The North Carolina League of Municipalities is telling its members a collective bargaining mandate was dropped from a U.S. House appropriations bill. The League posted an article notifying members: In a cloture vote on July 22nd, the United States Senate rejected an amendment the U.S. House had added to H.R. 4899, the Supplemental Appropriations Act, and returned [...]
- Jul21
If It’s Good Enough for Britian’s PM…
Then why can’t Governor Perdue fly commercial every once in a while? British Prime Minister David Cameron trekked across the pond on a commercial British Airways flight and saved his country $300,000 in travel costs according to The Sun. Yet, NC Governor Bev Perdue continues to hopscotch around the state and nation in a Department [...]
- 2May25
A Dish NC Taxpayers Shouldn’t be Forced to Swallow
The $800 million budget shortfall the state of North Carolina currently faces has been well documented. Just last week, the Senate voted 30-16 to approve a $20+ billion budget that, according to Democratic leaders, would close the revenue gap, while still protecting the most important state services from being ravaged. The House of Representatives is [...]
- 1May20
State Aircraft Waste
The state of North Carolina deserves some credit for selling off two planes, one each from the Department of Commerce and the Department of Transportation, per the suggestion of an April 2010 report on the massively inefficient and startlingly cost-ineffective operation of state-owned aircraft. The Department of Commerce sold a 27 year old passenger aircraft [...]
- 1Apr22
Wake School budget: looking for cuts in the wrong places
On Tuesday night the Wake County School Board reluctantly approved a $1.2 billion operating budget. The budget included $20 million in cuts. That amount may increase to $40 million, depending on final state and local funding levels. While the budget includes layoffs, I’m still miffed by many WCPSS officials who say further cuts will have a greater impact on [...]
- Apr07
Wake school budget needs a close look
At Tuesday’s meeting of the Wake County School Board members were told to expect an additional $20 million in budget cuts, on top of the original $20 million reduction that was already being planned. The additional reduction was necessitated by Governor Perdue’s announcement that she had requested the Department of Public Instruction to provide a [...]
- 1Mar10
Red State Catches Monkey Fever
It seems the folks at Red State have notice our cocaine and monkeys article and have written a post about it. They also were quite creative in coming up with the following image to parody this wasteful spending.
- 2Mar04
Cocaine for Monkeys Getting Media Attention
WSOC in Winston-Salem did a story last night on Civitas’ Brian Balfour’s Top 10 Worst Federal Stimulus Projects in NC:
- Feb26
Stimulating North Carolina
According to NCRecovery.gov, North Carolina will receive approximately $8.9 billion from President Obama’s stimulus plan passed in February 2009. It ought to be easy for Governor Perdue to create jobs in North Carolina will all of that money. But the unemployment rate for North Carolina was 11.2% last month according to the Bureau of Labor [...]
- Dec09
State Auditor and use of a State Car – and waste!
Today I posted a report about State Auditor Beth Wood using a state car and not following procedure on reimbursing the state. I did not address the whole question of why we provide cars to elected officials, as well as other state employees, for them to use commuting to work. It is interesting to note [...]
- Dec07
“In These Times”?
The News and Observer on Friday exposed the Raleigh City Council for holding a $10,000 welcoming suaree for themselves at the beginning of the new council terms. While many members expressed shock and regret for splashing that kind of cash on themselves, it seems from their comments that they really only had a problem with [...]
- Nov11
Does She Really?
Gov. Bev Perdue is honoring veterans today by pandering for military votes telling businesses that they should hire more veterans by participating in a new program called “I Hire Military.” That’s great and all, but has the Governor noticed unemployment in North Carolina is 10.8% (8th highest in the nation)? Nobody is getting hired, military [...]
- Nov03
Revisiting Golden LEAF
Yesterday, the NC Auditor’s office released a new audit detailing some deficiencies in the operations of the Golden LEAF Foundation. Of note: There is a risk that potential conflicts of interest or political influence play a role in Golden LEAF investment decisions. For example, in 2002 Golden LEAF invested $30 million with an investment company [...]
- Oct22
Dell to Cost Taxpayers an Additional $53 million
In what has to be seen as a somewhat bizarre and highly questionable decision, the NC DOT has decided to continue with its plans to expand a Winston-Salem road that leads to the soon to be empty Dell manufacturing plant. From today’s W-S Journal: Even though Dell said earlier this month that it will close [...]
- Aug06
Sell all the planes!
It looks like the legislature is going to sell one of the planes owned and operated by the State Department of Commerce. That is a good start but what they are selling is the slower and less comfortable of the two planes, a Beech King Air, and not the faster, more luxurious, Cessna jet. They also [...]