The NC General Assembly: Making the Economy Worse (Specifics)

Rob Christensen obligingly details what the Republican leadership has done to hurt the state's economy:

▪ Commerce Secretary John Skvarla, a conservative Republican, said in February that North Carolina lost its bid for a Volvo manufacturing plant in part because the legislature hasn’t approved more jobs incentive funding....

▪ Last weekend, Wake County manager Jim Hartmann said on the Carolina Business Review TV program: “In Wake County we’ve got 60 projects under review and in discussion right now. Some of these are very sizeable. ... I think some of the projects have actually gone elsewhere because the state was not in a position to come to the table.” Added Dena Diorio, the Mecklenburg County manager: “Clearly, if you want to compete with South Carolina, you have to have more money, really to be in the game. That is really important.”

▪ Last week, Ernie Pearson, president of the N.C. Economic Developers Association, long active in GOP politics, said Senate plans to phase out economic incentives would not work in the real world. “I can tell you, and give you my word, we are losing projects in this state that are impactful in jobs, impactful in capital investment,” Pearson told the House Appropriations Committee, according to The Insider. Natalie English of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce said a company is considering moving its corporate headquarters to Charlotte and investing $300 million in a separate North Carolina location but it will likely not happen without state incentives.

▪ Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, who likes much of what the legislature has done, thinks the Senate plan to apply the sales tax to advertising would be “an unmitigated disaster.” He said Florida tried it and the state lost $100 million in advertising revenue to other states.

▪ Much of the film industry has left the state, heading to South Carolina and Georgia, after the legislature ended the roughly $60 million tax credit for making movies. The $10 million grant program that replaced it hasn’t kept the film industry here. Film companies previously spent $170 million in the Wilmington area alone.

▪ An estimated $1.5 billion in private investments were brought into the state to help transform historic factories, hospitals, storefronts and so on since 1998 as a result of the state historic tax credit program. The legislature let the historic tax credit lapse....

▪ The $13.6 million in annual state funding for the N.C. Biotechnology Center would be killed under the Senate budget. The center helps fund startups and research across the state. North Carolina has 60,000 people working in the life sciences industry. The House has voted to continue funding.

▪ At a time when unemployment in North Carolina has risen four straight months, the Senate is considering eliminating 8,500 teacher aides, in what would be the largest layoff in state history.

▪ While the legislature is concerned about getting jobs into rural areas, it killed the state’s regional economic development partnerships, four of seven of which mainly served rural or small town North Carolina, and folded the N.C. Rural Center into the Department of Commerce.

▪ The legislature has essentially frozen funding of the University of North Carolina system at pre-2008 recession levels. State funding for UNC has risen from $2.6 billion in 2007-08 to an expected $2.7 billion in 2015-16. “You can say whatever you want to about the university system, (that) there’s waste and you don’t like their politics,” Fred Eshelman, a Wilmington pharmaceutical executive and major Republican donor, said last year. “It doesn’t change the fact that, in my view, it’s the biggest economic engine we have in this state.”

Thom Tillis and the Gambling Industry: Trying To Keep the Bloodhounds at Bay

The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is investigating some $700,000 in campaign contributions to North Carolina politicians from the video sweepstakes (gambling) industry. "The biggest recipient was House Speaker Thom Tillis, who is seeking to unseat [Senator Kay] Hagan in November. Tillis received $127,000, followed by [Gov. Pat] McCrory and Senate leader Phil Berger [who received lesser but still substantial amounts]."

So what do Tillis and Berger do? They introduce legislation to take the State Bureau of Investigation away from Attorney General Roy Cooper and put it under the direct control of their patsy and yes-man, Gov. McCrory.

Yes, Virginia, that is a large and rancid rat you're smelling.

Rob Christensen writes, "Any hopes the [video sweepstakes] donors had of legalizing video gambling in the state again fell by the wayside because of scandal. The major donor from the industry was Chase Burns, an executive for an Internet sweepstakes company, who last year pleaded no contest in Florida to two criminal counts involving a lottery and forfeited $3.5 million in profits."

What's a little legalized bribery compared to all the harm this current Raleigh regime has done to education, the poor, our natural resources, etc.?

It just stinks.

Preacher with a Switchblade

Rob Christensen profiles the Rev. Mark Harris, pastor of First Baptist in Charlotte and also a candidate in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate. Harris is planning on a "strong turnout effort" on May 6, "rooted in the churches."

Rev. Harris has hired Tom Perdue as his chief political guru, of whom Christensen says, cryptically,  "he owns one of the biggest switchblades in the South."

Which sent us to The Google. Tom Perdue is a "take-no-prisoners political operative" who is "brilliant and ruthless" and known for sliming Republican candidates he's hired by other Republican candidates to slime.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/04/12/3779256/christensen-mark-harris-and-the.html?sp=/99/100/&ihp=1#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/04/12/3779256/christensen-mark-harris-and-the.html?sp=/99/100/&ihp=1#storylink=cpy

Economic Fail

You think the Republicans in Raleigh really understand anything about the state's economy? Rob Christensen's column this morning in the News&Observer might open your eyes, unless you've got them taped shut.

