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The December issue of Civitas Capitol Connection, including coverage of the Easley indictment and a recap of the landmark 2010 elections in North Carolina.
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Former two-term Democratic Gov. Mike Easley (right), now a convicted felon, gives current Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue (left) a hug the day Easley endorsed her candidacy for governor. Photo: The News & Observer
Republicans won at the ballot box in the 2010 mid-term elections and they did it in a convincing manner in both the state House and Senate. A new General Assembly convenes on Jan. 26. Photo: Jana Benscoter
CAPITOL CONNECTIONCivitasDecember 2010
• BY JANA BENSCOTER
• BY FRANCIS DE LUCA
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T he 22-month long inves-tigation into an impres-sive record of alleged il-legal gifts accumulated by
former two-term Democratic Gov. Mike Easley during his tenure, and campaign for governor, came to an end on Tuesday, Nov. 23 when a state judge handed Easley a fine of $1,000 after Easley entered a guilty plea on one felony charge of filing a false campaign finance report.
According to Carolina Journal, “Easley received free flights on pri-vate aircraft that were not reported, used state aircraft for personal busi-ness, obtained real estate at dis-counted prices, and failed to disclose rental income from his Raleigh home
while his family lived in the Execu-tive Mansion.” Many of the gifts were from Democratic Party endorsers and politically-connected friends.
During Easley’s court hearing, he said, “Our campaigns over the years have made financial errors. We’ve tried to correct them as much as we could. However, as a candidate, I have to take responsibility for what the campaign does. The buck has to stop somewhere. It stops with me. I take responsibility in this instance.”
Current Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue is facing an investigation into her own failure to report cam-paign flights. Perdue, who was Ea-sley’s lieutenant governor for both terms, did not disclose more than 40 flights she made while serving as
Mike Easley Now a Convicted FelonFormer Governor Says “Buck Has To Stop Somewhere”
1Mike Easley ConvictedElection Shifts Power
2From The Editor
Early Voting Summary
3New Legislators
4-5Unemployment & Maps
6Race to the Top
7Increased Budget Spending
Unreliable Cards Issued
7Investigation Leaves Unanswered Questions
lieutenant governor, and during her campaign for governor in 2008. In a hearing earlier this year, the State Board of Elections fined her campaign $30,000.
As a convicted felon, Easley could lose his law license, and would have lost his cit izenship rights such as his right to vote and being allowed to own a gun if he had been given active probation. A Class I felony carries a
Republicans now control the North Carolina Legislature for the first time since the main means of transportation for legislators was horse and buggy. In January 2011 when the new leaders of the Legislature are elected by their respective bodies it will have been 140 years since the GOP controlled both houses of the state Legislature. In November 2010, legislative Republican candidates won at the ballot box and they did it in a con-vincing manner.
No incumbent Republican legisla-tor lost reelection in November. In the 120-member state House, Republicans picked up 15 seats plus one unaffiliated representative, who will caucus with the GOP, for a 16-seat gain giving them a total of 68 house members. For Demo-crats in the state House, 13 incumbent legislators lost in November. In the state
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
EasleyContinued on pg. 6
sentence of up to 15 months in pris-on. Easley was not given any active prison time or sentenced to proba-
Senate, Republicans picked up 11 seats defeating seven Democratic incum-bents, giving Republicans a total of 31 out of the 50 members, more than the 30 votes required to override a guber-natorial veto. In the state House, Re-publicans are four votes shy of the 72 needed to override a veto but observers speculate that on a number of issues they can convince conservative Demo-crats to join them in an override vote.
Republicans won the majorities by a comfortable margin in both number of seats won and the per-centage of the vote garnered. In both the state House and state Senate, Re-publican candidates captured about 59 percent of the vote statewide while Democratic candidates captured only
Historic Election Shifts Power
PowerContinued on pg. 7
Do you think the corruption scandal involving Governor Mike
Easley is an isolated incident, or do you think it reflects a general ethical problem with most North Carolina Democrats
who are in state government?
Civitas Poll January 2009
Isolated Incident 33% General Ethical Problem 49%Not Sure 18%
2 December 2010 nccivitas.org
CAPITOL CONNECTIONCivitas
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CAPITOL CONNECTIONCivitas
Early Voting Less Popular in 2010 Midterm Elections• BY SUSAN MYRICK
Using the early voting process, Presi-dential candidate Barack Obama’s Get-Out-The-Vote machine owned the 2008 General Election in North Carolina. In the two and one half weeks leading up to the election 2,638,915 voters voted early, more than 60 percent of the total turnout for 2008 General Election. Democrats made up more than 51 percent of the 2008 early voting total, followed by Re-publicans at 30 percent and Unaffiliated voters at 18 percent.
