Trump Found Another Way to Hurt North Carolina

 

Renewable energy is a growing industry in North Carolina’s economy. The state has over 7,300 jobs in the solar sector and ranks fifth in the U.S. for total installed solar capacity, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

--NandO Business News

Trump gives big love to oil and gas tycoons, and he parrots their attack lines against solar and wind. In the first month of his 2nd term, Trump's Department of the Interior suspended all clean energy development. Last August Trump called solar energy "THE SCAM OF THE CENTURY." His Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, at the same time Trump was mashing keys on Truth Social, announced that his department would rescind “all programs building solar panels on our farmland.” Yeah, we get the picture.

Trump has been told that somehow the generation of energy from direct sunlight and wind drives oil and gas prices up, along with electricity -- ridiculous notions that are easily disproven. Like with every other stupid notion that lodges inside his brainpan, Trump has been relentless. He deliberately placed high tariffs on almost all materials needed to build large-scale solar projects, and the Big Beautiful Turd passed last July by the Republicans in Congress eliminated all tax credits for wind and solar energy. 

Trump can nail the shriveled and bloody skin of Pine Gate Renewables in Asheville, a leading solar energy development firm, to his trophy wall (dammit!). Pine Gate Renewables is closing its Asheville plant and laying off more than 78% of its workforce, some 223 people in Buncombe, as it files for bankruptcy. According to the NandO, Pine Gate has 107 projects with three gigawatts of power capacity, which could power over 2.3 million homes. Pine Gate also has over 130 projects in development, which would have over 30 gigawatts of capacity if completed. If in this case means never. In paperwork filed with the state, Pine Gate blamed its dissolution on Trump.

“With respect to the renewable energy industry, legislative and regulatory challenges have significantly slowed solar power development,” the company's filing with the state said. “In combination, these forces have put extreme pressure on Pine Gate’s liquidity and overall financial position.”

Invisible Hands Make Evil Magic

 

A provision tucked into the proposed budget passed by the North Carolina House of Representatives last week would apply only to Buncombe and to Watauga counties. The provision would create an exemption from local codes for state building projects at UNC-Asheville and Appalachian State University -- only, of all the universities in the state.

According to Jack Evans in the Asheville Watchdog, the exemption provision first applied uniquely only to UNC-A; Watauga got added mysteriously as "part of a package" when the bill went through amendments in the House Appropriations Committee.

There's currently a controversy going on in Buncombe over UNC-A's administration's announcement earlier this year that it will seek to tear down a wooded area on campus in pursuit of an as-yet-unannounced project, which triggered a movement among Asheville voters to quash the development via zoning laws. Oops. This secret budget provision takes care of that -- by rendering public opinion, let alone local development ordinances, of no consequence whatsoever.

Crisis in Asheville -- Intercepted Email

The following cry for help from Asheville was sent on Tuesday. Perhaps the situation is less dire today, though only marginally probably. 

I am writing because Asheville, North Carolina and surrounding towns desperately need news coverage regarding our dire situation. We need drinking water IMMEDIATELY.

Following hurricane Helene, our water system was severely damaged. The city of Asheville reported there is no estimated date for water restoration. Our city has issued a boil water advisory, but we have no water to boil.

Residents, including myself, have not had water, power, or internet service since Friday morning. Many people have resorted to drinking from creeks, small pools, or hot water heaters, but others have no options at all. People without gas stoves are unable to boil water. Neighbors have shared what they can, but everyone is running out.

Asheville is going on the 5th day with no drinking water. No water for flushing toilets. No water for bathing. Sewage is backing up in homes and apartment buildings. Diseases and illness will spread.

This is such a large-scale disaster that there are not enough workers to help. First responders have been working around the clock, tirelessly to rescue people. Our utility workers are working nonstop to restore power. Churches, businesses and nonprofits have organized to provide basic needs. We have heard that rescue workers from around the country and even outside the US have been rushing to help us, and we are so grateful. The water system has sustained catastrophic damage. There is no quick solution, and disaster relief for emergency water delivery is terribly lacking.

I was one of the lucky ones that had enough gas in our vehicle to evacuate today. My husband, 17-year-old son and our dog were able get to South Carolina this afternoon. It was an intense trip that involved siphoning gas from our son’s car, and searching frantically for a gas station (with power, and not cash-only). Since I am no longer in survival mode, I’m able to focus on bringing attention to this water situation in the hopes that Asheville and Western North Carolina will receive help. 

