Carolina Politics Online

At issue is 1992 local legislation that applies a four-mill cap on school tax increases each year.

School officials have argued they’re entitled to two tax increases ó one to cover school growth as required by law plus the added four tax mills if the school board votes to use it ó and that the county auditor’s office approved both increases in 2006.

However, an attorney general’s opinion says that would amount to “a double tax increase for the same item” and state Sen. David Thomas, who helped write the local legislation, said four mills has always been the total legal limit.

Thomas has accused the school district of breaking the law and said school officials had a deputy auditor sign its 2006 tax increase before Case entered office and while his predecessor, the late Ed Haskins, was out sick.

District officials have said they used the same process they always had to inform the auditor’s office of the revenue it needed. Ray said Friday it’s up to the auditor to set the tax millage.

Case said in a letter last year that there’s no evidence the school district used the same tax logic before 2006, and called the 8.5-mill increase an “error” that nearly doubled the maximum tax increase allowed by state law.

The Greenville News

It definitely sounds like the school board is trying to manipulate the law to mean something it doesn’t.  Aside from the Federal government, school district are the most greedy group of bureaucrats out there, in my opinion.  They are always demanding more money; they don’t live within their means and they waste most of our money on employment benefits and and over excess of administrators.  Whether or not these tax challenges will be successful, voters need to show these folks the door at election time.  They aren’t responsible enough to run a budget.

A political group known for stinging criticisms of lawmakers it considers less-than-conservative is crying foul about a mail piece sent to Lexington County voters.

The S.C. Club for Growth claims the flier, sent out by state Sen. Jake Knotts’ campaign, makes false allegations about the group and its intentions.

Knotts’ flier never mentions the S.C. Club for Growth by name, instead warning Lexington residents about “a special interest group falsely attacking our senator, Jake Knotts. (This particular group is a ‘front’ for the insurance industry and the out-of-state billionaires who control them; they recruited their own ‘puppet’ candidate against Knotts.)”

The Knotts flier adds that the criticisms of him are false. It followed an S.C. Club for Growth mailer that called Knotts, R-Lexington, a “Republican In Name Only” and criticized his record in the Senate.

The State

Sounds like Knotts is plenty worried about hanging on to his Senate seat.  There are plenty of things to hit Knotts on.  He voted in favor of the bloated 2007-08 budget that increased state spending by 11%.  Knotts voted against all of Sanford’s 2007 budget vetoes, showing he has no will to control spending.  He has opposed school choice.  He endorsed a Democrat for governor over Sanford in 2002 and he joined in blocking income tax relief in 2004.

Gee, I can’t imagine why Republicans would want to get rid of him….

Charleston County spent more than $400,000 of taxpayers’ money on a minority business outreach effort that accomplished little, but provided lucrative contracts for several politically connected consultants.

The goal of the outreach was to see that local minorities received job training, internships and a share of the multimillion- dollar road construction contracts financed by the half-cent sales tax.

The Post and Courier

Minority outreach is a crock and in the case of Charleston County, a waste of $400,000 tax payer dollars. Adults are responsible for their own education and construction contracts should be awarded based on competitive bidding and competency, not someone’s race.

As you can see from the long list in the article, this was a costly flop to Charleston County residents.

We are seeing the return of Jesse Helms-style politics.

The N.C. Republican Party is scheduled to begin airing a new TV commercial Tuesday featuring video of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright making inflammatory remarks about America’s treatment of African-Americans.

As everyone by now knows, Wright is the former pastor of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. But the ad goes further, tying the two leading Democratic candidates for governor, Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue and state Treasurer Richard Moore, to Wright because they endorsed Obama.

The ad is so racially tinged that the national Republican Party and Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, asked that it not be run. McCain said the ad “degrades our civics and distracts us from the very real differences we have with the Democrats.”

The News & Observer

Rob Christensen of The News & Observer offers up yet another in a long line of allegations that the Obama-Wright ad is “racially tinged” and like all other accusers Christensen offers no explanation as to what makes the ad racist.  Furthermore, Christensen obviously never saw any of Helms’ ads because there is no comparison between this one and those.

What’s really ironic about all of the hooplah over this ad is that thanks to the Democrats making such a raucous over this, they have basically guaranteed that there will be hardly a voter out there who doesn’t see it.  I’m not so certain that was the goal they were aiming for.

Meanwhile, 43 North Carolina mayors, mayors pro tem and former mayors on Thursday publicly endorsed Obama in his race against Hillary Clinton.

