July 04, 2008

Those darn Marylanders

Posted by Joseph Coletti at 11:00 PM

They just won't move where planners want them to, so the planners are stepping things up to the state level.

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Sen. Jesse Helms, 1921-2008

Posted by Jon Sanders at 10:59 AM

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IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

Posted by Hal Young at 09:14 AM

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--

.....

RTWT here.

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This weekend on Carolina Journal Radio

Posted by Mitch Kokai at 07:30 AM

You’ll also hear Jeanette Doran’s comments about a new lawsuit linked to the failed Randy Parton Theatre, and N.C. House Minority Leader Paul Stam’s criticism of the gift tax.

Daren Bakst will discuss common myths about North Carolina’s annexation law, and N.C. State’s Holly Brewer will outline her concerns about major omissions of early American history in North Carolina public schools.

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July 03, 2008

Separation of Powers and Insurance

Posted by Daren Bakst at 5:15 PM

The N & O ran a story entitled "Legislative leaders fire health plan chief."  Please note the title.

According to the report, Senator Rand and Rep. Hugh Holliman apparently told Insurance Commissioner Jim Long to fire George Stokes who ran the state health plan which covers state employees.

Despite them telling Long what to do as opposed to firing Stokes themselves, it seems the N & O title has it correct, at least in practical terms: They in fact fired him.  The article quotes someone as saying that a joint legislative committee also approved of the firing.

Why is the legislature, and even worse, just some of the legislators, making administrative decisions?  Long probably could have said no, but the legislature does have its ways to get him to do what they want, such as withholding funds. 

This clearly is a separation of powers problem, although not necessarily unconstitutional.  While Long may have fired Stokes as a technical matter, legislators were basically the individuals making the call on an executive function.

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Another nimbus photo of the messiah

Posted by Jon Sanders at 4:57 PM

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Republican senators endorse drilling offshore and in ANWR

Posted by Mitch Kokai at 2:36 PM

N.C. Senate Republicans have sent letters to President Bush, the state's congressional delegation, and the two major-party presidential candidates endorsing federal action to move forward with "drilling in ANWR and exploration and drilling for oil and natural gas off the coast of North Carolina along the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), 45 to 100 miles offshore."

Click below to watch the 9:41 news briefing that explains the GOP senators' reasoning.

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Aging issues

Posted by Mitch Kokai at 2:18 PM

North Carolina has 1.1 million people who are 65 or older, according to U.S. Census projections. They represent 12 percent of the state's population. That share will grow to 17 percent by 2030, as the number of seniors climbs to 2.8 million.

Legislators connected with the N.C. Study Commission on Aging conducted a morning news conference to discuss various measures designed to address seniors' needs. Click play below to watch the 45:58 news conference.

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Special interest wins again

Posted by Terry Stoops at 1:51 PM

The General Assembly's failure to pass a special needs tax credit bill has everything to do with the influence of big-money special interest groups and powerful state government bureaucracies.

The N&O puts it into perspective:

Opposition from the School Boards Association, State Board of Education, state Department of Public Instruction, N.C. Association of School Administrators and N.C. Association of Educators has essentially eliminated the chance it will be approved this year. The General Assembly is expected to end its session this month.

"I can't believe education groups are against this," said Catherine Eubanks, parent of an autistic child and the principal of Eastern Wayne Middle School in Goldsboro. "It gives parents of special-needs children extra help."

...Parents such as April Raines of Raleigh say they'd like to see what they could do with the tax credit. Her son, Jermanic, 5, has attention deficit hyperactivity disorde [sic].

"If there's something better out there, I want to help him," she said.

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What SHOULD Obama and McCain be talking about?

Posted by George Leef at 1:38 PM

Greg Bresiger says that they should be talking about the prodigious size and rapid growth of government. Read his piece here.

If you're reading this, Dallas, how about an AFP initiative to start a petition to demand that the candidates provide a list of spending programs they'd reduce or eliminate?

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Life imitates Monty Python skits

Posted by Jon Sanders at 12:57 PM

Monty Python "Lifeboat" skit: "As a naval officer I abhor the implication that the Royal Navy is a haven for cannibalism. It is well known that we now have the problem relatively under control, and that it is the RAF who now suffer the largest casualties in this area. And what do you think the Argylls ate in Aden? Arabs? Yours etc., Captain B.J. Smethwick, in a white wine sauce with shallots, mushrooms and garlic." (link)

Life: "A couple [found] a man in their basement covered head to toe in barbecue sauce. ... The guy told officers he covered himself in barbecue sauce because he wanted to hide from the government." (link)

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Re: Massachusetts Energy

Posted by Jon Sanders at 10:59 AM

The best law is the one that never gets written.

