The GOP in the General Assembly Once Again Shrug-Off Hurricane Helene

 

Gov. Stein in Boone recently.
Noah Williford, The Appalachian

Just happening in North Carolina: For the second time in three months the Republican bastards in the General Assembly (the new team of Berger/Hall) have proposed much less -- about half of what Western North Carolina needs for recovery from Hurricane Helene and half of what Governor Stein requested for our devastated region -- Berger/Hall say $500 million should be enough, instead of the requested and badly needed $1 billion.

To recap the first General Assembly diss of our ravaged counties, here's Thomas Mills:

In December, when Roy Cooper was still governor, the legislature went back into session, supposedly to address the needs of hurricane victims. Instead, they used the time to strip power from Democrats who won seats on the Council of State in November. They shuffled money around from existing funds but refused to allocate additional resources to the region.

As Republican Representative Mark Pless told The Assembly at the time, “The disaster portion of it doesn’t do anything …. [I]t was just moving money from one account to another without actually appropriating it for anything.”

Stein's request included grants to businesses wiped away or severely damaged by Helene, but Berger/Hall's bill prohibits grants to businesses. Bastards. I know of at least one thriving landscaping business in western Watauga that was totally wiped out -- greenhouses, equipment, plants, the whole livelihood. FEMA does not give disaster money to businesses. It's up to the state. And those Republican SOBs think they can get away with turning their backs on some 30 majorly Republican counties they consider "theirs."  

At least Gov. Stein engineered a public-private fund of some $30 million to help businesses specifically, but that's a mere drop in the bucket. A small Kubota front-end loader, back-end digger will run you over $80,000.

Doran's Crystal Ball

 

Destin Hall

Enjoyed Will Doran's forecast of what to watch most closely in Raleigh this year, with so many new characters running things, from the governor's office to the House speakership, to that pesky extra-Dem in the House who gives Josh Stein his best chance for a sustained veto (supposedly gives Stein that advantage, because there's always also Cecil Brockman to watch). 

Doran mentions a rather bold gesture of Governor Stein's -- a very public "olive branch" of bi-partisanship. The governor invited several Western Republican lawmakers on stage with him last week in Asheville when he was signing executive orders about Hurricane Helene, and he appointed Republican Sen. Kevin Corbin from Macon Co. as co-chair of a new committee Stein created to advise the governor’s office on Helene recovery needs. I hadn't picked up on that, and it looks like a good move.

Doran's background on medical marijuana legalization in North Carolina is interesting -- let alone the truly hilarious notion of "recreational marijuana." Legalizaion has been stopped cold repeatedly in the NC House, after the state Senate had passed legalization several times. "House leadership" won't countenance it, Doran says, and former Speaker Tim Moore would never let it come to a vote, apparently fearful he didn't have the majority of his caucus with him. Will the new Speaker (and comparative youngster) Destin Hall do better?

What Doran explores about a Trump immigration pogrom and its ramifications for the state's economy is also worth quoting at length:

Immigration could also require attention at the legislature. Trump has pledged a mass deportation of immigrants in the country illegally, and some conservatives are also now pushing to reduce the number of visas given for immigrants to work here legally. Either strategy would disrupt the local economy and potentially drive up inflation: Approximately 1 million immigrants live in North Carolina, many of them employed in large industries such as agriculture, construction, tech and health care.

The GOP is becoming increasingly torn between more populist voters in the party base and pro-business interests among the major party donors — and the question of how to handle immigration is just one area in which 2025 could bring clashes between those opposing factions.

 Will Doran reports regularly for WRAL in Raleigh.

'Red Wave' This November? GOP Polling Sez It Ain't Necessarily So

 

Thanks to Carolina Forward for this bombshell:

Last week, our research team discovered leaked Republican polling on key NC state legislative races. Here’s how it works.

When state-level Republicans want national, DC-based GOP organizations to pay for key campaign activities like polling, there are certain campaign finance legal hoops they must jump through. Those organizations can conduct the polling, but they must post it somewhere “public” for the North Carolina GOP to “find” it. Usually, this is by posting it somewhere obscure.