Reaching out for help has been very difficult for Asheville residents as we have had no Internet access or power since Thursday night. In addition, a lack of sleep, minimal food and heightened stress has made life extremely difficult. For many, each day is spent frantically searching for water, food, gas, medication and other supplies like batteries, baby wipes, and candles. We are surrounded by floods, downed trees, power lines, debris and toxic mud. We are constantly hearing the sounds of helicopters, sirens, and chainsaws. Asheville is apocalyptic.

Most of our resources we have received are from each other. Our neighborhood organized daily meetings to connect neighbors to resources and provide emotional support. Sadly, many of our neighbors are living in substandard homes that have trees through them, or water pooled in their basement. Some homes are overcrowded with families taken in after their losing their homes. I briefly had a family of four living with me after their near death experience when four trees destroyed their home.

Many of us feel like we have been forgotten. We have not heard a word from FEMA about food, water or shelter. Why are there hydrating fluids sitting on shelves in closed grocery stores and warehouses? We have many amazing local businesses that have donated food and water. And then there are those who don’t. Why aren’t drinks like boxed milk, soda or juice being released from the many closed grocery stores? Instead, these stores are locked and watched by guards.

Why is our government not distributing pamphlets, or making nonstop radio announcements providing practical advice? Such as… Don’t use the toilet if you can’t flush. Suggest alternatives for disposing of feces. For drinking water, drain your hot water heaters. Collect rainwater in buckets or on trash bags. Say SOMEthing!

Our leaders could send texts or radio announcements and updates, at least hourly. Instead, I heard only occasional vague announcements regarding water restoration. I often tune in and hear local radio shows that have no bearing on our dire situation. A local for-profit radio station 104.3 has provided nonstop news coverage and empathy to locals calling in. Empathy goes a long way.

Where are the adult protective services workers? Our disabled and elderly neighbors cannot get out to find food, or fill up jugs of water from the creeks. Or from donation sites. Our unhoused neighbors have no access to notifications of distribution sites and no transportation. We have no public transportation.

This is not a problem just in my neighborhood. It’s all throughout Asheville and in the surrounding Western NC communities. There are families in hard to reach areas like Barnardsville who are stranded and have no way to come to donation centers.

Today there was a distribution of 1 gallon of water per household member at a handful of city locations. Many neighbors did not have gas to go pick up water. Elderly and disabled people could not go pick up heavy jugs of water. The city gave no concrete plan or date they would deliver water to them.

Please, PLEASE bring attention to this story. My neighbors won’t last much longer without drinking water.

We need an immediate federal, state and local government intervention to deliver water to all of Asheville and the surrounding areas. DELIVER water. Not announce distribution centers. We also need our leaders to encourage grocery stores to have a heart and allow people to gain access to any hydration. If such businesses choose to guard their stores rather than rescue their customers from hunger and thirst, we should boycott them when they reopen and the crisis has passed. We need stores throughout the state and country to make water donations. We’d welcome individuals who could to come to WNC with a truckload of water. (But be sure to arrive with a full tank of gas so that you can get back out!)

Please bring this issue to light. Report on this story ASAP and urge immediate action. Western North Carolina deserves help. My neighbors are a diverse group of wonderful, kind, gentle people that love our mountains and each other. I fear we are about to lose as many people from this water disaster as we tragically lost in the hurricane.

What's Behind the NC DemSenate Primary in Asheville?

 

Julie Mayfield

I paid much attention to Julie Mayfield in 2019. She was one of the Democrats who was running for Terry Van Duyn's NC Senate seat (SD49). Van Duyn was leaving to run for lieutenant governor in the 2020 Democratic primary. Mayfield, a noted environmental activist (MountainTrue) and Asheville City Council member, had amassed a legacy of community organizing and eleemosynary defense of the defenseless, so she won the 2020 primary and subsequently easily sailed to election to the NC Senate. SD49 leans heavily Democratic (61.4% Democrat, according to Dave's Redistricting; D+8 according to NC FREE), so whoever wins this primary likely takes the seat. The District takes in half of Buncombe County, the half with Asheville.

So what's up with Julie Mayfield's first term that she's drawn not one but two primary challengers, two women, one young and white, Taylon Breeden; the other Black and a newly elected Asheville city councilwoman, Sandra Kilgore, who takes a surprising position on the removal of the city's memorial to white supremacist Zebulon Baird Vance. But why kick out Mayfield? Because of a particular vote? An unpopular position? No tea or coffee for visitors in her outer office?

