Town Talk 11 a.m., M-F, 100.1 FM / 1450 AM

In the continuing discussion about the proposed move of The Department of Health and Human Services administrative offices to the Triangle North Corporate Park in Granville and Vance Counties, NC House 32 Representative Terry Garrison says, “If we can get true bi-partisan support on the relocation, I think that provides the greatest opportunity for sustainability.”

Garrison says the majority of the people in the House 32 district have asked him to “vote against the veto on the one hand, but on the other hand, those persons who have been my staunch allies and those who have been in the trenches and have been my front-line workers and sergeants for the campaign of a democratic party, each one of them has strongly advised me to sustain the Governor’s veto, not to override the Governor’s veto.”

Garrison has been told to his face, he said, that his allies plan to run someone against him if he does help override the Governor’s veto.

That type of pressure speaks to the level of pressure Garrison is under, both locally and from Raleigh. And from his Town Talk interview (listed in full below), one conclusion you could draw is that he is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t.

Garrison is under a lot of pressure with this, and he said, “I want these jobs to come here as much as anyone, perhaps more than anyone.”

Another conclusion and Garrison agrees, the DHHS move is being used as a pawn in a chess game. So much so, Garrison indicated he thought if it were back to the days in North Carolina that the Governor did not have veto power that the State would already have an approved budget and much of this DHHS move may have never come about.

Along those lines, politics got us here and politics is the only way out.

As the Town Talk interview begins, the first two questions are:

WHY NOT JUST VOTE TO OVERRIDE THE GOVERNOR’S VETO OF THE BUDGET, WHICH IS THE GUARANTEED WAY FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES TO LOCATE IT’S ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES IN GRANVILLE COUNTY?

YOU’VE SAID YOU WANTED TO NEGOTIATE THE MATTER OF MEDICAID EXPANSION SOME. WHAT WILL MEDICAID EXPANSION DO FOR THIS AREA THAT THE JOBS AND GROWTH OF DHHS MOVING TO THE TRIANGLE NORTH PARK WILL NOT DO?