Civitas ReviewThe Blog of the Civitas Institute

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May

06

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Today’s Under the Dome reports on poll results allegedly showing public support for taxpayer funds being used for political campaigns. The poll was commissioned by the left-wing group NC Center for Voter Education – the poll results are available here.  Here is the full poll question and results:

Q1. North Carolina judges are elected. Current state law gives statewide candidates for the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals the option of accepting public campaign funding, if they agree to spending limits and refuse money from political action committees and special interest groups. The law also makes elections for judges nonpartisan, which means there is no party affiliation listed on the ballot next to the candidates’ names, and provides nonpartisan voter guides which explain the candidates’ qualifications. In general, do you strongly support this state law on judicial elections? Somewhat support it? Somewhat oppose it? Or strongly oppose it?

TOTAL SUPPORT: 68 percent            TOTAL OPPOSE: 23 percent

Strongly Support: 30 percent              Somewhat Support: 38 percent              Somewhat Oppose: 15 percent              Strongly Oppose: 8 percent             Not Sure: 9 percent

Quite a lengthy question. But one phrase is lacking from that 100-word question: taxpayer funds. Nowhere does it directly admit that taxpayer dollars are used to finance political campaigns. Instead, they use the much more nondescript phrase “public campaign funding,” something that likely doesn’t register with the respondent.

If only there was a poll question directly asking respondents how they felt about their taxpayer dollars being used to finance political campaigns. Oh, wait.

Civitas did exactly that, and released the results to the media, which of course they ignored. Click here to see a copy of the press release. Here is the text of the question along with the results:

Do you support or oppose a program that uses state taxpayer dollars to help pay for the political campaigns of judicial Council of State and other statewide candidates?

21%    Total Support    70%    Total Oppose

8%       Strongly Support 13%     Somewhat Support 17%     Somewhat Oppose 53%     Strongly Oppose 8%       Undecided/Don’t Know

When respondents clearly understand that these public campaign finance schemes are supported by their tax dollars, their attitudes make a 180 and they soundly oppose it.

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May

03

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UNC system President Tom Ross has weighed into the gun debate. Ross wants a provision in  House Bill 937,  that allows concealed carry permit holder to have a weapon in a locked vehicles on a college campus. to be removed.

This should come as no surprise to anyone. Ross, as head of the liberal Z Smith Reynolds Foundation, funded the Anti-Gun group NC Against Gun Violence (NCAGV). NCAGV also happens to be an original member of BluePrintNC the group that supports “eviscerating & crippling” conservative state leaders.

Back in 2010 Civitas wrote about how liberal Ross was when he was speedily hired as Erskine Bowles replacement as UNC System President. You can read those articles here, here and here.

It is also a sad commentary that the story used this line to make the case, “Vehicle break-ins rank among the top campus crimes, which could lead to guns winding up in the wrong hands, he said.” Instead of stopping law abiding citizens from exercising their constitutional rights, how about making sure campuses and the people on them do not have to fear for their property.

May

03

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This week’s Bad Bill of the Week focuses on a bill just approved by a Senate committee yesterday. Here is a sample:

Gamblers on a losing streak often resort to desperately making riskier bets to try to make up for their previous losses – a move that rarely pays off and which usually leaves them even poorer.

Senate Bill 558, Treasurer’s Investments, appears to mimic the risky behavior of the desperate gambler. Sponsored by Sen. Ralph Hise (R-McDowell) and strongly supported by State Treasurer Janet Cowell, this bill would allow the Treasurer to engage in more risky investments with the state’s $78 billion pension fund. The bill was just approved by the Senate Committee on Pensions and Retirement and Aging.

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This dilemma underscores a larger point: North Carolina’s pension system needs to be reformed. Rather than consolidating so much power in the hands of the State Treasurer and exposing taxpayers to billions of dollars worth of risk, state government workers should be shifted to a defined-contribution (or 401k-style) retirement system in which each worker controls his or her own retirement fund, and taxpayers are no longer exposed to any risk.

