One has to wonder what legislative leaders and the governor are thinking as unemployment rises yet again to a staggering 11.1%, up from the 10.9% in December. In spite of millions upon millions in incentives and hundreds of millions from Golden Leaf and still more millions given away at the local level, the economic development of our state has become a serious concern.
North Carolina has hovered around 11 percent unemployment since last April. In January 2009, unemployment statewide was at 9.2 percent.
If one adds the Global Transpark to the mix, economic development looks even more preposterous. Rather than look at ways to bring businesses to the state, our motto seems to be that we can bribe them to come here. In spite of numerous lists depicting NC as a great place to do business our tax system is antiquated, taxes are too high and we’re not focused on making the system any better.
Here’s a great visual of how bad things are statewide. My own county of Lee now sits at 14.6% in spite of ten years of manufacturing incentives.
It’s somewhat dated news (two days) but it still is worth mentioning. As I was hosting “Take A Stand” on Monday I saw Pelosi’s comments to the National Association of Counties. Maybe a gaff, maybe an honest statement, but still worth mentioning (from USNews):
Pelosi began the windup of her healthcare pitch by alluding to the controversies over the healthcare bill and the process by which it has reached its current state. Then, just after saying, “It’s going to be very, very exciting,” Pelosi gaffed, telling the local elected officials assembled that Congress “[has] to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it, away from the fog of controversy.”
Sometimes, comedy just appears from the pixie dust in Washington.
Peter Roff, in the same referenced column above, goes on to point out other Pelosi perspectives:
This is the same Nancy Pelosi who, only weeks earlier, was bragging about the transparency of the process that produced the bill that is currently stalled in Congress. The same Pelosi who brushed aside concerns raised by organizations like Let Freedom Ring!–where I am a senior fellow–that members of Congress actually commit to reading the bill before voting for it and that it be posted online for at least 72 hours before any vote so that the American people can read it, too.
Not covered in the mainstream media, but problematic for local officials statewide is that the state has once again withheld money promised to local governments because of their inability to balance the state budget or make cuts in their realm.
In North Carolina, about 7 percent of the proceeds from the state’s corporate income tax had routinely been transferred to local governments for school capital costs, but starting this year, lawmakers decided to put that money — roughly $125 million over two years — towards the deficit. For Cabarrus County, a fast-growing county near Charlotte, that translates into an annual loss of about $2 million. “We’re not counting on it coming back,” says Pam Dubois, the county’s finance director. “If it does, great. But when we’re projecting out what we’re going to be doing for the next five years we’re acting like it’s not going to be there.”
This is always a problem as county governments are forced by state law to adopt a budget by July 1st even as the state can simply go on and on and on with producing a budget by passing continuing resolutions. But counties must know what they can and cannot count on while preparing their budgets. The state has not acted in good faith and over the past ten years has lied to local governments again and again. Sadly, the public could usually care less.
School boards are notoriously noxious niches for elected officials. They are rarely liked, often attacked and always the subject of a self-interested cadre of liberal elitist. Wake County is no different and the news coverage proves the point. Today’s N&O story acts as if the sky is falling due to the abrupt, but not entirely surprising, exit of Superintendent Del Burns. The N&O would like to act like the entire community was in lock step with Burns and the former board:
Those supporters (of the previous board) include many Democrats and Raleigh’s traditional leadership, including the business community, which has staunchly supported the school district and its national reputation for its diversity policy.
That is an interesting statement. If true, and there’s no documentation to prove it, then the new board could not have been elected. But the N&O doesn’t stop there. It also makes several statements that are somewhat true, but haven’t been proven to improve education in any way.
A diversity policy that has won Wake schools national recognition (but haven’t been shown to improve education) mandatory year-round schools (ditto) and early class dismissals for teacher planning sessions (ditto). . .
Again, it should come as NO surprise that these policies are being redressed. The candidates who won RAN for office on changing those policies. I’m hopeful that this school board continues to keep the promises it made and focus on outcomes of education rather than feel good policies and politics that do little to improve a child’s ability to prepare for the real world.
Chairman Ron Margiotta and his fellow board members should be commended, but they won’t publicly, school boards are known for having long political life expectancies. Activists showing up in droves doesn’t mean they reflect the will of the people, that was taken care of at the ballot box in November.
If you thought that the Wake County School Board was having fun with controversy (in spite of being elected with their issues on the table) the Tennessee Board of Education has brought forth a bible class for public schools.
Beginning in the fall of 2010 high schools that want to teach students from the Bible will be able to do so using this approved cirriculum. Here are a few of the guidelines according to the Tennessean:
• Students will read biblical narratives, identify chief characters and analyze plot, literary form and intended impact on the reader.
• Students will learn and discuss pivotal historical events and geographic locations and compare the religious, social and cultural lives in the ancient world.
• Students will show how the Bible has impacted art, literature, music and thought by reading pieces of work that use biblical allusions and listening to music that relies on biblical text.
So, how controversial would this be in North Carolina? Better yet, would elected officials in our state EVER let such a system even be considered on the floor of our legislature? But in North Carolina we are content, from an educational standpoint, to ignore the impact that the Bible has had on our society or on history. It is as if it never existed.
If there is one thing we have learned, it is that governments are TERRIBLE at solving invasive species issues. Fire ants, kudzu, hedge, snakeheads, or even the Hemlock Woolly Adelgids that are destroying our hemlocks in western NC are virtually unscathed by attempts to eradicate them.
