Are you fed up with the partisan, polarizing and stagnant incivility and childish gamesmanship of today’s politics that forces the shutdown of governments, brings this nation to the brink of financial chaos and focuses more on being right than doing right? Political-speak labels this condition “hyperpartisanship,” but most of us plainspoken folks call it garbage that smells so bad we want to toss it out and start over. 

We got here in part because of today’s highly partisan media, especially cable, talk radio and Internet, that encouraged people to self-segregate into liberals and conservatives. In order to hold and grow audiences, this media requires new content to feed 24-hour news cycles, a ripe environment for evermore partisan, extreme and emotional dialogue. Reporters and politicos became rock stars fanning the flames, more interested in identifying and demonizing their opposition than offering workable solutions. While some have been whipped into a state of frenzy and became vocal activists for these positions, many more of us tuned out and turned off the noise.

A reported 41 percent of all Americans consider themselves independent of either political party and a majority of voters support the creation of a third political party. Many admit to being fiscally conservative but socially liberal, willing for government to do things they are neither willing nor able to do themselves. They agree to a social contract that includes helping the poor and the sick (especially the mentally ill) unable to help themselves, providing public infrastructure like roads and water and sewer systems, and in needing certain environmental, safety, military and commerce protections. They also accept the public task of educating our children. But in all these roles they demand sound, cost-effective management, measurable outcomes and both personal and government accountability as non-negotiable pre-requisites.

The dualistic right or wrong, good or bad, friend or enemy way isn’t working. We are more than Republicans or Democrats, liberals or conservatives, Anglo or Afro, rich or poor, young or old. Today’s issues are not either/or decisions but both/and propositions, requiring us to seek common ground we can agree upon, then listening and working together to find solutions.

Call us centrists, moderates, independents, anything you want, but call us ready for change. Starting a third party won’t be easy, especially in North Carolina where laws require an unreasonable number of petition signatures to gain ballot access. Large amounts of money will be needed to be competitive and finding an attractive candidate who can energize the many who have given up will be equally difficult, especially convincing independents there is room under a third-party tent for differences of opinion, that working and listening together will get us farther than present-day all or nothing-at-all politics.

We are not unaware of the challenge but have watched the political climate worsen. What is currently playing out in Washington and Raleigh forces us to agree with Sojourners’ Jim Wallis that “the left doesn’t get it and the right gets it wrong.” Neither Democrats nor Republicans seem willing to halt this tragic drama. It is increasingly obvious things won’t get better in North Carolina until some catalyst forces change. That change agent will be a third political party. A new website, www.ncthirdparty.com, has been initiated to invite your response and participation in this movement. Are you ready for a third party?

The News and Observer reported last Saturday that House Speaker Thom Tillis gave pay raises of as much as 27 percent to members of his personal staff, even as he is telling everyone else in state government they must cut their budgets. With all the controversy that has surrounded this session many observers think this might be Tillis’ most serious misstep to date.

Tillis tried to justify the increases, saying he had originally hired people on a provisional basis and the pay increases were based on performance after an initial period of employment. This might be an acceptable and traditional way of hiring in business but not the way things are done in government. When Tillis took office he promised his staff payroll would be smaller than former Speaker Joe Hackney. The N&O’s analysis shows they actually exceed Hackney’s. Chief of Staff Charles Thomas is now paid $150,000, more than the $139,500 salary pay the Governor and perhaps the highest any legislative staff member has ever been paid.

But the raises may be illegal. In 2009 the legislature passed a bill that established a salary freeze for every agency of state government with some very specific exceptions outlined in the bill. A person’s pay can be increased if he or she is promoted, if job duties and responsibilities are significantly increased and there are other instances where pay raises are allowed. Nowhere in the bill, however, is a raise allowed based on job performance or merit. So these pay increases appear to violate the 2009 law.

