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Tuesday, September 2, 2014
News / Opinion / Politics Happy Opening Day in North Carolina politics!
Posted By Jerry Klein on Tue, Sep 2, 2014 at 12:14 PM
If you’re sick of the negative political ads that have been dominating our TV airwaves for the past six months, we’ve got bad news for you — you haven’t seen anything yet. That’s because with the passing of Labor Day, we’ve reached the real Opening Day of the political season.
Everything that’s come to this point has just been pre-season training: raising money, calculating strategy, putting the teams in place. From this point on, though, things get serious. It’s too late for candidates to change up their game plans.
In North Carolina, the stakes are so much higher than anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes. Arguably the fate of the entire world, at least in part, is in the hands of North Carolina’s voters.
Friday, August 22, 2014
News / Opinion / Politics / Environment Really, senator? The coal ash bill is something we should be proud of?
Posted By Jerry Klein on Fri, Aug 22, 2014 at 11:23 AM
Submitted for your consideration, this entry into the “most blatantly, obviously absurd statements by a politician in this election year” category: After the General Assembly finally ended what should have been a short session to handle a budget shortfall on Wednesday, in which it passed a bill to address Duke Energy’s third-worst coal-ash spill in U.S. history earlier this year — a bill that was mired for months in the highest drama, conflict and controversy — the senator who led the work on that bill, Republican Tom Apodaca of Henderson, told the Charlotte Observer, probably with a straight face, “This makes North Carolina the leader in coal ash management in the United States. I think we can go home proud.”
Really, senator? We’re now the leader in handling coal ash in the nation? And this bill — well, this law, assuming Gov. McCrory signs it, as everyone expects him to do — is something we should be strutting around about? Let’s take a moment to examine that assertion just a bit, shall we?
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Politics Budget miscalculations could affect teacher raises
Posted By Jerry Klein on Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 10:37 AM
No one likes getting bad news on a Friday. But that’s what happened last week to your elected leaders serving in the General Assembly — and what happened to you, too, only you might not have heard.
According to key legislative economists, North Carolina’s budget is much farther off projections than was thought just a few weeks ago. What had previously been expected to be a $475 million shortfall in collected tax revenue for 2014 has now been revised to $690 million. And the cost for the 2015 tax year is also projected to be $200 million higher than the original estimate, or about $900 million short. As a result, all talk of any teacher pay increases or other budgetary items should be completely off the table for the current “special session,” if they were trying to balance the budget. The session has already dragged on almost a month past the end of the last fiscal year.
Thursday, July 24, 2014
News / Politics Senate will likely approve sales-tax cap while House has a different plan
Posted By Jerry Klein on Thu, Jul 24, 2014 at 10:52 AM
The drama swirling around Mecklenburg County’s proposed sales-tax referendum only intensified Wednesday, as the state Senate voted 33-16 in favor of a second reading of a bill that would essentially kill the county’s plan to increase local teacher pay and provide some funding for the arts, among other projects. But that bill, which will most likely pass the Senate today, is now seen, I’m told, as DOA in the House.
That’s quite a reversal from what most expected just last week, as the opposition to that bill organized quickly, pitting the state’s urban counties, which vehemently argue in favor of their need to have the authority and flexibility to raise the tax, against the more rural counties, who are also competing for a slice of the state’s economic pie. What may be most interesting, though, about the way the process is unfolding is a reversal in the standard messages used by both parties to lay out their positions to the voting public.
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
News / Politics Newly unemployed in North Carolina?
Posted By Jerry Klein on Tue, Jul 22, 2014 at 1:18 PM
Did you happen to catch Gov. Pat McCrory on Fox News the week before last? He was full of good news, happy to report that the legislation he and the Republican-dominated General Assembly pushed through last year regarding unemployment-insurance laws has had a wonderful effect, lifting the economy out of its Great Recession doldrums. Of course, there’s a tad bit more to that story.
When the latest unemployment figures came out Friday we learned that, while North Carolina’s jobless figure has dropped to 6.4 percent — down almost 2 percent from a year ago, which, at 8.3 percent was one of the highest in the nation — the June number was unchanged from May. Maybe more importantly, the data showed that the state’s labor pool is still shrinking, down more than 8,500 people in a month. In other words, the discouraged gave up looking for a job.
