Accusations, blame follow Deschutes loss
Joel Burgess | Asheville Citizen-Times | April 7, 2016
County commissioners who voted for a deal, which included buying a $6.8 million parcel to lure Deschutes Brewery, said Republican Commissioner Miranda DeBruhl was partially or even largely to blame for the Oregon-based company choosing Roanoke instead of Asheville as the home for its new East Coast facility. "I am really concerned about the (135) people in our community that would have had a good job if we hadn’t of gone off half-cocked," said Commissioner Holly Jones, an Asheville Democrat representing District 1. "Those people are really short-changed by folks having their own agendas." The chairman said DeBruhl likely harmed the deal by publicly casting doubt on whether it would work, calling it "a fairy tale" and "a joke." "And in fact, called the president of the company and asked when they were going to make their mind up, right at a critical time … We were right in the middle of heavy negotiations."
Letter: A party that has become unrecognizable
Diane Amos, Weaverville | Asheville Citizen-Times | April 15, 2016
...In our Buncombe County commission, our three Republican commissioners hate everything the Democrats propose, even to (in the view of some) sabotage the deal with Deschutes, costing our county hundreds of jobs...
Miranda DeBruhl (@electmirandanc) on Twitter 10:19 PM - 5 Oct 2015
I'm glad to know that @DeschutesBeer is officially interested in @buncombeGov via @asheville. Can Michael Lalonde talk tomorrow? #jobs
7:15 PM - 6 Oct 201 Got more done in 7 minutes this AM than was done in the last 7 months on not so "secret" Ferry Rd project. @wlos @asheville #jobs
7:26 PM - 6 Oct 2015 I confirmed this morning there was no company interested in closing a deal on Ferry Rd property when @buncombeGov bought it. #fairytale
8:42 PM - 6 Oct 2015 @MarkBarrettACT @DeschutesBeer Just now figuring out how to collect the trash while we now engage in the real estate biz #fairytale #nuts
In October of 2015, Governor Pat McCrory signed into law the Connect NC Bond Act, giving voters across the state the opportunity to approve a $2 billion bond during the primary election. The bond referendum that will be on the March 15 primary ballot.
The bond has also received a good deal of popular support in the state. A High Point University poll conducted earlier this year found that two-thirds of those surveyed favored the bond. A recent Civitas Poll shows that a majority of likely Democratic voters and a plurality of likely Republican voters support the bond referendum: 66% of those surveyed said they would vote for the bond, with 14% saying they would vote against it and 19% saying they either didn’t know or needed more information.
Tomorrow, North Carolina voters will be asked to approve billions in debt — in the form of a bond — to pay for what amounts to a grab bag of expensive projects around the state — some of which have already jumped the gun and are under construction in anticipation of being rescued by the voters.
The $2 billion that will be secured with this bond indebtedness will go into a “Connect NC” fund overseen by a committee composed of politicians: 66% of this bond indebtedness will be doled out to the state’s university and community college facilities and hundreds of millions more will go to parks and zoo improvements, agricultural “research” and other political pet projects across the state.
What was originally sold to the public as $2.8 billion “infrastructure and education” bond (that’s why it was called “Connect NC”) was actually stripped of all the original funding earmarked for highways, roads, and bridges. In fact, in its current form, the bond will not pay for a single transportation project. Instead of the money actually connecting anything with roads, we are now told the bond “will connect North Carolina to the 21st century.” Confused voters may be left wondering: why the switch?
CLAIM: The bond will not require a tax increase
Let’s be clear: a bond is debt and it’s your debt and it’s long-term debt. And, as you may have noticed in your own home, debt does not pay for itself. There is no debt fairy that will suddenly wish it all away. This is massive debt that we, our friends, our families, our businesses and our future generations must pay in the form of taxes. The state has no money that it has not first extracted from its hard-working, property owning citizens.
The state will a take on a debt service obligation of over $100 million every year by adopting this bond proposal that must necessarily be repaid by future tax payments. Any repayment of this $2 billion in debt in the future is taxation deferred. The Connect NC Bond should really be referred to as a stealth tax and ought to be so stated on the ballot measure. It is a way to spend big now and kick the repayment responsibilities down the road to future generations.
Liberal Democrats are already calling for a tax increase. “I will vote ‘no’ on the Connect NC bond issue in March,” said Ned Gardner of Apex, a retired Wake County public school teacher. “Do I support the higher education and state parks capital expenditures that the bond would fund? Most definitely. But I reject Gov. Pat McCrory’s ‘no tax increase’ shell-game bond financing. If we support new expenditures for education and parks, we should create a clear revenue stream to pay for it: increase taxes.”