Lord knows we need more great laws.

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Prof. Williams makes the Julian Simon point

Posted by Jon Sanders at 10:22 AM

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Contrary to the myths we hear about how overpopulation causes poverty, poor health, unemployment, malnutrition and overcrowding, human beings are the most valuable resource and the more of them the better. There is absolutely no relationship between high populations and economic despair. For example, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly Zaire, has a meager population density of 22 people per square kilometer while Hong Kong has a massive population density of 6,571 people per square kilometer. Hong Kong is 300 times more crowded than the Congo. If there were any merit to the population control crowd's hysteria, Hong Kong would be in abject poverty while the Congo flourishes. Yet Hong Kong's annual per capita income is $28,000 while the Congo's is $309, making it the world's poorest country.

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The Political System Stacks the Deck

Posted by George Leef at 10:21 AM

Rhodes College economics professor Art Carden writes here about the lousy treatment that Mike Munger's candidacy for the governorship has been receiving.

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Massachusetts energy

Posted by Joseph Coletti at 08:27 AM

My first read of the new energy law in Massachusetts is that it's bigger and worse than our own big, bad SB3. But you have to love quotes like this:

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"The cleanest power plant is the one that never gets built," said Sam Krasnow, attorney for Environment Northeast, a research and advocacy group. "Energy efficiency is the cheapest and cleanest energy resource available."

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Let's extend the logic

• The shortest book is the one that never gets written
• The cleanest politician is the one who never runs
• the safest battle is the one that's never fought
• the healthiest donut is the one that's never eaten

Of course, all of these ignore the benefits that can accrue from building, writing, running, fighting, eating. They also ignore the costs of forgoing those actions. "For want of a nail..."

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Latest dispatches from the political trail

Posted by John Hood at 07:59 AM

• Beverly Perdue and Pat McCrory spar over the state lottery, with Perdue accusing McCrory of wanting to repeal it and create a budget hole and McCrory pointing out that his previous statement recognized the fiscal difficulty of repealing the lottery now. The candidates also disagree on education priorities during an appearance in Asheville.

• McCrory draws editorial defense from The Charlotte Observer on a Democratic attack on his fiscal record but draws editorial criticism for his offshore drilling position from the Rocky Mount Telegram.

• Writing in The Fayetteville Observer, Kay Hagan argues for more federal aid to military veterans. She also criticizes Elizabeth Dole for favoring an end to the federal ban on offshore drilling. For her part, Dole urges the Bush administration to create a national monument protecting coral reefs off the Carolina shore and announces funding for long-awaited Hwy. 17 improvements.

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'Teens find jobs scarce'

Posted by Mitch Kokai at 07:00 AM

The News & Observer reprints this morning a Minneapolis newspaper article with that headline.

While the story tries to pinpoint a reason for teens facing a tough job market, one obvious factor is ignored: the minimum wage. The words "minimum wage" never appear in the article. 

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Students or ‘community members’?

Posted by Mitch Kokai at 06:54 AM

The latest U.S. News includes the following passage:

Bruce Jones, assistant director of admission at Whitman College, a small liberal arts school in Walla Walla, Wash., doesn't think it's generally a good idea for students from top high schools to take off-campus classes. "We're looking for community members who will take and add value to our school," Jones says. "I'm concerned if a high school kid is abandoning their own community in their final high school year to go to a community college."

Abandoning her community? Isn’t the student simply trying to improve her education? Isn’t that the point of going to school?

If college leaders worry more about community-building than education, they lend credence to George Leef’s argument that college is oversold.

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A statement that could serve as the collectivists’ mantra

Posted by Mitch Kokai at 06:48 AM

"It would be wonderful if Congress would take hold of this whole system and dictate it.”

Is there a better statement of the collectivist mindset?

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Today's Carolina Journal Online features

Posted by Mitch Kokai at 06:44 AM

Today's Carolina Journal Online exclusive features Sam Hieb's report about one Greensboro neighborhood's efforts to fight "smart growth."

John Hood's Daily Journal discusses local governments' ill-fated efforts to enter the Internet provider business. 