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
News / Politics State Republicans fail to fix budget
Posted By Jerry Klein on Tue, Jul 1, 2014 at 4:30 PM
That deafening silence coming from Raleigh as the clock struck midnight on Monday night, closing out the month of June — and with it North Carolina's 2014 state budget fiscal year — was the result of something we haven't seen in this state in recent memory: a break down, for the moment at least, in negotiations between leading Republicans in the House, the Senate and the governor's mansion as to how to close a nearly half-billion dollar hole in the state's coffers.
Having captured complete control of the levers, many observers expected the current special session, focusing on the budget shortfall, to be a relative walk-in-the-park for Republicans to pass the necessary legislation to rectify the situation, given that there was no need to compromise at all with their Democratic counterparts.
But that's not what's happened. In fact, the effective deadline for such changes to have been made — the close of business on June 30 — came and went with barely a whimper, other than a few fairly snarky public remarks, which may have been a sign of a more tense struggle among leading Republicans hidden just barely out of sight. That night, a bill developed and supported by Gov. McCrory — with the help of his Budget Director Art Pope and approved by House Speaker Thom Tillis, which had already passed the House — was tossed out the window by an unimpressed and divided Senate that refused to give its contents any real consideration. Senate Rules Chairman Tom Apodaca told reporters after the evening session ended, "We're serious about getting a budget done, and it's time to stop playing games."
Monday, June 9, 2014
Opinion / Politics Raleigh Round-up: Early June
Posted By Erin Tracy-Blackwood on Mon, Jun 9, 2014 at 3:53 PM
Happy Moral Monday, everybody. Y'all ready to get arrested in our state's fine capital for exercising your speech freedoms?
If your gripe is with the House, don't bother showing up. WRAL in Raleigh reported last week that house have stopped holding full floor sessions on Monday afternoons while protests are in full swing.
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Politics Jennifer Roberts announces her bid for Charlotte mayor
Posted By Kimberly Lawson on Wed, May 28, 2014 at 2:17 PM
Is this a case of the early bird gets the worm? This morning, former county commissioner Jennifer Roberts announced she's running for mayor in the next election - which is in, uh, November 2015.
- Jennifer Roberts for Charlotte Mayor Facebook
Interesting tidbit I learned from an episode of Pillow Talk with Joanne with Roberts guest-starring: In the 2013 mayoral election, when Charlotte voted in Patrick Cannon, Roberts received 18 write-in votes.
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
News / Politics Raleigh Round-up: A week of heavy blows to the environment, press
Posted By Erin Tracy-Blackwood on Tue, May 27, 2014 at 2:53 PM
Before we collectively unplugged for the long weekend, legislators in Raleigh were busy. Environmental safety, drinking water and freedom of the press all took a big hit last week when SB786 - the bill to allow fracking - was fast-tracked through the Senate.
- Flickr (Creative Commons)
Friday, May 23, 2014
News / Politics N.C. lawmakers criminalize disclosure of fracking chemicals
Posted By Sara Patterson on Fri, May 23, 2014 at 10:37 AM
When state Mining and Energy Commission Chairman Jim Womack commented on an anticipated fracking bill earlier this month, he said that a key component of the bill was to "get chemical disclosure the way we want to do it." The way they want to do it, as it turns out, is in secret, with felony charges at the ready for anyone tempted to tell.
The Energy Modernization Act, which breezed through the N.C. Senate just a week into the short session, not only will lift the current moratorium on natural gas drilling as of July 2015 but will make it a Class I felony to reveal details about the chemical cocktail fracking companies will use to extract gas from drill holes. The state geologist and first responders would be privy to the details - confidentially, of course - but to the general public the bill would consider the chemicals a "trade secret." That "secret" formula - known as the Master Well Formula currently used by fracking companies like Encana Corp. in Wyoming, where drillers are actually required to disclose their chemicals, includes multiple carcinogens and can be viewed here.
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Report on N.C. economy: 'Guardedly optimistic' 1
Things are getting better, but don't get too excited.
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Question the Queen City: Hugh McManaway, the man behind the statue
It pays homage to a traffic director, friendly neighbor and one of Charlotte's most beloved local characters
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Combat artist Robert Bates ventures into enemy territory 2
Bates is hosting his first solo exhibition, The Art of War, with a reception tonight.