Along with the historic wins for North Carolina Republican State House and Senate candidates, the early voting landscape changed with the 2010 Gen-eral Election. This year, the percentage of voters who voted early dropped to 36.5 percent. Of the 960,873 voters who voted early, 46.4 percent were Democrats, 36.5 percent were Republicans and 17 percent were unaffiliated voters.
The process of absentee voting with-out an excuse (one-stop voting and vot-ing by mail) is relatively new to North Carolina and was first used in Board of Elections’ offices in 2000. Early voting, especially one-stop voting, has become popular for its convenience to the voters (they are no longer assigned to one day and one place in order to cast a ballot) and for political campaigns that use the time to get their voters to the polls.
Most of the news coming out of early voting in the 2010 election consisted of reports of faulty voting machines that seemed to default to Democratic candi-dates, and that Republican, white males were out-voting all other demographics.
The mainstream media reported on these two occurrences because watching voting equipment change a vote is sensational and voting statistics are accessible, under-standable and easy to report. What is not so transparent and never reported is the one-stop process itself and how it impacts the security of the ballot.
In particular, North Carolina’s ear-ly voting process has obstructed the 25-day voter registration deadline (NCGS 163-82.6 (c)). This deadline was in place to allow county boards of elections time to verify addresses of new registrants be-fore the poll books were printed for Elec-tion Day. With the advent of one-stop voting, that verification window was reduced from 25 days to 6 days – not nearly enough time for adequate verifica-
BY JANA BENSCOTER
F R O M T H E E D I T O R
Momentum for Governor’s Race Picks Up in 2011
Evidence is mounting that President Barack Obama is concerned about his popularity in North Carolina and his chances to regain the same voter trust here in 2012 that he garnered in 2008. He has been on radio programs and visited Winston-Salem in early December to talk about economic and intellectual competition from outside the United States. His visit comes on the heels of the American people sending him and Washington a loud, re-sounding message that Americans want “smaller government and more free-dom.”
Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, all considered swing states, meaning voters could elect either a Republican or Democratic governor by narrow margins, now have Republican governors. Eight of those states flipped from Democrat to Republican as a result of mid-term elections.
“Republican control of the majority of 2012 swing states is a major road-block to the President’s re-election and a repudiation of his policies,” said RGA (Republican Governors Association) Chairman Haley Barbour. “These states are the bellwethers of the nation, and they’ve sent a firm message to Washington that America wants smaller government and more freedom.”
North Carolina was a swing state in 2008, which went in favor of Obama by 13,000 votes. Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue won a four-year term riding on his coattails. A June 2010 Civitas Institute Poll reveals that voters, if they had the chance to vote for governor then, favored Republican candidate Pat McCrory 46 percent to Perdue’s 37 percent.
McCrory, who established New Leadership Political Action Committee after stepping down as a seven-term mayor of Charlotte, has been traveling nonstop throughout the state and country promoting a message of massive clean-up of North Carolina state government. A Public Policy Poll released in November has McCrory easily defeating Perdue 49 percent to 37 percent.
According to PPP, “he pulls 37 percent in a slate of potential GOP gu-bernatorial primary candidates that includes current party chairman and former Raleigh mayor Tom Fetzer (12%), 5th-District Congresswoman Vir-ginia Foxx (11%), 9th-District Congresswoman Sue Myrick (6%), former state senator and 2008 gubernatorial aspirant Fred Smith (4%), 10th-District Congressman Patrick McHenry (3%), Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry (3%) and incoming State Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger (2%), with 22% preferring someone unnamed or not sure of their current prefer-ence.”
McCrory has not officially announced a run for the Governor’s Mansion. In August 2010, he told The Charlotte Observer, “My goal is to get Repub-licans in charge of the House or Senate or both…If I run for governor that would make my job a lot easier.”
The Republican-led General Assembly returns to business on Jan. 26. Official filing with the North Carolina State Board of Elections for governor begins in February 2012. w
tion. With the introduction of Same-Day Registration (SDR) at one-stop sites it is virtually impossible to verify addresses of people who register in the days leading up to the election. As a result we now have two classes of voters, those who have had their addresses verified before they vote and those who have not.
Is it important? In the 2008 General Election after their votes had been count-ed and the election certified, thousands of people who had registered to vote, and voted at the same time had their registra-tions denied after their verification notices were returned undeliverable.