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July 02, 2008

Health Policy Council public comments yesterday

Posted by Joseph Coletti at 10:52 PM

Briann Balfour at Civitas's Red Clay Citizen yesterday provided a good summary of the public hearing on HB2688 to create an "Access to Health Care Policy Council." I was troubled by some of the assumptions underlying the idea to create a council and wanted to expand on my brief comments.

The proposed “Access to Health Care Policy Council” raises many practical concerns of how it will operate, including the likely composition of the panel and the issues it will address. More fundamentally, the very idea for the council is based on a number of questionable principles and assumptions. Three in particular deal with the ability of any council to anticipate needs in a complex system, the value of integration, and the efficacy of preventive medicine.

First, it takes extreme hubris to think that thirty-one individuals with vested interests can make better decisions than nine million individuals around the state and millions more around the country who must match their monetary and health preferences every day. Some of the best quality and lowest prices for care are found in private, for-profit areas of care where consumers are more likely to pay their own costs – optometry and LASIK surgery, cosmetic surgery and dentistry, bariatric surgery, and medical tourism. Providers, insurers, and consumers are finding new ways to improve quality and lower costs in other areas of the system as well; doctors who opt out of all insurance networks to avoid the tyranny of reimbursement codes, insurers who offer catastrophic care policies for “young invincibles” who might otherwise consider insurance too expense, and patients who set aside money in some form of medical savings account to pay for current and future medical needs. No group of thirty-one could mimic or improve on the innovations that occur in the marketplace.

Spurring innovation, however, is counter to the council’s charge to move toward a more integrated health care system. There is no research to suggest that an integrated system of services will do a better job of providing appropriate and affordable health care for all. Here in North Carolina, we have tried for seven years to integrate our public and private mental health providers into a single system, with the result being again an expensive disaster. Even the integrated wholly public portion, the state mental hospitals, have been unable to provide appropriate and affordable care and have been subject to Department of Justice investigations and the loss of Medicare and Medicaid funds.

Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute summarized the argument for preventive care and the facts against it in testimony to the Wisconsin state legislature :

Preventive care advocates assume that if we focus on preventive medicine, we can prevent people from getting sick in the first place. And by emphasizing timely primary care, those who do end up with a chronic illness will develop fewer complications. By spending money up front to reduce the frequency and severity of illness we can reduce the amount of money needed to eventually treat those illnesses in the future.

As logical as this may seem, studies actually show that preventive care usually ends up costing money in the long run because there is no way to precisely target such care. For every disease that we prevent or catch early, we end up testing and treating many people who will never get sick. For example, Jay Bhattacharya, a doctor and economist at Stanford’s School of Medicine, estimates that to prevent one new case of diabetes, an anti-obesity program must treat five people. Similarly, a study of retirees in California by Jonathan Gruber, a health economist at MIT and long-time advocate of national health insurance, found that when retirees had fewer doctors visits and filled fewer prescriptions, overall medical spending declined. People became ill more frequently, but treating their illnesses was still less costly than paying for preventive care for everyone. Thus, increased preventive and primary care may well be beneficial for the individual in terms of health, but it is unlikely to provide a societal benefit in terms of reduced costs.

Other principles and assumptions underlying the council’s work, such as evidence-based medicine, have problems similar to those in the case of preventive medicine in that they sound like good ideas but can have unintended consequences when broadly applied.

It is laudable to want to improve health care cost, quality, and access, but more success might come from removing the rules that make health care less like other markets for essentials such as food, clothing, and housing.

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Way to ruin a photo op, Dan

Posted by Hal Young at 9:41 PM

Congressman Bob Etheridge (D-NC2) found an uninvited guest at his gas station news conference in Lillington Tuesday -- his Republican opponent, Dan Mansell, was already greeting voters at the gas pumps outside.

(Dunn Daily Record)

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Who voted to make the forced annexation moratorium a real moratorium?

Posted by Becki Gray at 8:26 PM

Earlier today Rep. Bruce Goforth’s (D-Buncombe) annexation amendment to House Bill 2367 put the teeth back in the bill and made it a real moratorium. Check previous posts for details.

