Civitas Review Online » Chris Hayes

NC Used Once Again

Chris Hayes — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:24:50 +0000

Since most companies know our state’s leadership are a bunch of suckers for incentive packages and will throw taxpayer money around chasing the elusive score, North Carolina has once again been used as the rabbit to run up the incentive package for another state — this time, Radio Shack has made NC its tease.

RadioShack, which has looked at Raleigh as a possible place to move its corporate headquarters, is making signs that it plans to stay in Fort Worth.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported today that the company’s lease on the Tarrant County College campus it shares with the college had been extended for five years.

So once again the state gets “played” for a package of incentives. Instead of just being used as a tool to drive up a negotiating position, it’s time the state just said no.

AFP’s New Healthcare Ad

Chris Hayes — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:14:35 +0000

Our friends at Americans for Prosperity are up with a new health care ad featuring a breast cancer survivor reminding us the ramifications of passing Obamacare.

Father Sirico vs. Charlie Rangel

Chris Hayes — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:08:49 +0000

On March 25, the Civitas Institute is sponsoring a lecture by Father Robert Sirico, President of the Acton Institute who will be speaking on “Does Social Justice Require Socialism?”

Too see a bit of what Fr. Sirico is about, check out his “Tangle with Rangel” from a House Committee hearing in 2007.

To attend the lecture, sign up on the Civitas website here. The cost is $10 for individuals, $15 per couple.

Cocaine for Monkeys Getting Media Attention

Chris Hayes — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:08:24 +0000

WSOC in Winston-Salem did a story last night on Civitas’ Brian Balfour’s Top 10 Worst Federal Stimulus Projects in NC:

Tiger Woods More Popular than Bev Perdue

Chris Hayes — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:04:30 +0000

I know, it’s a running joke, right… But according to a new poll by ABC News, Tiger Woods’ favorable rating is higher than that of our own Gov. Bev Perdue.

In a basic measure of popularity, just 39 percent express a favorable opinion of Woods
overall, essentially unchanged from its level just before his apology and still vastly below its
peak, a remarkable 88 percent nearly 10 years ago.

According to our latest poll from February, only 38 percent of North Carolina voters had a favorable opinion of Perdue.

And if you remember back to last fall, Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina during the aftermath of his “hiking expedition” had higher poll numbers than Perdue.

So do voters really think sex scandals aren’t as bad as raising taxes, cutting education and slashing teacher pay? Or is there just something else about Gov. Perdue they just don’t like?

Privatizing ABC Faces Deep Divides

Chris Hayes — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:17:30 +0000

In our poll this month, we once again tested voters’ opinion on privatizing the ABC system of government-run liquor stores. While we found increased support for privatization, some very deep divides emerged in the crosstabs that present some fairly large hurdles for privatization advocates to overcome.

While privatizing was supported by 47% of North Carolinians overall , it was opposed by 50% of African-Americans and 49% of people who consider themselves to be part of the “religious right.” Two quite powerful interest groups on opposite sides of the aisle.

Mainly, the fear of these groups is that removing government control from the ABC system will result in an increased availability and consumption of hard liquor.

Although it may be the most free-market solution, I think it’s unrealistic to think that North Carolina is going to go from the tightly-controlled limited access system we have now to one like many other states where liquor is available on every corner in convenience stores. The process of privatization will come through many steps.

Gov. Perdue is taking a good first step to determine the value of the assets of the system, but I think there is going to be little motivation for the General Assembly to tackle this monster during the short session. More than likely some minor ethics reforms will be passed to address the controversies in Wilmington and Charlotte and any major reform or privatization of the system will have to wait until 2011.

Full press release and crosstabs from this question from the poll here.

Your Tax Dollars at Work

Chris Hayes — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:16:17 +0000

Pretty neat video of 58 million of your tax dollars hard at work. Some aerial footage of the new data center being built by Apple in Catawba County.

I’m still waiting for all the greeny environmentalists to put down their iPhones or iPads long enough to notice the number of poor defenseless trees who gave their lives for this or the fact that data centers are one of the largest users of electricity (you know, that stuff that when generated cause global warming).

Your Beach House is Safe Now

Chris Hayes — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:12:24 +0000

I know how concerned many were about their beach house been eaten by the ocean due to rising sea levels. Well, nothing to fear anymore. Turns out, rising sea levels, like much of the global warming catastrophe scenarios, just isn’t grounded in science.

Scientists have been forced to withdraw a study on projected sea level rise due to global warming after finding mistakes that undermined the findings.

In a statement the authors of the paper said: “Since publication of our paper we have become aware of two mistakes which impact the detailed estimation of future sea level rise. This means that we can no longer draw firm conclusions regarding 21st century sea level rise from this study without further work.

Oops.

NC DOT Gets One Right

Chris Hayes — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:52:21 +0000

Late last Friday, the NC Department of Transportation released a new report that represents a major step forward for the department — they are now using a “data-driven approach is being used to score projects across the state” as opposed to its previous scoring system relying on political favor and cronyism for transportation projects.

This scoring system and a common-sense prioritization of transportation projects is one that Civitas and others have been recommending for years.

According to the report:

each project is classified under one of the Department’s three primary goals (Safety, Mobility, Infrastructure Health) and three tiers (Statewide, Regional, and Subregional). Projects classified as Infrastructure Health were further classified by Submode (Interstate Pavement, Modernization, and Highway Miscellaneous).

If you dig deeper into the rankings and pay particular attention to the rankings under “Mobility” (page 57) a distinct conclusion can be drawn — the Charlotte area has been neglected. 8 of the top 10 highest scoring projects are in the Charlotte/I-85 corridor.

The key here will be to see if NCDOT actually sticks to this ranking system and makes decisions based on this or will we see political pressures creep back into the system. I’m guardedly optimistic that road building in the state may have finally turned a corner.

Assessing the Legislative Districts

Chris Hayes — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:06:26 +0000

With filing now open and candidates announcements coming fast and furiously, it would be a good time to remind everyone out there about our NC Partisan Index, which rates every House and Senate district according to its partisan voting patterns. If you’re familiar with Charlie Cook’s PVI for Congressional races, our NCPI is modeled similarly.

For the House seats, click here.

For the Senate seats, click here.

For the full explanation on how we come up with the formula, find all that here.