The North Carolina Legislature and the State Board of Elections in partner-ship with very liberal, progressive groups have spent 15 years molding North Caro-lina’s election process to the point where the security of the vote cannot be assured. North Carolina’s new legislature should now concentrate on ballot security and protecting the integrity of the electoral process so that all of North Carolina’s citizens are confident when they cast their vote. w
Voters lined the halls of Guilford County Courthouse on the first day of early voting on Oct. 14. Early voting runs for two weeks in North Carolina prior to the General Election. Photo: Jana Benscoter
BreakdownContinue on pg. 3
Continued Below
3December 2010nccivitas.org
CAPITOL CONNECTIONCivitas
Norman SandersonDistrict 3 (Craven, Pamlico)
Jimmy DixonDistrict 4 (Duplin, Onslow)
Bill CookDistrict 6 (Beaufort, Pitt)
Stephen LaRoqueDistrict 10 (Greene, Lenoir, Wayne)
Phillip ShepardDistrict 15 (Onslow)
Susi HamiltonDistrict 18 (New Hanover)
Jeffrey L. (Jeff) CollinsDistrict 25 (Nash)
Tom MurryDistrict 41 (Wake)
Gaston (G.L.) PridgenDistrict 46 (Hoke, Robeson,
Scotland)
Charles GrahamDistrict 47 (Robeson)
Glen BradleyDistrict 49 (Franklin, Halifax,
Nash)
Mike StoneDistrict 51 (Harnett, Lee)
Marcus BrandonDistrict 60 (Guilford)
John FairclothDistrict 61 (Guilford)
U Bert JonesDistrict 65 (Rockingham)
Louis M. Pate, Jr.District 5 (Greene, Pitt, Wayne)
Bill RabonDistrict 8 (Brunswick, Columbus,
Pender)
Thom GoolsbyDistrict 9 (New Hanover)
Brent JacksonDistrict 10 (Duplin, Lenoir,
Sampson)
E.S. (Buck) NewtonDistrict 11 (Nash, Wilson)
Wesley MeredithDistrict 19 (Bladen, Cumberland)
Eric L. MansfieldDistrict 21 (Cumberland)
Rick GunnDistrict 24 (Alamance, Caswell)
Ken GoodmanDistrict 66 (Montgomery,
Richmond)
Craig HornDistrict 68 (Union)
Harry WarrenDistrict 77 (Rowan)
Rayne BrownDistrict 81 (Davidson)
Mark W. HolloDistrict 88 (Alexander, Catawba)
Johnathan C. JordanDistrict 93 (Ashe, Watauga)
Rodney W. MooreDistrict 99 (Mecklenburg)
Bill BrawleyDistrict 103 (Mecklenburg)
John TorbettDistrict 108 (Gaston)
Kelly E. HastingsDistrict 110 (Cleveland, Gaston)
Mike HagerDistrict 112 (Cleveland,
Rutherford)
Patricia (Patsy) KeeverDistrict 115 (Buncombe)
Timothy D. (Tim) MoffittDistrict 116 (Buncombe)
Chuck McGradyDistrict 117 (Henderson)
Gladys A. RobinsonDistrict 28 (Guilford)
Tommy TuckerDistrict 35 (Mecklenburg, Union)
Kathy HarringtonDistrict 43 (Gaston)
Warren T. DanielDistrict 44 (Burke, Caldwell)
Dan SoucekDistrict 45 (Alexander, Ashe,
Watauga, Wilkes)
Ralph E. Hise, Jr.District 47 (Avery, Haywood,
Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Yancey)
Jim DavisDistrict 50 (Cherokee, Clay,
Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Swain, Transylvania)
NC Senate
New General Assembly Legislators
NC House
Midterm Elections 2010: Wave of Fresh Legislators
Early Voting Breakdown
Method Party
• BY KAREN DUQUETTE
The 2010 North Carolina election brought in a wave of fresh legislators ea-ger to push new initiatives in the 2011 legislative session. U.S. Sen. Richard Burr easily won re-election, becoming the first Republican U.S. senator to be re-elected from North Carolina since Sen. Jesse Helms, and the first senator to be re-elected to his seat since 1968. In the U.S. House, incumbents managed to re-tain most of their seats with the exception of Renee Ellmers, who narrowly defeated Democratic incumbent Bob Etheridge after an official recount.
At the state level, Republicans won control of both General Assembly chambers, holding the first Republican
Pie charts are sized in proportion to total votes cast. Percentages are of that total.
two-chamber majority in more than a century. In the state House, Thom Tillis (R-Mecklenburg) will lead the Repub-licans as House Speaker in a 67-52-1 majority with Independent Bert Jones (U-Rockingham) aligning himself with Republicans. In the state Senate, Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) was selected as the President pro-tem nominee, leading Republicans 31-19 over Democrats.