The vote was 76 yes; 40 no  

Here’s the roll call vote on the amendment:

Voting yes:  Adams (D-Guilford); Allred (R-Alamance); Avila (R-Wake); Barnhart (R-Cabarrus); Blackwood (R-Union); Blust (R-Guilford); Boylan (R-Moore); Braxton (D-Nash); Brisson (D-Bladen); Brown (R-Forsyth); Brubaker (R-Randolph); Church (D-Burke); Clary (R_Cleveland); Cleveland (R-Onslow); Coates (D-Rowan); Coleman (D-Wake); Crawford (D-Granville); Current (R-Gaston); Daughtridge (R-Nash); Daughtry (R-Johnston); Dockham (R-Davidson); Dollar (R-Wake); England (D-Rutherford); Folwell (R-Forsyth); Frye (R-Mitchell); Furr (R-Stanley); Gillespie (R-McDowell); Goforth (D-Buncombe); Grady (R-Onlsow); Gulley (R-Mecklenburg); Hall (D-Durham); Harrell, J. (D-Surry); Harrell, T. (D-Wake); Harrison (D-Guilford); Hilton (R-Catawba); Holloway (R-Stokes); Holmes (R-Yadkin); Howard (R-Iredell); Hurley (R-Randolph); Insko (D-Orange); Johnson (R-Cabarrus); Jones (D-Guilford); Justice (R-Pender); Justus (R-Henderson); Kiser (R-Lincoln); Langdon (R-Johnston); Lewis (R-Harnett); Lucas D-Cumberland); Luebke (D-Durham); McComas (R-New Hanover); McElraft (R-Carteret); McGee (R-Forsyth); McLawhorn(D-Pitt); Moore (R-Cleveland); Owens (D-Pasquotank); Pate (R-Wayne); Pierce(D-Scotland); Rapp (D-Madison); Ray (R-Iredell); Setzer (R-Catawba); Spear (D-Chowan); Stam (R-Wake); Starnes (R-Caldwell); Steen (R-Rowan); Stiller(R-Brunswick); Thomas (R-Buncombe); Tillis (R-Mecklenburg); Walend (R-Transylvania); Walker (R-Wilkes); Warren, E. (D-Pitt); Warren, R. (D-Alleghany); Weiss (D-Wake); West (R-Cherokee); Wiley (R-Guilford); Williams (D-Beaufort); Yongue (D-Scotland)

Voting no: Alexander, K. (D-Mecklenburg); Alexander, M. (D-Mecklenburg); Allen (D-Franklin); Bell (D-Sampson); Blue (D-Wake); Bordsen (D-Alamance); Bryant (D-Halifax); Carney (D-Mecklenburg); Cole (D-Rockingham); Cotham (D-Mecklenburg); Dickson (D-Cumberland); Earle (D-Mecklenburg); Faison (D-Orange); Farmer-Butterfield (D-Wilson); Fisher (D-Buncombe); Gibson (D-Anson); Glazier (D-Cumberland); Goodwin (D-Richmond); Haire (D-Jackson); Hill (D-Columbus); Hughes (D-New Hanover); Jeffus  (D-Guilford); Killian (R-Mecklenburg); Love (D-Lee); Martin (D-Wake); Mobley (D-Gates); Neumann (R-Gaston); Parmon (D-Forsyth); Ross (D-Wake); Samuelson (R-Mecklenburg); Saunders (D-Mecklenburg); Sutton (D-Robeson); Tarleton (D-Watauga); Tolson (D-Wilson); Tucker (D-Duplin); Underhill (D-Craven); Wainwright  (D-Craven); Wilkins (D-Person); Womble (D-Forsyth); Wray (D-Northampton)

Not Voting: Hackney (SPEAKER); McAllister; Michaux
Exc. Vote:  Holliman

 

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It's a Real Moratorium

Posted by Daren Bakst at 7:07 PM

It appears that the House did in fact pass a real moratorium.

Section 1, which had been taken out of the bill, has been put in again with some changes.  However, it looks fine at first glance.  No new forced annexations can be initiated--this includes no new resolutions of consideration, resolutions of intent, or the passage of annexation ordinances.

If an annexation process has already begun before the bill's effective date, the whole process is tolled (i.e. stopped and frozen in place until the moratorium is lifted).

Here is the new Section 1 for your reading pleasure:

SECTION 1.  No resolution of consideration, resolution of intent, or annexation ordinance may be adopted under Part 2 or 3 of Article 4A of Chapter 160A of the General Statutes from the date this act becomes law until May 31, 2009. If any annexation proceeding has been initiated under those Parts prior to the date this act becomes effective but the annexation ordinance has not yet been adopted, any provision of law requiring any action or notice by the municipality or any person within a certain period of time is tolled during the suspension of authority provided by this section. Nothing in this section shall prohibit municipalities from developing policies, planning, collecting data, or developing materials with respect to potential future annexations under Part 2 or 3 of Article 4A of Chapter 160A.