If approved by the voters, the bond would be backed by the full faith and credit of the citizens of the State of North Carolina, which ensures there would be no default on the bond debt service. “Full faith and credit” is a phrase used to describe the unconditional guarantee or commitment by one entity to back the interest and principal of another entity’s debt. It expresses the commitment of the issuer (the State) to repay the bonds from all legally available funds, including a good faith commitment to use its legal powers to raise revenues to pay the bonds.
Bond proponents brag that on balance this is a good deal. Indeed. There is no thief that did not see his larceny as a good deal for someone.
CLAIM: The state is in the middle of a “Carolina Comeback”
Proponents says that North Carolina’s business and economic environment has improved and are declaring this evidence of a Carolina Comeback.
It’s true that the state’s economy is performing well enough to support additional debt. North Carolina Treasurer Janet Cowell said a statement released in January that the state’s General Fund has the capacity to absorb $210 million a year in new debt for the next 10 years. “Our findings,” she said, “demonstrate that North Carolina has maintained a conservative posture on debt and has the ability to responsibly invest in its future—and keep the ‘AAA’ bond ratings if the Connect NC bonds are approved.”
But the national trend could put the economic future of the state in jeopardy. The Triad Business Journal reports that North Carolina’s real gross domestic product increased at the fastest pace in the Southeast in the third quarter last year, making this state the fastest-growing large economy in the nation in the third quarter.
Though these figures reflect positively on the North Carolina economy, they are a trailing indicator, reports the Journal. More recent figures show a more anxious attitude of the future. A survey by the American Institute of CPAs reports that more than one-third of top financial executives at American businesses are pessimistic about the U.S. economy over the next 12 months, the bleakest outlook in more than three years.
CLAIM: The bond will pay for critical infrastructure projects
The Connect NC Bond Act contains a section entitled “reallocation” [Section 1 (f)(3)] which will enable legislators to change the bond money allocations after the bond is passed. Placing such a provision in the Act means that voters are really given no guarantee that the so-called infrastructure projects targeted are an accurate reflection of the projects that will be funded. North Carolina’s history with the gas tax being diverted to purposes other than roads should remind us that we need better guarantees over allocation before signing off on a blank check.
In the end, this taxpayer-funded debt, plus interest over 25 years, amounts to little more than an open-ended slush fund that can be used by lawmakers in any way they can persuade others to reallocate it so future candidates can bring home the pork.
As ConnectNC campaign finance reports for the referendum committee begin to trickle out, the voting public is finding out, just days before the election, that a fair amount of monetary support for the bond seems to be coming from its direct financial beneficiaries. This includes not only recipients of the bond funding but also a chorus of consultants offering their service in exchange for a ticket on the gravy train. This has led some critics to dub the ballot measure “The Crony Bond.”
A high level breakdown of the spending designated for the Connect NC Bond can be found at the advocacy website Connect.NC.gov.
CLAIM: The bond will go to educating a professional workforce
True enough. The bond may very well go to train a professional workforce for the future. But whose workforce? There is no guarantee, nor can there be any, that the professional degree students educated and trained in expanded facilities paid for with long term taxpayer debt will stay in North Carolina. They may stay and contribute to a revitalized economy, they may not.
Spending taxpayer money to educate what would be a global and mobile workforce cannot reasonably be marketed to the North Carolina taxpayers as a sound return on investment. What happens in North Carolina doesn’t necessarily stay in North Carolina.
Vote No on Imprudent Bond Proposal
Although the Connect NC Bond Act passed with bipartisan support, legislators are split on the bond issue. And if it’s any indication, the left-wing Budget & Tax Center wholeheartedly favors the bond proposal.
“My disapproval is based upon sound principle,” writes Representative Chris Millis. “I was willing to consider short-term bonding (approved by the citizens) for essential state government functions…Unfortunately, that’s not what this referendum addresses. Instead, voters have been offered a menu of potentially unneeded university projects; unspecified community college projects; and millions of dollars for parks and the zoo, which are far from the state’s highest priorities at this time.”
The Connect NC Bond provides legislators with a way to spend enormous sums of money now on grandiose projects without honestly declaring the ‘de facto’ spending increases as part of the state’s operating budget. No harm, no foul.
