Civitas Review Online

We've already learned how the General Assembly leadership loves to stack the deck of "study committees" with people who have their minds made up, so will it be any surprise who gets appointed to this committee.

H952 would authorize a study committee on teacher compensation specifically to look at merit-based proposals.  Along with members appointed by the Speaker and President Pro-Tempore, the teachers' union NCAE gets two members of their own — I'm sure those appointees will be quite open minded given one of the bullet points of NCAE's 2009-2010 Legislative Agenda states "Oppose merit and differentiated pay plans."

So here we have another fake committee created by the General Assembly that will just pay lip-service to a serious issue so members can run back to their districts and say they're doing something.

Call me cynical, but this is nothing but a sham.

Two things will come out of this:  1. The committee will never meet.  2. The committee will meet and make a recommendation that merit pay is unfair.  When you stack the deck, what else would you expect?

Our friends at the Heritage Foundation put together this video with a former union organizer to demonstrate the lengths the unions will go to in order to get signed cards.

From an article in American Journalism Review:

The tally found only 355 full-time newspaper reporters at the
nation's state capitols, a 32 percent decrease from just six years ago.
It discovered that 44 statehouses have fewer full-time reporters than
they did six years ago. The number of full-time reporters remained the
same in four states and increased modestly in two.

It's a long article, but well worth the read.  And after you get frustrated about the lack of coverage of state government, make sure you're signed up for our weekly newsletter and quarterly magazine.  And if you already are, sign up a friend or 10.

(HT: Laura Leslie)

For only being in office two month’s Governor Perdue is already perfecting the art of saying one thing and doing another.  At her remarks at last week’s North Carolina Association of Educator’s convention  in Raleigh, Perdue used the time to reiterate her promise to fight for teacher jobs and protect public education from state budget cuts. 

Interestingly, the Governor’s own numbers show the FY2008-09 education budget was cut $146 million in recent months to deal with revenue shortfalls. In addition, the Governor’s FY2009-10 state budget requests a net reduction of $ 297 million in state funds for public education (See: The North Carolina State Budget: Summary of Recommendations, 2009-2011, page 5). No doubt, the Governor’s plan to use over $1 billion in federal stimulus funds to backfill the state education cuts will soften the impact – and the criticism.  Still the governor's promise, doesn't quite square with reality.  

No, I'm not arguing for more education funding — only honesty. Let’s hope we see some of that in the future – as well as a plan for what the state will do to replace federal stimulus funds. It may come in handy.   

In a recently introduced bill, Representatives Larry Womble (D-Forsyth), Earline Parmon (D-Forsyth) and Pricey Harrison (D-Guilford) propose to give free tuition to recently released convicts.

While the merits of giving people that have committed crimes against society a leg up after they complete their obligations to the state can be debated at length, there remains one huge question.

Will there be any room at Mayberry Tech for ex-offenders after North Carolina's Community Colleges allow illegal aliens to go to school at reduced, instate tuition rates?  How will these two groups get along in class?  The very jobs that ex-offenders hope to get with their new found education will likely go to illegal aliens (whose criminal background outside of the United States is undeterminable) at a cheaper price.

We have a choice to make.  Give convicts a chance at a new life on this side of the bars or give their chance to someone that is not supposed to be here in the first place.

This probably comes as little surprise to many of us, but is disappointing nonetheless — the leadership of the General Assembly are virtually unknown to the vast majority of North Carolinians.

We tested the name ID of the Republican and Democratic leadership of both the House and Senate and here are the results:

Opinion of Mark Basnight
Very Favorable – 4%
Somewhat Favorable – 8%
Somewhat Unfavorable – 4%
Very Unfavorable – 3%
No Opinion – 18%
Not Aware – 63%

Opinion of Tony Rand:
Very Favorable – 3%
Somewhat Favorable – 5%
Somewhat Unfavorable – 3%
Very Unfavorable – 2%
No Opinion – 23%
Not Aware – 64%

Opinion of Phil Berger:
Very Favorable – 1%
Somewhat Favorable – 6%
Somewhat Unfavorable – 2%
Very Unfavorable – 1%
No Opinion – 22%
Not Aware – 68%

Opinion of Joe Hackney:
Very Favorable – 2%
Somewhat Favorable – 6%
Somewhat Unfavorable – 1%
Very Unfavorable – 2%
No Opinion – 21%
Not Aware – 67%

Opinion of Paul Stam:
Very Favorable – 2%
Somewhat Favorable – 4%
Somewhat Unfavorable – 2%
Very Unfavorable – 1%
No Opinion – 16%
Not Aware – 75%

Kinda sad that less than 1 in 5 North Carolina voters know who the arguably most powerful person in the state is.  Basnight has been Senate President for 9 terms now and yet 63% of voters have no clue who he is.