Reps. Iler (R-Brunswick), Ingle (R-Alamance), Jackson (D-Wake) and Parfitt (D-Cumberland), appointed in the last term, will serve their first elected term. Senator-elect Pate (R-Wayne) and Reps.-elect LaRoque (R-Lenoir) and Hollo (R-Alexander) will return after serving in the state House in previous terms. w
2008 2010One-Stop 2,411,116 91.4% 905,139 94.2%Civilian 215,258 8.2% 53,100 5.5%Military 8,443 0.32% 1,444 0.15%Overseas 4,098 0.16% 1,190 0.12%Republican 795,456 30.1% 350,285 36.5%Democrat 1,355,390 51.4% 445,774 46.4%Unaffiliated 486,256 18.4% 163,820 17.0%Total 2,638,915 960,873
2008
2010
GOP lawmakers revel in celebration after their victories in both the state House and Senate on election night. Photo: Zan Bunn
One-stop
One-stop
Civilian
Democrat
Democrat
Republican
Republican
Unaffiliated
Unaffiliated
Civilian
4 December 2010 nccivitas.org
CAPITOL CONNECTIONCivitas
1
4
8
2
7
50
3
610
47
45
25
30
5
1913
22
2912
46
18
44 11
26
24
48
23
3442
35
9
41
3349
36
17
43
14
20
38
28
21
15
40
39
3132
16
27
37
2010 NC Senate DistrictsNCS
Democrat - No Change
Republican - No Change
Republican - Change from Democrat
2
5 1
6
4
3
13
8
7
20
27
22
16
120
84
119
66
54
69
94
17
28
9350
10
23
21
46
91
9249
32
85
52
90
67
118
48
78
113
55
9
15
51
12
25
11211
79
53
47
65
2680
6486
89
97
87 88
14
70
83
77
76
6845
110
58
39
3781
19
117
9596
40
115
111
6273
31
59
11424
74
98116
82
42
63
18
75
4160
61
109108 99
107
36
103
7230
38
5629 3335
71
43
57
105
34
44106 100
2010 NC House DistrictsNCH
Democrat - No Change
Republican - No Change
Republican - Change from Democrat
Unaffiliated - Change from Democrat
The New General AssemblyThe 2010 election brought with it a change in North Carolina’s party leadership for the first time in over a century. Just how dramatic was the change? North Carolina House District changes and North Carolina Senate District changes are listed below. You can also find more information regarding seats for the next General Assembly at http://www.carolinatransparency.com/assembly/
Using this new interactive tool, you can look at each seat in each house, and view maps of party representation from 2008 to 2010. The 2011 General Assembly convenes on Jan. 26, 2011 for the long session.
2011 North Carolina House of Representatives Makeup
2011 North Carolina Senate Makeup
5Diciembre 2010nccivitas.org
CAPITOL CONNECTIONCivitas
How Much Longer Can North Carolina Sustain High Unemployment?• BY MARIANNE SUAREZ
The most recent report released from the North Carolina Employment Security Commission (NCESC) shows the statewide unemployment rate in North Carolina at 9.1 percent in Oc-tober and revised at 9.3 percent in September. This marks a 0.2 percent decline in the last recorded month and a 0.6 percentage point decrease since August’s revised statewide unemploy-ment at 9.7 percent.
Unemployment rates dropped in 66 out of 100 counties in North Caro-
lina in October, increased in 18 coun-ties and remained the same in 16 coun-ties. This marks a slowing trend when compared to the September report. In September, unemployment was re-corded to have dropped in 97 coun-ties, increasing in two and remaining the same in one. There are 51 coun-ties that reported unemployment rates above the state’s 9.1 percent unem-ployment average in September, while in October that number increased and the NCESC reported that 55 counties had unemployment rates above the
state average. Currituck County had the state’s
lowest unemployment rate in October at 4.9 percent, while Scotland County had the highest at 14.7 percent. In Sep-tember, reports indicated unemploy-ment rates had dropped in all of the state’s metropolitan areas, while in Oc-tober unemployment rates dropped in 13 of the state’s 14 metropolitan areas.
Overall trends show that the number of people employed in North Carolina has decreased 6.6 percent, compared to 4.9 percent nationally.
Unemployment Insurance benefits were paid in October statewide to more than 118,205 people totaling $118,196,790. That is an increase of over 3,600 people since the previous month.
North Carolina has paid over $5.4 billion dollars in total benefits since October 2009 putting the Unemploy-ment Insurance Trust Fund balance in the red for more than $2.3 billion dol-lars at the end of the month. w
North Carolina Regional UnemploymentSeptember + October 2010
0.0%
2.0%
4.0%
6.0%
8.0%
10.0%
12.0%
14.0%
North
Carol
ina
Durha
m/Cha
pell H
ill
Jackso
nville
Ashe
ville
Raleigh
/Cary
Golds
boro
FayeHe
ville
Winston
-‐Salem
Wilming
ton
Gree
nville
Gree
nsbo
ro/Hig
h Poin
t
Burlin
gton
Charl
oHe/G
aston
ia/Ro
ck Hil
l NC/SC
Hickory/
Leno
ir/Morg
anton
Rocky
Mou
nt
September
October
All the maps and articles you see in this paper are made possible by donations from people like you. Make an end- of-the-year donation, help the conservative cause, and get a tax deduction for 2010.
