Red Clay Citizen

It's the Law, Stupid

The N&O reported last week that the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research (have you seen their website?) will be releasing a report that claims that illegal immigrants are one of the keys to solving North Carolina's "looming worker shortage."

What shortage?

North Carolina's unemployment rate has increased three months in a row.

As of March 2008, 234,086 workers were unemployed in North Carolina. This number does not include thousands of working-age residents who are not counted as part of the civilian labor force because they are not looking for a full-time job. Many of these people would go back to work full-time if offered a suitable opportunity. Shouldn’t we find jobs for these people before we hand over their jobs to illegal aliens?

Moreover, economic historians have repeatedly found that during those periods when the U.S. labor supply contracted -– such as after the passage of the Immigration Act of 1924 –- tight labor markets stimulated capital investment and operating efficiencies that raised productivity by 40 percent.

This is not to say that the retirement of the baby boomers won't put tremendous pressure on our economy and society. It will. But what should the solution be? Illegally importing millions of low-skilled laborers? This is a recipe for disaster, to say the least because low-skilled immigrants pay less in taxes than they use in services.

Or, encouraging investment (by cutting the capital gains tax) and the state income tax and encouraging the legal immigration of high-skilled workers? Of course, if we really have a labor shortage, the best policy is to "grow" our own labor by: 1) training legal workers who are already here; and 2) making abortion illegal again.

What is most important here is that a strong economy must be based on the rule of law. Thus, this issue should not be framed as a zero-sum game between breaking the law and preserving the economy. We can choose both: to obey the law and to enact a labor policy that will better serve our economy.

Economic solutions based on breaking the law are short-sighted and just plain stupid. If we want to grow the economy, let's start by obeying the law.

A million a mile?

According to the Greensboro News & Record, State Rep. Nelson Cole seems to peg the cost of road construction at $1 million per mile - no wonder we're running out of money for roads...

Here's the excerpt:
"The cost is going to equate to what it costs us to pave 20 miles of new road, and we just can't afford to do that," said Rep. Nelson Cole, a Rockingham County Democrat who is chairman of a pair of key committees on transportation. He estimated that compliance with the law this year would cost at least $20 million, largely for computer upgrades.

Liberals for School Choice?

Florida seems to be undergoing a school choice revolution - finally - with liberals coming aboard. A sliver:

When Florida passed a law in 2001 creating the Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship Program for underprivileged students, all but one Democrat in the state legislature voted against it. Earlier this month, lawmakers extended the program – this time with the help of a full third of Democrats in the Legislature, including 13 of 25 members of the state's black caucus and every member of the Hispanic caucus. What changed?

Our guess is that low-income parents in Florida have gotten a taste of the same school choice privileges that middle- and upper-income families have always enjoyed. And they've found they like this new educational freedom. Under the scholarship program, which is means-tested, companies get a 100% tax credit for donations to state-approved nonprofits that provide private-school vouchers for low-income families.

-Max Borders

Easley's Pessimistic View of You

Borders had an excellent piece in yesterday's Fayetteville Observer on the best way to help "those in need."

Our Governor thinks so little of the people of North Carolina, that he believes the most vulnerable among us will be cast aside without the "help" of those angelic bureaucrats in Raleigh:

"Third, Easley claims that without government, the state’s most vulnerable people would be neglected and “not receive the critical aid they need.” That means you, dear reader, would neglect them — unless a more enlightened majority voted against your selfish demons. But is that true? Easley is offering us a low-cost way to vote away our sense of moral responsibility for our neighbors and our communities. That moral sense will then be entrusted to an army of bureaucrats who know better than you what your community needs. But isn’t that just compulsory compassion based on a pessimistic view of mankind?"

Borders suggests there is a better way to help those in need than subjecting them to dependency on a faceless bureaucracy:

"So as the pendulum between left and right swings back and forth between election days, let me humbly suggest that we stop thinking of the world in terms of dualities such as government welfare and self-reliance. Instead, let’s embrace a third way. Let’s return the government to its rightful place protecting our lives, our liberty and our property. Then we can get together and help those in our communities without making them dependent, or robbing them of the dignity that comes with work and upward mobility."

Tolls and HOT lanes in N.C.?

Taft Wireback has a good piece on tollways for the News & Record. Pay-per-use is the way forward.
-Max Borders

Education: Funding Formulas Reformed?