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Re: Annexation and Senate

Posted by Daren Bakst at 6:30 PM

As Becki has indicated, it appears that the House may have actually passed a real moratorium bill.  We still need to see the actual language though.

One thing that does seem clear is the bill's effective date has been changed from July 31, 2008 to August 31, 2008.  The expiration date has been changed from April 30, 2009 to May 31, 2009.

A couple of Senators have suggested months ago that the bill couldn't be considered this session (due to legislative rules).

To put this argument to rest:

In the short session, the legislature may consider bills implementing the recommendations of select committees.  This bill came from the House Select Committee on Municipal Annexation. 

In September, 2007, the legislative librarian, way ahead of time, detailed what bills can be considered in the short session.

I recognize though that rules are made to be broken, ignored, made-up, or sneered at, in the North Carolina Senate (or by a few Senators).

If this bill is in fact a true moratorium, the Senate hopefully will move quickly to pass it and the Governor to sign it into law.  Even more important though is for the annexation committee to keep meeting and to come up with meaningful annexation reforms that the legislature will pass in 2009.

A moratorium is a means to an end, not an end in and of itself.

This is a fluid situation, but it appears a very positive step may have been taken today.

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Live from the Legislature: Annexation Bill

Posted by Becki Gray at 5:48 PM

The annexation moratorium bill is on the House calendar for the third reading. Bill sponsor, Rep. Bruce Goforth (D-Buncombe) moved to amend the bill, clarifying that cities could plan internally during the moratorium period but could not issue resolution intents or hold public hearings. The amendment also shifts the dates of the moratorium, changing the start date of July 31, 2008 to August 31, 2008.

Rep. Lucy Allen (D-Franklin) spoke against the amendment, saying it is so restrictive that no cities could grow.

Rep. Larry Brown said the League of Municipalities has abused the current law and has not proposed compromises as was promised. He also stressed that their authority needs to be restricted.

Rep. Dan Blue (D-Wake) said that the amendment creates a hardship for cities like Charlotte who have annexations in play and have a history of doing annexations the right way.

Rep. Becky Carney (D-Mecklenberg) said that the amendment hurts Charlotte.

Rep. Nelson Dollar (R-Wake) and Rep. Curtis Blackwood (R-Union) spoke in favor of the amendment, calling for breathing space to look at this 40-year-old law.

Rep. Lucy Allen (D-Franklin), in a clearly political move, said you can vote "no" on the amendment and vote "yes" on the bill and still get credit for voting for a moratorium.

Vote on the amendment:
Yes: 76
No: 40

Vote on the bill, as amended:
Yes: 98
No: 18

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Live from the Legislature: Honoring Everything and then Some

Posted by Becki Gray at 4:55 PM

Believe it or not, the House is currently debating a joint resolution (HJR 2774) to honor Frank Capra for his contributions to the film industry in NC.

Bill drafters took time to write the resolution. Copies of the bill were printed. House members spent a good fifteen minutes speaking on the resolution. All this is part of the deal we as taxpayers get for the $62,500 it costs each day the General Assembly is in session.

Now that they've finished the Capra resolution, they've moved on to another joint resolution (HJR 2796), this one on, and I'm not making this up, concerns Everybody's Day 100th Anniversary.

On to yet another, HJR 2798, Honor Clayton Kuhles.

Again, $62,500 a day.

I want my money back.

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Re: Get transparent

Posted by Paul Chesser at 4:13 PM

John, you silly goose, don't you understand budgets can't be negotiated without cussin' and fussin'?

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Re: Up in left-leaning Maryland

Posted by Jon Sanders at 3:32 PM

John, that news comes no doubt as a disappointment to especially Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, West Virginia, and Virginia.

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Up in left-leaning Maryland

Posted by John Hood at 3:16 PM

Climate-change alarmism fell far short of persuading enough Maryland politicians to sock their state’s economy with higher taxes and energy prices. From Environment & Climate News:

The Maryland General Assembly has rejected the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2008, which would have required a statewide 25 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020.

Although the bill had the support of Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) and received strong backing from environmental activist groups, it was weakened in the Senate and then defeated in the House.

As first introduced, the bill was the most ambitious environmental proposal in Maryland this year and a top priority for the state's environmental activist groups. Environment Maryland, an activist group that claims global warming is a crisis, worked especially hard in favor of the bill.