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UNEMPLOYMENTMap on pg. 8
nccivitas.org
CAPITOL CONNECTIONCivitas6 July 2010
Easleytion, he was only fined $1,000 and charged $153 in court fees.
Other players involved in the Easley investigation included:
• In December, Ruffin Poole, known as “the little governor” re-signed from his job at the McGuire-Woods law firm in Raleigh and his position on the board of grantmak-ing for Golden LEAF Foundation. The same day Poole was indicted, Lanny Wilson resigned from the N. C. Department of Transportation board and a few days later resigned from the N. C. Turnpike Authority board. Wilson plead guilty in federal court to tax evasion in connection with money he accepted from land developers while working for Easley.
• McQueen Campbell, a pi-lot and aircraft owner, testified in 2009 at the Easley hearings that he had flown Easley to numerous cam-paign events but never billed the
CONTINUED FROM PG 1
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Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue signs Senate Bill 198 in March 2009, which hired Dr. Bill Harrison as CEO of North Carolina public schools and chair of the State Board of Education. Photo: Office of Governor Bev Perdue
Race to the Top: Not Exactly What You ThinkRace to the Top funds were designed
to benefit students and schools, yet the first clear winners are Dr. Bill Harrison, current chairman of the state board of education, and state government. In September, Gov. Beverly Perdue announced Harrison would oversee Race to the Top funds and lead a new education commission. Harrison’s $90,000 salary will be paid using federal grant funds.
Perdue appointed Harrison early last year to a newly created position to lead the public schools. A lawsuit brought by State Superintendent June Atkinson questioned Perdue’s authority to create a management position that had authority over the state Department of Public Instruction (NCD-PI). A Wake County judge agreed with Atkinson. The decision forced Harrison’s resignation last August from the $200,000 post. Since last year, Harrison has served as chairman where he earns $15 a day, plus expenses.
Harrison is viewed as the big picture guy who will bring the strategy of Race to the Top funds into play for all schools.
North Carolina educators and teachers were ecstatic in August when the state was named one of four winners in the second round of the federal government’s $4 bil-lion Race to the Top Competition. North Carolina public schools will receive approxi-mately $300 million over four years.
Recently, the first round of Race to the Top funds were distributed to school dis-tricts around the state. While most districts welcomed the money, many were probably unhappy to discover the state siphoned $1.5 million for “administration” costs. The high costs are all the more curious, consid-ering the Race to the Top officials’ plans to hire only two positions to assist in monitor-ing and dispersal of Race to the Top funds.
To boost the state’s chances for obtain-ing grant funds, conventional wisdom said North Carolina would at least need to lift the state’s cap on 100 charter schools. Gen-eral Assembly lawmakers failed to pass spe-cific legislation to lift the cap, an idea which is likely to be quickly taken up when the lawmakers convene in January. However, the General Assembly did pass legislation that turns failing public schools into charter schools and gives control of the schools to publicly-elected boards of education.
Charter schools have historically been
directed by an independent board or trust-ees. Allowing school boards to control non-traditional public schools is the very opposite of charter school autonomy.
While most of the education establish-ment continues to gush about the opportu-nities Race to the Top funds afford, too little attention has been paid to what the federal program actually costs the state.
Race to the Top is merely the means by which the federal government provides cash-starved states money for “education reform” to gain control over an area the U.S Con-stitution provides them no authority: public education.
With more and more federal money comes more and more federal control. Citi-zens know that schools run best when local officials are in charge of what is taught and what is spent.
Too many states – including North Carolina – view Race to the Top as the im-petus for education reform. In reality, Race to the Top is merely the “sugar” to ensure federal control over public education and less local freedom. w
• BY BOB LUEBKE
Easley campaign. He also testified that on two occasions he billed Easley campaign for flying services that in fact r e i m b u r s e d Campbell for repairs to Ea-sley’s Raleigh home that Campbell had paid for. Campbell resigned from the N.C. State board over his role in the ini-tial hiring of Easley’s wife, Mary, by the university in 2005. Soon after that, Mary Easley was fired from her $170,000 a year job.
• In late October 2009, the State Board of Elections convened a hearing to investigate alleged cam-paign finance violations by Easley’s campaign committee. At that hear-ing, developer Gary Allen and busi-nessman Lanny Wilson acknowl-edged writing checks to the N. C.
Democratic Party under the assumption the money was
earmarked for Easley, a viola-tion of the law. On Jan. 4, a lawyer
for Allen and his development asso-ciates told Pamlico County officials that his client was abandoning the 680-acre Cutter Bay development. Allen sought a refund of $2.96 mil-lion in impact fees he had paid to the county for water. County com-missioners voted unanimously not to return the money.
At the time of this article no in-formation is available on any of the other persons involved in federal in-vestigations of Easley. w
Civitas Poll June 2009
No 26%Yes 60%Not Sure 14%
If an elected official accepted free trips and use of a car and did not disclose
or report it, should they be prosecuted for a crime?