Well - this time, we found that polling. And it tells a very different story than you’ve probably heard in the media. Republican polling shows that several Carolina Forward Slate candidates - and many beyond it - are running in a dead heat, or narrowly ahead, of their Republican opponents:

Rep. Howard Hunter (NC House District 5): +7%

Amy DeLoach (NC House District 20): -0.9%

Christy Clark (NC House District 98): -1.7%

Sen. Sydney Batch (NC Senate District 17): +3%

… And beyond the Carolina Forward Slate:

Frank McNeil (NC Senate District 21): -0.7%. GOP incumbent: Sen. Tom McInnis

Christine Kelly (NC House District 37): +1.2%. GOP incumbent: Rep. Erin Paré

Rep. James Gailliard (NC House District 25): +0.3%

Again: this is Republican-sponsored polling, intended for internal use by their legislative caucus and partners.

So, what does this all mean? Here are our takeaways:

At a bare minimum: there’s just no evidence - in 15 separate polls all across the state - for any sort of “red wave” building for the 2022 election

In previous cycles, polling in June/July was strongly indicative of November results

Cheri Beasley is running tied, or slightly ahead, of Ted Budd in all of the closest districts

Watauga County Needs a Minimum Housing Code

 

Guest Post by Jon-Dalton George, Boone Town Council:

 

Housing gets talked about a lot these days. Those holding public office frequently explore policy solutions to the many problems, including affordability, accessibility, safety, and fairness. These are knotty issues, but the fight for fair housing is both noble and necessary. 

 

Still, few in the decision-making process have taken the easiest first steps for renters. North Carolina ranks 49th in “Renter-Friendliness,” a metric composed of ten common features of the landlord-tenant relationship, including security deposits, rent increases, warranty of habitability, and the eviction process. With the current and likely continuing composition of our state's General Assembly, North Carolina's poor ranking seems destined to stay that way. But fair housing isn’t just a fight in Raleigh. Municipalities and counties can, and in some cases have, taken steps to help improve the lives of renters.

 

Minimum housing codes are a way for local governments to establish guidance for acceptable living conditions. A minimum housing code can be bare-bones, seeking to address only broad structural damage that is obvious in its threat to a renter's safety. Or as nuanced as examining the conditions which give rise to mold and seeking to set a standard for the building's owner. Whatever the case, they provide a tangible guide for renters on what their landlords can and cannot get away with. 

 

With proper funding of inspectors, and a clear, accessibile process for reporting problems, local governments can provide relief to renters seeking aid without needing a lawyer or forcing a tenant into a courtroom. 

 

Looking to the NC General Assembly to fix the substandard housing that plagues our communities is not the solution. It’s time for the local level of government to show creative solutions to the housing problems the state legislature refuses to act on. The town of Boone has passed a minimum housing code, and so has Blowing Rock. Isn't it time that Watauga County also defined minimum housing standards and set guidelines for enforcement? 

Yesterday, the Raleigh GOP Clown Car Went Over a Cliff

 

Good God Almighty! The Trumpiest Trumpists in the NC House intend to bring their own law force to bully elections officials in Durham County. Ain't making this up. As recorded by Rolling Stone:

A group of Republican lawmakers in North Carolina who call themselves the House Freedom Caucus are conducting their own investigation into election fraud, saying they will do “whatever it takes” to inspect voting machines in Durham County, even if they have to use police to force the inspections.

Rep. McNeely at the press conference yesterday 

State Rep. Jeff McNeely and other conservative lawmakers claimed at a Thursday news conference that they are acting on behalf of constituents who believe fraud and “machine tampering” took place in the 2020 election. McNeely said the group plans to conduct their inspections by “randomly pick[ing]” counties from across the state and then examining voting machines used in the presidential election to see if they have a modem that can connect to the internet. North Carolina state law prohibits voting machines from having modems.

During the news conference, McNeely selected the first county the legislators plan to investigate. Using an incredibly scientific method — pulling a county name from a sequined, USA-themed hat covered by a napkin — McNeely chose a slip of paper and announced it would be Durham County, which voted overwhelmingly for President Biden.

“I expect full cooperation from the good people in Durham because I feel like they have nothing to hide,” McNeely said. “We look forward to working with them, proving that our elections were true and were valid and there was nothing wrong with them. If that’s not the case, then we look to do an investigation. And if there need to be criminal charges, they will be filed also.”