The bill proposed ambitious goals for slashing carbon dioxide emissions but did not specify mechanisms for doing so. The bill had momentum early on but was strongly opposed by labor unions and manufacturers, who feared it would dramatically raise energy costs, causing an economic slowdown and rising unemployment.

The greatest enemy of regulatory overreach is the immediate prospect of politicians facing angry voters.

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Transparency and financial management

Posted by Joseph Coletti at 3:10 PM

A new Deloitte report finds that governments do not have the financial data they need to make good decisions. Study author William Eggers at Governing Magazine argues such data is particularly important when governments face fiscal constraints.

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If performance-based budgeting is to be more than an academic exercise, and actually be employed to help pare costs during tight budgetary times, there must be rewards for good performance and real consequences for poor performance. This, however, requires legislators and budget directors to distinguish between programs that work and those that do not, and then to shift the right resources to the right places. More than half of those surveyed indicate that their organizations do not thoroughly understand the relationship between the investments they make in programs and the outcomes those programs produce.

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In other words, the very steps governments would take to put their financial information online are the same ones they need to better manage their operations.

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Get transparent, get accountable & get real

Posted by John Hood at 1:42 PM

Jane Pinsky of the NC Coalition for Lobbying and Government Reform passed along this position statement on improving the state budget process:

For more than two years the North Carolina Coalition for Lobbying and Government Reform has pushed for increased openness in the legislative procedure, especially the budget process. We have made some progress and the NC General assembly has taken some positive steps. However, the current session highlights the need for greater openness and transparency and for making additional improvements in the budget process. We believe these improvements are in the best interest of continuing to restore public trust in government.

We firmly believe that there is a better way. The process should:

· Be more open and accountable with decisions made in public
· Operate within a framework with an organized procedure, time frames and deadlines
· Contain a prohibition against non-money items or special provisions in the budget
· Allow legislators three days to review the budget after it is unveiled
· Make all budget information available via the internet as it is printed
· Copies of any proposed budgets from the Governor’s office or the State budget office or departments must be available at least twenty four hours before they are presented to the appropriations or finance committees
· Make all information available to legislators and legislative staff on the internal computer system available to the public on the internet
· Have at least twenty four hours for review of any proposed committee substitute by both legislators and the public prior to being discussed in a committee or a sub-committee meeting,
· All committee or subcommittee meetings must be announced to members, staff, and public at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting
· All meetings must be held in meeting rooms in the Legislative Building or Legislative Office  Building – not around a members desk, in their office or in a hallway
· All Finance or Appropriations Committee, subcommittee  or Conference meetings must be available to the public via streaming and then available via real time audio and television  broadcast once the systems are established at the General Assembly.
 
If the North Carolina General Assembly wants to continue to enjoy the confidence and support of our citizens, then it must open up this critical process and create a budget that truly belongs to the people of North  Carolina.  In the May 6th primary, North Carolinians proved that they are more than willing to participate in our government if they believe in it and if given a chance.  Now is the time to give them that chance – make the budget process something that is open to all citizens.

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How about a state-funded study on how stupid this study was?

Posted by Jon Sanders at 1:35 PM

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The first state survey of who visits North Carolina wineries will help tourism officials market the wineries to those who like them, typically well-educated people in middle age, officials said.

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Gracious, how ever did the wineries manage without state officials taxing us and paying state functionaries to do the wineries' jobs of advertising?

Here's my favorite quote in the article:

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"When we looked at what they enjoyed most, it was tasting the wine and buying the wine."

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What a revelation! People interested in wine like tasting wine and buying wine. Thank you, NC Wine and Grape Council, for distilling the facts from this mystery!

As Holmes regaled me with the account in the Press, I remarked with some sarcasm that the lot of it was, in fact, not excrement at all.

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“A sawdust-savvy movement”

Posted by John Hood at 1:33 PM

OK, fess up: how many timbersporting events can you name? And did you know that a North Carolina family has produced generations of timbersport champions?

As soon as I saw the story, I figured it made the “Locker Room” cut.

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Health Coverage for Mentally Ill and Chemically Dependent

Posted by Laura Barringer at 1:05 PM

House Bill 973 became effective yesterday July 1st, 2008. The bill requires that NC insurance companies cannot discriminate against individuals who are mentally ill or chemically dependent.