7December 2010nccivitas.org
CAPITOL CONNECTIONCivitas
PowerCONTINUED FROM PG 1
Unreliable Cards Issued to Illegal Immigrants
Increased Budget Spending Causes Rampant Use of Fear Tactics
• BY JANA BENSCOTER
• BY BRIAN BALFOUR
The role of law enforcement is to carry out the law to the fullest extent, maintain order and protect residents. Law enforcement is told what to en-force according to local ordinances; state and federal laws; state constitu-tions and the US Constitution.
Durham City Council in early November voted to accept the use of Matricula Consular Identification Cards (MCAS) as proper identifica-tion for Mexicans residing in the city. While issued by Mexico’s government, a person’s identity in possession of MCAS is not positively identified. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has claimed the card “is inherently un-reliable and unverifiable as an identi-fication card and is highly vulnerable to fraud, regardless of its security fea-tures.”
“The government of Mexico issues the card to anyone who can produce a Mexican birth certificate and one other form of identity, including documents of very low reliability,” Steve McCraw, former assistant director of FBI’s Of-fice of Intelligence said in the Carolina Journal. “Mexican birth certificates are
Recent media reports have un-veiled some state government agency spending reductions submitted to Gov. Perdue at her request. Predict-ably, the revelations prompted apoc-alyptic warnings from those who advocate for more government to correct all of society’s ills.
The warnings typically follow a well-worn script followed by liberal advocacy groups for years: thousands of teachers and caregivers will lose their jobs, “progress” will be set back decades, and all that is good about the state will be destroyed.
Sober examination of actual budget figures, however, suggest that the latest budget crisis is merely a minor speed bump on North Caro-lina’s long-term expansion of govern-ment growth. Wild-eyed claims of unspeakable suffering offer no value and need to be placed in proper con-text.
Frequently used is the rhe-torical claim that state programs are grossly “underfunded.” Such claims may appeal to the sympa-thetic ear, but offer no perspective. Exactly what level of funding would be sufficient? Liberals never provide an answer.
Next is the very real threat of some state employees losing their jobs. To paint the bleakest of all
easy to forge and they are a major item on the product list of the fraudulent document trade currently flourish-ing across the country and around the world.”
As many as 13 states currently accept the Matricula Consular ID card for the purpose of obtaining a driver’s license. McCraw said, “Once in possession of a driver’s license, a criminal is well on his way to using the false identity to facilitate a variety of crimes, from money laundering to check fraud. And, of course, the false identity serves to conceal a criminal who is already being sought by law en-forcement.”
A few days after Durham City Council passed the resolution, council-man Howard Clement commented on the possible inappropriate overreach of executive decision making by Durham City Police. Clement voted against the resolution.
In an interview with the Durham-Herald Sun, Clement told the newspa-per he “quizzed Deputy Police Chief for Operations Steve Mihaich about the decision…three days after coun-cil members voted 5-2 to support the department’s practice of accepting the ID.” He continued, “it was news to me” that the department’s “willingness to accept the ID went back nearly to the start of Police Chief Jose Lopez’s tenure in Durham.”
Mihaich was of a varying opinion. He said, “I wouldn’t have seen a need for council approval.”
An effort spearheaded by a group called CHANGE (Commu-
pictures, big-government advocates will list the most sympathetic of state workers like school teachers and mental health workers. Notably absent are the tens of thousands of non-classroom administrators, re-dundant paper-pushers or retirees pulling in six-figure pensions.
From 2001 to 2009, North Car-olina state government added nearly 35,000 workers. Surely these were not all school teachers or caregivers for the elderly.
Indeed, over the period 1999-2009 state-funded nonteaching “instructional support” positions in North Carolina public schools swelled by nearly 5,000. Growth in such non-classroom staffers explod-ed by 57 percent, nearly three-and-a-half times the growth rate of student enrollment.
In short, a total of 10,000 state jobs could be eliminated next year and state government would still have 25,000 more workers than a decade ago.
Moreover, with salaries and benefits for state workers being the overwhelmingly largest budget ex-penditure for state taxpayers, it is interesting to note that the average salary for a North Carolina state government worker is more than 12 percent higher than that of a private sector worker. This pay disparity has
nities Helping All Neighbors Gain Empowerment) in Winston-Salem appears to be using its influence for social change, following suit with Durham. The group’s effort is slightly different in that it’s not directly us-ing MCAS. CHANGE has offered to make identification cards for Winston residents who don’t have any form of identification. Winston-Salem Chief of Police Scott Cunningham held a press conference in late October, prior to the 2010 midterm elections, to tell the community he was open to the idea.
