On January 9, Eric Robert Greitens became the 56th governor of the state of Missouri. Ahead of his first state of the state address January 17, he sat down for a one-on-one interview with 41 Action News to discuss his priorities for the state.
41 Action News: What has your first week on the job been like?
Gov. Eric Greitens: "Just a couple minutes after I took the oath of office I came right here to this office and signed an executive order that immediately banned all gifts from lobbyists to anybody in the executive branch. We slammed shut the revolving door so that no one who works for me can ever turn around and lobby me."
Governor @EricGreitens 1st action just minutes after being sworn in: pic.twitter.com/dFKpAQFmNh
— Brian Abel (@BrianAbelTV) January 9, 2017
41: Days into your tenure as governor, the state had a big winter storm. How would you rate the response?
EG: "I was so proud this week of the tremendous work that was done by folks on the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the state emergency management agency, the Missouri Department of Transportation during Winter Storm Jupiter. We took strong, early action by opening up the emergency operations center on Wednesday. You know what, as a result of their hard work, they saved lives. We had fewer accidents and fewer fatalities over the course of that storm than happen on an average dry day."
41: Missouri is facing a big budget hole in the hundreds of millions. How do you plan to fix it?
EG: "We have inherited a budget that was unbalanced. Over the course of the next 18 months, we have to cut over $700 million just to balance the budget. We immediately restricted $146.4 million that the previous administration had committed to spend but the money is just not in our bank account."
41: How did the state get into such a deep hole financially?
EG: "The reason why we're in this situation is because we have a really bad business climate, revenues are going down at the same time health care costs under Obamacare are rising."
41: How do special interests contribute to the state budget deficit?
EG: "If you look back to 2010, Dia, we've spent over $2 billion for special interest tax credits. Over $2 billion. And the promise behind all of these special interests, they promised people that they would be creating jobs. What's actually happening is that they're giving away other people's tax money instead of creating a simple and fair system. And that's what people in Missouri want. They want a system that is simple, that's fair with low tax rates. Instead, we've got a system that is complex, that is corrupt, that has taxes that are too high."
41: What will you touch on in your first state of the state address?
EG: "I'm going to ask our legislature to ban all gifts from lobbyists. A second thing that we're going to do is we're going to put in place term limits for every statewide office holder. This is what I'll talk most about tomorrow night; jobs. We have to turn this economy around. The people of Missouri want good, quality, high-paying jobs."
41: Where do you stand on "right to work"?
EG: "I am calling on the legislature to pass 'right to work' legislation. I will sign 'right to work' legislation and the reason why is it leads to more jobs and higher pay. What 'right to work' does is it says that anyone in the state of Missouri has the right to work at any business without being forced to pay dues to a union they disagree with. So what it actually does is it puts power back into the hands of union members where it should be."
41: What's your message to Missourians now as governor?
EG: "I'd say to everyone, including and especially people who didn't vote for me, I am here to serve you. I believe in servant leadership. I recognize not everybody is going to agree with me on everything and that's okay. There's no monopoly on wisdom and I certainly don't have it but we're going to bring people together, go to the front lines and figure out how we can solve problems for people across the state of Missouri."
41: What should people know about Sheena Greitens, the new First Lady of Missouri?
EG: "You should know I'm completely biased. I think you're going to find somebody who is incredibly warm, loving, somebody who listens, somebody who cares, somebody who's really, really bright. One of the principle issues that she's going to be working on is adoption and foster care. That's just one of the missions that Sheena is going to be taking on as First Lady."
41: How are you and your family settling in?
EG: "We so appreciate the incredibly warm welcome that we've had from people all over the state of Missouri. Including people who might not have voted for us, but they recognize how important it is that we succeed together as a state and so we've really loved that."
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Dia Wall can be reached at dia.wall@kshb.com.