A Durham election official told The Charlotte Observer that the county will not let the inspection take place. “We have no plans to allow anyone, as noted by law, to inspect our voting equipment,” Derek Bowens, Durham County’s director of elections, told the paper, adding that none of the voting machines in the county has a modem because they are prohibited.

This past summer the executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, Karen Brinson Bell, also denied the lawmakers’ request to inspect voting machines. “The State Board has received no credible evidence that the certified results are not accurate, and elected officials from both sides of the aisle have stated that the 2020 general election in North Carolina was conducted fairly,” Bell wrote in a letter.

In a Thursday speech on the statehouse floor, Democratic state Rep. Zack Hawkins expressed his objection to the inspection. “The people in Durham County take elections very seriously,” he said. “You are not welcome in Durham County, and I’m not sure if you want to step foot in Durham County and try to inspect the machines. You will not be greeted as liberators, let me be clear.”

But at the press conference, McNeely said that he intended to go to Durham County Thursday night with a roll of red evidence tape to “secure the spot” where the machines are kept “so that nothing can go forward from here.”

When a reporter asked McNeely how he thinks the legislators will be able to inspect the machines without the permission of the county or state election board, he said that lawmakers from the legislative branch have a right to ask questions about elections. But if they are not allowed, McNeely said they will have escorts from the North Carolina General Assembly Police, which polices the North Carolina state Capitol grounds.

“So we will start with that,” he said. “And if we have to use, like I said, our escorts and the [General Assembly] police to help us, we will do whatever it takes to go about our mission.”

You Can Be Sure They'll Do Their Worst

 

One of many draft Congressional redistricting maps that are beginning to emerge in Raleigh. This is probably not the final map, but only an example of how much damage the Republican majority in the General Assembly can do.

Preliminary analysis of this particular map by reporter Colin Campbell:

It locates the new 14th CD smack on NC House Speaker Tim Moore's home ground (Cleveland and adjacent counties). It's no secret that Moore has been angling for his very own carved-out safe seat (if he couldn't have his own university to run). No doubt, he'll like the bigger money in Washington and the privilege that goes with it.

Splits up Democrat Kathy Manning's safe seat in the 6th CD. We knew she was going to be a prime target for rough treatment.

In fact, the Piedmont Triad of Winston-Salem, Greensboro, and High Point is split up into four different districts.

This map would likely produce a 10-4 Republican advantage for the Congressional delegation -- only because the map-drawer couldn't figure out how to make it 11-3. 

Up here in the mountains we can't fail to notice that this particular map puts Watauga with Buncombe in the 11th, a move I could actually applaud. Anything to get away from Madam Foxx. Hello, Madison Cawthorn! But it won't happen.

Authoritarianism Advances On Little Cat Feet in North Carolina

 

Sit down and shut up

The bill that limits what can be taught about the nation's racial past in public schools, designed to ensure teachers don't "indoctrinate" students, was approved by the state Senate yesterday along party lines. Talk about indoctrination. The Republicans in the NC Senate, and pretty much everywhere else, have been indoctrinated to believe that any history that makes them uncomfortable must be a communist plot.

On Tuesday night, the state Senate passed HB 805, the "Prevent Rioting and Civil Disorder" bill, on a 25–19 partisan vote, a law -- let's face it! -- which is a reaction to Black people's reaction to our racist past. A riot is defined as a public disturbance involving three or more people “which by disorderly and violent conduct, or the imminent threat of disorderly and violent conduct, results in injury or damage to persons or property or creates a clear and present danger of injury or damage to persons or property.”

Three or more people. If they also happen to be Black, that's a clear and present danger, O my brethren! And they don't even have to be destroying the local police station. If someone -- who? -- decides they are "a clear and present danger," then Katie bar the door. Bring on the SWAT team!

Jeffrey Billman has published a fully fleshed dissertation on everything that's just wrong about this bill.

What's clear is that the Republican leadership in this state intends to disciple the rest of us about what we think and about how we react to the injustices they dish out.

