agency.

Governor Richard Ogilvie of Illinois urged support for a super-majority of states to be able to call a constitutional convention to seek implementation of revenue sharing. However, other Governors expressed concern that there was no means of restricting the topics to be raised during a convention, so the issue was recommitted to the Executive Committee for consideration of a more practical approach.

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger told Governors that federal courts had lagged behind the states in training court administrators and that he had turned to the states that had pioneered in the field of training to help establish the Institute of Court Management at the University of Denver. He also pointed to improvements that needed to be made in the correctional system, including ensuring that correctional facilities were made habitable; that recreational facilities, libraries, and educational resources were provided; and that prisoners were trained in gainful occupations.

Health, Education, and Welfare Secretary Elliot Richardson expressed appreciation for the Governors' support of the Administration's Family Assistance Plan as a first step in welfare reform. He called the plan revolutionary in its proposal to strengthen the role of Governors in developing consolidated, broad-scale approaches to planning social services by allocating $30 million to the states for government assistance grants. A Governor who submitted a consolidated state plan for social services would be empowered to make transfers among the program of between 20 percent and 50 percent.

Governors adopted policy urging the federal government, in cooperation with the states, to work toward development of a rational assistance system that took into account the full range of direct and indirect aid to the poor. The system should include a national eligibility standard that took into account all sources of income, provided for a work incentive, and incorporated regional or geographic differentials.

It was noted that under a proposed Administration provision, federal coverage under Medicaid was increased for outpatient care, so as to encourage care outside of hospitals, which was positive. But at the same time, the proposal cut back federal matching on inpatient care after 90 days from one-half to one-third. This meant either adding to the states' financial burdens or reducing patient care after 90 days.

Memorable Quotes:

Governor Buford Ellington of Tennessee said: "I am firmly convinced that the battle over revenue sharing will be a historic crossroads in whether or not a balance of government is to be maintained in our federal system. I think that the national administration must prove they are serious about getting revenue sharing and giving it a higher priority. I frankly deplore the attitude that tax sharing is just another pot of money that Governors, hat in hand, are going to Washington to get. I see it as a responsible public official trying to get a sensible balance in the distribution of this nation's resources...let's put the taxpayers' dollars back to work for them by the people who know their needs, problems, and desires, and who know how to get the job done."

Dwight Ink of the Office of Management and Budget said: "...we have pending before Congress a proposal for an Environmental Protection Agency, which, I think, is an extremely important step toward recognizing at the federal level that enviornmental pollution is something that needs to be dealt with in its totality, not on a fragmented basis, water here, air there, solid waste over here, pesticides here and radiation over there."

President Richard Nixon, in a message read to the Governors, said: "Our common task, yours and mine, is to rethink old relationships, reform old programs, and restructure old institutions. We must devise new strategies and new vehicles. And we must work together as partners. This new thrust...underlies our basic approach of reform, restoration and renewal—in welfare, in the environment, in education, in government operations and services...and all across the board. And it is the basis of the New Federalism. The New Federalism articulates a wholly new concept of what our emerging domestic agenda requires and an abiding commitment to intergovernmental partnership...It recognizes, quite centrally, the ever greater roles and responsibilities the States must assume, and it seeks to help ensure that they will have the means—and the authority—to fulfill those roles and carry out those responsibilities."

Governor Raymond Shafer of Pennsylvania said the following about corrections: "I believe, along with many others, that corrections in this country is nothing more than retaliation to satisfy society's indignation at those who offend it, and recidivism is the price that we pay for this revengefulness. Then we turn around and wonder why the crime rate increases and our streets are so unsafe. That is why I say there must be revolutionary changes in our thinking and our laws. We must stop acting as though repression, legislative fulmination and long prison sentences will solve the crime problem. The leaders of this change must be the Governors, because crime and its treatment are almost exclusively the responsibility of the States and their subdivisions. Together they employ over 93 per cent of all correctional employees...First, penal codes should be purged of irrationally punitive sentences. Second, crimes without victims and crimes against public order, such as drunkenness, vagrancy and gambling wshould be expunged from the criminal statutes. Third, the basic objective of corrections should not be punishment, treatment and deterrence, but the successful reintegration of the offender into the society of free men. Fourth, the basic principle of parole should be changed from one of grace to one of process, in which release to the community is but one step in the process of reintegraton. Fifth, most States should establish centralized authority for the entire operation of the correctional services, including probation, detention, confinement, after care, community based corrections, and research."