Included were Durham Mayor Bill Bell, Durham Mayor pro tem Cora Cole-McFadden, Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy, Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton, Creedmoor Mayor Darryl Moss and Pittsboro Mayor Randy Voller.

As part of their endorsements — and to encourage other residents to get a jump on the May 6 primary and vote early — Bell and some dozen other mayors voted at One-Stop early voting sites around the state.

The Herald-Sun

DURHAM — Durham Democrat Ryan O’Neal Echoles has withdrawn from the state Senate District 20 race, saying late Monday that he’d “taken a look at the landscape” and decided “right now is not the right time” to take on established local political interests.

Echoles’ withdrawal leaves incumbent state Sen. Floyd B. McKissick Jr. unopposed in the May 6 Democratic primary.

The Herald-Sun

It’s pretty odd for a challenger to drop out of the race a week before the election. After reading the whole article I kind of get the impression that perhaps Echoles knew his chances of winning were nil and decided just to bow out gracefully than suffer a major loss.

He has a point, though, too.  It’s tough to go against the political machine.  You basically have to be very well known or be independently wealthy to be able to finance the campaign you need to overcome the entrenched politicos.

WASHINGTON — Democratic Senate candidate Jim Neal’s campaign was nearly broke heading into the crucial final weeks of the N.C. primary season while opponent Kay Hagan shored up her campaign with personal money, records released Friday show.

Neal, a financial consultant from Chapel Hill, and Hagan, a state senator from Greensboro, are vying to take on Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., in November.

Neal had $18,000 in cash as of April 16. Since his campaign began, he has raised $249,000, including a $120,000 loan from himself, according to campaign finance reports on file with the Senate Office of Public Records.

Hagan had $317,000 in the bank, including a $50,000 personal loan she made at the end of the quarter.

“It shows her commitment to the campaign,” her spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan said of the loan. “This is a race she’s running because she truly believes she can be an effective voice for North Carolinians in Washington and she doesn’t feel like Elizabeth Dole has been doing that,” Flanagan said.

For every dollar Hagan took in since January, Dole has raised two — $901,000 compared with $1.8 million.

Charlotte Observer

The lagging in fund raising tells me that state Democrats don’t consider Liddy Dole to be all that vulnerable.

MEXICO CITY — A Mecklenburg County commissioner’s recent comments comparing illegal immigrants to prostitutes and drug dealers first inflamed the local Latino community, and now the anger has spilled into Mexico.

Mexican politicians and residents are calling Republican Bill James’ statements — printed Friday in one of Mexico City’s leading newspapers — an example of growing hostility against Latinos in the United States.

Charlotte Observer

Our growing hostility? Are they kidding?? The hostility is coming from Mexico in the form of their government actively encouraging their citizens to illegally enter our country, gain employment, and then send their wages back to their own country. It comes in the form of Mexican drug dealers, at times with the cooperation of corrupt Mexican soldiers, attacking and killing our border guards. Quite frankly, what Mexico has been doing in most cases would have been considered an act of war in many parts around the world, but because of how overly generous the U.S. has been towards the nation and the stable relationship we’ve had with them for years we’ve been more than tolerant of it. The Mexican government is eventually going to bite off more than they can chew with their actions and rhetoric.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Patrick McHenry says the candidates who want his seat in Congress don’t want to talk about his voting record.

Unfortunately for the Cherryville Republican, there’s plenty of other material to work with.

The two-term lawmaker enters the N.C. primary May 6 trying to shake off recent headlines from his first trip to Iraq, when he referred to a man protecting a U.S. embassy gym as a “two-bit security guard” and then filmed himself talking about the buildings hit by enemy fire.

It’s the kind of episode fueling campaigns of three other people vying for the 10th District seat.

One, the challenger from his own party, has even accused McHenry of putting American lives at risk by giving away battle damage coordinates in Baghdad.

Attorney Lance Sigmon of Newton acknowledged he and McHenry probably agree on most policy matters. But he says McHenry has shown he’s not suitable to hold public office.

“I don’t know if he doesn’t have the seasoning or life experiences to understand what things he should or shouldn’t be doing,” Sigmon said of McHenry, who at 32 is the youngest member of Congress. “I have differences with the other party as well, but I’m mature enough to understand that the system is set up so there has to be compromise.”

Charlotte Observer

McHenry has taken a barrage of hits over the past few weeks.  With the primary a little more than a week away it remains to stand whether or not the negative press will be enough for the voters to topple him and put Sigmon in his place.  Beating incumbents are a rarity in Congress, more so in a primary, although it has happened twice already this year.