A New NC Gerrymander Is Coming! Only Our Courts Can Protect Us

 

The Republican boss who loves
red-lining Democrats

The U.S. Census Bureau will release by August 16 in-depth demographic statistics from the 2020 Census that will be used to redraw legislative voting districts in North Carolina. We already know that North Carolina will gain one US Congressional seat, our 14th.

In other words, you're about to witness gerrymandering by the Republican majority in the North Carolina General Assembly like you've never seen it before, as they jigger those Census blocks to give Republicans 10 of those 14 Congressional districts. Take that to the bank.

And you can expect that several of those Democrats elected to the General Assembly in the 2018 Blue Wave and in the 2020 Trump backlash will find their districts malformed into reelection nightmares. Several will probably be double-bunked with fellow Democrats to ensure building the Republican majorities. Republicans love double-bunking Democrats, because there's nothing more rejuvenating than the howls of your mortally wounded enemies. Right?

The other great fun for Republican map-drawers will be figuring out how to dilute the state's urban vote by carving up neighborhoods in our cities and pairing them with adjacent deep-red rural areas.

The last defense against these dark arts will be the state's courts. In 2019, after the US Supremes declined to invalidate new NC maps for partisan gerrymandering, a three-judge superior court panel nevertheless struck down Republican redistricting maps for NC House and Senate seats, declaring that they violated the North Carolina state constitution’s provisions for free elections, free speech, and equal protection: 

"In the first state court decision since the U.S. Supreme Court declined to rule on partisan gerrymandering, three Wake County judges ruled that the GOP-controlled legislature had with 'surgical precision' diluted the value of Democratic votes to ensure that the Republican Party would win majorities in both legislative chambers 'in all but the most unusual election scenarios.' The court gave the legislature two weeks to create new nonpartisan district maps for the 2020 election. In a 350-page ruling, the judicial panel found that 'the 2017 enacted maps, as drawn, do not permit voters to freely choose their representative, but rather representatives are choosing voters based upon sophisticated partisan sorting.' Republican state Senate leader Phil Berger, a key architect of the redistricting plan, decried the court’s decision as an attempt to 'game' the redistricting process but signaled that GOP lawmakers would abide by the decision and carry it out.

You think that Berger and his boys have had a change of their stripes because some North Carolina judges called them out in 2019 for violating the state's constitution? I doubt it, but like any depression-prone progressive, I still have to believe that maybe the courts will stand in the breach again next year.

The Supremes Upheld Arizona's Ban on Out-of-Precinct Voting. Will NCGOP Attempt To Exploit the Decision?

Gov. Cooper, 
our defense against the dark
arts of voter suppression

So you're a regular voter who even on bright days doesn't know the name/number/designation of your precinct, let alone the fact that after the last election, the local authorities moved your precinct polling place to a new location, so it's the next Election Day and you don't know where to go to vote -- the local authorities may have mailed you something, but you sure as hell don't remember what it said -- so you drive to the old location, which is closed, and then to the nearest polling place that you know about or that someone told you about, which is out of your precinct, but your vote will count anyway, because you're still eligible to vote all the races on the ballot in your home county, no matter the precinct. According to state law.

Except in Arizona, where the Republican overlords passed a law making out-of-precinct voting illegal, and yesterday, Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the conservative majority, ruled that baffling inconvenience could in fact be willfully imposed for partisan advantage and that confused voters are just plain shit outta luck.

You know that the famed voter ID law passed by the NCGOP in 2013 contained a clause outlawing out-of-precinct voting? That law was thrown out by the courts in 2016. So people in the state of North Carolina voting out-of-county in both 2016 and 2020 continued to have their votes count in races in which they were otherwise eligible to vote and as long as they were voting in the county where they were registered.

In other words, the NCGOP is already versed on how to write a law outlawing out-of-precinct voting, especially a law that would target with outstanding precision voters of color and young voters (who are sometimes foggy on which planet, let alone which precinct). Will the Berger-Moore people try again to outlaw out-of-precinct voting on the basis of Samuel Alito's prose? How could they resist?

Except there stands Roy Cooper, with the veto stamp, and a veto-sustaining minority of Democrats in the General Assembly.

