Governors get pep talk and warning

The nation's governors helped found the federal interstate highway system in 1954. Their policy innovations and political pressure led to federal welfare reform in 1996. Recently, they lobbied for more Medicaid funding.

In Philadelphia yesterday, the bipartisan National Governors Association celebrated these successes and others at its centennial meeting in the Kimmel Center. About 35 current and former governors also looked into the future, discussing the challenges of renewable energy, crumbling roads and bridges, and dozens of other issues.

"Our founders believed that the states should be laboratories of democracy," former President Bill Clinton, who was governor of Arkansas for 12 years, said in a keynote speech. "The whole idea of being a governor involves in some sense moving beyond party to policy, in the cause of changes in the lives of real people."

When President Theodore Roosevelt first convened the governors association, he said the nation's top issue was conservation of natural resources - as it is today, with dependence on fossil fuels and global warming, Clinton said. Governors of that era were also dealing with manifestations of similar issues of income inequality and immigration, he said.

State governments can make a difference on energy and global warming, Clinton argued. For instance, he said, the development of technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions is "a ready-made deal for states to do." He said that enough wind sweeps the the plains from West Texas to Montana to serve the electricity needs of the entire nation - and that state governments could work on building the means to harness it.

But Clinton also warned there is a growing distance between Americans, though the nation appears to be harmonious in its increasing diversity.

"Underneath this apparent accommodation . . . we are in fact hunkering down in communities of like-mindedness, and it affects our ability to manage difference," he said.

It was mostly a ceremonial day in honor of the 100th anniversary, though the governors spent much time discussing the details of policy as well as rising gas prices, the troubled economy, and shrinking state budgets. And there was a dash of politics in the hallways as governors discussed speculation that some of them might be under consideration as running mates for Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain.

In a nearly three-hour morning session, the governors talked about the tests they had faced. One even admitted, during a spirited debate about legislative term limits, that he had made a mistake.

Former Ohio Gov. George Voinovich, a Republican now in the U.S. Senate, lamented his support for term limits, saying they had prevented lawmakers in his state from attaining sufficient experience on policy and robbed them of the time to build meaningful political relationships.

Several governors of both parties agreed, including former Republican Gov. John Engler of Michigan, who said term limits had produced lawmakers who were "less competent and less courageous." He said he was offended that people run for speaker of the Michigan House with just two years' tenure and "no clue."

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican, was the most outspoken in favor of term limits. "That which is short is infinitely more precious," he said. Experience leads politicians to become comfortable with excessive government spending, Sanford said.

The governors also talked about leadership in times of disaster, leading Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, to reflect on last year's fatal shootings at Virginia Tech.

"It's a humbling honor to be with people in really tough times," he said. "There's nothing magic you can say or do. It's just being there."

That tragedy led to changes in Virginia's mental-health system and campus safety programs, but Kaine said he was concerned that "sometimes in government we are great reactors" who need disaster to spur action. He said he wanted to build more hurricane evacuation routes from isolated Virginia coastal communities.

Today, the governors are scheduled to hold business sessions on energy - the initiative of NGA chairman Tim Pawlenty, the Republican governor of Minnesota - as well as education, economic development, and help for troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The group's host, Gov. Rendell, is slated to take over the chairmanship of NGA tomorrow, the gathering's final day. Each chairman picks an initiative for the association to work on, and Rendell said his would be infrastructure.

"It is the most pressing issue facing us today," he said, noting that experts estimate the need at $1.6 trillion. "It's a question of 'Pay us now or pay us later,' at a much higher cost."

For the National Governors Association, go to http://go.philly.com/

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