I profiled Mayfield in June 2019: "[She] got her law degree from Emory University in 1996, which apparently fueled an inherent gene for pro bono and public good advocacy. She directed the Turner Environmental Law Clinic at Emory University School of Law where she represented environmental groups, civic associations, and individuals in public interest environmental law cases. From 2003 to early 2008, she was Vice President and General Counsel for the Georgia Conservancy. She arrived in Asheville in 2008 and by 2011 she was appointed by Governor Bev Perdue to the Mountain Resources Commission, where she served until the legislature dissolved the Commission in 2013. She also served on the North Carolina Conservation Network board for six years, chairing it for two."

Hell, she even prides herself on being a "non-theist."

In trying to understand the undercurrents behind this primary, I stumbled on a truly revelatory Facebook livestream of a joint appearance/interview with Lauren Stein. It's archived on YouTube as "NC Senate 49 Forum," and it was well worth its long running time (even though for the first 20 minutes, it's a comedy of errors as Julie Mayfield attempts to conquer the technology and join the livestream. When she finally gets on, however, she brings clarity, informed common sense, and further confirmation that she's waaay qualified to be representing Buncombe in Raleigh).

Taylon Breeden

Taylon Breeden is obviously Mayfield's chief rival in this election. She's a champion for the working class and one sharp tack. She began to remind me of AOC for her charm mixed liberally with progressive grit and a bracing bluntness. I'd describe her as a left populist, and there's nothing muffled about her vision of what's gone wrong for working people. I found her compellingly informed on the details of legislation, particularly the legalization of hemp farming. She owns a hemp extraction lab and company, Simply Extract, which produces CBD oil. She recently opened a new business in downtown Asheville, The Pot Stirred, which features beverages infused with CBD and mushrooms — categorized as Buzzed Brews and Herbal Potions -- and a rotating menu of CBD and Stay Glazed Donuts. But don't let that joking airiness about the devil herb mislead you. There's nothing joking nor airy about her policy sharpness and determination to shake things up.

Breeden's most aggressive challenge to Mayfield involves "transparency" in that she has alleged that Mayfield, along with many other Democrats in Raleigh, have let themselves get stuck in Duke Energy's "back pocket," a charge that Mayfield vigorously defended (and I believe her). Like the Bernie bros I have known, Breeden has no use for "incrementalism," working for the small things you can get when you're in the vast minority as Democrats are in the General Assembly. But Mayfield has shown herself capable, particularly in being one of four Democrats who helped negotiate and make better the governor's landmark Clean Energy Plan, which he signed last October, the first such law passed by a majority Republican legislature in the South.

Sandra Kilgore

Somewhat outclassed and out-gunned in the "NC Senate 49 Forum" was Sandra Kilgore. Forum host Lauren Stein (who's as well informed, as blunt in her questioning as you could hope any national broadcaster might be -- but usually isn't) asked Kilgore what she was doing running for higher office barely a year into her first term on the Asheville City Council, a question Kilgore wasn't ready for. While Mayfield and Breeden were armed with facts and details, Kilgore waded safely in the shallow water of vague generalities (often "glittering").

The one thing that stands out about Kilgore was her opposition to the removal of the Vance obelisk from Pack Square. She wanted it "repurposed" rather than torn down, since it copies what was actually an ancient Egyptian symbol of the 
sun god Ra. Kilgore wrote on mountainx.com, "That makes the architectural form 13,000 years old. It symbolized the concept of duality and balance. Obelisks are thought to represent good energy and dispel negative forces."

Asheville’s obelisk itself does not represent the Confederacy. Many of the Confederate statues removed thus far were made in the image of Confederate soldiers, not stand-alone obelisks. Asheville is known to be a city of the arts, and the monument represents one of Asheville’s oldest art structures in downtown Asheville.

The Vance obelisk was designed by Richard Sharp Smith, the supervising architect of the Biltmore House, and was modeled on the Washington Monument, and to Kilgore (to me too) worth saving as an Asheville landmark with no visible connection to white supremacy (like a bronze Confederate soldier gripping a gun). Kilgore evidently felt that the fury about white supremacy after the killing of George Floyd divided her community unnecessarily, and she observed that white elites were often the source of telling the Black community how it ought to feel about the monument.

Kilgore's position is perhaps too nuanced and sophisticated for many liberals, but I was both surprised and enlightened by her taking that stand. She's a poised presence, and though she seemed out of her depth in the forum, her cosmopolitan vibe comes from a career as an international traveler, a flight attendant for British Airways. It's hard to rattle an experienced flight attendant. Since returning to Asheville (where she grew up) to take care of aging parents, she's opened her own real estate business catering especially to the Black community.