How/Why Speaker Tim Moore Punished Fellow Republican Julia Howard

Julia Howard and Speaker Tim Moore

Totally indebted to Jeffrey Billman's "Primer" and to "Under the Dome" for the information that follows. Billman first:

Check out this timeline:

April 13, 2:29 p.m.: Charlotte reporter emails House Speaker Tim Moore asking for an interview about a bill to change the tax code related to Paycheck Protection Program loans.

April 13, 5:36 p.m.: Moore tells reporter, “I just want you to know that I have not advocated for that bill.”

April 13, 6 p.m.: State Rep. Julia Howard, the chair of the Finance Committee, opens a committee meeting with “I was given orders from the Speaker that we would hear this PPP bill today.” ...

“If passed, House Bill 334 would exempt some federal coronavirus relief loans from state taxes. Records show some of the bill’s strongest backers would likely save thousands of dollars, including one lawmaker whose businesses could gain some $20,000. House Speaker Tim Moore’s law firm could stand to benefit a more modest amount, as much as $1,300.”

“Rep. John Bradford, a Republican from Cornelius and a supporter of the bill, for example, could see his businesses’ taxes owed reduced by up to $20,000. Bradford is the CEO of a software company and sole owner of a property management company.” (N&O)

So long as the change applies to all PPP recipients and not just the lawmakers’ companies, they don’t have to recuse themselves.

"Under the Dome" yesterday afternoon:

North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore removed fellow Republican Rep. Julia Howard from her position as a senior finance committee chair Tuesday.

The move comes after Howard, one of the longest-serving members of North Carolina’s General Assembly, publicly opposed a bill that was backed by Moore and would benefit some North Carolina lawmakers who received federal coronavirus relief money from the Paycheck Protection Program. The bill, if signed into law, would give tax breaks to businesses that received those loans, including dozens of lawmakers’ businesses.

By revoking Howard’s chairmanship, Moore acted swiftly to punish a challenge to his control. With the legislature sharply divided along party lines, infighting in the speaker’s party presents a challenge to his ability to advance his, and his party’s, agenda....

Just on the face of it, Tim Moore lied to the reporter: "I just want you to know that I have not advocated for that bill." And when has Moore ever passed up an opportunity to benefit personally from the power of his office? 

Boonies Cry "O Hell No!" About HB291 and SB349

 

House Bill 291, vaguely and innocuously titled "Bldg. Plan Approval - Certain Commercial Prop.," and Senate Bill 349, cheerily titled "Increase Housing Opportunities," are both Trojan horses and pieces of developer crapola now pending in the NC General Assembly. Last night the Boone Town Council held a bellwether emergency meeting over its provisions and over the threat it promises for every municipality in North Carolina to chart its own planning course. The Boone Town Council voted unanimously for the resolution pasted below. The unanimous vote is notable for a fractious council that has had trouble finding much common ground over the past two years.

RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, recognizing the importance of zoning to the peace and prosperity of North Carolina’s municipalities, for generations the State of North Carolina has allowed municipalities to regulate local development; and

WHEREAS, municipalities in the State of North Carolina have their own unique characteristics and challenges so that “one size” does not “fit all,” and statewide zoning mandates thus may have unintended negative consequences for the residents of the State; and

WHEREAS, unfunded mandates by the State, particularly during a time when local revenues are under pressure due to Covid-19 and other factors affecting local economies, will force communities such as Boone to either increase property taxes or decrease services critical to the their residents, such as street maintenance or fire and police protection; and

WHEREAS, HB 291 is pending in the North Carolina General Assembly and would force municipalities to complete an “initial plan review” of commercial development plans initially sealed by a “design professional,” without regard to their complexity, deficiencies, or impacts of human health and safety, within 15 days, and issue permits within 30 days of the application for development unless additional information is requested within the first 15 days; and

WHEREAS, HB 291 provides that if within the initial 15 day period, if additional information is requested by the town, permits must be granted within 15 days of the submission of additional information or the developer may retain a “third party firm” to review its plans at the expense of the municipality and must issue “all necessary permits” for the development within 72 hours of approval by that third party; and

WHEREAS, in order to comply with HB 291, the Town of Boone would have to greatly expand its planning department, which would force an increase in property taxes or a decrease in other services; and

WHEREAS, HB 291 unfairly puts the burden on taxpayers to pay for the private development permitting by commercial developers; and

