Civitas Review Online

The first round of state employee pay cuts ordered by Gov. Bev Perdue to balance the state’s current budget deficit hit paychecks today, and as expected hard tales of financial ruin percolate throughout the media.  

Of the 270,000+ state employees affected, how is it WRAL just happened to stumble upon a state employee whose husband was unemployed and child has cancer for its story on the pay cuts?  What an amazing coincidence! 

UNC
nurse Pebbles Elsasser said the cut will hurt her family. Her husband
is unemployed and her daughter is recovering from brain surgery, she
said.

"It's almost like you go to your child and you say, 'Guess
what? Would you rather have your medication so that you can continue to
live every day or would would rather eat or do I have gas money to get
to work?'" Elsasser said.

While these personal tales of doom and gloom are sure to pull on the heart strings of everyone, let's get a little bit of perspective.

Over the past five years state employees have received pay increases totaling 16.74%.  Teachers have received 20.97%.  The average starting salary for a teacher in NC has gone up roughly 25% from around $25,000 per year to $30,000 per year.

Indeed, even with these "pay cuts" in effect, state employees will still have received an overall pay increase of 2.24% this fiscal year.  So in a year where the budget is having to be reduced by $3 billion over what was budgeted, state employees are still seeing their paychecks increase.  That's not really a pay cut now is it?  In reality, the state is just taking back less than 20% of the raise state employees received this year.

Lawmakers and special interest groups around Raleigh are in full-out panic mode over the state budget situation. Fears of "deep and draconian cuts" abound. But let's back up and have a look at the numbers.

First off, when we hear government officials speak of the budget "deficit" for the coming fiscal year, what they are referring to is a gap between what they wanted to spend and the projected revenue for next year.

Furthermore, if the latest revenue projections are correct, it appears that state government (with the help of federal stimulus dollars) will spend more next year than it will this year. Here's how:

• For the current year, budgeted spending was $21.35 billion. The revenue estimates place the deficit at $3.2 billion – meaning the state will spend $18.15 billion for FY 2008-09
• For next year, revenues are estimated to be $17.5 billion. Another $1.4 billion in federal funds will also be available for the state to spend – meaning that the state, even without any tax or fee increases, will be able to spend $18.9 billion for FY 2009-10.

Ever wonder how far the bureaucrats that run local government can go?  Apparently, under the aegis of zoning and land use regulations, they can go pretty far.

What personal, non-business activity would be so bad that the zoning gestapo would need to investigate and interrogate homeowners?  What if your neighbors hosted a weekly bible study in their homes?  Would that need to be stopped by municipal officials?  It was in San Diego. Read the whole sordid story here.

According to the article, the homeowners were asked the following questions by the Zoning Stasi:

• Do you have a regular meeting in your home?
• Do you say amen?
• Do you pray?
• Do you
  say praise the Lord?

These questions apparently define you or your group as a church in need of a zoning variance.  Even if this was a church, and it is not, does the government (at any level) need to concern itself with the practice of religion in a home.  There are other places in the world that take a dim view of such home churches.

While commercial activity certainly needs to be regulated in the proper locations, shouldn't city officials be more mindful of activities that are protected by the founding documents of our laws?  Then again, I doubt the bureaucrats down at the P&Z department have read the constitution recently.

Faced with managing a $3 billion state budget deficit, the House education budget writers have proposed nearly $1 billion in cuts and the loss of thousands of teacher jobs. The plan has also sent the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE), the lobbyists for the teachers unions into “war mode”.

NCAE’s first shot was release of a survey conducted by an “independent research firm” that shows strong support for more revenue for public education. An NCAE press release gushed:

When asked how to balance the state budget, 85 percent of survey respondents said they opposed cutting the number of teachers in public schools and raising class sizes. No other category of how to fix the budget – including proposals to raise taxes – received more opposition than cuts to education spending.

NCAE says the polling “was conducted by independent research firm, Anzalone/Liszt Research out of Washington DC.  Google lists the Anzalone/Liszt as a “full service democratic polling and public opinion research firm.”  More helpful information about the “independent research firm” is available from the Anzalone/Liszt web site:

Anzalone Liszt had a great 2008!  We helped deliver the crucial Southern states of Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia to President-elect Barack Obama.  For the second straight cycle we helped defeat an incumbent U.S. Senator by electing Kay Hagan in North Carolina.  Additionally our firm helped protect 14 Democratic congressional incumbents, flip two Republican open seats (AL-02 / IL-11) and defeat two Republican incumbents (NV-03 / NC-08).  We helped elect statewide candidates in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and West Virginia and helped sustain Democratic majorities in the Illinois, North Carolina, and Colorado State Senates.  Congratulations to all our winners!

The firm also thought you’d be interested to know:  “In 2006, Anzalone Liszt Research beat more incumbent Republicans (five) than any other polling firm in the nation.” 

Those descriptions sure shout “independent” to me.

Once again a hard week to decide on the BBOTW. It was hard not to go with the NC Colon Hydrotherapy Licensure bill – maybe another week, but I think the Community Association Managers Licensure was more worthy because of all of the bad things that will result. Higher costs for homeowners, more government bureaucracy and less freedom for North Carolinians will result from this bill.

Rather than a Community Association Managers Licensure maybe what is needed is a "Community Organizers Licensure" Bill. That bill might actually mean less organizing to increase the size of government.