Mayfield can win this primary, though Breeden is going to have a following, and whatever happens, I believe Asheville is well stocked with coming powerful political women. Breeden and Kilgore both have much to offer, and I could hope that they'll stay leaders in the community. Anyway, after watching Lauren Stein's Facebook forum, Asheville seems even luckier to me for its abundance of intellectual talent. 

A Strong Contender for the NC Senate

NC Senator Terry Van Duyn is not running again in 2020 for her Senate seat (District 49) because she's running for Lieutenant Governor. District 49 is considered "strong Democratic." It covers all but the southernmost portion of Buncombe County and most of Asheville. It's a prime opportunity for the right Democrat to join the circus in Raleigh. So you can expect a rush of contenders.

The right Democrat may well be Julie Mayfield, since 2015 a member of the Asheville City Council and one of the foremost leaders of MountainTrue, an environmental advocacy nonprofit. She helped co-found MountainTrue in 2015, the same year she made it to the City Council. MountainTrue was a merger of environmental advocacy groups in Henderson, Jackson, and Macon counties and has become the official home for both the French Broad Riverkeeper and the Watauga Riverkeeper.

Julie Mayfield got her law degree from Emory University in 1996, which apparently fueled an inherent gene for pro bono and public good advocacy. She directed the Turner Environmental Law Clinic at Emory University School of Law where she represented environmental groups, civic associations, and individuals in public interest environmental law cases. From 2003 to early 2008, she was Vice President and General Counsel for the Georgia Conservancy. She arrived in Asheville in 2008 and by 2011 she was appointed by Governor Bev Perdue to the Mountain Resources Commission, where she served until the legislature dissolved the Commission in 2013. She also served on the North Carolina Conservation Network board for six years, chairing it for two.

Most recently, MountainTrue came out strong against the petition by the Town of Beech Mountain to the Army Corps of Engineers to be allowed to hoard more water from Beech Creek: "Instead of fixing their leaky water pipes, the Town of Beech Mountain is trying to get the Army Corps of Engineers to change the permit that determines how much water it is required to release from its Buckeye Reservoir to support stream life downstream in Beech Creek." Bad municipal infrastructure shouldn't take it out on Mother Nature.

MountainTrue looks financially healthy. It's now offering grants to "kids, teens and families" all over the mountain region who'll be actively engaged in "policy and project advocacy, outreach, and education, and on the ground projects." It intends to feed the grassroots of environmental activism and make a difference. I take that as the stamp of Julie Mayfield's character.

On the Asheville City Council, she's pushed a new program for down-payment assistance for prospective homeowners and she's shown a commendible curiosity about how the Tourism Development Authority spends tourism tax revenues.

From the article about her announcement of candidacy in March of this year: Prior to MountainTrue, Mayfield worked for Amnesty International USA and for the Atlanta Community Food Bank and for the Georgia Justice Project. She advocated for people caught up sometimes in a meat-grinder of law enforcement, which accounts for Mayfield's active participation in rewriting the use-of-force rules for the Asheville City Police, a policy-rewrite that Mayfield says has led to a 61% reduction in use-of-force incidents.


Mayfield Not the Only Democrat Already Running

Ben Scales beat Mayfield's announcement last March by a single day. Scales is also a lawyer and has run unsuccessfully twice for Buncombe district attorney, once as an unaffiliated candidate. Scales came out immediately for the legalization of marijuana and staked out other progressive positions:

"Health care is a right, climate change needs rapid solutions now, education is for everyone, gender is a spectrum, immigrants are welcome, domestic violence won’t be tolerated, women are equal, agriculture and innovation is vital, elections should be fair and voter registration automatic, the cash bail system, mass incarceration and the war on drugs must end."

Remember the late March scandal when the wife of the youngest member of the NC General Assembly from Transylvania County had to take out a protective order against her abusive husband? Ben Scales was the lawyer who helped the wife win that protective order.

How the NC Gen'l Assembly Has "Preempted" Its Cities

Barry Yeoman

Very grateful to Barry Yeoman for his political history of what led up to Pat McCrory's "bathroom bill," HB2. I'm particularly grateful for Yeoman's teaching me the term "preemption," which explains a great deal about the current frenzy of Republican "power-grabbing" by the North Carolina General Assembly. Quoting at length here, for which I apologize, but this is news to me and important. Highly recommend the full text of Yeoman's excellent article:

When I started covering the North Carolina legislature in the mid-eighties, business interests were already pushing to strip cities and counties of their powers. In 1987, Representative George Miller, a Durham Democrat, introduced a measure making it harder to remove nuisance billboards, as Raleigh's city council was trying to do. He also sponsored a bill, favored by the N.C. Board of Realtors, prohibiting local officials from "down-zoning" properties to lower-intensity use—an important conservation tool—without compensating owners.