WHEREAS, HB 291 essentially redirects long-extant governmental functions now performed by local governments to protect the public and to allow for the orderly growth of communities through zoning, to private and unspecified engineering or architectural firms who may have conflicts of interest, with no recourse for decisions which may violate local zoning ordinances; and

WHEREAS, property owners in the Town of Boone often purchased their properties at premium prices in order to have the benefits and protections of local zoning ordinances which protected their investments from incompatible and unsafe development; and

WHEREAS, commercial developers within the Town of Boone, often with no prior connection with the town, but because of the attraction of the large student housing market, have sought to build commercial developments which were substandard and non-compliant with

building and zoning standards, and which would have caused great harm to the quality of life for residents of adjacent and nearby neighborhoods; and

WHEREAS, SB 349, too, is now pending in the North Carolina General Assembly, and would force municipalities to allow duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes and townhouses into all residential zones, including all low-density zoning districts, for the stated purpose of expanding housing opportunities in towns; and

WHEREAS, SB 349 exempts residential areas in which private restrictive covenants apply, thus differentiating between sub-divisions such as gated communities and the neighborhoods without such protections, in essence protecting the wealthy by exposing middle and low income residents to incompatible development dictated by state government; and

WHEREAS, although SB 349 has reportedly been endorsed by “affordable housing” proponents as a way to increase supply and decrease costs, in actuality there is nothing in the bill which actually controls costs; and

WHEREAS, the practice by multi-family developers in the Town of Boone is to rent housing units by the bedroom at prices usually far in excess of the mortgage cost of a single family home; and

WHEREAS, when low density neighborhoods in Boone have been made available for higher density housing, existing single family homes have often been demolished to allow more intense types of housing, destroying the character of Boone which has made it attractive, but also with the unintended result that rental prices have actually increased as low density housing disappears; and

WHEREAS, SB 349 likewise mandates the allowance of “one accessory dwelling,” which can consist of a duplex, on each lot on which there is a single family residence, circumventing all usual approval processes such as conditional district zoning, and trumping all local parking requirements and utility approval protocols without regard to the impacts of a potential tripling of density; and

WHEREAS, SB 349 has the potential to fundamentally change most neighborhoods in Boone and accelerate the disruption of the lives of its permanent citizens, as out-of-town investors and AirBnB operators continue to buy up low density housing stock; and

WHEREAS, SB 349 allows deficient applications to nevertheless vest development rights, undermining the ability of local jurisdictions to react to changes within their communities; and

WHEREAS, SB 349, by using terms which are undefined and vague, makes expensive future litigation likely to create certainty around the meaning of its terms; and

WHEREAS, SB 349 shifts financial responsibility for a developers attorney’s fees onto the municipality whether or not the town’s decisions have been made in good faith in a manner seeking to protect the common good; and

WHEREAS, SB 349 prohibits a municipality from even examining a traffic impact analysis which has satisfied the North Carolina Department of Transportation, whether or not the municipality believes that the traffic generated by the project poses a danger to public safety and the ratification by the Department is prudent; and

WHEREAS, SB 349, under the guise of creating affordable housing, is actually a usurpation of local zoning authority and if passed, will undermine the long-term stability of the Town of Boone for its permanent residents, betraying the promises of zoning which residents have relied upon in making their most important financial investments, the purchase of their homes;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Council of the Town of Boone, North Carolina, respectfully requests:

1 That the General Assembly not adopt either HB 291 and SB 349;

2. That, if passed, the Governor, the Honorable Roy Cooper, veto these measures;

3. That the town manager employ the town’s lobbyists to work to prevent the passage of these bills;

4. That a copy of this resolution be sent to our elected State representatives and the Governor;

5. That the town manager take whatever additional steps he deems prudent in seeking to prevent the adoption of these bills; and

6. That the town manager promptly issue a press release warning the citizens of Boone about these disastrous bills.

   Adopted this day of , 2021.

Rennie Brantz, Mayor

Attested to:

Nicole Harmon, Town Clerk
Clerk, Town of Boone, North Carolina

Rural Broadband Is a Bad Joke

By Blair Reeves, Executive Director, Carolina Forward

With the kickoff of the legislative season in Raleigh, the North Carolina public is being treated to an performance of high theater.