Let Them Eat Hay

How the Art Pope/Pat McCrory proposed budget for North Carolina will accelerate the decline of our rural counties: Rob Christensen marshals the details in his column today.

"Big Government Conservatives" = Ideological Jerks, by Any Measure

Rob Christensen's column yesterday in the Raleigh News&Observer is worth a read, if for no other reason than to reassure the targeted citizens of Boone that our little mountain town is not alone in being bullied by Raleigh (not to mention the Three Amigos on the Watauga County Commission).

Take the city of Sanford, NC. A bill was introduced by the new Republican majority in the NC General Assembly to turn municipal and school board elections in Sanford into partisan affairs, though none of the current office-holders there had asked for such action and none were consulted about the pending legislation. Mayor Cornelia Olive requested that at least a referendum be conducted to gather the opinions of Sanford residents on making their elections partisan contests. No, the General Assembly replied. Your elections must be partisan, and they will be partisan.

Tip of the iceberg.

Christensen supplies a further (highly incomplete) list of such big-government arrogance:

• The Raleigh City Council and Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue worked out a lease deal, which included many community leaders who had been working for years to transfer the ground of the old Dorothea Dix mental hospital into a city park. The Senate Republicans said ‘Sorry, we don’t like the deal,’ and are currently in the process of blowing it up. 

• For decades, Charlotte has run Charlotte Douglas International Airport. The legislature is now seizing control of the airport and setting up an independent regional authority. Raleigh knows best. 

• Asheville’s water system is likely to be under the control of a Metropolitan Sewage district without compensation, despite protests from the city. Raleigh knows best. 

• Consider the “Big Gulp” bill filed by three North Carolina lawmakers. They are seeking to block any North Carolina city or county from adopting a New York-style law banning the sale of sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces. Regardless of the merits of the issue, why is the legislature dictating to towns what laws it can pass regarding soft drinks? Raleigh knows best. 

• Legislation has been introduced that would bar local communities from restricting proposed modifications and additions to cell phone towers. Raleigh knows best. 

• A bill that stalled last year in the Senate would have restricted cities and counties from keeping guns out of their recreation facilities. The residents of Chapel Hill and Kinston could not possibly have more different views about this. Raleigh knows best. 

• The legislature has moved to pre-empt local communities on a whole range of growth-related issues such as annexation, extraterritorial jurisdiction zoning and communities making homebuilders adhere to design standards. 

The risk of criticism
All of these issues can be debated on their merits. But in every instance it is big-government conservatives in Raleigh dictating to local communities. 

If someone questions the power of Raleigh over a local community, there is often blowback. As Sarah Ovaska of N.C. Policy Watch reported, Republican Rep. Mike Stone of Sanford became irritated when a local radio talk show criticized his effort to turn Sanford elections partisan. 

The show aired on an FM radio station affiliated with Central Carolina Community College. Stone’s office sent an email questioning the station’s radio programming, budget and source of funding. The radio program was pulled. 

It just won’t do to have anyone criticizing the wisdom of the central government. After all, Raleigh knows best.

Is There a Downside for the Radical Right?

Had to read all the way to the end of Rob Christensen's Saturday column in the News&Observer to get the essential meat about the Republican radicals who've taken control in Raleigh and who have Gov. McCrory's male parts in a lockbox:

Normally, newly empowered politicians would move cautiously, especially in a purple state where numerous polls have indicated there has been no ideological sea change and when their own approval ratings were a cellar-dwelling 23 percent. 

But that has not been the case with the Republican legislature, which has been moving daily to roll back decades of Democratic programs. They are acting with utter self-confidence because they are sitting in bullet-proof districts they designed. They believe – and perhaps with good reason – that they are so beyond the reach of public opinion, that they could pass a law requiring North Carolinians to wear their underwear on the outside of their clothes and still get re-elected.

Let This Sink in for a Minute

In this election, more North Carolinians voted for Democratic congressional candidates than voted for Republican congressional candidates. It was some 2.19 million votes for Democratic candidates vs. 2.12 million votes for Republican congressional candidates. Then how come all Democrats in contested NC districts lost (except for Mike McIntyre in the NC-7 ... maybe)?

Redistricting.

The Republican-dominated General Assembly last year shoved as many as they could of those 2.19 million Democratic voters into just three Congressional Districts (a scheme known as "packing") and distributed the remainder into gerrymandered districts where they could never muster a majority.

Rob Christensen in today's News&Observer:

The Republicans did not invent the fine art of gerrymandering, but they have taken it to a new level. 

