Carolina Politics Online

The Pacific Research Institute released their 2008 Economic Freedom Index rankings and for North Carolina the results are ghastly.  In 1999 North Carolina ranked 17th in terms of economic freedom and business friendliness.  By 2004 that ranking had dropped to 24th and now today in 2008 the state has sunk down to number 36.  What does this say?  Mike Easley and the State Assembly suck at their jobs.  North Carolina has become increasingly less competitive over the past decade and the boom growth that this state has experienced is going to taper off and reverse if this trend continues.  When I see states like Massachusetts and Maryland ranking higher I am disturbed.

When you look at the breakdown of the individual categories that make up this ranking the reason for North Carolina’s downturn becomes more apparent.  In terms of fiscal responsibility the state ranks 37th out of the 50.  That’s not surprising at all.  The legislature has been on a spending spree over the past several years which have caused vast tax increases and debt.  In regulatory friendliness the state has fallen to 33.  In the judicial category, in terms of lawsuit abuse and high jury awards the state ranks 39th.  In size of government the state has fallen all the way to 41st meaning the scope of government in North Carolina has drastically increased, which I think should be obvious to even the occasional observer.  In welfare spending the state falls in at 21.

What’s in North Carolina’s future?  The answer to that lays within the choice you make at the voting booth in November.  You know who has been running Raleigh for the past decade.  Do you want more of that or are you looking for a new, positive direction?

If Mary Easley’s $170,000 N.C. State University salary is approved this week, the state’s first lady would make more than all but 94 of 3,455 NCSU faculty and administrators made last year, according to a News & Observer analysis.

An executive in residence who runs a lecture series, Easley received an 88 percent pay increase earlier this year and a slew of new duties — changes that drew criticism at NCSU and around the UNC system.

The N&O

I’ve said this before, but it warrants repeating: It must be so easy to be an Easley. Get a patronage job, show up to work, make $170,000 paid for mostly with taxpayer dollars. Where do I sign up?

Fern Shubert writing for the County Edge, a Union county publican wrote………..

Fooled Me Twice on New Bern Marina?

A lot of people in New Bern are furious at Governor Mike Easley and Lt. Governor / Governor Candidate Bev Perdue over a plan to sell boat slips at the marina at the Sheraton. To understand why, you need to know about the ethics complaint filed because of a similar deal involving the marina in Southport.

The Carolina Journal has a whole series of fascinating articles about how changes at the state- owned marina in Southport led to an ethics complaint against Easley. The ethics complaint was of course dismissed by the Governor’s friends, but most members of the public who learn the facts find the transaction fishy.

This ties directly in with Bev Perdue and the Easley connection to the State Ethics Commission.

So who are the investors in the New Bern deal and what are their ties to Perdue and Easley? And isn’t it funny that, just as in Southport, when private citizens made a stink about selling the slips, suddenly sales were out and long term leases were in. Déjà vu all over again.

Rules to remember: Conflicts of interest should be fully disclosed by public officials. People who try to hide business relationships probably have a good reason for doing so. Leopards do not change their spots. Criminals tend to be creatures of habit.

Fern Shubert is a former State Representative, State Senator, Town Manager and Candidate for Governer. She currently serves as the NC State Director of the National Right to Read Foundation.

Everyone thinking about voting Democratic in the state elections needs to think twice. The one party rule here in North Carolina has corrupted our state into a national laughing stock.

“We’ve had five or six people basically running our government in a fashion that has been secretive, in a fashion that has been inaccessible, and sadly in a fashion in which we’ve had corrupt government

That’s a direct quote from Charlotte Mayor and gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory regarding the culture of Raleigh.  He also pulled no punches in including Bev Perdue among that group.  I agree.

Perdue predictably rebuttals that she has her hands clean.  While the News and Record point out that Perdue, as Lieutenant Governor, was elected separately from Easley and they didn’t run on a ticket, I don’t see how any objective person can look to her and not think that what McCrory eludes to does not have some merit.

Bev Perdue has been the second in command for eight years under the Easley administration.  Prior to that she was a State Senator with a lot of clout in Raleigh.  If people in North Carolina are looking for change then she does not fit the bill.  I don’t like where the state is headed in terms of higher costs of living and an expanding welfare state.  Perdue’s campaign is a continuance of those policies and with an added emphasis on pandering further socialist programs with an excessive cost to the taxpayers.