In a broadcast news interview, Cunningham said, “When the police interact with these people, it is very difficult to verify their identity if they don’t have anything on them, and it ex-pands the interaction time.” The card, not issued by the government, Ameri-can or Mexican, will be valid for one year, will have a photo, address and date of birth.
He went so far as to say, “There is the possibility that some of the infor-mation may be wrong, and we are giv-ing out information to our personnel later this week about how to recognize, utilize and what safety precautions and credibility to give to the card.”
In both cases, acceptance of the cards does not change the law. Dur-ham City Council members favored a resolution. A resolution is an opinion. If an illegal immigrant is stopped by Durham City Police, or Winston-Sa-lem City Police, and is carrying a non-government issued identification card, the word illegal doesn’t, or shouldn’t change, any legal recourse. w
doubled in the last decade.Put differently, state government
workers could receive an average 10 percent cut in salary, and the salary of the average state worker would still be higher than North Carolina’s average private sector worker.
And what about wiping out de-cades of “progress”?
An examination of annual state budgets shows that from 1979-2009 – even after adjusting for in-flation – state spending in North Carolina tripled during that time. Furthermore, inflation-adjusted spending grew at more than three times the rate of population growth.
All of this data, however, still doesn’t take into account one im-portant fact: the state General Fund budget isn’t the only money be-ing spent on government programs in North Carolina. Billions in fed-eral government dollars, mostly for education, transportation and social welfare programs, are sent from Washington to Raleigh every year to supplement expenditures on state programs. In the current fiscal year, it is projected North Carolina will receive $13.6 billion in federal dollars. If that amount is combined with the $18.98 billion state General Fund budget and $2.36 in transpor-tation expenditures, total spending on state programs is $34.9 billion.
Looking ahead to the next fis-cal year, these realities lend some perspective to the budget situation predicted by some to thrust North Carolina into a “dark, crumbling” state of existence. Expiration of the $1.3 billion in state “temporary” tax revenue and $1.6 billion in federal stimulus funds, along with $300 mil-lion in one time spending reductions will add up to a $3.2 billion struc-tural deficit. Even holding state reve-nue and federal funding flat for next year, and subtracting the $3.2 billion structural deficit, total available rev-enues would come in at $31.7 bil-lion. That total would merely reset total state spending to a level slightly less than fiscal year 2006-07.
And for even more perspective about how “underfunded” state pro-grams would be; a total budget of $31.7 billion would still be a full 34 percent higher than 2001-02 ex-penditures, and virtually twice the spending from just 15 years ago.
Dire predictions will be numer-ous this upcoming legislative session. Just be sure to view the fear monger-ing in the proper context, and realize how we have arrived in this budget situation in the first place. w
Brian Balfour is a policy analyst with the Civitas Institute in Raleigh (www.nccivitas.org)
41 percent of the vote. Republicans won all seats that the Civitas Parti-san Index (CPI) said were Republican leaning and captured four seats in the Senate and two in the House that were Democratic leaning. Republicans won throughout the state (see maps on page 4), winning seats from the coast to the mountains and in both urban and rural areas.
The next Legislature has a num-ber of tasks facing them with the most important being to clean up the fiscal mess in North Carolina and trying to close the estimated $3.5 bil-lion gap between what the last Legis-lature had been spending and what they actually had available in state taxpayer money to spend. They were able to ignore the problem by raising taxes and using “stimulus” money from the federal government to allow them to keep spending at levels not support-ed by current economic conditions.
The Republicans have pledged to let the “temporary” taxes expire and close the gap by streamlining govern-ment, reducing waste and making the hard choices about what priorities the state should be funding.
There is another task that will affect the political landscape for the rest of the decade – redistricting. Once every 10 years congressional and legislative districts in North Carolina have to be redrawn when the new cen-sus data becomes available. That will occur in 2011 and for the first time in modern North Carolina history – Re-publican legislators will be the ones
in charge of drawing all the maps. The governor can’t veto redistricting so what passes the Legislature, and is approved by the Justice Department under Obama’s administration, will be the plan that elects congressional rep-resentatives and state legislators for the next decade. w
8 December 2010 nccivitas.org
CAPITOL CONNECTIONCivitas8
Former Gov. Mike Easley entered a plea of guilty to one felony charge of fil-ing a false campaign finance report in November after a lengthy 22-month investigation. Procedural questions remain. Photo: Associated Press
• S C A N D A L •
Easley Conviction Ends Investigation, Does Not End QuestionsIt was an odd picture. The
prosecutor who spent many years putting away criminals and later served as the State’s Attorney Gen-eral found himself fidgeting in the defendant’s chair and responding to judge’s questions about a plea agreement.
So ended the lengthy investiga-tion by state and federal authorities into former two-term Democratic, Gov. Mike Easley. Veteran politi-cal watchers felt the investigation would likely end in an indictment and possible jail time for the Gov-ernor.