88% of voters are unaware of have no opinion of the Speaker of the House.

Does this mean that people just don't pay attention to state government, or does this mean that people are unaware of state government because the media is failing in its job to cover it?

I think it's some of both.

Full release and crosstabs here.

Have you bought into the all of the hype about compact fluorescent light bulbs?  If you have then you may want to take a look at what the New York Times has to say about them.  In an article picked up by the Charlotte Observer on Saturday, some of the shortcomings of the light bulb that will save the world are discussed. 

The biggest problem appears to be the high rate at which they DO NOT WORK.  So you decide to go green and plunk down your cash to buy a light bulb that, although up to 10 times more expensive, will save you some money on the back end with the power company.  What you didn't realize was that these miracle bulbs require special handling and care and if they don't get it, they stop working.

My favorite line in the article is this one:

"Some experts who study the issue blame the government for the quality
problems, saying an intensive federal push to lower the price
essentially backfired by encouraging manufacturers to use cheap
components."

Wait a minute!  You mean the government forced you to lower quality in order to lower your price?  I am shocked!  What do mean?  This is the government.  They control a lot of things these days.

Maybe the omniscient federal government can get the auto makers it controls to use the CFL bulbs that don't quite live up to the promises they have made.  I'm sure what ever the Gubmint' decides to do will work, right?

The News & Observer has two stories this morning on possible corruption (my words not theirs) by former Governor Mike Easley. This one talks about trips and a car for he an his wife Mary (a $170,000 employee of NCSU). This one is about his son (a law student) getting a free car. 

Before the left screams we need public financing, remember that Just like the cases of imprisoned former House Speaker Jim Black and imprisoned Congressman Frank Balllance, this story has NOTHING to do with campaign contributions. From all appearances, it looks like powerful people wanting to help the governor enjoy a lifestyle to which we all could become accustomed.

It has nothing to do with campaign contributions and so is not an argument for public financing of campaigns. Welfare for politicians would not have precluded this appearance of unseemly activity in the least.

Jeff posted on North Carolina being a haven for Illegal Immigrants. WRAL-TV has something to say on the issue with a report on how illegals are leaving as the economy slows. The news report says 140,000 have left N.C. and 1.5 million the U.S.

In 2007 while the national debate raged on immigration reform enforcement first proponents said that stricter enforcement would result in illegals self-deporting. Critics scoffed that would never happen. While we don't know what stricter enforcement alone would do, we can see that a "rough" economy definitely has an impact.

Modern day versions of Paul Revere have been sounding the alarm about illegal immigration for years now with little effect on North Carolina's elected officials, the notable exception being a growing number of our Sheriffs.  We have warned local lawmakers of the cost of becoming sanctuary cities and tried to tell anyone that would listen that this state was becoming a magnate for illegals who spread the word that North Carolina was soft on illegals.

Despite the trend of self deportation due to the economy, North Carolina is viewed by illegals in this country as a sanctuary state.  A recent article in Forbes had a very interesting quote about a recent order by the governor of Rhode Island:

"But he also says an executive order signed a year ago by Gov. Don
Carcieri cracking down on illegal immigration drove away his largely
immigrant base of customers, who told him they were moving to North Carolina and other states where they could live without fear of getting deported."

Two questions come to mind immediately:

1. How did North Carolina gain this reputation for being soft on illegals?
2. How Governor Carcieri get them to leave his state?

The answers to the first question are obvious for anyone that has seen the changes in North Carolina over the last 10-15 years.  With one of the fastest rates of growth in the country, illegals have flocked to the state to fill construction and service jobs and underbid the local workforce.  Once here, they began to take advantage North Carolina's vast array of benefits for its citizens that runs from food stamps and free medical care to instate tuition at our community colleges.  These programs are designed to help this state's citizens that are in need, not people who broke the law to come here.

The answer to the second question is as follows:

Governor Carcieri announced the order as the state was facing a $550 million budget deficit.
He said illegal immigrants were on a burden on public schools,
hospitals and law enforcement agencies and blamed the federal
government for not taking action.

His order required state
agencies, vendors and contractors to use a federal database known as
E-Verify to check the legal work status of new hires. It also directed
state police and prison and parole officials to identify illegal
immigrants for possible deportation.

North Carolina has taken small steps in the direction of Rhode Island but not enough, apparently in the mind of illegal aliens who still think of this state as a haven from enforcement of the law.

A tip to Illegals that are coming here next: You may want to avoid Wake, Johnston, Alamance, Cabarrus, Cumberland, Gaston, Henderson and Mecklenburg counties. Chatham county, on the other hand has decided that their government has ample resources to accommodate you.  If you need directions, just ask the first law enforcement officer you run into when you get here.