Neither bill passed. But a strategy was taking shape: as cities took more initiative to improve their quality of life, aggrieved businesses could plead their cases to the friendlier state legislature. This tactic of defanging local governments is called "preemption." It's hardly restricted to North Carolina. And its use has burgeoned over the years leading up to HB 2.

The tobacco industry, fighting indoor-smoking regulations, helped pioneer preemption in the 1980s....

Big Tobacco made big strides initially, then lost ground as public support grew for smoking restrictions. The more enduring push came from the gun lobby, which blanketed the country with bills to stop places like Durham and Chapel Hill from regulating firearms....

Since then, preemption efforts have flourished. "Every industry, every interest group, said, 'We might not get what we want, but we can stop anything' "....

Those industries are often assisted by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a free-market advocacy group that brings together business leaders with state legislators at luxury hotels. ALEC also publishes model laws curtailing local authority, with wording that lawmakers can copy and paste.

It's no shock, then, that in recent years states have barred municipalities from regulating fracking, banning or taxing plastic bags, and creating sanctuaries for immigrants. This spring, Wisconsin outlawed county development moratoriums. Mississippi upended local regulations on companies like Uber. Arizona took away local leverage over drones and puppy mills. And Kansas passed a law preempting—in a single swoop—local policies governing rent control, housing inspections, and nutritional labeling.

As HB 2 makes clear, one focus of this push has been labor: both ALEC and the dining and tourism industries have tried to prevent local governments from regulating wages or other working conditions....

This means not just handcuffing elected officials, but also overturning direct democracy. Two years ago, voters in Orange County, Florida, approved an ordinance mandating up to seven days of annual paid sick leave for workers at all but the smallest companies. Opposing the measure were Darden Restaurants (Olive Garden, Red Lobster) and Disney. Before the vote could take place, however, the Florida legislature outlawed local employment standards. That invalidated the ballot measure as soon as it passed....

North Carolina has long used preemption, though not in an exceptional way. That changed with an off-year election [2010] that immoderately altered the political mood in Raleigh....

[The Tea Party wins of 2010 were] more than a partisan shift. The 2010 election triggered a breakdown of North Carolina's moderate consensus, which Democrats like former governor Jim Hunt and Republicans like former governor Jim Martin had shared for fifty years. That consensus favored roads, schools, and racial civility, all of which undergirded a healthy business climate.

The new legislative majority set out to dismantle that consensus: curtailing voting access, cutting education spending, and rejecting a federally funded Medicaid expansion. It slashed unemployment benefits and imposed new barriers to abortion. It repealed the Racial Justice Act, which guarded against bias in the sentencing of death-row inmates. It set into motion Amendment 1, which wrote one-man/one-woman marriage into the state constitution until the federal courts invalidated it. It redrew its own district lines to explicitly give Republicans a greater electoral advantage.

And it picked up the mantle of preemption with exceptional vigor. Never before had there been such a disconnect between the state's government and its urban areas, nor such a strong impulse to rein in liberal and even centrist cities.

This time, preemption went beyond big-picture issues like gun control. Lawmakers got personal with individual cities and counties. They tried to wrest from Asheville control of its own water system and, from Charlotte, control of its airport. (The Asheville case is currently in legal limbo.) They redrew electoral lines for the Wake County commissioners and school board (struck down by the U.S. Court of Appeals this month) and Greensboro City Council (still in court). They forced Durham to extend utility services to the 751 South development near Jordan Lake, despite concerns about water quality and traffic. [Et cetera, including, of course, the still unresolved taking away of Boone's extra-territorial jurisdiction.]

The NC General Assembly Has Gone Home, Thank the Good Lord!

They adjourned sine die last night. Here's what they didn't do:

1. They didn't redistrict city commish races in Asheville, as Sen. Apodaca wanted -- presumably his parting stab-in-the-back for "sin city" as he retires from the General Assembly. Apodaca was the only Buncombe legislator favoring this supposedly "local bill," which under the rules (?) rendered it unpassable, though there were some willing to bend those rules. Redistricting for Asheville failed, and it failed because some of Apodaca's fellow Republicans found it an unethical power grab. Imagine that.

2. They didn't repeal HB2, that odious piece of crap that has made North Carolina about as attractive to economic development as a toxic waste dump. They repealed one small provision, the right to sue for wrongful termination in state court. Otherwise, the rest of that pile of right-wing dung is still in place and under the wrinkling nose of the rest of the nation.