Instead, the former Governor admitted to one felony conviction, was fined $1,000 and charged $153 in court costs.
After a steady diet of stories on how Easley contributors pro-vided the Governor free campaign flights, a sweetheart land deal at a high-end waterfront development, bargains in home remodeling and car leases, as well as a high paying job for his wife at a public univer-sity – all presumably in exchange for political influence – the public was itching for justice.
In the end, the public got a plea agreement from former Gov. Easley; one conviction, dropped charges, an end to lengthy inves-tigations and a whole lot of head scratching.
Strangely, we’re told that this story is about process and not about what happened. It turned
on missteps, rather than misdeeds. Does anyone think that is a good thing?
There are many questions. In an interview after the case, Rowan County District Attorney William Kenerly, who was handling the state’s investigation, acknowledged his courtroom experience was with hard criminals and not politicians. He even offered, “I’ve never dealt with a political case like this be-fore.”
No doubt Kenerly’s lack of ex-perience influenced his decision on how to proceed. While many saw it easy to connect the dots, the Re-publican lawyer saw “hotly contest-ed facts” and “vague statutes.”
To be fair, the United States Supreme Court curtailed how state and public officials could prosecute corruption cases under the “hon-est services” statute. Prosecutors frequently used the statute against politicians and corporate executives who violated their duty to provide “honest services.” After evaluating several high profile white-collar crimes, this summer the Supreme Court tightened the use of the stat-ute when it found the law could not determine when mere “friendships” cross lines into criminal offense.
Still, prosecutors’ uncertainty over whether calling Easley to tes-tify before the State Board of Elec-tions granted the former Governor criminal immunity on matters on which he commented was surpris-ing.
• BY BOB LUEBKE
Prosecutors say wrongdoing does not imply criminal activity. Maybe true. But the sheer prepon-derance of evidence is unsettling. Even more troubling, is the decision to end investigations on matters where the former Governor most likely would have faced indictment.
A plea agreement may end the legal proceedings for Easley, how-ever, the decision inspires little con-fidence in prosecutors, and even less in a legal system that is supposed to serve the interests of justice. w
The Civitas Institute offers train-ing in investigative journalism and exposing government corruption. We hold monthly meetings for those who want to learn more and connect with others to combat public corruption. For more information contact Bob Luebke at 919-834-2099, Ext. 135.
Scandal is a regular column in Capitol Connection that will explore public corruption in NC Govern-ment. Have a local corruption story? Email us at: [email protected]. or call 919-834-2099.
Source: Employment Security Commission of North CarolinaData Not Seasonally Adjusted
Dare7.5
Hyde5.9
Pitt9.2
Carteret7.2
Wake7.3
Pender9.3
Duplin7.8
Bladen10.9
Bertie10.4
Onslow7.3
Wilkes11.3
Beaufort9.7
Moore8.2
Union8.4
Craven8.8
Halifax11.3
Robeson11.3
Nash11
Brunswick9.8
Surry10.1
Sampson7.6
Tyrrell8.5Iredell
10.4Burke12
Johnston8.9
Anson11.1
Guilford9.6
Ashe9.9
Randolph9.3
Harnett9.8
Wayne7.9
Chatham6.4Rowan
10.9
Hoke8.8
Stokes9
Buncombe7.4
Warren10.7
Person8.5
Forsyth8.6
Caswell10.1
Yadkin8.5
Columbus10.8
Swain10.3
Jones9.7
Macon8.6
Martin9.8
Pamlico8
Stanly10.5 Lenoir
9.7
Franklin8.7
Lee11.1
Granville9.1
Davidson10.6
Jackson7.3
Haywood8
Currituck4.9
Gates6.8
Caldwell12.3
Wilson10.9
Polk7.1
Cumberland8.6
Orange5.5
Rutherford13.2
Madison7.6
Gaston10.2
Clay9.2
Cherokee11.6
Richmond11.8
Cleveland11.3
Catawba11.4
Davie8.7
Rockingham10.9
McDowell10.9
Hertford8.8
Alamance9.7
Vance11.3
Avery8.2
Lincoln10.8
Yancey9.7
Mecklenburg9.8
Northampton11.2
Edgecombe14
Montgomery10.9
Cabarrus9.6
Durham6.9
Graham12.2
Scotland14.7
Washington10
Camden6.5
Greene7.7
Watauga6.6
Henderson7.2
Transylvania8
Mitchell9.3
Chowan9.4Perquimans
8.2Alexander11.6
Pasquotank8.8
New Hanover8.5
Alleghany8.9
North Carolina Unemployment Rates by CountyOctober 2010
October 2010Unemployment
4.9 - 7.2
7.3 - 8.7
8.8 - 10.1
10.2 - 12
12.1 - 14.8
North Carolina Unemployment By CountyOctober 2010 | Story on Pg. 5