Gov. Mike Easley today called lawmakers back to the capital to decide whether to overturn his veto of new boat-towing rules.

In the special legislative session starting Wednesday at 11 a.m., lawmakers could override Easley’s veto, allow it to stand until they return next year under a new governor, or pass compromise legislation.

Asheville Citizen-Times

I can’t believe how much attention this trivial issue has gotten from the media and the legislature.  I wish Easley and Co. put this much attention into the condition of the mental health facilities and the disarray of the state’s probation system.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Gov. Mike Easley was wrong to intercept $225 million headed to North Carolina state employee pension funds to help cover the 2001 budget shortfall because the state and federal constitutions protect them, an appeals court ruled Tuesday.

While all of the money ultimately was repaid to the retirement system funds and pension benefits didn’t suffer, the 14 former and current state workers who first sued in 2002 want to ensure future governors can’t divert pension benefits during a fiscal crisis.

The Herald-Sun

Instead of responsibly balancing the budget, Easley and the legislature robbed Peter to pay Paul.

The U.S. subsidiary of an Indian company has won a state grant worth $5.07 million to create 513 jobs in Wake County — one of two business expansions announced by North Carolina officials.

Separately, Time Warner Entertainment, a majority-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Cable, will expand its operations in Charlotte after the state awarded it a grant worth as much as $3.18 million.

The News & Observer

Mike Easley is bearing more gifts of millions in corporate welfare.  He taken $8.25 million more of our tax dollars and handed it off to multi-billion dollars companies.  Aren’t you glad that when you are paying $4 in gas and 7% in income taxes Mike Easley urges the legislature to eliminate tax cuts from the budget because the state is facing an economic pullback, but there is money for billion dollar businesses?

The session of the North Carolina State Legislature came to a close last night after two months of a pretty heavy agenda.  They managed to get some good proposals through such as Jessica’s Law and stricters probation guidelines, the lack of which arguably caused the death of Eve Carson.  However, they dropped on some stuff too.  They failed to address the state’s growing congested highways and while they didn’t raise taxes, they didn’t really reign in spending either.  In fact, they authorized over $800 million in debt spending.  What’s striking about that is that there was no reason to if they cut out the needless pork.

The Civitas Institute has a complete list of the $159 million in pork spending the General Assembly authorized for this fiscal year.  Some of my favorites are the $2 million in taxpayer money for the Oyster Sanctuary Program, $800,000 for industry promotion funds to the Wine and Grape Growers Council, and $2.9 million to renovate and expand the polar bear exhibit at the North Carolina zoo.

Bear in mind that Mike Easley was opposed to the Senate’s plan to cut some taxes because he we are in a recession and the state needs the money.

The House and Senate overwhelmingly approved “Jessica’s Law” – a plan that would imprison some child sex offenders for at least 25 years and monitor them by satellite if they’re released. The bill requires adult offenders who commit certain sex crimes against children under 13 – including rape – to be sent to prison for 25 years to life. The bill is named for Jessica Lunsford, a former Gaston County resident who was raped, and buried alive by a repeat sex offender in Florida in 2005. She was 9 years old.

Charlotte Observer

It’s hard to believe that as socially conservative as North Carolina is they are one of the last states to pass this law.  It now goes to Easley for signature.

I want to know why the North Carolina State Senate has decided to try and modify Jessica’s Law in an effort to delay or perhaps kill it? The Democratic legislators are taking a common sense measure and making it political. Do we want to be mentioned in the same breath as Vermont and Colorado when it comes to protecting our children?

I write this to try and help light a fire under the Democratic politicians in Raleigh who have over the years helped make the great state of North Carolina a laughing stock. They are in charge in this state until the voters wake up and decide we do need “REAL CHANGE” in North Carolina.

I WILL TAKE THE LEAD ON ISSUES THAT MATTER TO THE PEOPLE OF NORTH CAROLINA! I MEAN WHAT I SAY AND I DO WHAT I SAY.

It is time to end the politics of closed doors, help me bring some sunshine to Raleigh and the great state of North Carolina.

NEWS&OBSERVER

A last-minute change to the state budget will make it easier to close Dorothea Dix.

The final budget headed to Gov. Mike Easley was stripped of a provision that would have required the new Central Regional Hospital in Butner to be approved by outside inspectors before it can accept patients. It’s unclear who wrote the provision.