The NC Turnpike Authority is in the process of issuing bonds (debt) to build the state's first government-sponsored toll road in western Wake County.

Well, a bond rating agency apparently doesn't think too highly of the project.  Fitch's has given the bonds a rating of "BBB-" one step above junk bond status.  This is after the state has agreed to commit $25 million per year in funding for the project, supposedly to make up for the "gap" in lacking revenues to cover expenses.

Staying out of the junk bond status is vitally important for the turnpike authority because many financial institutions can't and won't invest in junk bonds.

A quick look at some bond rates show that BBB- bonds pay about 2 percent higher interest rate than AA or AAA bonds.  So this rating is going to cost even more money through higher interest costs over the life of the toll project.

But the take away here is we have a toll road project that private investment firms think more than likely isn't financially viable.  If these bonds weren't backed by a government agency, there's probably no way they'd get financed.  But since government is pledging its backing, it gets built.

We need more projects like the Mid-Currituck Toll Bridge that are funding through public-private partnerships where a private company bears the risks and rewards of building toll roads, not the taxpayers.  That way, only projects that are viable will get built, and we avoid building expensive new roads on which few people will travel (Fayetteville loop, anyone?)

So don't be surprised a couple of years from now when the Turnpike Authority comes back to the General Assembly saying that ridership projections aren't keeping up with needed revenues and they want more tax dollars to plug the gap.

Fresh on the heels of the Legislature's vote to give Apple Computers large tax breaks to locate in North Carolina, Time Warner Cable's News 14 web site has a web poll up on the issue.

So all of you Red Clay Citizens out there can voice your opinion on taxpayer financed business incentives.

Cast your vote here.

The craftily named "Healthy Youth Act" HB88 hit a speed bump in the NC Senate's Mental Health and Youth Services Committee on Wednesday.  This yet another attempt by the left to add so-called "comprehensive" sex education to the current abstinence based curriculum taught in North Carolina's schools.

Despite having a stacked committee of supporters in the meeting and a motion for a favorable report from Senator Charlie Dannelly (D-Mecklenburg), no vote was held in the committee.

Something is going on here.  This bill was pushed through the House last month and appeared to be headed for passage in the Senate.  Once the bill hit the Senate, unusual things began to happen to the legislative process. 

Try to stay with me here: First, it was sent to the Health Committee, then withdrawn and sent to the Mental Health and Youth Services Committee where it received a favorable report and was sent to the floor of the Senate for final approval. It was then bumped from the floor calendar and sent back to the Mental Health and Youth Services Committee and then withdrawn and sent back to the floor. It was then withdrawn again from the calendar and resent again to the Mental Health and Youth Services Committee where the vote was delayed yesterday. 

With only two Conservatives (Sen. Jim Forrester (R-Gaston) and Sen. Jim Jacumin (R-Caldwell)) openly opposing the bill in committee, passage would appear likely.  Could Senate Rules Chairman Tony Rand (D-Cumberland) be holding the bill hostage? If so, why?

Another observation from the committee was the number of leftist organizations pushing for the bill's passage: ACLU, Planned Parenthood, National Organization for Women (NOW), NC Action for the Children, NCAE and Equality NC (aka the homosexual lobby).  Know a bill by its friends. 

Today's Under the Dome reports on polling results by Public Policy Polling that claim to show public support for taxpayer-financed campaigns.

There are many problems with the "conclusions" being drawn from these results.  In a press release included with the survey results, PPP declares that the scheme of "public financing" for judicial campaigns "is still highly favored by the voters of North Carolina."

First off, what PPP conveniently leaves out of their press release is the result of question number 2 in their survey:

So more than half of the respondents had never even heard of this law prior to the survey, yet their answer is still somehow declared as some proof positive that the law is "highly favored" by North Carolinians? Please.

A completely uninformed response to a question about which the respondents were given no real context hardly qualifies as a legitimate gauge of public opinion.

Consider a few facts about the public financing for judicial campaigns that most respondents were not made aware of during the survey:

• "Originally portrayed as relying only on
  voluntary support – a $3 check-off on state tax returns and an
  opportunity for state attorneys to contribute $50 a year – the funding
  system ran dry"
• Taxpayers and attorneys chose not to support the system
• "State government resorted to compulsion."
• "The $50 “contribution” has now become an extra licensing fee for attorneys."
• "And in 2004, the General Assembly transferred
  nearly $1 million from the General Fund, from mandatory taxes and fees,
  to the cash-strapped judicial-campaign fund."

But the most important lesson in this episode is a case of stated vs. demonstrated preferences. It costs the survey respondents nothing to press a button on their phone to say they support this system they know little or nothing about.

When taxpayers are asked to actually demonstrate their support by checking off the box on their tax return, however, roughly 90% choose not to do so. Keep in mind, it doesn't even cost $3 extra, it merely directs $3 of their tax bill to the judicial campaign fund.

Looking at demonstrated preferences, rather than uninformed survey responses, is a much better way to determine the public's support of the public financing of judicial campaigns. Based on this measure, about 90% do not support the program.

Our latest survey included a standard question about the death penalty. The results show support increasing from the last time we polled in 2008. Death penalty opponents are not going to go away because of broad public support for the Death Penalty. As Chris Hayes posted earlier on an article by Tara Servatius, opponents are already working on their next strategy for keeping killers off of death row.

Of course if you want to know the unfiltered opinion on the death penalty, read the comments at the bottom of thisWTVD story Support for death penalty strong in NC!