Below are Speaker Tillis’ staff salaries as of June 7, 2011,  as reported by The News and Observer:

 Abigail Blackwell, Administrative Assistant, $30,000                                                                      Charles Duckett, Director of Admin. Boards and Commissions, $79,170                                      Bruce Goforth, Policy Adviser, $62,880                                                                                        Christopher Hayes, Policy Adviser, $82,000                                                                                  Amy Hobbs, Policy Adviser, $82,000                                                                                            Susan Horne, Assistant for Constituent Services, $51,480                                                          Jason Kay, General Counsel, $140,000                                                                                        Wanda Kay, House Caucus Assistant, $40,000                                                                          Michael Luethy,  $70,000                                                                                                              Dodie Renfer, Director of Operations, $70,000                                                                            Jordan Shaw, Director of Communications, $65,000                                                                    Katherine Sullivan, Policy Assistant, $36,000                                                                                Charles Thomas, Chief of Staff, $150,000                                                                                    Rhonda Todd, Executive Assistant, $71,071.12                                                                                                          Renee Weaver, House Staff Clerk, $35,525

Tillis total, $1,065,126.12

Hackney total, $969,874.36

Completing the takeover

Not only have Republicans taken over control of the state legislature but now they are moving to infiltrate the boards and commissions of state government. Republicans won’t be able to dominate those positions unless or until they remain in power for some time or succeed in winning the governor’s race in 2012.

The Senate appointments give an indication of what to expect. Art Pope, Godfather of all things conservative, will be appointed to The Golden Leaf Foundation Board. A healthy serving of Pope protégées are taking posts on state boards including Kory Swanson, Executive VP of the Locke Foundation, on the Seafood Industrial Park Authority; Becki Gray from the Locke Foundation (and frequent NC SPIN panelist) on the Museum of Art board; Lyndalyn Kakdelis, of the NC Education Alliance, to the Teaching Fellows Commission and Les Merritt, former State Auditor and head of the Pope-funded Ethics in Public Service foundation to the State Ethics Commission. Other appointments include former Senator Hugh Webster to the Global TransPark board, Curtis Media Group News Director Rick Martinez to the UNC Public TV board and former legislator Fern Shuford to the Lottery Commission Board.

Who said board meetings have to be dull? We’re betting most of the meetings of the groups listed above will be quite interesting to watch.

 Heard on the Street

Look for the Perdue veto on the budget to come Monday, the same day President Obama comes to Raleigh. Will it get lost in the shuffle of the day’s news? Is that the desired purpose? One way or another it is coming, even though the Governor recognizes her veto will be overridden. Call it a runon veto….Perdue plans on running on her stand for public education come 2012.

The legislature left town Thursday after frantic Crossover activity in both chambers. It will be a few days before the dust settles and we really know what was passed. Leadership in both houses indicate committees will hold final meetings Tuesday, then vote to override the budget veto. They could adjourn next Thursday, waiting to return when redistricting legislation is ready to pass.

What’s up with Redistricting?

Maps were drawn and circulating to some legislators before Easter. We were told they would be presented and passed shortly after the holiday. So what’s happened to this legislation?

For starters GOP leaders have used the maps as political leverage in budget passage. Incumbents who didn’t support the budget could find themselves in more competitive districts come 2012. The more important reason for the delay is that leaders are trying to pre-clear the maps with the US Justice Department or the US Courts prior to presenting them. Seasoned legislators recognize there’s almost always a lawsuit that follows redistricting and are trying to avoid the entanglements before they begin. No word on whether or not they can get that clearance…but you have to admit it is pretty smart to try.

Holding for AG

Eastern District US Attorney George Holding is resigned effective July 8th as has been expected. The US Attorney is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Holding served in the office since 2002 and was elevated to the top spot in 2006. With the election of Barack Obama it was customary that this post would be filled by a Democrat but it was mutually agreed to allow Holding to complete his investigations and prosecution of former Governor Easley and former Senator Edwards. Holding will be remembered for his work in bringing to trial former Ag Commissioner Meg Scott Phipps, former House Speaker Jim Black, former Congressman Frank Ballance, former Governor Easley and now Edwards.

The rumor mill has rumblings that Holding will be preparing to run against Roy Cooper for North Carolina Attorney General in 2012. That same rumor mill is suggesting that Wake Senator Richard Stevens will be running for Superintendent of Public Instruction against June Atkinson. Republican legislative leadership is rapidly moving to vest full authority to the Superintendent. Step two is to elect a Republican to the post. 

The legislative building has always been one of the gamiest places in our state, with some master game-players. If the current buzz is accurate we may have some of our best players in place right now.

Latest rumors have the Senate and House actually working together to tweak the Senate version of the budget prior to passage next week. If budget leaders from both houses can resolve major differences in the two spending plans prior to Senate passage it is possible House Speaker Tillis might get his body to concur with the Senate plan, sending a final budget document to Governor Perdue days ahead of what many had projected.

This throws a bit of a monkey wrench into the strategy in the Perdue camp. Most had the budget passed around June 9^th, just 21 days before the current budget is due to expire. The question being posed was how long Perdue would take to veto the budget. The sooner she sends it back to legislators the longer they have to play more budget games.  

Seasoned legislative observers are speculating what will happen if no budget is passed in time for the July 1 start of the new year. North Carolina has had recent instances where lawmakers couldn’t finalize a budget in time and had to pass a “CR” or continuing resolution to continue government into the new fiscal year. It usually continued current spending for a 15 or 30-day period until a final document could be passed. This is a different scenario since Republican legislative leaders have based their entire budget strategy on the premise we cannot continue current spending levels and must dramatically slash the budget. A CR that allows current spending for 30 days is an admission spending was not so bad as they said. On the other hand Perdue won’t be easy to deal with in CR negotiations, seeing this as the first step in a political game of “chicken.” Whoever blinks first will lose.

Washington has demonstrated that political gamesmanship of this nature can result in the shutdown of government. Some have gingerly hinted that such a thing is possible in state government but let us remove any doubt. It is a real and growing possibility with scary possible outcomes. How far is either side prepared to go in the chicken game?

One could easily speculate who would get the worst press in these games. If Perdue vetoes the budget quickly she would immediately put the onus on the legislature, saying the document wasn’t close to anything she (or voters) could approve so go back and do a better job. They would have the better part of a month to do so. If Perdue procrastinates, claiming to be studying all the aspects of the spending plan so as to make an informed decision, she would open herself to criticism for waiting too long to veto a budget everyone already knows she is going to send back to legislators.

The concept of final House and Senate budget approval next week is a potential game-changer, giving legislators a leg up in saying Perdue has more than ample time to consider this budget and give it thumbs up or down.

These games are already affecting state agencies and people. State law says that a state agency must give an employee 30 days notice if they are to be terminated. In anticipation of budget cuts (based on both the House and Senate versions of the budget) some agencies will be notifying employees next week they are losing their jobs. What happens if proposed cuts are not as severe as now appear? How do they operate with dramatically reduced budgets and, at the same time, wait until July 1 to give notice? How will this affect the remaining 11 months of their budgets?

It is a sad commentary that we have come to this state and shows neither good leadership or stewardship on all sides. But this is the environment we are in.

Tell your kids to put down their computer games….the real life contests going on in state government are more exciting.

The philosopher Santayana said, “Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.” Barack Obama learned his history and is repeating it. Obama proved in 2008 that a well-organized and well-financed campaign will win borderline states like North Carolina. Only those in the inner circle of Obama know for sure how many paid and volunteer workers were in this state but informed supporters say it was well over 1,000. Even the best organized Jim Hunt campaigns (the best we’ve seen in modern state history) paled in comparison to the strategy and effectiveness of Obama in ’08. Taking advantage of lengthened absentee voting periods the Obama campaign turned out early voters by the truckloads.

Plans are already being enacted for the same strategy in North Carolina for next year and we understand an advance team is already on the ground recruiting hands and feet.