According to the bill, a mental illness has the same meaning as defined in G.S. 122C-3(21) but those listed include: bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, paranoid and other psychotic disorder, schizoaffective disorder, schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, anorexia-nervosa, and bulimia. A chemical dependency is defined in G.S. 58-51-50 which includes the abuse of alcohol and other drugs.

Under HB 973, an individual who has or had a mental illness or chemical dependency cannot be denied a policy that covers medical treatment for physical illness or injury, given a higher premium rate for physical illness or injury, or given reduced coverage or benefits for physical illness or injury.
 

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Happy almost-Independence Day!

Posted by Jon Sanders at 11:25 AM

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The second day of July, 1776, will be memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations, as the great Anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp, shews, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of the continent to the other, from this time forward forever.

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Alas, the State of North Carolina takes an even dimmer view than before of the "illuminations" aspect of celebrating this nation's independence. Nevertheless, many citizens of this burgeoning nanny state utilize the underground economy to celebrate.

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Is America still worth standing up for?

Posted by Michael Moore at 11:05 AM

This week is the Birthday of our Nation, 232 years ago the Founding Fathers wrote a document, The Declaration of Independence, which was heavily influenced by the writings of our organization’s namesake, John Locke.

Today at the National Review, Thomas Sowell raises the question “Does Patriotism Matter?”  He compares the current culture in America to that of Europe after World War I, when the push for internationalism and pacifism was great among the teachers’ unions in France.  Sowell writes:

Most Americans today are unaware of how much our schools have followed in the footsteps of the French schools of the 1920s and 1930s, or how much our intellectuals have become citizens of the world instead of American patriots.

I believe that America is still worth standing up for, after all we're fighting for liberty here at JLF everyday.  I encourage you to read the Declaration this week, and as the Founders summed it up in the last sentence:

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

God Bless America!

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Why dump the SAT?

Posted by George Leef at 10:56 AM

Wake Forest's decision to make the SAT optional for applicants has been generating plenty of controversy. In this week's Clarion Call, Jay Schalin takes a look at the book by a Wake Forest professor that appears to justify the university's new policy -- and finds much to disagree with.

As I see it, the upshot of this change is that it's going to further diversify the student body not only in the way the administration believes is socially good (more "students of color") but also with regard to the range of academic ability. Some professors will probably find themselves struggling with the problem of teaching a course where a substantial number of the students are well below the rest in their capacity for college work.

The sharp kids Wake turns away will go to college elsewhere. Some of them would have been hugely successful and would eventually have given the school a lot of money. In the long run, this decision will probably have an adverse impact on donations, but the current administrators prefer to revel in the feeling that they're doing something to advance "social justice."

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Is the underground economy a bad thing?

Posted by George Leef at 09:47 AM

Jeffrey Tucker shares his thoughts on that question here.

Hint: America was built on unregulated, untaxed commercial transactions.

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Raleigh Council Votes for City Plaza Land Condemnation

Posted by Jenna Ashley Robinson at 09:23 AM

The Raleigh City Council voted 6-1 yesterday (Mayor Meeker abstaining, Councilor Isley dissenting) to grant City Manager Russell Allen condemnation rights for the remaining piece of private land needed to proceed with the public City Plaza. The $24M project, which includes improvements for the extension of Fayetteville Street to Lenoir St., has been on hold due to easement negotiations with The Simpson Company, owners of the Bank of America building.

It has been speculated that the controversy centers around issues with the underground parking garage. Simpson had earlier agreed to design, construct, and fund the four pavilions, as well as furnish other improvements to the space.

After the garbage disposal fiasco, I'm not really sure I'm surprised.

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Thanks for reading, once again

Posted by John Hood at 08:24 AM

I'd like to extend my heartfelt thanks to readers of The Locker Room and JLF's other blogs. Traffic to our blogs has continued to soar during the second quarter of 2008. For the first time in our history, visits and page views at our blogs now make up more than half of all the traffic across our suite of 13 websites.

Here's the 2nd quarter report at a glance:

• JLF sites attracted a daily average of about 6,000 visits and 18,000 page views. These measures are up 35 percent and 57 percent over this time last year.

• JLF blog traffic is up between 62 percent and 100 percent from the second quarter of 2007, depending on the measure.

• While our Charlotte, Triangle, and Triad blogs have continued to maintain their sizable audiences, our fastest-growing blog sites are Squall Lines (Wilmington/Coastal NC) and The Wild West (Asheville/WNC). The former doubled its page views and posted a 72 percent rise in unique visitors over 2007. The Wild West hasn't been around a full year, but in recent months its average visits have been nearly twice as high as last fall's.

