Republicans sharing maps

Look for the first redistricting maps to be presented next week. Republican legislative leaders have been privately sharing them with other Republicans. The expectation is that Congressman Brad Miller will be put in the same district with David Price. Rumors from Washington say Miller is out looking a job so as to stay in Washington. If true it means either he won’t run against or doesn’t think he can win against Price. The maps are reportedly also going to put Democrats Larry Kissell and Mike McIntyre in a newly drawn district.

Budget cuts more than dollars

The state budget has always been as much a statement of philosophy of government as a document of dollars and sense, but House Republicans have raised this to an art form. The budget released Tuesday says more about philosophy as spending…and some of it, like the provision to continue unemployment benefits, is pure politics to the point of being almost cruel. Governor Perdue was right on this issue.

It was interesting watching reactions to the House budget. “Devastating” was the word former House Speaker Hackney used to describe the budget. Republican Dale Folwell responded the state was broke, the budget process was broken and the Republicans had been hired to fix it. Spare us the histrionics folks. Just as we said to Republicans when Democrats were in charge our message to Democrats is simple. If you don’t like their plan show us yours…or stop complaining.

The House has never had the same love affair with the university system as has the Senate but cuts to the University budget are deep and personal. By curtailing financial aid to students after nine semesters the House is telling the university and students to get degrees faster. UNC TV is quite obviously a target, in keeping with national Republican efforts to curtail funding for public broadcasting. Even though they cut funding in the continuation budget but restored much of it in one-time funding the message to UNC-TV is to become totally self-supporting.

UNC-TV is not powerless in this scenario. The old axiom of never getting into a peeing contest with a person who buys their ink by the barrel also applies to those who buy electricity by the megawatts. UNC broadcasts all over the state and can potentially influence public opinion more than can the legislators. If state funding is going to be eliminated, as it most certainly appears, perhaps UNC-TV should flex their muscles by using the weekly “Legislative Week in Review” to take the legislature to task for their shenanigans instead of throwing the constant bouquets to legislators and their actions. It may be painful detaching from the legislative feeding tube but it could be the best thing that ever happened to UNC-TV. We suspect the public would respond to a new independence and boldness from the network.

Budget progress

Will the Senate approve the House budget? We are hearing that there will no doubt be modifications and changes made but that the two chambers have been working together and are pretty close in philosophy about spending. Look at it as the House sending up a trial balloon to see how it flies. We suspect that when Richard Stevens gets his swing at bat some of the funding to the university will be restored, but who will then get the cuts? With about 80 cents of every dollar in the budget going to education and health and human services there are only so many places to cut 2.4 billion. There may be less to reconcile between the two houses this year than in many recent budget negotiations.

Overriding vetoes

Several weeks ago we mentioned in an ncblogger.com post that we were about to see Bev Perdue turn into “Governor No” and several pundits picked up our moniker. It is coming true as evidenced by Perdue’s two vetoes in one day….one for the history books.

Just what was the point of the veto on the State Health Plan? (Hate to brag but we predicted this on April 5^th) To be sure she was playing to her political constituency but now she owns the plan. Only one of three outcomes can happen: benefits are cut, employees and dependents pay more or the state puts in more money. The last option isn’t likely to happen so either way the employees and dependents are going to have to be affected, just as has happened in most every private health insurance plan. This veto may be overturned.

But the big question now being debated among insiders is whether the legislature can overturn the almost certain veto of the state budget. It’s a shame we are going to have to endure the spectacle sure to unfold over the next two months. The legislature will pass a budget sometime in early June. Perdue will veto it. Then it will be a contest of wills. It is understood that the Senate has the votes to override a veto but the House doesn’t and isn’t likely to get them. Some believed that Speaker Tillis and the House leadership might court conservative Democrats in order to enlist them on these veto contests but just the opposite has happened. If anything, the conservatives have been alienated by Republican leaders. Don’t count on them to help in overriding vetoes.

The games will continue like a serve and volley tennis match. The legislature will pass, the governor will veto, the legislature will try and fail to override. Sadly, North Carolina has become a little Washington…and we aren’t talking about the town on the Pamlico River.

It is time for an adult in the room. In this time of budget crisis petty bickering and gamesmanship is both demeaning and destructive to our state. Where are the voices willing to cry out to stop this scenario before it gets completely out of hand?

This legislative session is baffling. We understand it has been a long time since Republicans have had this much power but they seem to want to tackle every agenda item they’ve accumulated over the past decades in one legislative session. The only way Republicans can remain in power beyond the two years they were given is to demonstrate they can make things work better than did the Democrats, that their solutions to problems are reasoned and consistent with mainstream North Carolina. Last November voters responded to government they perceived wasn’t working. They won’t tolerate gridlock and mean spirited partisanship. If this continues don’t be surprised if voters don’t change teams again in 2012.

Friday’s 40^th

Speaking of UNC-TV, Thursday was the commemoration of 40 years of UNC-TV’s “North Carolina People,” with Bill Friday. About 400 gathered at the Watts Hill Center at UNC Chapel Hill to salute Friday, who turned 90 last year. Friday reminisced about some of the funnier moments of the show, telling us privately that people know him more for NC People than for his 30 years as President of the UNC System. “There is historic value in the stories people have to tell,” he said. “We have recorded for the future the way things were and the people who were part of the times.” He spoke to the current funding cuts facing UNC, saying “ In times of crisis the gathered strength of the people will respond.”

UNC-TV’s director Tom Howe, who emceed the event, was remarkably restrained in commenting on the proposed budget cuts. Betty Rae McCain spoke about Friday’s show, but couldn’t pass up the chance to comment on the proposed cuts to UNC-TV saying, “They are trying to eat Big Bird.” Sounds like a rallying cry.

One has to wonder why public TV’s funding is to be eliminated when other cultural entities like the Museum of Art, the NC Symphony, the state Zoo and Aquariums were not zeroed out. This just smells vindictive. 

We are told the Department of Cultural Resources is in crisis mode. Sources tell us that the Aycock birthplace, Polk birthplace, Vance birthplace, Fort Dobbs, Museum of the Cape Fear and other historic sites are being shuttered, shut down until funding is available to continue operations. We also hear the Transportation Museum in Salisbury will be privatized and operated strictly by donations. 

Many would like to see public policy debate limited to facts, theories or even philosophies but perhaps nowhere else are emotions so prevalent in the discourse. To support their positions advocates often exaggerate and, if possible resort to studies and polls to prove their point. Poll results are often bandied about freely and just as often misinterpreted but the larger issue is the wording and sampling of the poll being quoted.

There is widely accepted methodology for ensuring that an accurate sample is obtained when taking a poll but professionals in this field readily admit there is room for error. For instance, young people and minorities are increasingly reliant on cell phones only for their voice communication. They don’t have a landline phone in their homes and most cell phone companies refuse to release the cell numbers of their customers. Most telephone polls have as their source for sampling the published phone numbers from directories published by phone companies. You can readily understand how this could affect the true validity of a poll sample. Be sure to see how large the sample is and what constraints were put on the people surveyed.

But an even more important factor in the validity of poll results is the wording of the questions. I was amused to read the latest results from the Civitas Poll, for example. The questions have been carefully worded and politically slanted to obtain results. When you read the questions it is no surprise they got the answers they wanted.

Here’s an example: “Currently North Carolina does not require voters to show a government issued photo ID to vote. The legislature is considering legislation to require all voters to show a photo ID when voting. Would requiring voters to show a photo ID improve the integrity and security of voting in North Carolina or have no effect on voting in North Carolina?” After such biased questioning I am surprised only 69 percent said it would improve security.

Just to hammer home the slant they followed up with question #10: “ The legislature is expected to pass a law requiring a government-issued photo identification, such as a driver’s license, passport or military ID, before being allowed to cast a vote in an election. They will also provide an ID free to anyone who can prove citizenship but cannot afford and ID. But Governor Perdue might veto this bill. With that in mind with the legislature who wants to pass this bill or Governor Perdue who wants to veto it?

But wait, there’s more. Another question follows up on the same topic. But then question #12 is a word for word repeat of question #10, but whereas the first time the results were 59 percent favoring the legislature this time the results for the same question are shown as 47 percent. And where Governor Perdue got support of 34 percent the first time the same question was asked she received 40 percent in the second. Which question are we to believe? More importantly, given the slant of the question should we believe either….or any of the results?

Our point is that you can make polls say what you want them to say if you phrase the questions so as to get the results you want. If you are going to believe poll results be sure to ask to see the questions and judge for yourself whether the questions are impartially written and easily understood. Like we say, when it comes to politics you are going to hear lies, damned lies and poll results.

April 12, 1776. On this date 235 years ago our legislature, meeting in Halifax, passed a resolution declaring we should be free of British rule.

North Carolina did not grow as fast or as prosperous as Virginia or other colonies, due largely to our governance. In 1663, King Charles II gave the land for what is now North and South Carolina to eight noblemen who had helped him regain the British throne following the insurrection by Oliver Cromwell and the Roundheads. They named it Carolina in honor of their patron but the noblemen were largely uninterested, uninvolved and indecisive in matters of developing the colony.

There were a few exceptions but North Carolina did not have the large number of prosperous plantations of some colonies. Most of our residents were yeomen, a class below the gentried nobility, what we would today call the hard-working middle class citizens. Most were given a few acres of land and worked with few animals and rustic tools to scratch out a living farming, fishing or even timbering.

Hard work, fertile natural resources and an encouraging governance structure saw the colony prosper and the population explode in the period after the Lords Proprietors sold North Carolina back to the crown. Looking for opportunity many moved west. Relations with the Royal Governor, the King and Parliament, while never good, were tolerable and many were prospering.

Two primary turning points could be cited for the Halifax resolves. The first was The Seven Years War, a global conflict between England, France and Spain over possessions in the New World. England won the war but ran up big debts and reasoned that since the war had been fought to preserve the British way of life in the new world the colonies should pay for much of the costs. They passed the Stamp Act, in 1765. Colonists resoundingly opposed the unpopular tax, as did many wealthy English merchants who saw the loss of sales as a result of the action.

Also in 1765 came the double whammy from Governor William Tryon, who, upon assuming office, declared that the royal representative in this growing colony should have an appropriate palace from which to conduct business, entertain and live. The Assembly of his time did not appropriate an adequate sum to pay for his mansion so Tryon, as government leaders have been known to do, levied taxes to pay for his new house in New Bern.

Not only did Tryon levy taxes but he wanted them paid in coin of the realm, a commodity in short supply in an economy accustomed to bartering goods and services. He selected Colonel Edmund Fanning, a pompous, arrogant and unyielding aide to ensure all taxes were paid.

You can just imagine how well Fanning was received in the rural areas we now know as Alamance, Orange, Cumberland and Rowan counties. A well-organized opposition movement formed, calling themselves “Regulators,” as a symbol of their complete displeasure with both taxes and regulation. When the courts, operating under the orders of Fanning and Tryon, foreclosed on many for nonpayment of taxes the revolt gained a foothold. Passions ran deep, words were angry and blood was shed.

Tryon overreacted, sending in troops to quash the revolt an action that only strengthened the resolve of both Regulators and the average citizen. Further actions by Parliament, such as the tax on tea and forced housing of troops in private homes and arrogant governance brought the revolt into full bloom.

It was in that context that delegates to the Assembly met in April in Halifax. Their years of hard work had made them independent, unwilling to accept unreasonable regulation and unbearable taxation. Their resolves were the first taken by an Assembly and gave us bragging rights to ‘first in freedom.” In July the Continental Congress followed our lead with the Declaration of Independence. 

When all else fails let’s bribe children to make good grades. That’s the premise behind one bill introduced in our legislature. You gotta admit this is out-of-the-box thinking. Instead of paying teachers, let’s pay the students. Face it. It has worked for parents as long as we can remember.

Back in the day you got $10 for an A, $5 for a B on your report card. Wonder what the going rate would be today? How much would it take to motivate a student to make good grades? $500 per A? More?

Nevermind who would pay for this experiment, a case could be made this might be a reasonable investment if it kept kids in school. Perhaps our juvenile crime problems would diminish, we might not have to spend as much for teens in prison or other societal problems.

We pay for all sorts of crazy stuff. We pay Congress not to do anything. We pay employees who don’t work. We pay basketball coaches to win, then, when we fire them because they don’t, we pay them large sums to buy out their contracts. We pay million dollar bonuses to corporation execs who lay off thousands and make little or no profits. We even pay farmers not to grow crops.

Can we really get kids to do what we want by bribing them? If this works maybe we could pay teens to dress better, to be more respectful and not get pregnant. You know, of course the downside to this whole line of reasoning is that if kids get accustomed to being paid to do what they ought they might just decide to do nothing, yet another burden on a social security system that’s got more going out than coming in.

On second thought maybe it’s not such a good idea to pay kids to make good grades. There has to be a better way.

The debate about lifting the cap on the number of charter schools has been interesting to watch. In this instance Republicans, who have long favored giving parents more choice in schools, have been willing to yield to Democrats in several key areas….perhaps they have yielded too far in their quest to raise the cap.

At the end of the day everyone is asking the wrong question. Democrats maintain that giving parents more options through charter schools will result in public schools left with only economically depressed minorities. Here is the key question. Why?

Why would parents desert their local schools to flee to a charter school that doesn’t have advantages like lunchrooms, athletic programs, media centers and other amenities their public school offers? Are we such a state of racists that we will do anything to avoid integration?

I think not. As a parent my primary job is to advocate for my child and to do what I believe is best to ensure he or she gets the best education possible. The message our education community still hasn’t heard is that in too many instances parents don’t feel the public schools provide that opportunity.

Don’t like charter schools? Here’s the antidote. Make the public schools so great that parents won’t choose charters. That involves reform. And so far educators haven’t embraced or enacted reform. 

For years Republicans were largely ignored in legislative decision-making. Democrats are learning that payback can be swift, ugly and not always well reasoned.

Representative Tom Murry, a freshman Republican from Wake County introduced a bill that would essentially gut the Department of Commerce. In his “NC Jobs and Commerce Corporation” bill he takes aim at three sore spots for Republicans.

By moving the economic development functions of Commerce to the University of North Carolina Republicans take direct aim at the Governor, effectively removing our chief executive as chief recruitment officer. A new economic development board, not headed by the Governor, would presumably oversee that function. This bill would see the loss of jobs as fewer photographers, pilots and press people would be needed when photo-op ribbon cuttings are eliminated.

Republicans have never thought the regional economic partnerships a great idea and funding to them would be cut, essentially gutting them. The bill would set in motion an economic development program similar to that in Indiana.

One would think this was just another freshman introducing a far-fetched piece of legislation were it not for Danny McComas’ fingerprints all over the bill. McComas is one of the leadership team, a veteran legislator who is smart enough to get someone else to send up his trial balloon.

UNC heading up economic development? Patterning ourselves after Indiana? Taking the Governor out of economic development?

We’re not a fan of incentives and we believe the regional partnership concept needs revisiting but one of the big functions of our Governor is selling our state to potential industrial clients. They expect to see the Governor making the case and closing the deal. Sidelining her doesn’t make sense. And gutting Commerce doesn’t, either. This bill deserves careful consideration by the House Rules Committee. 

We hear Governor Bev Perdue is strongly considering a veto of the revisions to the State Health Plan passed by the legislature. Teachers and retired state employees have been keeping phone lines and the Internet busy complaining about having to pay premiums for their own health insurance.

There are threats of a lawsuit claiming a breach in a longstanding compact between the state and its employees, especially retirees. For years the promise was that after five years of state service an employee would have his or her health insurance paid for life upon reaching age 65, a promise that resulted in a projected $30+ billion dollar unfunded liability for the plan. That was changed a few years back but there are many who are still under the old plan. Employees further claim that in exchange for not paying premiums on their own health insurance they were willing to accept lower pay than they might have received in the private sector.

The employees say they are willing to accept higher deductibles and co-pays in lieu of paying personal premiums. But this points to other problems in the plan. Employees now pay no premiums and a large number, we are told as much as 70 percent, opt to purchase insurance for their dependents from other companies because they can do so at cheaper prices, especially if their dependents are healthy. So the State Health Plan gets left with sicker and older members, those who will use more health care and are most costly to insure. Premium costs reflect this experience.

The issue has the Governor nervous for herself and for the Democratic Party since teachers and state employees are big supporters of both. The issue has the makings of a political landmine for Perdue in which she is damned if she vetoes the bill and damned if she doesn’t. Look for the voices of teachers, state employees and retirees to win her support and have her place the big red “No” stamp on the bill.

If she does, she now owns the current and future problems of the State Health Plan.