There has been great speculation about whether or not Obama will be able to turn out minorities, young people and the Independents at the levels evidenced in ’08 but opponents would be well advised not to bet against it. Democrats in North Carolina are more likely to get on board this time around…polls show they need all the help they can get. And Republicans may actually be helping Obama by shortening the time allowed for early voting. Now they have given urgency to the Democrats to turn out the vote.

It has often been said that the best thing Democrats have going for them are Republicans and it may prove true again this year. The Republican presidential parade is a mess, with no consensus charismatic candidate who will energize the base and attract the unaffiliated voters, something that absolutely must happen if the GOP has any hope of regaining the White House or Blount Street.

Pollsters are eager to show us that Governor Perdue, President Obama or even Senator Hagan don’t have great popularity in our state…but this game is just starting, not ending. Obama won this state by being better organized and better financed than his opponents. Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. 

Bill Atkinson, CEO of Wake Med, one of the largest hospital complexes in our state has obviously been reading that North Carolina is facing a 2.5 billion dollar budget deficit for the year beginning July 1. Patriot that he is, Atkinson has been hard at work trying to help our legislators find solutions to our problems and he has come up with one.

His hospital, Wake Med, is generously offering to buy Rex Hospital, sold some years ago to UNC Health Care for 290 million dollars and some debt, for the inflated price of 750 million dollars. Reminiscent of the movie, Dave, Atkinson is systematically showing us the way out of our financial troubles.

What other assets we could sell to fix our financial problems? We could sell the State Capitol, much as Arizona did. We all know what great problem-solvers they are.

I’ve got it. Let’s sell the Legislative building and lease it back to all the lobbyists who spend most of their time there anyway. They might as well pay rent while they influencing our legislators and we could start the New Year without having to make all those nasty cuts.

What other problems can we help solve? 

Word on Jones Street was that redistricting maps would be revealed after Easter but 11 days into May there is no indication when we will see them. Perhaps it was because leaders were holding districts over members’ heads, promising safer districts in exchange for their vote on the House budget (wouldn’t be the first time). The budget passed the House days ago. Where are the maps?

A series of public hearings, poorly attended we might add, were held regarding redistricting. One reason few people came was because they had no maps upon which to react.

Is it because legislators are so busy?

Is it because this is a more difficult project than they first thought?

Are they waiting for the noise to settle after Congressman Patrick McHenry admitted that racial gerrymandering would yield one more Congressional district, while almost certainly guaranteeing three more Republicans in Congress?

Inquiring minds want to know. Where are the redistricting maps?

Count me as one commentator who is tired of reporting bad news and controversy, so when one of our dependable sources said April tax revenues to the state were higher than projected I went after confirmation.

Every year we anxiously await the results of state revenues in the month of April, both because lawmakers hope there will be extra funds they can spend and because if personal income tax returns are greater than had been projected it signals the strength of our state’s economy.

It is called the April surprise, but in recent years there hasn’t been much of a surprise, due in part to overly optimistic revenue projections in some years, but more recently because of the severity of the economic recession in our state.

The results for this April are in and according to the State Budget Office we did have an April surprise. Overall state revenues were $24.5 million ahead of projections for the month. When last year’s budget was crafted the assumption was that our economy would begin to show signs of recovery and even though the state received lower than expected sales tax and corporate collections for the month, personal income taxes exceeded projections.

Chrissy Pearson, Communications Director for Governor Perdue, agreed the personal income tax collections were good news, but cautioned us not to become too optimistic. The Governor still expects end of year numbers to be ahead of projections….but not by big margins.

My take away is that our state’s economy is still spotty -  not as bad as it has been but still not in a strong recovery. 

This post submitted by Brad Crone, frequent NC SPIN panelist and CEO of Campaign Connections, a political consulting and PR firm:

The State House and State Senate have both passed similar bills that provide unlimited protection for AT&T, Time Warner Cable, Charter Cable and Cox Cable systems in the state. The measure basically prohibits any municipal or county government from getting into the fiber-optic cable business.