Selected Policy Positions Adopted:
(1) Endorsing continuation of the Highway Trust Fund and the creation of an Airport/Airways Development Trust Fund and an Urban Mass Transportation Trust Fund, with a guarantee that each state's proportionate share of funds would not be reduced and that the federal government would not be permitted to divert any trust funds; (2) amending highway policy to urge continuation of the Highway Trust Fund after completion of the present Interstate System; (3) amending railroad policy to advocate federal legislation that would provide for the establishment of a national rail passenger system with financial assistance from the federal government and private industry and a significant role for states in determining necessary services and facilities; (4) amending waterway policy to recognize the growing need for ferry boat and water surface transportation systems and calling upon the fedral government to aid parts of the nation in need of such water transportation development; (5) urging all states to join the 27 that had already adopted the Uniform State Channeling of Federal Airport Funds Act; (6) reaffirming existing policy endorsing development of a non-discriminatory commercial freight rate structure; (7) expressing the need for the President and Congress to set national goals in the fields of ecology, environment, conservation, and population; (8) urging states to become members of the new Coastal States Organization, and recognizing the need for states to identify the causes of the destruction of coastal wetlands and to adopt regulations to stop it; (9) recognizing the need to including environment, conservation, and population issues in the curricula at all educational levels; (10) encouraging ownership of forest lands to do everything feasible to reforest land as quickly as possible; (11) recognizing the need to establish a new attitude among consumers toward non-replaceable natural resources; (12) reaffirming policy statements adopted in 1969 in the areas of welfare, manpower, health, and education; (13) urging federal establishment of national welfare assistance standards that accounted for regional or geographic differentials; (14) opposing attempts to curtail the Supplementary Food Program; (15) supporting restoration of proposed cuts in federal Medicaid funds; (16) proposing the enactment of a comprehensive program of federal support for community colleges and vocational-technical schools; (17) endorsing a strong state role in manpower programs, and urging an additional federal program to create new federally financed job opportunities and related employability development and training; (18) recommending federal-state cooperation in developing a coordinated attack on the narcotics and dangerous substances problem, to include federal efforts to reduce the illegal importation of drugs, a public education campaign, treatment resources, and a study of the causes of addiction; (19) reaffirming support for revenue sharing, for tax exemption of state and local bonds, and for the improvement and streamlining of federal planning requirement; (20) expressing gratitude for the federal issuance of directive A-95, which encouraged the establishment of clearinghouses and review procedures through which federally aided local and regional planning and development projects could be coordinated with state activities, and projects of different state agencies could be coordinated with one another; (21) reaffirming the Governors' request for their Secretariat to establish a clearinghouse on state experiences; (22) endorsing block grant legislation, grant consolidation, and joint funding simplification; (23) opposing legislation that would create a federal bureaucracy to regulate insurance; (24) urging development of a comprehensive National Community Development Policy, a National Population Growth and Distribution Policy, a National Economic Development Policy, a National Agricultural Development Policy, a National Land Development Policy, and a National Housing Policy; (25) urging all levels of government to act to expand the market for housing production; (26) urging the Administration and Congress to streamline and coordinate federal housing programs; (27) urging sufficient congressional funding of the Housing and Urban Development Act; (28) urging congressional amendment of Model Cities legislation to provide for a legitimate and positive role for state government in the operation of the program; (29) urging states to provide leadership and funding for the coordination of planning and services of all state agencies that contribute to the prevention, control, and treatment of juvenile delinquency; (30) recommending drafting of a Model State Corrupt Business Practices Act to aid states in preventing the infiltration and takeover of legitimate businesses by organized crime forces; (31) with respect to civil disorder, condemning lawlessness on all sides, and recognizing both the responsibility of peacekeepers to protect the safety and lives of those involved but also the right to use force as necessary for their self-protection; (32) urging the establishment of a national clearinghouse to register chemical compounds released into our environment, pre-screen their effects, and monitor them; (33) expressing outrage at the inhumane treatment of U.S. prisoners in Vietnam; (34) urging that the people of Puerto Rico be afforded the right to vote for President and Vice President; and (35) declaring the third week in April "Earth Week" in the states.

Presidential Addresses: