The state's purchase yesterday of Grandfather Mountain was sold to us as a way to "preserve North Carolina’s spectacular public lands for future generations." That may be true, but it's really just another corporate welfare scheme. What the state has done is basically give the operators of a for-profit venture a waiver of property taxes [...]
- 1Mar31
Any Way This Comes Out Fair?
We've already learned how the General Assembly leadership loves to stack the deck of "study committees" with people who have their minds made up, so will it be any surprise who gets appointed to this committee. H952 would authorize a study committee on teacher compensation specifically to look at merit-based proposals. Along with members appointed [...]
- Mar31
Card Check Reality
Our friends at the Heritage Foundation put together this video with a former union organizer to demonstrate the lengths the unions will go to in order to get signed cards.
- 1Mar30
Maybe This is Why Nobody Knows Who Marc Basnight Is…
From an article in American Journalism Review: This winter, AJR conducted its fifth census of newspaper reporters who cover state government, its first since 2003, and found a staggering loss of reporting firepower at America's state capitols. The tally found only 355 full-time newspaper reporters at the nation's state capitols, a 32 percent decrease from [...]
- 2Mar30
Civitas Poll: Legislative Leaders Unknown
This probably comes as little surprise to many of us, but is disappointing nonetheless — the leadership of the General Assembly are virtually unknown to the vast majority of North Carolinians. We tested the name ID of the Republican and Democratic leadership of both the House and Senate and here are the results: Opinion of [...]
- 1Mar27
Paycheck Protection Act Introduced in NC Senate
Kudos to Senator Andrew Brock (R-Davie) for filing a North Carolina version of the Paycheck Protection Act which was recently upheld by the US Supreme Court. This bill (S 1032) would protect state employees from being pressured into signing up for payroll deductions for political activities of a labor union. As I mentioned in an [...]
- 1Mar26
Majority of NC House Sponsor Resolution Opposing Card Check
62 members of the North Carolina House are listed as either sponsor or co-sponsor of a resolution introduced today (H. Res. 831) opposing card-check. The main text: The North Carolina House of Representatives expresses its opposition to any effort to enact the "Employee Free Choice Act" or any similar act aiming to remove the secret [...]
- 1Mar26
Civitas Poll: Cooper 41, Burr 38
In a hypothetical 2010 matchup for US Senate, Attorney General Roy Cooper leads incumbent US Senator Richard Burr by three points 41-38. Burr is seen more favorably by voters than Cooper, yet still trails in the head-to-head matchup. The questions: “If the election for United States Senate were held today and the candidates were republican [...]
- Mar25
Civitas Poll: Only Half of Voters Know Who Controls General Assembly
This month we revised a series of questions from our July 2008 poll where we tested voters if they knew which party control various branches of government: Congress, Governor, NC House and NC Senate. The good news, the numbers are getting better. The bad news, it's still pretty bad. Which party controls Congress?Democratic – 77% [...]
- Mar25
Civitas Poll: Favorablility Ratings for Obama, Hagan, Perdue
We did job approval ratings last month on the these three newly elected positions, so this month we decided to do favorable/unfavorable ratings to see if we get much of a difference. We may alternate back and forth in the coming months to see if voters separate their feelings for a person with their job [...]
- 2Mar25
Who Does Your Hair?
I'll do you one better, Francis. The Hair Braider Licensure Act (H291). Is there really a reason that government needs to be involved in this? $10 a year so the government can know who is braiding hair? Really?
- 2Mar23
Semantics
Seems to be a lot of discussion today (Dome 1, 2, 3, 4 and G'boro N&R) on Elon's poll results on the marriage amendment. A lot of the discussion centers on the varying poll results between Elon's poll and ours. I would argue there are differences in the wordings of the questions that do not [...]
- Mar20
Bankrupting the Nation
Apparently, President Obama's policies are going to put the nation deep into debt: In a new report that provides the first independent analysis of President Obama's budget request, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted that the administration's agenda would generate deficits averaging nearly $1 trillion a year over the next decade – $2.3 trillion more [...]
- 1Mar20
Must See Video — Bush Administration Warnings on Fannie/Freddie
John Ham over at Right Angles posts a video that everyone needs to see. It presents a timeline of Bush Administration officials calling for more oversight into Fannie and Freddie and the consequences of letting the entities run amok. With a special guest appearance by Rep. Frank saying… well, I don't want to spoil it [...]
- 5Mar20
30,000 people = Everyone
The outright distortions of fact and truth from those on the left wishing to raise taxes to build inefficient and costly light rail in the Triangle seem to have no end. Karen Rindge, who heads up a so-called progressive organization WakeUp Wake County, says that raising the sales tax on all residents in Wake, Durham [...]
- Mar19
What? You Can Build a Data Center Without Incentives?
In a stunning new development, it appears that companies can build data centers without massive handouts from the government. I know many of you will be shocked by this, especially those in Caldwell County who saw their property taxes increase by 31%. But really, it's happening! SAS plans to build $70M data center. And they [...]
- Mar18
A Taste of Their Own Medicine?
Looks like the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is running into a bit of a quandary in its attempts to reduce its staff by 75. According to the WaPo: The staff union's leaders say that SEIU is engaging in the same kind of practices that some businesses use — laying off workers without proper notice, [...]
- 6Mar18
Shock! Fitzsimon Embraces Corporate CEOs
It's good to see resident progressive Chris Fitzsimon come full-circle and now realize that big business CEOs are worthy individuals and most knowlegable in creating jobs. No more "greedy, lying, worker-rights destorying CEO" rhetoric from Fitzsimon. Nope, he is now taking them at their word when it comes to the business climate in North Carolina. [...]
- 1Mar18
Your General Assembly Hard at Work
From the "They Don't Have Anything Better to Do?" files… And no, I'm seriously not making this up. Rep. Jim Crawford has introduced H683, a bill declaring "The second Saturday in September is designated as North Carolina Hot Sauce Day." Don't get me wrong, I love Texas Pete on my chicken filet biscuit from Bo's [...]
- 1Mar18
Stimulus Money Supports Extortion
Remember back about a year and a half ago when Lowe's Motor Speedway owner Bruton Smith blackmailed threatened the Cabarrus County Commission and the state of NC that he was going to move the track out of NC unless they gave him $80 million worth of incentives? Max wrote a fantastic piece about the whole [...]