The annual ritual of politicians feigning sincere interest about rural broadband has only gotten more elaborate over the years. Politicians from both parties constantly talk about how expanding rural broadband is one of their top priorities. There is a task force. Senator Paul Newton says he’s considering forming a “stakeholder group,” so you know things are getting quite serious.

But don’t be fooled -- what we’re witnessing here is theatrical politics, specifically an absurdist dark comedy. None of it is to be taken seriously. While some of these leaders’ concerns are sincere, many are plainly not. In reality, lots of those loudly pretending to care about rural broadband are the same ones who stand, and have voted, against the easiest, cheapest, and most efficient way to expand access across our state: municipal broadband.

In short, many of North Carolina’s leaders, far from trying to expand broadband access, have actually deliberately blocked it and continue to do so today. Their concern-trolling over the issue over the last decade has mostly served to enrich cable companies at taxpayer expense. This is bad public policy from almost every angle, and poorly serves our state.

Don’t Be Fooled

In 2011, right after taking control of the General Assembly, Republican leaders passed a law (HB 129) that prohibited local governments from using existing infrastructure to offer broadband service as a public utility to their residents -- a system otherwise known as municipal broadband. The “anti-muni broadband” bill made national news at the time.

Municipal (“muni”) broadband systems are widespread in the United States and extremely popular. Take the City of Chattanooga as an example. Its municipal utility provides electrical power, as many do, but theirs offers broadband internet too. They’ve operated for over a decade, and their prices would make most North Carolina broadband customers weep. Literally hundreds of communities across the country have done the same, with many variations. (You know it’s bad when the Tennesseeans are out ahead of us.)

Voters love “muni” broadband, but there are two important groups that do not: cable companies and right-wing politicians. Republican opposition to muni broadband boils down to protecting cable companies’ monopoly power -- and by extension, the resulting campaign contributions. There is a great deal of FUD and double-speak on this issue: the Art Pope-John Locke Foundation, for example, talks in evident earnestness about “open markets and competition” and a “government takeover” in their heated opposition to municipal broadband. This is puzzling language, since what they’re actually advocating for is prohibiting competition. What North Carolinians need is more competition, which muni broadband would provide. 

Cable companies hate muni broadband plans precisely because it provides competition. They have bankrolled legal bans or restrictions in 22 states, including ours in North Carolina. For more on this topic, here’s some in-depth background on how the cable company lobby killed muni broadband in North Carolina with 2011’s HB 129. Cable companies are quite pleased, thank you very much, with having virtual or literal monopolies over captive customers who must pay whatever they charge.

“If the big telecoms are going to rule the day [in the legislature], I don’t think people should waste their time on this anymore, and North Carolina can suffer the economic consequences.” - Scott Mooneyham, N.C. League of Municipalities

Municipal broadband systems are not a silver bullet for this issue and will not work for every corner of North Carolina. (Not every single corner has electrical power service, either.) But they are a locally based, taxpayer-friendly, and highly efficient solution to a big market failure. Municipal broadband may not be the whole solution, but it is definitely a big part of one.

The GREAT Boondoggle

After slamming the door on municipal broadband, in 2018 the state’s Republican leadership came up with a new answer to the rural broadband issue: the GREAT grant program. 

To summarize, GREAT provides matching grants to private companies to deploy (i.e., bury) new fiber lines in underserved areas. In other words, the state forks over money to pay Spectrum, CenturyLink, or AT&T (smaller ISPs find GREAT ludicrously difficult to realistically use) to dig new fiber. This approach not only amounts to major savings on capital expenditures for those companies, but also leads to future revenue, because the GREAT grant recipient now gets access to lots of new paying customers. GREAT is not applicable in most counties, even in those with real need. There are no restrictions, either, on how much the cable companies get to charge the customers they get access to with taxpayer assistance. That, presumably, would be too much “interference” with the free market.

You may not be surprised to learn that cable companies love this program. It amounts to a big giveaway transfer of public dollars to their capex budget and delivers to them net-new customers -- all at taxpayer expense.

