Civitas ReviewThe Blog of the Civitas Institute

Mar

22

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**PARODY**

BREAKING: Public official paid nearly $2 million a year to choke during the first round of the NCAA tournament

The season came to its unremarkable conclusion following North Carolina State’s loss to the Temple Owls causing one observer to even mistake NC State’s players for government employees. Citing an impressive lack of effort, the anonymous observer stated that he was “pretty sure the guy playing power forward works at the post office. Man… he just couldn’t deliver anything when we needed it!” Others felt that only government employees would be capable of shooting free throws with such startling inefficiency.

While the deficit was not comparable to that of our federal government, the North Carolina State Wolfpack, led by Coach Mark Gottfried, triumphantly fell to the “Temple” of Doom Friday. Despite this disgraceful forty minutes of what was allegedly college basketball, Gottfried will still be receiving nearly $2 million this year as stipulated in his contract, plus a yet-to-be disclosed amount to serve as a bonus for leading the team back to the NCAA tournament.

Striving to prove the preseason rankings wrong, NC State delivered shockingly impressive losses throughout the season. The first round knockout by Temple will perhaps be the loss most etched in our minds for years to come.

While hearts and brackets continue to break across North Carolina, the “Gottfather” will enjoy a hefty bonus just for making it to the big dance, even though it did not appear that the rest of the team even stepped on the court.

**This is a parody…More to come.

Lovingly written by devout Wolfpack fans and Civitas Interns, Jacob Parson and Victoria Wakefield.

Mar

22

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A couple of posts have some insights for us in NC.

We hosted economist Arthur Laffer earlier this year for a discussion of how lower income taxes, or no income taxes, can boost economies — and even bring more money in to government.

Add Ireland to the places where high taxes have the effect of lowering how much government brings in to its own coffers — this time with a Bloombergian high tax on tobacco products results in cigarette smuggling, and less tax revenue.

On the flip side, the low corporate taxes have helped the Irish economy. (Though, as Reason points out, they can’t help much if a government makes other blunders.)

Meanwhile, there’s been wailing and gnashing of teeth about Gov. Pat McCrory’s NC budget. One headline said it was a budget only an accountant could love. Well, shouldn’t a budget inspire the admiration of accountants?

As Reason Online reminds us, politicians like to use scare tactics to fight budget cuts, any budget cuts.

Mar

22

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Getting the phone call that Sen. Tom Goolsby (R-Wilmington) was going to announce a bill pertaining to the Death Penalty and the Racial Justice Act made my heart race. I thought, “Is this really the beginning of the end?” The first thing I did was to call the Lowry and Turner families, who have been affected dramatically by both the moratorium on the death penalty and the Racial Justice Act, to let them know there may be a light at the end of the tunnel. The Lowry and Turner families are just two of the families whose loved ones’ murders had their sentences commuted to life without parole by Judge Greg Weeks.
Goolsby filed SB 306 to end the de facto moratorium on the death penalty here in NC. There are currently 152 inmates on death row, yet in North Carolina we have not had an execution since 2006. Families who thought justice would be served are still waiting for the horror story to end. In a press release, Goolsby said , “We have a moral obligation to ensure death-row criminals convicted of the most heinous crimes imaginable finally face justice. Victims’ families have suffered for far too long. It’s time to stop the legal wrangling and bring them the peace and closure they deserve.”
SB 306 begins to answer legal concerns that doctors, nurses, and pharmacists faced when dealing with executions. The participants would not have to fear punishment from state boards anymore. There are many parts of the bill that committees are still debating, but under Section 5 that Racial Justice Act would be repealed.

Section 5(b) states:
The intent and purpose of this section, and its sole effect, is to remove the use of statistics to prove purposeful discrimination in a specific case.
Section 5(d) states:
Except as otherwise provided in this subsection, this section is retroactive and applies to any motion for appropriate relief filed pursuant to Article 101 of Chapter 15A of the General Statutes prior to the effective date of this act. All motions filed pursuant to Article 101 of Chapter 15A of the General Statutes prior to the effective date of this act are void; however, this section does not apply to any case in which there is a final order issued by a court of competent jurisdiction, issued prior to the effective date of this act, which resentenced a petitioner to life imprisonment without parole pursuant to the provisions of Article 101 of Chapter 15A of the General Statutes.

This would become effective when the bill passes. What does this mean for families? Unfortunately the cases that have already been heard and decided by Judge Weeks will not be repealed. The good news going forward is that families will not have to go through any more Racial Justice Act hearings if this bill passes.

Mar

21

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As I promised yesterday, I would do my best to present some “good” bills offered by the 2013 Legislature and HB 185, The Ballot Reform Act of 2013 meets the requirements of a good election reform bill.

HB 185 would eliminate straight party voting and change the way parties are placed on General Election Ballots. The Primary Sponsors of the bill are Representatives Bert Jones (R-Rockingham), Susan Martin (R-Wilson), Debra Conrad (R-Forsyth) and Bob Steinburg (R-Chowan).

If this bill is enacted, official ballots in North Carolina would no longer contain any place that allows a voter to vote for the candidates of a party for more than one office with only one mark of the ballot. At this time only 15 states employ some form of straight party voting.  At present, North Carolina provides for a straight party choice, but as is the case with most North Carolina election law, there is an exception to this rule. In North Carolina, a straight party vote does not include a vote for the President and Vice President of the United States, thus requiring voters to make separate selections for the President and Vice President and the straight party option.  Even the very liberal Brennan Center for Justice called our straight party option a “ballot flaw” in 2008 and said it was “very confusing.” In North Carolina the Democratically controlled legislature instituted the this option when it became obvious that the state’s voters were voting for Republican presidential candidates.

This bill also changes the way candidates are placed on a ballot. HB 185 would have candidates of the same political party as the Governor take the top spot in all contests on the ballot instead of the Democratic candidate. They would be followed by the the candidates of the other parties (alphabetical order by party) and then the unaffiliated candidates.

In North Carolina, Democrats have always been placed first in the list of candidates in a contest on a General Election Ballot. Study after study has found that the first position in a contest is most advantageous. Click here to see a list of summaries of Ballot Placement Journal Articles. In the past, the Democrats in the legislature could point to the alphabet and call it luck that D came before L and R in the alphabet. But, they have been the majority in the legislature since 1898 and they took advantage of their majority and wrote and passed election laws that benefited their party. It would be refreshing to see future changes in election law benefit the voters of North Carolina and not just one political party.

Mar

20

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We know you read Civitas’ “Bad Bills of the Week,” so I thought it would be nice to look at a few good bills introduced by the House and Senate for a change.

Today’s good bill is: HB 65 / “SB39 - Restore Partisan Judicial Elections”. The bill’s primary sponsors are Representatives Frank Iler (R-Brunswick), Rayne Brown (R-Davidson), Dennis Riddell (R-Alamance), Bert Jones (R-Rockingham), Senators Jerry Tillman (R-Randolph) and Thom Goolsby (R-New Hanover).

While the bill makes some changes to residency requirements for judicial candidates, the focus is to put the party designation back on the ballot for judicial candidates.

You may remember that in 2002 the Democratic legislature passed legislation that removed party affiliation from judicial candidates on all ballots in North Carolina. This is a key piece of information that helps voters make their decisions when voting for judges. The 2002 legislation hurt voter participation, in the 2010 General Election, there were 2,700,383 total votes cast, only 2,012,869 voters voted in the first judicial race on the ballot – a 25 percent drop.