This is Kate Chronicle, I'm Jane Goodman-Clellan. Governor Jane Nixon visiting Cape Gerardo in mid-October to highlight his 100 Missouri Miles Challenge to get Missourians on the States Trails. I caught up with the Governor at Trail of Tears State Park to talk about Missouri's Trails, Tax Policy and Tax Credits for the movie industry. I also asked about Propofal, an anesthetic that the Missouri Department of Corrections was planning to use for the execution of two prisoners and why the Governor chose to move away from the use of that drug. The information has since become outdated and as of the recording of this show, the state has chosen a different drug. Hi, it's Kate Chronicle, I'm Jake and McClellan. We're joined today at Trail of Tears State Park by Missouri Governor Jane Nixon. Thank you so much for coming by to talk with us today. Absolutely, great to be here. Tell us why are you here in Trail of Tears? What brings you to this neck of Missouri? Well, we're using this park today to highlight our 100 Missouri Miles Challenge. Last beginning of the summer when we were chosen as the outstanding trail state in the country, the first late night challenge from Missouri, we got and used those trails. As we sit here right now, over 10,200 Missourians have already completed 800,000 miles. We also had an online poll as to the best place to hike. I said the one that won, I'd go to and that's Trail of Tears State Park. We're out today not only to be here and talk about it, but actually a hike a few miles on the trails. Have you had a chance to go and explore some of Missouri's trails since you've begun this initiative? I'm a little over 300 miles. Still haven't caught the first lady. She's out in front of me by 25 or 30 miles. As I've told a lot of folks, I've been chasing this one for 35 years. I hope to catch her at some point. But yeah, we've had a chance to spend time on a Katie Trail and in city trails and county trails throughout the state and look forward to the fall. If it's weather stays like it is, hopefully, in Missourians and others will continue to get outside, get healthy and enjoy our great resources. What are some things that you can learn about Missouri by hiking in trails? Well, I mean, a couple of things. First of all, the great history. When you walk the steps that Lewis and Clark traveled are when you go to Mark Twain's birthplace, are you go to right here, the Trail of Tears? What an incredible historic time for our country that this is the place that all those Native Americans hiked across in a horrific time. So you get to learn a lot. The second thing is that, you know, staying active is a key to staying healthy. And we're always trying to make sure Missourians are as healthy as possible and getting outside and staying moving is important to do that. Let's talk a little bit now about some other topics, in particular, tax policy. Your video of a Republican sponsored tax cut was survived the video session, but some Republicans are promising another similar bill coming through the next session. Are you ready to fight that fight again? Well, first of all, I was glad to strung by partisan group of legislators agreed with me and helped sustain that veto, which I thought was bad policy for the state on two fronts. Number one, I thought that raising taxes on prescription drugs and college textbooks was not good for the state's economy. And number two, the tax cuts they had, both while they were unfair, were also too deep. In order for us to move forward in the future, we've got to continue to support education and make sure that we live the value of education being the number one economic development tool that there is. I've supported and signed four tax cuts as governor. They've all met a two-pronged test that they were directly tied to job creation and number two that they were fiscally responsible. I felt that House Bill 253 met neither of those tests. We're starting to see some parts of the Affordable Care Act coming into effect. The health insurance exchange is now opening up. Earlier this year, you tried to get the legislature to expand its Medicaid program, but they declined that. Is this something that you're looking to talk with some of the Republicans and kind of start some conversations about perhaps in the next session, getting something like that going? It's interesting and important that the House and the Senate, both the point of interim committees to look at it. The House Committee has been clear in their recommendation to what Missourians said over the summer was that we needed to move forward and reform and improve and expand our Medicaid system so that more working Missourians have access to health care. I also think it's been important since the legislature has been out that a number of states headed up by Republican governors are moving forward. Most recently, just today, the state of Ohio moving forward, the state of Pennsylvania, the state of Michigan, the state of Iowa. It's clear to us that in order to succeed, we're going to have to try to do the best we can with taxpayer dollars. It just doesn't make a lot of sense for every Missourian to send $300 to Washington, DC, so that money can be spent to improve access to health care in other states. We believe that $2 billion dollars years should come back from Missoura. I'm hopeful that the legislature this year will agree with me. Now you've asked the Department of Corrections to postpone the execution of Alan Nicholas and due to the issues regarding a probe of fall. Is probe of fall off the table now as an execution drug form is there? Well, you look at two things in this regard. First and foremost, just making sure that private safety, public safety is upheld in that situation. Nicholson, a fellow that was convicted of very violent murders. But on the other side, you have public health. With the risks for public health, if probe of fall was removed from the protocol for doctors and others doing basic surgery around the country, we felt that it was important to stop this execution at this time, ask for a death warrant on down and come up with a new way chemically to do the lethal injection moving forward that will allow us to continue this responsibility of the death penalty, but not put at risk public health throughout the state and the country. What are some of the other options that are still on the table right now? I mean, I would leave that to the experts in the area. I'm not a chemist or an expert, I'm going to say that it was clear from the informed challenges with this one, that this is a probe of fall as a drug that has grown into significant use in operating rooms all across the country. And since the vast majority that is made in Europe, the risk of losing that supply in those other settings was too high in this situation and consequently, I've held this one back moving forward and I'll let the folks that are experts in this area develop an appropriate chemical protocol to move forward. Now the Department of Economic Development has a $4.5 million tax credit for film production in Missouri and this is sunsetting in November. Is that a tax credit that you feel that should be extended beyond its current use? It's an exciting one to be around, people love having movies filmed, but it's a little difficult to show the long-term economic impact of it. I think that we need to look at the entirety of our tax credit program. Your four last spent almost $620 million in tax credits that went out there and I think we need to have job creation, long-term job creation as part of our tax credit program. We'll all enjoy seeing Cape Gerardo and Gone Girl in just a few short months, but the bottom line is that's one that should be put in with all of the other tax credits to get a hard look in the upcoming session. I certainly would be somebody that would want to make sure that we had direct job creation as a part of our tax credit program. We've been talking today with Governor Jay Nixon here at Trail of Tears State Park. Governor Nixon, thank you so much and enjoy your hike today. Thank you. I spoke with Governor Nixon in mid-October at Trail of Tears State Park. Please note that Missouri has named another drug that it plans to use for executions. You can find more information about that issue at krcu.org.