Class Warfare

Rich white men are in control of North Carolina's government now, so you peons better get used to what's coming down the pike: The rich are now fast-tracking a shifting of the tax burden from their pocketbooks to yours.

Don't believe it? They came out and said it yesterday in Raleigh.

We've already highlighted UNCG economist Dave Ribar's analysis of this brilliant Republican plan to make life for the rich a lot freer of the "social contract," but his warning needs repeating: “For this particular proposal, the responsibility would shift from rich households and prosperous corporations to poor households and smaller businesses."

Welcome to the world that Art Pope hath wrought.

Fair Warning

It's one thing to spend Federal dollars to help people wiped out by Hurricane Sandy in New York, New Jersey, and adjacent states. It's another thing to blindly set a government policy -- "let's rebuild everything the way it was" -- which is apparently what the $60 billion aid package does which passed the U.S. House yesterday.

I'm mightily influenced by reading Rob Young's piece about the reality of sea-level rise and the reality-free impulse behind the aid bill (big hattip to Rob Schofield at NC Policy Watch for bringing this piece to my attention).

Rob Young is professor of coastal geology at Western Carolina University and director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines. He earns major props for being co-author, with the amazing Orrin Pilkey, of The Rising Sea.

In a piece titled "Hurricane Sandy Relief Bill Fails to Face Coastal Realities," Young points out the flaws in this particular Federal emergency spending that actually sets coastal policy for the immediate future and the long-term. This policy-by-default says in effect, "We deny sea-level rise":

The bill goes far beyond the immediate need for emergency assistance by funding a massive coastal engineering effort that is not based on science or wise planning. As currently proposed, the bill would give the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers roughly $4.5 billion to spend on coastal construction projects related to “flood control and risk reduction.” Most troubling, the bill requires the Corps to attempt to rebuild the New Jersey and New York beaches to their “design profile.” In other words, the Corps will work to put the beaches back exactly as they were before the storm, ignoring the reality of rising sea levels and intensifying storms as the world warms.

In other words, O My Brethren, I have to agree with the "no" votes of the nine Republican NC U.S. House members on this particular aid package ... though for very different reasons than any of those Republicans have voiced.

I suspect when the next Great Storm wipes out part of the North Carolina coastline, these same nine will be clamoring for Federal restoration -- well, probably not Virginia Foxx, who isn't much into compassion for anyone -- and no one in a position of power will be paying any attention to what Mr. Young and other scientists are warning about the perils of ignoring sea-level rise.

The Gang That Can't Shoot Straight Attempts To Take Aim

What's this? New caution on the issue of voter photo ID among Republicans in the NC General Assembly?

Interesting article on the subject in the Fayetteville Observer.

Best quote is from Bob Hall: What is showing a photo ID before you vote supposed to cure, asks he, since there's virtually no evidence of fraudulent voter impersonation at our polls? "What's being cured? People's mental perception that there's widespread cheating going on?"

"Mental perception," relentlessly promoted by right-wingers and Republican operatives to explain to their base why they lose elections. It can't be because voters reject the Republican philosophy! Why, it's all those illegal immigrants being bused to the polls!

Rather call it "irrational mental perception" or just pure "fantasy."

What's Ahead for North Carolina

Republicans in the General Assembly evidently have a grand plan for "reforming" taxes in this state: eliminate -- eee-limb-a-nate -- all personal and corporate income taxes and shift the tax burden onto the poor and middle class through higher sales taxes, while imposing new taxes on services, like getting your hair cut.

Cool plan. Art Pope's minions thought it up and posted it a month ago on the Civitas website. Now Art Pope is Gov. McCrory's budget director, so he'll get 'er done.

Reuters is reporting on it. Some 65% of NC's annual budget comes from income and corporate taxes. Shifting that burden to the working class will mean that the state's sale tax will have to rise a couple of percentage points, putting the burden for government exactly where the rich have always known it needed to be: on the backs of the poor.

Sen. Bob Rucho is the chief stooge in the General Assembly tasked with getting this done, and guess who he's been getting help from:  Arthur Laffer, a former adviser to Republican President Ronald Reagan and one of the fathers of "trickle-down" economics.

Yep. The 1% are in control of North Carolina now, and they intend to make themselves very comfortable indeed.

Resolution Opposing the Taking of Municipal Water Systems

This resolution was drafted specifically with reference to Asheville's situation, where a Republican member of the General Assembly introduced legislation to simply grab Asheville's water system for the benefit of the rest of the county.