Advocates for the mentally ill decried the change, which effectively lets Secretary of Health and Human Services Dempsey Benton certify that the new hospital is safe.

The Democrats in charge of the North Carolina government continue to compound their $400 million boondoggle by not having a independent inspector pass/fail their new hospital. It is a shame and a surprise that these irresponsible legislators are allowed to continue the “Era of Entrenched Corruption”.

Hat Tip to NC GOP

By Linda Daves

Chairman, North Carolina Republican Party

For Mike Easley to be given the “America’s Greatest Education Governor’s Award” just proves what the NEA really stands for.  Let’s just call this award what it is: Politician Most Beholden to Teachers’ Unions and Special Interests.  When one-third of North Carolina students are failing to graduate high school, it is reprehensible that the Governor is gloating about his “successes.”  Gov. Easley’s term has no doubt been a boon to teachers’ unions, but it has been a disaster for North Carolina’s children.  What are the criteria for giving out this award anyway?  With the abysmal graduation rate here in North Carolina, I would hate to see what the situation is in the home state of the runner-up.

It is time to look at new ideas like lifting the cap on charter schools so that parents have more choices in their children’s education. It is time to think about raising teacher pay for those teachers who volunteer to teach the most at-risk students. It is time to consider expanding vocational education so that students can learn skills that will help them get a job instead of merely getting frustrated with the curriculum and dropping out. It is time for fresh vision and a renewed commitment
to excellence in education in North Carolina. Over the past eight years, that is a test that Democrats have consistently failed.

With Bev Perdue only offering more of the same for fixing the problems facing our state’s public school system, there is a clear choice in the race to become the next Governor.  Those who refuse to protect the status quo, those who reject placing the interests of powerful unions over the interests of our children, and those who believe that we can do better will choose Pat McCrory as our next Governor.  He will be an Education Governor to truly make us proud.

RALEIGH - Gov. Mike Easley said he wishes trips overseas weren’t so expensive, but that high travel bills are necessary if the state hopes to land big exhibits or recruit new business.

“It costs what it costs,” Easley said. “I wish it didn’t cost that much, but let’s be honest about it. A cheeseburger and onion rings is $60 over there. The dollar is very, very weak now. That is why we were over there, to get those Euros coming to the U.S. for tourism.”

The News & Observer

Obviously he is exaggerating, but a cheesburger and onion rings aren’t anywhere even in the realm of $60.  Try more like $11 or $12.  He can possibly make the case that these trips may result in more dollars coming back in through international tourism than what we are paying out, but he still can’t defend the excessive expenses of them.  Case and point:

Reporters pressed Easley on specific high-dollar bills such as a chauffeured Mercedes and fancy meals that included orders of leg of pheasant with homemade sausages and rabbit with black truffles and foie gras.

The cost of Mrs. Easley’s trip to Russia was $109,000.  Mike Easley could have sent me there and I could have done it for under $10,000.

Twice in the past two years, Mary Easley, the wife of Gov. Mike Easley, took taxpayer-funded trips across the Atlantic to tour museums.

Her travels — a trip to France in 2007 and one to Russia and Estonia in May — were paid for with $109,000 of taxpayer money.

Gov. Mike Easley did not go on either trip, which were not publicly disclosed at the time.

Mary Easley did not respond to requests for an interview, but expense reports and other documents released in response to a public records request indicate the trips were considered cultural exchanges to build links between North Carolina and officials in the countries visited.

The News & Observer

Cultural exchanges my ass.  $109,000 for just two trips?  I could take 20 trips around the world with that kind of money.  This is a clear case of a government official abusing their position to enrich their family and friends.  We see it all the time, but they usually get away with it because too many voters are uninformed and too lazy to do their homework and they put them right back in office to waste some more.

The governor’s office referred questions to the Department of Cultural Resources, which sponsored the trips.

Easley’s been crying about scaling back tax cuts in the budget.  How about instead the General Assembly save some money by eliminating the Department of Cultural Resources.  They obviously can’t manage their money appropriately.  Besides, what is the government’s need for this exactly?

RALEIGH — Gov. Mike Easley, seeking cost savings to head off a potential revenue shortfall in the coming fiscal year, urged Democratic legislative leaders Friday to consider scrapping some agreed-upon tax relief and spend less on state employee salaries.