I am a perfect example. My Cary home sits in the district of U.S. Rep.-elect George Holding. But if I drive three blocks to leave my subdivision, I will enter the district of U.S. Rep. Renee Ellmers. If I drive to most nearby shopping centers or go to the movies, I will be in the district of U.S. Rep. David Price. 

Community of interest? Compact districts? Not so much.

The state's redistricting will eventually be heard in the courts, all the way to the state's Supreme Court, but of course the Republicans, with lots of outside money, managed to reinstall their conservative justice Mr. Newby with the state's Supremes. The fix is already in.

The NC GOP to NC Towns & Cities

As if the new Republican majority in the NC General Assembly gave a fat rat's ass about the implications of their actions and the ultimate impact of their policies, but Rob Christensen is right:

The future of North Carolina's cities got a lot less bright because of Republican legislation in 2011.

Gov. Perdue Knows When to Hold 'em?

Rob Christensen has a very interesting analysis of Gov. Perdue's budget proposal, which was released on Thursday. We can hope that he's right, that the Guv is indeed playing poker with the Republican General Assembly, and not Go Fish:

...In proposing to extend most of the 1-cent temporary sales tax that is due to expire in June, Perdue is taking political heat for having broken her word...

By proposing to extend the temporary tax hike, she was able to limit the loss of state positions to 10,000, but only 3,000 new layoffs. But she said without the temporary tax hike, another 13,499 people would lose their jobs.

The Republican legislative leadership has made it clear that they will not support a tax increase. So Perdue appears to be setting up the GOP legislators as the political heavies who will have to do the layoffs.

As we've already seen with the national Congressional Republicans and the Republicans in states like Wisconsin, when they said they were going to concentrate on jobs, they meant eliminating jobs.

It does not seem to occur to Republicans and their Teahadist political brains that government workers are workers too, contributing to the tax base and the general economy.

Tail, Meet Mouth

Political historian Rob Christensen reminds us that the last time Republicans had control of the General Assembly in Raleigh, they "raised taxes on railroads and other businesses and increased spending on schools." That was the Republican Party of progressive ideas. This year, a wholly different animal is slouching toward Raleigh to be born.

Christensen projects the likely legislative initiatives we can expect from our new over-lords:

1. "Eliminating the cap on the number of charter schools permitted in the state." Chip-chip-chipping away at the whole concept of free and public education.

2. "Banning government use of eminent domain for economic development projects." We can agree on banning property grabs that are turned over to private developers, but the real target here is the strangling of cities and land-use planning.

3. "Requiring photo IDs to vote." Ah! Voter suppression could not be far behind the suppression of public education.

4. "Challenging the new federal health care overhaul." Because Blue Cross of N.C. is doing such a superb job already gouging the state.

5. "Perhaps a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages." "Perhaps," Mr. Christensen? Surely you jest. There's no way under God's blue sky this bunch won't attempt to legislate whom you love, and how, and for how long.

Left off Mr. Christensen's list is just how Art Pope intends to get his pay-back out of this General Assembly ... the lifting of corporate taxes. And regulations. Don't forget regulations.

Ripping the Sheet

Rob Christensen's column in today's N&O, about the mounting problems besetting our ex-governor and his wife, is a must-read. Christensen is efficient in summing up the gist:

The saga includes many story lines. Did the Easleys use their position to get free cars, insider real estate deals, and cushy jobs? Were there built-in conflicts because Mary Easley was the first governor's wife with a professional career in a small state capital dominated by government and a university? Why does a former prosecutor, lawyer and law professor need another lawyer to do her talking?

One of the narrative threads is that the Democratic establishment is washing its hands of a leader for whom they never really cared.

Bev Perdue, Thinking Big

Looks like our new Guv is thinking her own large-ish change agenda, which is good. Rob Christensen, who is well qualified, does a little history primer on NC's Depression Guv, O. Max Gardner, on whom Perdue may be modeling herself.

We Remember a Pioneer

Charlotte's first black mayor Harvey Gantt was also North Carolina's first state-wide black candidate in the 20th century when he ran against Sen. Jesse Helms in 1990 and came close. He tried again in 1996, less successfully.

Despite two losses, Gantt really deserves credit for energizing progressive forces in NC. In fact, it was the Gantt-Helms race in 1990 that gave birth to the "new" Democratic Party in Watauga County. One could draw a straight line from Gantt organizers in Watauga in 1990 to the Democratic sweeps here in 2004, 2006, and 2008.

Interviewed by Rob Christensen in the N&O, Gantt recognized the changes in NC demographics since his first run for the Senate:

"I think it means the nature ... of North Carolina has changed substantially from those races in the 1990s. It's a younger population. It's a much more moderate population. The urban centers are much more influential in terms of North Carolina -- Charlotte, the Triangle, the Triad, Wilmington and Asheville."

When Gantt first ran in 1990, Christensen points out, there were 3.3 million registered voters; today there are 6.2 million.