3. They didn't pass the trio of constitutional amendments, including their version of TABOR (Taxpayer's Bill of Rights), which has caused such problems in Colorado.

4. They didn't pass "regulatory reform" bills that would have curtailed wind farms and the construction of solar farms.

5. They didn't pass "background checks" for public school employees which would have criminalized and stigmatized teachers who participate in acts of civil disobedience.

6. They didn't manage to redraw Wake County commish and school board districts following the decision by the Fourth Circuit, which means that the old districts remain in place, sans Republican power-grabbing.

Hattip: Mark Binker. His excellent reporting enumerates other controversial bills that died the good death last night.

Sticking His Pixy Nose Into Other People's Business Since 2011

Tom Apodaca, the powerful Republican senator in Raleigh representing Buncombe, Henderson, and Transylvania counties, has proposed a bill in the General Assembly to roll back Democratic electoral control of Asheville city government. Apodaca proposed a redistricting scheme to throw five of seven currently elected Democrats into races against each other. (Taking bets currently at 50-to-1 on whether the G.A. passes it.)

Apodaca's "cover" -- his explanation -- for such radical partisan gerrymandering ... business interests on the south side of Asheville don't have enough representation on city council, and they're complaining. (It's not like Apodaca would ever turn a deaf ear to the pleas of constituents!)

Asheville Citizen-Times: "The move has the backing of a majority of one, Apodaca. None of Asheville’s elected officials or the four other lawmakers who represent parts of the city, all Democrats, were on board with the proposal."

On representation on the city council for South Asheville: "...there’s no argument that South Asheville should be represented. But there’s nothing on the books that says a South Asheville resident can’t be elected to office. All it takes is a good candidate with a good platform running a good race."

As we all know from five years of Republican over-lordship, good platforms don't exist for them. Only regressive, repressive, backward, and radical platforms exist in the contemporary Republican Party of North Carolina.

The "General Assembly Is God" Court Decision

This morning Justice Chris Dillon of the NC Court of Appeals issued a three-judge panel's decision in the case about the seizure of Asheville's water supply.

It's pretty amazing. Or not amazing at all, if you've been paying attention to what's been happening to the higher levels of "justice" in North Carolina. Here's the "money quote" from Dillon's written opinion:  "Our General Assembly has the power to create a new political subdivision, to withdraw from Asheville authority to own and operate a public water system, and to transfer Asheville’s water system to the new political subdivision without compensation."

Got that?

Asheville built it. Asheville paid for it. The General Assembly can take it and give it to some other group, and they don't have to pay Asheville a thin red dime for it.

You realize what this means for the long-debated and controversial new Boone water intake on the New River. If you don't know what it means, you might be playing with less than a full deck of cards or you might be an incumbent on the Boone Town Council.

Asheville in the Crosshairs

Like Boone, only different.

The wealth redistribution scheme currently moving in the North Carolina General Assembly will punish the city of Asheville, jerking away big $$ in sales tax revenue and redistributing that money to poorer counties that generate far less in sales tax revenue. That scheme, combined with the already passed elimination of the business privilege license fees, will punish the city of Asheville to the tune of $2.5 - $3 million.

We now live in a state where, if you don't support the dominant Teapublicans, you will be punished, or, at worst, you will have your local elections monkeyed with until you DO support the dominant Teapublicans.

Ironically, the same sales tax redistribution proposal that will hurt Asheville will actually end up helping the city of Boone, which was punished last year by County Commission Chair Nathan Miller, who changed the way sales taxes were distributed to the county's municipalities, rewarding Blowing Rock, Seven Devils, and Beech Mountain with windfalls while depriving Boone of $2 million.

Under the law that Senator Dan Soucek and Rep. Jonathan Jordan will obediently vote for (probably),  because their Republican overlords demand it, Nathan Miller's ability to change sales tax distribution will end, and the resort towns of Blowing Rock, etc., along with the county of Watauga as a whole, along with the fire districts ... will all see less revenue.

So how's that "Carolina Comeback" working out for ya?

NC Cities: Get Ready For Another Round of Torture

It is no secret that the Republican power-base in North Carolina in mainly rural. The cities generally vote Democratic, and the Republican-dominated General Assembly has shown every willingness to punish certain cities for that sinfulness.

Boone loses its Extraterritorial Jurisdiction. Check! Asheville loses its water system without compensation. Check! Charlotte loses its airport. Check! (All of these laws are being challenged in court, and their final disposition is unclear.)