Campaigning against a tax-and-spend culture is precisely what propelled conservatives into power after a long and damaging period of such a culture in the state house. Now that we have dug ourselves out of crippling debt, this is no time to invite disaster under new management. Now is the time to stay out of debt and reject those whose eyes are bigger than their wallets. North Carolina needs to be prudent with its spending dollars no less than any individual, family household or business.
Neither the state nor the nation can give us reason to believe that a golden age of perpetual prosperity lies just around the corner. Yes, as Governor McCrory has noted, North Carolina is experiencing a “Comeback.” But, for goodness’ sake, let’s get there first without sending the state bouncing back to where we came from.
As in any risky business transaction, may the buyer beware (caveat emptor). In March, North Carolina voters will be given the opportunity to avoid spending beyond their means on questionable big-ticket items.
To learn more about the Connect NC Bond and organized opposition to the bond proposal, visit the website AgainstTheBond.com.
I opposed the bond proposal and I urge you to vote NO on the Connect NC Bond ballot measure on March 15th.
The March 15 primary marks the first election for North Carolina’s new voter ID requirement. While the State Board of Elections is urging people to bring photo IDs to the polls, critics such as the state NAACP have been sending voters mixed messages about whether they actually need their photo IDs to cast a ballot. Carolina Journal Managing Editor Rick Henderson discusses the controversy.
People in my office confuse me when it comes to religion and politics. I find many conservatives in this area talk about America as a “Christian nation,” but oppose most social programs and tax increases, because “why should we help people that are too lazy to work?” You can’t claim to be a devout Christian and demonize the needy at the same time. There is no passage in the Bible that says “help the poor, the meek, the needy, but only if they’ve completed the necessary paperwork...”
RESPONSE
"conservatives talk about America as a 'Christian nation' but oppose most social programs and tax increases"
The writer attempts to confuse the reader by conflating individual religious action and coercive government action. Once this false premise is introduced, he can complain about the straw man he has created, where the writer mischaracterizes an argument in order to refute it. https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/strawman
The writer says, "You can’t claim to be a devout Christian and demonize the needy at the same time." This, of course, is the deliberate logical fallacy of No True Scotsman. It involves setting up a false standard that can be called into question. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zzSqL--d_I
It is true that some principled Christians may oppose government actions such as certain social programs and tax increases. Opposing those government actions in no way contradicts the impulse or the religious teaching to care for or help the poor.
In Christian teachings, helping the poor is considered an individual charitable action born of compassion, sometimes done in cooperation with others who share the urge to compassionate works. But this action is performed voluntarily as an act of will, not through the use of force. The opposition to government action usually stems from a moral objection of the use of force to achieve a goal, even a worthy one.
There can be no such thing as forced charity or compelled compassion. The very introduction of force in human relationships precludes an act of charity. If force is used to extract wealth from one person in order to give it to another to who it does not belong, it is properly considered theft—a violation of the rights of the individual to dispose of his property according to the dictates of his heart. The notion that opposition to coercive redistribution is un-Christian becomes absurd when viewed in this light.
Therefore, the claim that Christian opposition to social programs and tax increases is necessarily a "demonization of the needy" or infidelity to faith is false.
The Mountain Xpress cartoon of January 23, 2016 by Randy Moulton attempts to rather strongly imply that ID is no longer required when voting. This is FALSE. Voter ID is absolutely required to have your vote counted in future elections in North Carolina. http://mountainx.com/opinion/a-bouquet-of-democracy/
bit.ly/23kDaUt
Reverend Barber, depicted in the cartoon, is on record attempting to mislead the voting public in the same way: "The state NAACP wants voters to know that there are ways to cast a ballot this year even without photo identification, but the State Board of Elections is worried that the group’s message is misleading." http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article54844925.html
bit.ly/1Q2Sfmh
It does, however, accommodate certain hardship cases. House Bill 836, which passed unanimously (less a few votes) in both the House and Senate, allows a voter to declare (in a sworn affidavit, co-signed by a public official, and under penalty of perjury) that they have a “reasonable impediment” to possessing current and valid photo identification. They will then be given a provisional ballot to cast their vote. A provisional ballot allows a voter to cast a vote during the election period, but the ballot is not officially counted until the local Board of Elections can verify a person’s identity. https://twitter.com/timothypeck/status/687741717710290952
bit.ly/1Vgi7wt
What happens if you have ID but forget it when you go to vote?
For more information on the state of the law, see the NC Board of Elections website: http://voterid.nc.gov/
bit.ly/1ZJcbx8
It's time amateur partisan activists to stop misleading the public as a strategy to regain political power.