The governor’s appeal to fellow Democrats came a day after he warned lawmakers that tax collections would probably be $70 million less than projected last month when the current fiscal year ends Tuesday.

Charlotte Observer

Because God forbid we could just back on the spending instead, right?  Imagine the horror if we cut back on some of that corporate welfare.  Picture the terror if we cut back on some Medicaid entitlements.  It’s always stick it to the working folks instead.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Eastern North Carolina residents unhappy to be living near hog lagoons gave Gov. Mike Easley what’s inside those pits.

Members of environmental groups dropped off what they said was a gallon of hog waste at Easley’s office Thursday. Lower Neuse Riverkeeper Larry Baldwin says they left the jug there after they couldn’t get an answer at the Executive Mansion.

The Herald Sun

They do say that it rolls down hill…..

Raleigh – State records obtained by The News & Observer of Raleigh show Gov. Mike Easley’s industry-hunting trip to Italy cost more than $170,000.

Easley, his wife and a dozen others made the nine-day trip in April.

The newspaper reported Thursday the expenses ranged from $590 for two nights in a hotel in Florence, to $61,000 for a daily chauffeured Mercedes for the Easleys.

No word yet on the expenses for the governor and first lady’s security detail, or the head of the state Commerce Department.

Asheville Citizen-Times

Industry hunting my ass.  If this was all state’s business why did he take his wife along with him?  Who are these 12 other people that supposedly needed to attend?  Why does the governor need a security detail and why did he need to spend $61,000 to be driven around in a Mercedes?  That car alone was more than 1/3 of the cost of the trip.  This is typical elitist behavior by a high ranking politician who thinks his office makes him some kind of international debutante.

Government waste at its worst.

A number of voters were offended by Gov. Mike Easley’s “pansy” remark.

At a news conference endorsing Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton in late April, Easley said she was a strong candidate, arguing that she “makes Rocky Balboa look like a pansy.”

In the 48 hours after the announcement, the governor’s office received 683 e-mail messages about the endorsement. About a 10th of the messages, recently reviewed by Dome, took offense at his use of the word “pansy.”

“As a former Marine and gay man I am no Pansy sir and I demand an apology to all Gays and Lesbians,” read a message from a Durham man. “I am insulted as a fellow Democrat that you would stoop to such a low. Have you no shame.”

Others called the word “derogatory,” “reprehensible” and “inflammatory,” though at least one threw the word back at Easley.

The News & Observer

Oh, just play the violin and cry me a river. Anyone that took the time to send Easley an email to whine about using the word “pansy” deserves to be called one and ought to be punched in the mouth for being the limp wristed sissy they are. Is this what America has sunk to? Are we now a herd of sniveling, whimpering pantie waists that sob like a bunch of four year olds at the slightest little word that makes us wince?

Get a life, folks!

Newsobserver.com

Cuts to the mental health system endangered lives, two panels conclude, and reforms should be reversed.

RALEIGH - Two panels appointed by the Easley administration to review North Carolina’s mental health system have filed scathing reports that call for reversing bungled reforms implemented during the last seven years, saying deep cuts to hospital beds and treatment have endangered lives.

Among the key recommendations:

* Adding at least 717 full-time employees at state mental hospitals to meet patient-to-staff ratios needed to ensure safety.

* Adding psychiatric treatment beds to both the state hospital system and private facilities.

* Increasing pay to attract and retain qualified staff at the state hospitals.

* Adding trained investigators with law-enforcement experience to review complaints of abuse and neglect at the hospitals.

Reversing bungled reforms is a nice way to say that the party in control of North Carolina totally screwed up the mental healthcare system in North Carolina. Yes the system needed reforms but the way the Democrats went about it was a total SNAFU.

RALEIGH — Gov. Mike Easley has thrown his support behind a proposed monument on the State Capitol grounds honoring the African-American experience in North Carolina.

The governor will ask the General Assembly for $1 million for the N.C. Freedom Monument Project as part of his proposed budget released earlier this week.

State legislators approved $100,000 in planning money for the project last year. The $1 million in the proposed budget will pay for more planning, monument design and preparation of the site, governor’s spokesman Seth Effron said.

The News & Observer

I think this is a complete waste of taxpayer money.  History is important, of course, so as to learn from it and not repeat the mistakes of the past, but we also have to live in the present.  The wounds of past events are never going to heal as long as people continue to live in the past rather than the present and look forward towards the future.