WDBJ7 is continuing our interviews with candidates as we get down to election day on November 3rd.
After many years as a civic leader in Roanoke and at Virginia Tech, retired surgeon Nancy Dye is trying to win a seat in the state Senate.
She’s separated herself from 20 year incumbent Democrat John Edwards on issues like raising the minimum wage; he’s for, she’s against. On expanding Medicaid; he’s for, she’s against.
WDBJ7 Anchor Chris Hurst met her in close to where she lives in South Roanoke.
Hurst: Nancy, we’re sitting at the base of Mill Mountain, your home Rockledge is up on the hill, last time there was a Senate election, this area voted 60 percent for John Edwards. What is the difference between you and your neighbors in this precinct?
Dye: Well Chris, I don’t look at us as having a lot of differences I think that in the end we all want the same thing. We all want safe neighborhoods, we all want good schools and we all want good jobs so that we can all support our families and stay here in Roanoke.
Hurst: When it comes to jobs, what is the best way that the state can encourage job growth and sustainable jobs?
Dye: Well that’s a great question. The first thing that we need to realize is that the government does not create businesses. But it does create the environment that businesses operate in. So we either create an environment where people are willing to risk their private sector money to invest in the American dream or we create and environment that makes us less competitive, especially less competitive than neighboring states. And that’s what the General Assembly needs to address. You know for the first time, the CNBC first time last year, which ranks the states that are the best for doing business in ranked Virginia number 12, it was the first time that we’ve ever been out of the top 10 and the Department of Commerce ranked our economic growth as flat. Zero. So we cannot compete with neighboring states if we want to attract and keep businesses here with those kinds of numbers. Now you asked what we can do at the state level. We need to address what’s called the cost of doing business. And that’s dictated by things like labor, and taxes and regulations and the economic environment and the quality of life that we have here.
Hurst: Do some of the international companies that have come in under Governor McAuliffe’s leadership, show the environment is sufficient, at least for international companies to want to come here?
Dye: Yes there are certain little niches that it is working for, but overall when you look at our cost of doing business and our tax favorability rankings, those things are very, very less competitive than neighboring states like North Carolina.
Hurst: What is the future of Mill Mountain? What is the future of the zoo and should the zoo have state funding?
Dye: State funding? Well the future of Mill Mountain is bright as you know it’s under a conservation easement and so it will always be preserved as a place for Roanokers and to attract tourism to enjoy. We’ve got great hiking and biking trials on it and I believe that the zoo is a very important part of Roanoke when we are recruiting families here for Virginia Tech, especially families with young children. That’s one of the things that they ask us about is if we have a zoo.
Hurst: It has had some financial struggles in the past, so that’s why I ask you about state funding, there was a time when it used to get governmental funding. Is that something that should be sustained?
Dye: I think the zoo does need to be sustained and that is one reason why we’ve had Derby Day at our house and benefited the zoo for many years. As far as state funding goes, I’d have to look into that.
Hurst: You’re against the creation of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Is there anything that can be done on the state level that can prevent its creation and if not, if it’s coming here, if FERC is going to approve it, what can a senator do to be a watchdog for the pipeline?
Dye: Right, the Mountain Valley Pipeline, in the end, is a federal issue and whether it comes or not will be decided by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a federal entity. A state senator or a state senate candidate can really do nothing to influence that decision. Now as far as economic development goes, I was very hopeful that with the delivery of natural gas that we need in a reliable way for our homes and businesses that this would be a great economic boon for western Virginia. But as a state senator, my responsibility would be to uphold our constitution, and that means protecting property rights. And we have an amendment in 2012 that prohibits the taking of private property for private benefit. Now you can take it for public use, but not private benefit. So I was really hoping that the property owners and the pipeline could work together, but when I saw that private property owners were being sued for the company to come on the property, that’s when I had to stand up and protect property rights.
Hurst: On Medicaid expansion, do you worry that not accepting federal funds will severely impact more rural hospitals in Virginia, when they have to take some of that cost from people who can’t pay.
Dye: Chris, a big reason that rural hospitals are suffering is because they are being bankrupt by our current Medicaid and Medicare systems. They are reimbursed pennies on the dollar for the care that they do provide and they’re reimbursed at a lower rate than hospitals in other regions. So I do not see expansion of Medicaid is the answer to that problem.
Hurst: Reducing mass murder and reducing attempted mass murder. How do we do it?
I think the main answer there is our culture needs to be addressed. And we, I raised three children and we did not allow the video games and the violent movies and tv shows in our home. And I’ve very concerned that we’ve raised an entire generation that is just steeped in that as a matter of entertainment and they are interacting with these games as well without any kind of consequence of the violence. And they just don’t have an understanding of that. And of course everyone wants to talk about mental health as well and I think that’s a very important issue. We need to remove the stigma of trying to get help for people when we see them either spiraling downward from anger, addiction, hopelessness and feeling that victim mentality that leads to violence.
Hurst: Would Medicaid expansion help to give those individuals who have a diagnosable mental illness the treatment that they can afford? Would that bring more people into coverage for mental illness?
Dye: I don’t see that as the answer, I think that mental healthcare is suffering for other reasons. 50 percent of our psychiatrists are within 5 years of retirement. So we need to address expanding the number of psychiatrists, their residency and their reimbursement because they do very difficult and sometimes dangerous work. We need to expand psychiatry to primary care physicians, the access for patients, because often that’s the point of entry into the medical system, but then there’s a long wait to get to a psychiatrist so, we have innovative program and in Giles County, where if you take someone to their primary care doctor when they’re struggling, we can tele-link them with a psychiatrist here at Carilion and have them evaluated immediately.
Hurst: I wouldn’t ask you to say either or, but tele-psychiatry also incentivizing people to want to become a psychiatrist in rural areas. How do you do that?
Dye: Well it goes with reimbursement for psychiatrists and also removing barriers for them opening their own offices.
Hurst: We’re out here in South Roanoke knocking on doors. Back in May you made a pledge to knock on 10,000 doors. Have you done that?
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