North Carolina spends  $7.9 billion on K-12 education. Much of that money is distributed to LEAs and local schools through 13 different formulas. Doubtless, the average citizen finds many of these formulas dated, convoluted and unnecessarily complicated.  To remedy these issues, the Joint Legislative Study Committee on Public School Funding Formulas has been meeting for the past several months in hopes of improving how the state distributes money to the schools. This past Thursday the committee issued its interim report. Some of the committee’s recommendations include:

·         Mentoring Allotment – The commission recommends a significant expansion to the current Mentor Pay program ($8.1 million) to provide mentors for all first and second year teachers and instructional personnel. The committee also wants the state to pick up the tab for mentors for teachers  as well as those who aren’t paid by the state (Why?).  The cost to provide mentors to all first and second year teachers and instructional personnel: $7.9 million. I see little evidence touting the success of such programs. Double the money and give LEAs more flexibility in spending? It doesn’t sound like a good plan.
 

·         Transportation – Funding inconsistencies between LEAs have occupied much of the committee’s time. To remedy an immediate shortfall in funding due to the rapid escalation in gas prices, the committee recommends transferring $47 million from general fund estimates and another $7.5 million to a reserve fund to cover additional increases in costs.

·         Education Lottery Reserve –To compensate for counties that don’t qualify for Education Lottery supplemental proceeds, the committee recommends using $32 million from lottery reserve and distributing it to districts to equalize the ADM distribution for FY07-08. Yes, there are things wrong with the current formula, but this proposal is much worse than the problem.

Reviewing all thirteen funding formulas is a large task and won’t be finished this year. The highlighted recommendations and the inevitable tweaking are sure to keep the committee in the news. More later. 

 

 

Pro-life and Family Legislation

Here is a rundown of the pro-life and family legislation introduced during the 2007-2008 session:

ABORTION/REPRODUCTIVE ISSUES

H 1782 Ultrasound Before An Abortion
H 419 State Health Plan/No Abortion Coverage
H 1552 WRTK-Woman's Right to Know
S 481 Notarized Consent for Minor's Abortion
H 420 Abortion-Parental Consent Notarized
S 480 No Abortion Coverage/State Health Plan
H 155 Conscience Protection/Health Care Providers
S 897 Choose Life Special Registration Plate
H 1774 Born Alive Infant Protection Act
S 968 Born Alive Infant Protection Act

FETAL HOMICIDE
H 263 Unborn Victims of Violence
S 295 Fetal Murder

SEXUAL/EMOTIONAL EDUCATION
H 879 Modify School Health Education Program
S 664 Social-Emotional Curriculum in Public Schools

MARRIAGE
H 493 Defense of Marriage
S 1608 Defense of Marriage
S 13 Defense of Marriage

HOMOSEXUALITY
H 1366 School Violence Prevention Act

VACCINES
S 1018 Vaccine Requirements/School Entry
S 710 Immunization Changes-AB

See, also, our recap from last session.

And, if we missed anything, please let us know.

Conservative Bills Filed

During the opening week of the Legislature's so-called "short" session, conservative lawmakers are filing honest to goodness conservative bills.  Senator Jim Forrester (R-Gaston) has once again introduced the Defense of Marriage bill SB 1608.
Dr. Forrester has been a tireless advocate of defining marriage and has decided once again to rally the troops and charge up the hill.  Unfortunately,  what waits at the top of this metaphorical hill is likely to be Don Quixote's windmill.  The leadership of the Senate has probably already picked out just the place for this bill to die: Bill Prison, aka the Ways and Means Committee.  For the uninitiated, the W&M committee hasn't met since 2001.

A similar fate occurred in the NC House last session when Speaker Hackney showed just how open to debate he really was when he refused to allow a vote on the floor and killed HB 493 Read more here.

The issue has even great urgency now that the California Supreme Court has decided to overturn thousands of years of practice tradition and law by declaring gay marriage to be legal on the Left Coast.

The legislative leadership may find a bill delayed to be more of a campaign issue than a bill voted on.

Another conservative bill was filed this week by Senator Robert Pittenger (R-Mecklenburg) was SB 1596 entitled the NC Citizen Protection Act.  The bill attempts to roll up North Carolina's welcome mat for illegal aliens by requiring municipalities and their contractors to verify the legal status of their employees and  make it a crime for a business to fire a citizen while the business still employs an illegal alien.  The bill also shares a number of provisions with Rep. Debbie Clary's bill HB 55 as well as Georgia's law that went into effect in 2007. 

Critics will charge Pittenger with election year grandstanding due to his candidacy for the office of Lieutenant Governor, but, given the way the Senate conducts its business, this may be the only way he can communicate his ideas to the voters.  Since the Senate leadership will not  allow floor votes on bills they deign to be politically risky to the majority, the only thing a conservative can do is make a big splash when filing a bill.