The latest battle is over the Asian carp (these fellas leap out of the water at the sound of approaching engines) making their way up the Mississippi River to the great lakes and threaten the $7 billion fishing industry there. The government is looking at spending $80 million, not on the best solution, but on a plan that appears will do nothing.
The surest way to prevent the huge, hungry carp from gaining a foothold in the lakes and threatening their $7 billion fishing industry is to sever the link between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River basin, created by engineers in Chicago more than a century ago.
The strategy released by the Obama administration this week agrees only to conduct a long-range study of that idea, which could take years. The government also refuses to shut down two navigational locks on Chicago waterways that could provide an easy pathway for the carp into the lakes, although it promises to consider opening them less often.
Instead, the plan outlines two dozen other steps, from strengthening an electric barrier designed to block the carp’s advance to using nets or poisons to nab fish that make it through. That’s an expensive gamble that may not keep enough carp out of the lakes to prevent an infestation.
In other words, we have NO idea how to stop the invasion. Though not as sexy as tax issues and bad budgets, invasive species are a serious problems and our typical governmental responses usually make the situation worse. Looks like a golden opportunity to open up the free market competition to species eradication.
From our good friends over at the NC Institute for Constitutional Law. More taxpayer giveaways:
$107,170 in tax incentives grants was approved on Monday, February 1, by the Statesville City Council for an unnamed furniture company to expand its local operations.
~ Jim McNally, Statesville Record & Landmark, February 4, 2010
$100,000 to Commonwealth Brands Inc. from the state’s One North Carolina Fund to add a product line for its cigarette tubes. The Corporate Welfare Weekly’s issue #34 previously reported that the company is also eligible to receive an additional $83,207 from the City of Reidsville and $81,600 from Rockingham County.
~ Richard Craver, Winston-Salem Journal, February 4, 2010
$341,000 in local incentives has been approved for Kewaunee Scientific Corporation, a localStatesville laboratory furniture manufacturer. The company is to receive $184,000 from Iredell County and $157,000 from the City of Statesville. The furniture manufacturer announced it will be expanding its operations and renovating its corporate headquarters.
~ Joe Marusak, Charlotte Observer, February 4, 2010
$50,000 in incentives has been approved for Solaris Industries, Inc. from the One North Carolina Fund. The international manufacturer of steel tubing will build a new manufacturing facility in the Cleveland Town of Kings Mountain. All One North Carolina Fund grants require a local match.
~ Chris Baysden, Triangle Business Journal, February 3, 2010
No need to photoshop it, no need to alter it in any way. Just make sure every voting member of the 2nd district has the following picture in their mind by election day. This image and his support of government run healthcare, cap and trade, bailouts and the litany of issues that are at odds with the rural conservative leanings of his district will make for an interesting fall.
My favorite Etheridge run in was when he filed a complaint against me for having a sign in my yard supporting Sheriff Tracy Carter in Lee County. He’s not such a fan of free speech either.
Democrat Congressman Larry Kissell achieved notoriety as a school teacher in touch with the common man. He campaigned as an outsider who felt the pain of folks who had lost their jobs. He wore his liberalism proudly campaigning as the answer to the jobless woes of the 8th district.
But rhetoric and reality are catching up with the 1st term congressman. Though liberal, Kissell has been rather difficult to read. He voted against healthcare legislation and cap and trade. One has to wonder what he really stands for. Of the districts likely to fall in the state this year, I’d say Kissell’s is squarlely within the GOP’s grasp. It doesn’t hurt that most of the lamentations seem to be coming from his own team.
Dannie Montgomery, a teacher from Anson County who served as first vice chair of the N.C. Democratic Party, said in a news release that Kissell “has turned his back on the grassroots supporters who propelled him to office,” Jim Morrill of The Charlotte Observer reports. She said Kissell has alienated some African American leaders in the 8th District, which could dampen black turnout. She said she has encouraged Charlotte lawyer Chris Kouri to challenge Kissell. Kouri ran unsuccessfully for the seat in 2002 against Republican Robin Hayes
(comment correcting cap and trade appreciated)
When the state wanted to create a lottery, the debate was interesting. Here is a state that forbids gambling, allows it on an Indian reservation, but doesn’t allow people to deal cards or for the machines to have moving parts, allowed poker machines, then outlawed them so that they could come back as Sweepstakes machines that pay out cash, and still acts as if the Lottery isnt’ really gambling.
More than a cursory look at the wealth of games available behind the local gas station check out counter will amaze you. Being flashy, having colorful displays and the Ric Flair one even has the former wrestling great shouting “Woooo” to promote his game.
Now lottery officials have created a brand new $1 way for folks to retir. And here’s the difference between the other $1 way:
In Powerball, players try to match five numbers drawn from the same pot of 59 white balls and the red Powerball drawn from a separate pot of 39 numbers. InMega Millions, players try to match five numbers drawn from the same pot of 56 white balls and the yellow Mega Ball drawn from a separate pot of 46 numbers.
Got it? Really a big difference, might even draw in hundreds of new players? That’s pretty much the type of difference between all the scratch offs as well. Still seems like simply opening a state run casino would cut through the BS and actually add some intellectual honesty to what the state tries to pass off as “not” gambling.