• JohnLocke.org, which includes Locker Room, accounts for about a quarter of JLF's total page views. CarolinaJournal.com draws about one-fifth. Our regional blog sites account for one-third, and our Outreach sites — including NorthCarolinaHistory.org and other special projects — make up the final fifth.

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From Shakespeare to f-off

Posted by Terry Stoops at 08:18 AM

Courtesy of FOXNews.com:

A British high school student received credit for writing nothing but a two-word obscenity on an exam paper because the phrase expressed meaning and was spelled correctly.

The Times newspaper on Monday quoted examiner Peter Buckroyd as saying he gave the student — who wrote an expletive starting with f, followed by the word "off" — two points out of a possible 27 for the English paper.

"It would be wicked to give it zero because it does show some very basic skills we are looking for, like conveying some meaning and some spelling," Buckroyd was quoted as saying.

"It's better than someone that doesn't write anything at all."

Buckroyd said the student would have received a higher mark if the phrase had been punctuated.

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Latest dispatches from the political trail

Posted by John Hood at 07:18 AM

• Pat McCrory drops by a Shelby restaurant for breakfast and continues to draw attention for his stance on drilling for oil and natural gas off the NC coast. Beverly Perdue praises the awarding of $1 million in grants to firms developing green businesses and alternative energy.

• PBS's “NewsHour” profiles the Perdue-McCrory race, observing differences on issues and wondering how Barack Obama's campaign efforts will affect the race.

• A CQ blog states that Elizabeth Dole is “solidifying her lead” over Kay Hagan. Hagan is meeting with veterans to discuss issues at home and abroad.

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Media-perpetuated myths, pt. 2

Posted by Mitch Kokai at 06:48 AM

The pattern is clear: across a wide range of issues, both blocs appear remarkably inconsistent on what may seem like matters of legal principle — whether to favor individual rights over government power, whether to defer to the elected branches and whether to honor inconvenient precedents.

What Taylor fails to note is that absolute devotion to any of those principles would ignore the court’s real duty: fidelity to the U.S. Constitution. First, individual rights should take precedence over government power, if the U.S. Constitution protects those rights. But the court is not supposed to be able to invent rights — especially by finding new rights in the “emanations” of “penumbras” of legitimate rights.

Second, courts should defer to the elected branches, unless those other branches take actions clearly prohibited by the U.S. Constitution.

Third, courts should honor precedents, if the precedents are constitutional. In the recent gun ruling, the Supreme Court overturned a precedent that was so bad it earned inclusion in William Mellor and Robert Levy’s new book, The Dirty Dozen.

Mellor explained the book’s key points during this week’s John Locke Foundation Shaftesbury Society meeting.

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Media-perpetuated myths, pt. 1

Posted by Mitch Kokai at 06:43 AM

The latest Newsweek recounts the story:

Between 1929 and 1933, as a stock-market crash and credit crunch metastasized into a Depression, Herbert Hoover adopted a hands-off approach that exiled his party from the White House for a generation.

I put the quotation marks around "know" because the scenario described above is completely false. Hoover, whose nickname was “The Great Engineer,” was a big fan of government intervention. (It’s a major reason predecessor Calvin Coolidge distrusted him.) Hoover used the federal government in disastrous ways to prolong the Depression.

FDR, who had initially campaigned in opposition to some of Hoover’s meddling, changed his tune only after entering the White House and deciding he sort of liked being the person making all the rules.

People interested in the true story should consult Amity Shlaes’ recent book about the topic, titled The Forgotten Man.

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Ms. Sunshine she is not

Posted by Mitch Kokai at 06:40 AM

Here’s my favorite passage:

Most of us feel the ground trembling beneath our feet, as though the epicenter of an earthquake is somewhere else but still nearby. Some of the growth industries in the country nowadays are built around disaster.

Who knows how long it will take Ms. Quindlen to recover from the blues associated with Hillary Clinton's defeat?

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Today's Carolina Journal Online features

Posted by Mitch Kokai at 06:35 AM

Today's Carolina Journal Online exclusive features Don Carrington's report about a major pay raise for N.C. First Lady Mary Easley in her role as an N.C. State faculty member.

John Hood's Daily Journal highlights some sensible reports about the economics of high gas prices and offshore drilling. 

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