For the North Carolina taxpayer, on the other hand, this is a raw deal. It’s an incredibly inefficient way to expand access to broadband and very expensive. By contrast, most muni broadband projects are financed by federal or state dollars that don’t have a profit margin added, or by floating a bond, as the town of Wilson did in their (in)famous muni broadband saga. (When originally approached by the mayor about expanding their broadband network in Wilson, Time Warner reportedly laughed in his face.) These mechanisms are much more cost-effective means to pay for an essential utility.

The GREAT program amounts to a large, centrally planned, “Rube Goldberg machine-approach” to broadband that somehow manages to be both expensive and inefficient.

Better Is Possible

The FIBER Act, first introduced in the 2019 legislative session, is a first step forward in fixing this awful and broken system. It is not perfect, and does not go far enough to make it simpler and easier for local governments to set up municipal broadband networks. But it’s a big step in the right direction.

Unfortunately, Republican leadership killed the FIBER act in 2019, and the bill’s prospects in 2021 don’t look much better. Democrats are very supportive, but they hold no power in the General Assembly.

Voters should pay attention to who actually cares about this issue, and who is just pretending.

A lot of state leaders work hard to jealously protect cable companies’ monopoly power behind fig-leaf rhetoric about the “role of government.” Broadband access to the internet is the essential utility of the 21st century. It may not be as essential to life as clean water, but it’s arguably on par with electricity. It’s hard to overstate how fundamental a link good internet access is to educational, professional, socio-cultural, and the basic informational resources of modern life. A big part of the modern world happens on the internet. And if you’re not there, you’re simply shut out of it.

Serious policymakers should learn from our state’s history with rural electrification and embrace muni broadband. It’s smart policy, it’s good for North Carolinians, and great for our economy. It’s a boon to rural areas, many of which struggle economically and have atrocious internet service. And for those concerned, AT&T and Spectrum will be just fine. (One imagines the CEO of AT&T simply quaking in his shoes at the prospect of little Franklin, NC, launching a muni broadband project.) If leaders actually want to work for North Carolinians instead of the cable lobby, their choice is clear.

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Blair Reeves is Executive Director of Carolina Forward, a progressive policy organization dedicated to building a more just, democratic and prosperous North Carolina. Learn more at CarolinaForward.org.

A Republican Resolution for 2021: Let's Do More Voter Suppression!

 

Republicans' favorite excuse for losing elections -- voter fraud -- has been thoroughly debunked. Allegations that thousands of people “double voted” by assuming other identities at polling booths has been laughed out of court. Assertions that large numbers of noncitizens cast illegal votes is just as absurd, with most undocumented immigrants so fearful of their status that they will not call the police when someone assaults them. So, sure, they're likely in huge numbers to march through the gauntlet of officialdom into a polling place to cast a ballot in a process they little understand. Tales about large numbers of cheaters casting ballots in the name of “dead voters” is an especially popular explanation in western North Carolina, but so far nobody has produced evidence beyond "I know for a fact that my granddaddy said he saw it happen." Your granddaddy's blind in one eye and can't see out of the other'n, and resurrecting the rumors from decades ago doesn't count for evidence.

"After bringing some 60 lawsuits, and even offering financial incentive for information about fraud, Mr. Trump and his allies have failed to prove definitively any case of illegal voting on behalf of their opponent in court — not a single case of an undocumented immigrant casting a ballot, a citizen double voting, nor any credible evidence that legions of the voting dead gave Mr. Biden a victory that wasn’t his." (NewYorkTimes, emphasis added)

High levels of voting are bad for Republicans. Trump himself admitted that back last March. Other, more circumspect Republican officials know it's true, though they won't say it out loud. Well, they almost say it out loud. In Watauga County, the Republican Party spent years on the local Board of Elections trying to kneecap the voting of college students because young people have no reason earthly to vote for that party and its philosophy.

And now you can watch the Phil Berger/Tim Moore team, still in control of the General Assembly in Raleigh, launch a whole new wave of voter suppression laws in North Carolina, "to prevent fraud," even though the state went for Trump and incidentally kept Berger/Moore in power. Doesn't matter. Fictional fraud is the best cover for doing bad deeds to protect your power, so we can probably expect another round of photo ID laws, clamping down on college student voting, and making it harder to vote by mail since that's what Democrats like to do now in the COVID crisis.