Read the whole article here.

May

02

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Medicaid costs have been out of control for years. Now we find that the state’s projected shortfall has grown much worse, spiking by $135 million. The total shortfall estimate for the year is now an estimated $248 million.

According to Channel 11 News: “Officials said the greater shortfall forecast was caused by overestimating the amount of federal receipts to North Carolina due to an error in the forecasting model.”

Funny how those government forecasting models always overstate income and underestimate costs.

The station reports that Medicaid burns through about $13 billion in state and federal funds a year on health coverage for more than 1.5 million North Carolina residents.

And even more shocking news happened to emerge today: a top-quality study, The Oregon Experiment — Effects of Medicaid on Clinical Outcomes, showed that Medicaid had little or no effect on health.

Oregon had the opportunity to enroll 10,000 more people into Medicaid. With that, the state randomly assigned program applicants to receive or not receive Medicaid. That makes this study  “the only randomized, controlled study ever conducted on the effects of having health insurance versus no health insurance. Randomized, controlled studies are the gold standard of such research,” according to one report.

The result: Medicaid expansion “generated no significant improvement in measured physical health outcomes.” For actual health problems, the people outside of the program did as well as those in the program.

Those in the program reported slightly less financial strain and depression, but Medicaid is a very expensive way to provide such marginal help.

There’s been a lot of wailing about recent moves to rein in Medicaid costs. These two news stories show the budget problems real, and the benefits dubious. This should hearten state leaders who are trying to rein in the program.

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May

02

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The drumming has subsided, the megaphones can be heard no more—the aftermath of North Carolina Student Power’s MayDay march has settled, leaving a trail of, well, not much. In our efforts to make heads or tails of the brief demonstration, we broke down their efforts a la Rotten Tomatoes to give the day’s events a review of the quintessential protest components.

Soundtrack 3/5: Two words: MORE BONGOS. Everyone knows the key to a successful counter culture protest is to have an unlimited barrage of bongos. Unfortunately the MayDay march fell painfully short. Rather than authentic bongos, protestors appeared to be whacking plastic buckets with sticks.

Costume Design 0.5/5: People have certain expectations regarding what they want their Occupy style protestors to look like. Where are the bandanas? The Che Guevara shirts? The peace signs? Aside from a few exceptions, The May Day parade looked more like an H&M shopping spree than a protest of any kind. Even those attempting to look like proper protesters came across as contrived. At first glance there were approximately .8 pairs of non-prescription hipster glasses per protester  One demonstrator was even wearing a North Face jacket (YES! NORTH FACE!). How many Che Guevara shirts were present? ZERO (!!!). Unforgivable costume oversights and rampant bourgeois attire really held back the revolutionary feel of the event.

Plot 3.5/5: This is where things start to turn around a little bit. Armed with their usual bull horn (effective, if a bit boring/cliché), Student Power trotted out all the greatest hits: the contrived rage, the “revolutionary protester shouts” and the always popular corporate conspiracy theories. Unfortunately, May Day lost steam when one of its leaders began to brag about being arrested at the General Assembly earlier this week. What was shaping up to be a solid rabble rousing quickly descended into sanctimonious back-patting.

Enthusiasm 2.75/5: The excitement and intensity of the protesters was apparent, yet their energy and knowledge of their cause was lacking. Points for obviously having practiced their cheers, but perhaps a Red Bull break would put some pep in their step.

Cheers 1/5: At least they practiced, right? While some may praise their throwback war chants, it really only showed a flagrant lack of creativity. “Art Pope Has To Go, Hey Hey Ho Ho…” Come on. You’re better than that. The rhyme schemes were inconsistent, and the beat was often thrown off by the rogue bucket drumming.

In Summary: While the protest included some warm references to demonstrations from a bygone era, the event ultimately failed to live up to its promise. Though it at times showed potential, poor optics and unbearable self-aggrandizing ultimately made this protest non-essential viewing. That’s why the Civitas Institute gives the May Day march a disappointing 2 out of 5 Civitas Torches.