Now comes advance warning that the General Assembly intends to redistribute sales tax revenues to benefit rural counties and starve the urban. From this morning's News&Observer:

RALEIGH — A redistribution of local sales tax revenue to benefit poor counties is on the agenda for legislative leaders preparing for the session that begins in January.

At a lunch Wednesday sponsored by the N.C. FreeEnterprise Foundation, Senate Majority Leader Harry Brown talked about shifting local tax revenues to help rural counties.

Shades of what Nathan Miller and the Watauga County Commission did to Boone last year. There's always spite and revenge running deep under any professed concern for the plight of The Rural, and there is a plight of The Rural that needs to be addressed. It just needs to be attended to without crippling the urban economic engine that lights the lights.

A comment posted on the N&O article highlights at least one irony:

If you redistribute income tax from the wealthy to the poor that is socialism and punishing the successful. But when you take money from successful counties and give to your poor county, that is considered good tax policy? Well no one said conservatives were consistent.

Working Poor: You Can Expect No Help From Raleigh

Long, in-depth article published yesterday in the Asheville Citizen-Times delves into the politics of the minimum wage in North Carolina. Over half of the states have already raised the minimum wage (West By-God Virginia among them, for Christ's sake), but introduce that idea to the General Assembly in Raleigh, and all you get are icy stares and the occasional loud guffaw.

Not gonna happen in North Carolina, not with this current bunch running things, since their understanding of good ole American capitalism is that some people -- actually, many people -- need to be starving or at least perpetually hungry to guarantee a large and docile workforce to clean those toilets and mow those lawns.

Many cities across the land have also acted to raise their own local minimum wage, and some North Carolina cities, including Asheville, would love to follow suit, but as you should know, there is no "home rule" in North Carolina. All decision-making of any significance is centrally located in the General Assembly, which enables it to take away Boone's ETJ and Asheville's water system and to deny any North Carolina town from raising the local minimum wage.

Because Republicans believe in huge centralized power rather than local control. Because Republicans believe in the dignity of work and in a living wage. Because Republicans have the welfare of the little guy always uppermost in their minds.

Just kidding!

State Seizure of Asheville's Water Struck Down by Judge

Yesterday Wake County Superior Court Judge Howard Manning Jr. struck down the 2013 General Assembly law that would have transferred Asheville's water system to a county authority.

Judge Manning found the law in violation of the state's constitution specifying what "local bills" are allowed to accomplish (Senator Dan Soucek ... your day is coming!). Judge Manning also ruled the bill an "unlawful taking," and -- the best part -- the judge said the law had no "rational basis."

When a court of law rules officially that the ruling party is in fact irrational, we find some reason to hope for the future of North Carolina.

Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer said Manning's decision is "a huge victory for cities. When you initiate a lawsuit of this magnitude, you need to do so responsibly because it has broad implications across the state."

As Boone voters know, Republicans in the General Assembly are pretty much willing to do anything to hurt, hobble, and high-jack the ability of North Carolina's towns and cities to determine their own futures.

Does Buncombe Have More Drama Than Watauga?

You be the judge.

This could supply a full season's scenario for "The House of Cards."

You've got a dewy-eyed and reportedly naive Democratic challenger and a shiv-wielding Republican incumbent by the name of Tim Moffitt, who's angling to replace Thom Tillis as Speaker of the NC House.

You've got the back room of an Italian eatery.

You've got a third-party witness who's also a Republican office-holder and hardly to be credited as an unbiased commentator.

Every bad thing that happened legislatively to Asheville in 2013 can be traced straight back to Tim Moffitt.

Big Boob(s) in Ashvegas

The District 3 County Commissioner race in Buncombe County is an all-Republican circus, with two extremely conservative challengers (until yesterday) trying to oust a Republican incumbent. Whoever wins the primary takes the seat.

Until yesterday, a prime Tea Party candidate, Lewis Clay, was in the race to win, but then it came to light that Mr. Clay had "likes" on his Facebook page of "Bored and Available" and "Big Boobs."

Oops.

The "Big Boobs" site is apparently not a tribute page for extremely conservative politicians who can't keep their appetites under wraps, though that would be appropriate.

Asheville Will Be on The Daily Show

Don Yelton

We're told that the segment filmed recently in Asheville by "The Daily Show" regular Aasif Mandvi and focusing on voter suppression in North Carolina will be broadcast Oct. 23rd or Oct. 24th, and it will feature an interview with Buncombe County conservative Don Yelton. Yelton is already suspicious that he will be made to look "racist."