The measure stems from a long running fight the cable companies have had with the City of Wilson and the City of Salisbury.  Those two municipalities, with the approval and blessing from the Local Government Commission, borrowed about $30 million each to install fiber-optic cable in their communities.

As a result, the cities offered competing cable systems to their residential and business customers with cable television, telephone service and high-speed internet. In Wilson, for example, the city ran fiber-optic cables to all their residential customers. Their system is called Greenlight. This system provides a basic cable system that is less expensive than basic cable in say Clayton or Smithfield or Raleigh.

The competition has forced the cable system to upgrade their lines and facilities and lower their cable, phone and internet rates.  The cable companies really don’t like competition so they introduced a bill in the General Assembly that prohibits any other local governments from building out their own fiber optic cable system. 

The argument from the cable and telecom companies has been that the local governments have an “unfair” market advantage when it comes to paying taxes on profits and using taxpayer monies to build out their systems.

That may be true to a certain extent but what the public wasn’t told was the simple story that the cities had originally gone to the cable and telecom companies and asked them to partner with the local governments to bring high-speed internet services to their communities. Wilson has key operation centers for Branch Bank and Trust and they needed better internet connections. Salisbury is the corporate headquarters for food giant Food Lion and they needed better internet connections.

The cities went to the cable and telecom companies for help and didn’t get any. The cities saw the fiber optic cable systems as an investment to protect jobs and remain economically competitive.

The cable and telecom companies said they weren’t interested in partnering with Wilson or Salisbury and that they had no intention to spending the money necessary to provide the infrastructure with fiber optic cable to provide better phone, cable television and internet services to business and residential customers and consumers in either city.

So the cities said, if the cable and telecom companies won’t invest in our cities, we will...and they did.

The legislation leaves out an important element that will hurt consumers in the future. The cities should be allowed to expand their infrastructures, including fiber optic cable, if and only when the existing cable and telecom companies refuse to make the investments and refuse in writing to partner with the cities and counties to pay for the infrastructure upgrade.

Right now, the bill is one-sided, strictly on the side of the cable and telecom companies and that’s bad news for North Carolina consumers. We all love to hate the cable company and these two bills give us even more reason to cuss that remote.

Forget the theatre currently taking place on Jones Street. Most people who have been around state government for any time have come to the realization the budget that will be approved by the House Tuesday is little more than Act 1. They have peeked into this script and recognize this stanza ends when the Senate passes it’s budget (which we are told will be similar but with fewer cuts to the University system) and the two bodies compromise sometime in June and send a final document to the Governor. If the opening act seems familiar it is because we have seen a similar play that was set in Washington.

Don’t tarry getting back to your seats from intermission. Act 2 finds our Governor, who has been surprisingly silent in Act 1, with but days remaining before the July 1 starting date for the new budget, pulling out her red ink and slathering the budget with her veto. This is a short act that doesn’t take long.

The curtain for Act 3 rises immediately prior to July 1 with all the thespians (our politicians are acting more like actors) on stage pointing fingers and shouting that the impending crisis in state government is not their fault. The most obvious solution, a continuing resolution, is also problematic because neither the legislators nor the governor can find agreement. There is some debate backstage as to whether or not a continuing resolution is even required; most believe that without one state government will shut down. Some speculate this wouldn’t bother Republicans, especially the Tea Party faction, but most believe this would backfire on the GOP, much as it did with Newt Gingrich and the Republicans in Washington. One point on which all agree is that we cannot continue the spending plan currently in place because revenues won’t support these levels for long. If a CR is necessary and we cannot allow current spending levels what can be agreed upon?

Here is where I suspect the audience (you and I) will get involved and call a halt to this tragedy. We need a budget and we need these actors to compromise and come to some resolution. But what will happen if they haven’t done so by July 1? That is the real question being asked by political types?