Voters should have the opportunity to cast their vote for the candidate whose beliefs most closely match their own.  And the phrase "Actions speak louder than words" has real life relevance when you can review an incumbent's voting record.  But, if the leaders of your legislative body are skillful at preventing votes on issues that may inform and motivate the voters in a direction the leadership may not want, then you have a situation that now exists in the North Carlina General Assembly.  Members may tell the folks back home how much they support both the Defense of Marriage Act  as well as cracking down on illegal immigration without ever having to cast a vote for or against it and the rubes in the district are none the wiser.

An Earmark for your relative?

While not quite rising to the level of nepotism, the bill sponsored by Representatives Joe Tolson & Tricia Cotham should raise some eyebrows. It will provide $3,000,000 to the North Carolina Biotechnology Center to fund the expansion of it's headquarters building. With 170 elected representatives in the NC Legislature surely one of the other 169 could have introduced (in the senate) or co-sponsored this bill in the house so that the relationship of one of the primary sponsors to the President & CEO of this private non-profit would not be an issue. Of course the Biotechnology Center has been a major recipient of state money so why change things now...

Real ID: Small Price to Pay

Representatives Cole (D) and Coates (D) just filed a bill that would prevent North Carolina from participating in Real ID. The bill rightly refers to Real ID as an unfunded federal mandate, but then comically goes on to say that "compliance with the provisions of the REAL ID Act of 2005 will result in a fiscal cost that the State cannot afford."

Who are they kidding? The total cost to implement Real ID for North Carolina has been put at $20 million -- this represents 1/10 of the $200 million in pork barrel spending the General Assembly approved last session. Indeed, $20 million is 0.01 percent of the current state budget.

The Department of Homeland Security is providing $360 million to assist states in implementing Real ID. Moreover, identity theft costs U.S. citizens some $68 billion a year.

I encourage folks to have genuine dialogue over the merits of Real ID -- but saying the state can't afford the $20 million Real ID might cost is simply not true. What do you think? Is Real ID worth it?

How the Rest of the World Handles Illegal Immigration

Italian police arrested 400 illegal aliens in a raid today, immediately expelling 53 of them.

I would bet that ICE hardly made more arrests last year - before their recent "crack down."

What is most astonishing is that Italian authorities worked with Libyan officials to actually arrest hundreds of would-be illegal aliens before they even arrived in Italy.

Budget Myth: Cig Taxes Will Pay for Teacher Salaries

All we've heard this week on the Governor's budget is that he proposes raising the cigarette tax by $0.20 per pack to "give teachers a 7 percent pay increase."

Well, the numbers don't really add up.

Increasing the cigarette tax is estimated to bring in roughly $99 million next year.
Increasing teacher pay by 7% (and administrators by 6%) will cost $302.7 million.

Yet, nothing is said about where that extra $200 million is coming from.

And if the cigarette tax is "successful" in getting less people to smoke, then there will be less revenues each year.
Teacher salary increases are permanent and never go down.
You, me and every other taxpayer is on the hook for the rest of the money.

So don't believe the budget hype that the cigarette tax is "going to pay for" teacher salary increases.  It's just not true.

We Will NOT be Silenced!

During the successful bribing announcement today by Governor Easley that they FINALLY have a major non-state agency tenant at the Global TransPark, Easley said the Spirit agreement “silenced” critics of the TransPark.

Silenced?  HA!

We're just getting started, my friend.

You've only had to spend $80 million over the past 17 years and now $125 million in cash to bribe a company to locate there.  Congratulations.

Silenced? Hell, you've just given us more fodder and a louder megaphone to bash this ridiculous game of incentives.  And all you've done is point out what a failure the GTP has been.  Unfortunately it's cost us taxpayers over $100 million already.

Illegals and Community Colleges: What Voters Want

TBJ is running an informal poll on whether the community college system was right to bar illegal aliens from degree programs. 72 percent say yes.

Civitas' polling of actual voters arrives at a similar conclusion.

68 percent of voters believe illegal aliens should be prohibited from enrolling in community colleges and public universities in North Carolina (February 2008).

70 percent of voters oppose granting in-state tuition to illegal aliens (April 2007).

75 percent would be less likely to vote for a candidate who supports giving in-state tuition to the children of illegal immigrants (September 2005).

69 percent believe illegal immigrants should receive no educational benefits at all from the state of North Carolina (August 2005).

Oogle the Threatened Species

One of the "highlights" of Gov. Mike Easley's final budget (wow, it's good to say that), is wanting to spend $2.7 million to build a Polar Bear exhibit at the NC Zoo in Asheboro.

Apparently our existing Polar Bear containment area isn't up to Canadian standards for us to give them their bears.

Today, the US Interior Department added polar bears to the list of "threatened species" due to "the decline in Arctic Sea Ice from global warming."

Well, if the Arctic is getting too warm, what do you call August in central North Carolina?