BUT it's something that could happen to Boone, especially with House & Senate representatives from this district who've already shown themselves quite willing to remove Boone's ability to regulate its extra-territorial boundaries and to punish the city generally.

Boone is currently in the process of investing millions of its taxpayers' dollars in building a new water source. With the Asheville precedent staring us in the face, there's no reason to believe that the state's General Assembly, under the control of muncipality-hating Republicans, won't simply pass legislation to take that water system and give it to developers in, say, Deep Gap, where few regulations exist to prevent the Deep Gap version of Pigeon Forge.

RESOLUTION OPPOSING LEGISLATION THAT PROVIDES FOR THE FORCED TAKING OF MUNICIPAL WATER SYSTEM

WHEREAS, Statewide legislation was introduced in the 2011 Session of the North Carolina General Assembly that would have forced the involuntary conveyance of a city-owned water system to a Metropolitan Sewer District; and 

WHEREAS, prior to the beginning of the 2012 Session of the North Carolina General Assembly, the Legislative Research Commission recommended legislation that would force the City of Asheville to transfer its Municipal water system to a Metropolitan Sewer District; and 

WHEREAS, the 2012 Session of the North Carolina General Assembly enacted legislation to begin the process of the forceful taking of a Municipal water system; and 

WHEREAS, it is anticipated that legislation will be introduced at the beginning of the 2013 Session of the North Carolina General Assembly that will force the transfer of a Municipal water system; and 

WHEREAS, public utilities have the unique responsibility to be protectors of public health and the environment, while serving as partners in the community’s growth and development; and  

WHEREAS, the forced taking of any local government infrastructure sets a dangerous precedent in the State of North Carolina, a precedent that will have a chilling effect on any local government investing in needed infrastructure in the future, thereby endangering business opportunities and economic stability in the State and resulting in job losses for citizens here and across the State. 

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE _________________ AS FOLLOWS: 

1. The ______ is opposed to legislation that forces the transfer of any City’s municipal water system to another entity.
 
2. The _______ is convinced that local solution arrived at by an open, collaborative process is preferable to a legislative directed disposition of local government assets.
 
3. The _________ is opposed to the forced taking of any local government infrastructure because such taking sets a dangerous precedent that will have a chilling effect on any local government investing in needed infrastructure in the future, thereby endangering business opportunities and economic stability in the State and resulting in job losses for our citizens here and across the State.Read, approved and adopted this the ____ day of _________, 201_ . 

First You Get the Raise, and Then You Do the Job

Pat McCrory just gave his cabinet secretaries 8% pay hikes as large as $13,200 -- more than anything afforded to typical state employees in recent years. This brings their salaries into the $130k or more a year range. Why the increase? “I’m trying to make it at least where they can afford to live while running multibillion-dollar departments,” McCrory said. Wow. Tell us: Just how do the rest of you struggling along on a mere $121,000 salary do it?! What's the real problem here? Are they all tapped out from the money they gave to the McCrory campaign? (Hattip: Pay-to-Play Pat)

Privatizing Municipal Water Supplies in NC

Aqua North Carolina, a private company that got its hooks into Cary, NC's water system, is now charging over $400 per month for some residential customers. They're just getting started.

Aqua North Carolina reportedly targets "troubled" municipal systems, promising efficiency, responsiveness, and naturally, good water, and so far they're not delivering on any of those ... just higher bills.

FWIW...

...which, in our estimation, ain't much.

BUT ... John Frank and Craig Jarvis are reporting that both Gov. Pat McCrory and House Speaker Thom Tillis are making gurgling sounds about softening the expected voter photo ID law in North Carolina. They're making those sounds evidently because the State Board of Elections issued its report that almost 1 in 10 NC voters do not already have state-issued ID cards.

That's a game-changer, mumbled Thom Tillis.

Maybe they'll allow other forms of identity, like an ASU student card? And maybe the far-right crowd in the General Assembly clown car will go ahead with their harshest version of the law -- after all, they refused compromise last year after Gov. Perdue vetoed their first bill, and they're feeling their conservative, ALEC-shoveled oats even more after last fall's election.

We shall see ... and very shortly.

NC Voter Suppression: Expect Some Crowding

Via the Dome in the Raleigh News&Observer:

A new report from the State Board of Elections found as many as 613,000 voters, or 9.25 percent of the North Carolina's voters, may not have a state issued driver's license or identification card -- raising the stakes ahead of Republican efforts to push for voter ID legislation in the upcoming session.The new analysis, which compared Division of Motor Vehicles records to state voter lists, discovered that 53 percent of the voters in question are Democrats and a quarter are over age 65. A disproportionate share -- about 30 percent -- are black.