One wonders why he would think that. He knows what he said. If he's ever watched The Daily Show, he should know that if he said anything outrageous or stupid or "racist," it'll get major play.

The Buncombe GOP is even more factionalized and poisonous than the Watauga GOP. Yelton is part of the Tea Party wing, and he was kicked out of the regular Buncombe Republican Party last year. He's been some sort of local talk show host and enjoys describing himself as the "Rush Limbaugh of Western North Carolina."

You wouldn't expect the Rush Limbaugh of Western North Carolina to say something "racist," now would you?

Yelton has run repeatedly and unsuccessfully for public office. Apparently, he can't resist a TV camera or any opportunity to be in the spotlight.

The Paper Tiger Folds Himself Into Asheville

Governor Pat McCrory is now sneaking into North Carolina cities in order to avoid coming face-to-face with citizens who have a problem with his administration.

With only two hours notice, McCrory suddenly swooped into Asheville yesterday to take the microphone before a safe audience, the Council of Independent Business, and to pretend that he's actually running the economic policy show instead of Art Pope and a bunch of other Republican leaders who've been busy engineering rewards for the rich people.

Protesters against McCrory showed up anyway across the street from Magnolia's in what is becoming a regular feature of The Guv's unhappy life in state government -- people holding up signs and calling him out on decisions he's made gone along with.

The best part: our dumb-as-a-stump governor, who graduated from Catawba College in education and poly sci, had the gall to say this about legislation he's signed to give more to the rich while taxing the poor and the middle class more:

“This is too complex for the journalists. They don't have economics degrees, they've not been in business. I respect them greatly, but you get it. This is what we have to do to rebuild our economy. It's not easy. I empathize with the people being impacted, but my goal is to get these people back into jobs.”

By the "people" he says he's trying to get "back into jobs," we assume he's referring to his 24-year-old campaign operatives that got $80,000+ jobs in the McCrory administration, because we haven't noticed any other jobs coming to North Carolina and certainly not via McCrory's policies.

Mountain Moral Monday

The scene yesterday in Pack Square, Asheville, for the rally against the North Carolina General Assembly and its recent actions RE voting rights, unemployment insurance, Medicaid funding, environmental degradation, education funding, and women's rights.

Look What the General Assembly Did To Lee County

We hear about the new Republican majority in the General Assembly and what they did to Asheville's water system, and we hear about how they're trying to strip Charlotte of its airport, and we know about how they're forcing Durham to deliver water and sewer services against the will of the people to a huge mega-development outside city limits.

But some of their "smaller-scale" meddling in local government doesn't get the same news coverage.

Take Lee County and its local school board. See, Lee County has a majority-Democrat school board, and that fact apparently puts a burr under the saddle of the local Republican member of the NC House, Rep. Mike Stone, who was just elected in the Tea Party surge of 2010 and who has been drunk with power ever since.

Rep. Stone introduced three local bills in the General Assembly, all clearly intended to punish the Lee County School Board:

1. H490 forces the school board  — which has been officially non-partisan since it was established in 1967 — to hold partisan elections. 

2. H491 transfers control of school resource officers from the school district to the Lee County Sheriff's Office. The sheriff is a Republican.

3. H512 takes away the school board's power to appoint members of Central Carolina Community College's Board of Trustees.

H490 became law. H491 became law. H512 became law.

So much for local government.

But wait! A Lee Co. Superior Court judge has just granted a restraining order against H512 while a new lawsuit plays itself out.

The passage of local bill H512 ended the terms of four members of the Central Carolina Community College, specifically the four who were appointed by the Lee County School Board, and it furthermore decreed that none of those four people can ever be reappointed. Those four, one of whom was only sworn in a couple of weeks ago, have sued, alleging that H512 serves no legitimate government interest and is arbitrary and capricious.

"Arbitrary and capricious"? Why, yes, and perhaps there's still a judge in North Carolina who can recognize the truth of that. While H512 was singling out four people appointed by a Democrat-majority school board, it was leaving alone four other trustees appointed by the Republican dominated Lee County Commission. That's about as arbitrary as you can get. Also blatantly partisan, turning education, or at least the possibility of education, into a political pissing match.

Gov. Squishy Refuses To Take a Stand on Asheville's Water

Living up to his growing reputation as a finger-in-the-wind sort of guy, Gov. McCrory announced that he would not sign the Asheville water seizure bill, and he would not veto it either. He's going to allow it to become law without touching it, which is what happens in North Carolina, absent a governor who's willing to say what he thinks.