The Triangle Business Journal’s headline today is sure to have a lot of central-planning, light rail advocates rethinking their talking points: Study: Raleigh-Cary traffic relatively light Apparently, traffic congestion in the Triangle decreased by 4 percent last year. That’s not good news for those who think that building light rail is going to somehow relieve [...]
- Sep03
So Much for Private Sector Job Growth
From the Washington Post: The federal government needs to hire more than 270,000 workers for “mission-critical” jobs over the next three years, a surge prompted in part by the large number of baby-boomer federal workers reaching retirement age, according to the results of a government-wide survey being released Thursday. Oh wait, it gets better: The [...]
- Sep02
Nothing to See Here! Please Disperse!
With apologies to Lt. Frank Debin and The Naked Gun. Apparently, the way for NC State University to cover up distract the public from the hiring of Mary Easley at $170,000 a year is to hire a new communications director for $190,000 per year. According to the N&O, the job has been vacant since January. [...]
- Sep01
State-Sponsored Casinos Becoming a Reality
Luckily not here in North Carolina (but not because of a lack of desire by our Lottery Commissioner). In Kansas, the state is going to own and operate full-fledged gambling casino establishments and they are able to do so by operating them under the state’s lottery. It’s about to get into the casino business, not [...]
- 1Aug25
“Cash Strapped”? Puh-lease.
In another attempt at over-sensationalizing the news (and completely blowing things out of proportion), WRAL’s story on the first day of traditional calendar classes in Wake County reads: “Students return to cash-strapped schools.” We’ve all heard about the budget cuts, but “cash strapped” is just not accurate and completely off-base. The WCPSS 2009-2010 budget (p. [...]
- Aug24
There She Goes Again…
First she hired a new communications and policy adviser for $136,000, now the governor has hired a new full-time military adviser for $90,000 per year. The advisor, Mike Alexander, started on Aug. 17, said Perdue spokesman Tim Crowley. He is to earn $90,000 a year. Alexander takes over from Ann Lichtner, who was working part-time [...]
- Aug24
Cash for Refrigerators?
Looks like the next in the line of government economic engineering and payoff for labor unions will come in the form of a “Cash for Appliances” program set to launch this fall. According to Yahoo! Beginning late this fall, the program authorizes rebates of $50 to $200 for purchases of high-efficiency household appliances. Here we [...]
- 1Aug24
Incentivizing Luxury?
The City of Fayetteville may be taking the incentives debate to a new level, and hopefully we’ll have that debate in a new four or five-star hotel that the City will pay you to build. Unsatisfied that no luxury hotel has found the economic conditions right to build in Fayetteville, the city has hired a [...]
- 1Aug17
Not Transit Time
The News & Observer pens an editorial today telling Triangle residents that now is the time for transit to get going and for all you folks out there in Wake, Durham and Orange counties to go out and vote yourself a tax increase. The crux of the argument for the trains lies in this paragraph: [...]
- Aug14
Perdue Issues Budget Cut
It’s 4pm on a Friday, what is your Governor doing? Issuing an Executive Order cutting the newly minted FY09-10 budget by 5%. Yes, the budget that the General Assembly just passed and Governor just signed is already so far from reality that the Governor is taking steps to adjust it. This move just begs so [...]
- Aug13
Why Was This Monster Even On the Streets?
The N&O reports of the disturbing arrest of a Wake County man on charges of raping a child. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time he’s been accused of this heinous act. He was charged with a similar crime just over a year ago, but was allowed to plea to a lesser charge and receive only [...]
- 1Aug13
Did Perdue Violate Her Own Executive Order?
On July 24, Governor Bev Perdue issued Executive Order No. 20, which among other ways to restrict government spending, instructed the Office of State Budget and Management (OSBM) to: “OSBM shall restrict agencies from filing vacant permanent or temporary positions, except for those for which commitments have been made prior to the date of this [...]
- Aug13
When a Bump Really Isn’t a Bump
PPP released a new poll yesterday showing Gov. Bev Perdue’s job approval rating “on the rise” from 25% last month to 27% this month. The N&O echoed the sentiment saying that Perdue’s numbers “may be turning around.” Well, yes, they may be turning around, but PPP’s poll, despite their claims, show her numbers statistically the [...]
- 1Aug12
But I Thought The NCAE “Won”?
Remember last week when the NCAE claimed that it “won” the battle to protect teachers and classroom size in the budget? (See Dome article here.) Class size in all grades are protected from increases in the 2009-2010 budget bill being considered this evening by the General Assembly. Once again, this has been proven to be [...]
- Aug12
“A Minor Adjustment”
That’s how resident lefty Chris Fitzsimon described the changes to the sentencing grid that I point out in my blog post yesterday. Apparently, he feels that giving future child rapists a 16% reduction in their prison sentences is just “a minor adjustment.” I wonder how the victims of the crimes, that he seems to make [...]
- Aug11
NCGA Gets Soft on Crime
In one of its final acts of the 2009 session, the NC House gave final approval to two Senate bills that together will significantly reduce prison sentences for felons. SB 488 and SB 489 change the way sentences are calculated according to the “sentencing grid” which establishes a range for sentencing based on a convict’s [...]
- Aug10
NC Senate Rewriting Rules for Candidate TV Ads
A seemingly innocuous change to a bill late last week could have far reaching effects if it is approved by the NC House today. Last year, two candidates for office, Bob Crumley for Attorney General and Bill Faison for NC House (and coincidentally, both lawyers), ran television advertising for their respective legal firms in which [...]
- Aug06
End of Session Switcheroos
One of the most interesting things that happens at the end of the legislative session is the common practice of taking a bill that has passed one body, stripping out all of its language and replacing it with a completely different bill. Take H 752 for example. When it passed the House on May 7, [...]
- Aug04
$1.1B Tax Increase in NC Budget
There have been some reports that the tax increase contained in the NC budget was to be $990 million. Those reports appear to be premature. According to the estimates in the budget bill released late last night, the tax increase is actually $1.08B. The new taxes will generate as follows: Individual Income Surcharge – $172.8M [...]