Red Clay Citizen

Lottery Oversight

There were some very surprising questions asked at the very first "in person" meeting of the North Carolina Lottery Oversight Committee.  Though as defined in state statute in Chapter 18C‑172, the Committee was supposed to meet on a quarterly basis since the enacting of the lottery oversight law in 2006, the Committee members had never met each other face to face.  The meeting began with some brief introductions of the members.  The most noteworthy of the turned out to be Eddie Davis, III, the outgoing president of the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE).  The other members tended to be either retired educators or financial managers. 

Legislative staff presented the breakdown on the lottery revenue sources that included:

• 55% from so-called scratch off instant games
• 29% from multi state Powerball drawings
• 10% from the Carolina pick 3 game
• 4% from the Carolina Cash 5 game
• 1% from the millionaire raffles.

Somehow, the staff neglected to include the revenue from unclaimed prizes which the lottery staff had anticipated to be as much as $9 Million.   How much of this money  does the Lottery Authority have?

By far, the most interesting questions asked by members revolved around the use of lottery revenues to fund the pre-kindergarten program "More at Four" (aka MAF)  Lottery revenues are used in the following manner:

• 40% to aid in school construction
• 26% to Pre-K More at Four
• 24% to class size reduction
• 10% to college scholarships

Committee members Davis, former Wake county commissioner and retired Minority Education specialist, Betty Mangum and Dr. Ronald Copley, a financial manager from Wilmington, grilled John Pruette, MAF's Director.  The biggest question the members had about whether or not the funds given to More at Four were supplanting or supplementing existing funds. (MAF's budget is $140 million and it recieves $84 million from the lottery) Dr. Copley asked Pruette point blank,"What would MAF do if the lottery money wasn't available?"  Pruette responded by sighting the previous involvement of federal funds.  The questioning continued until the presiding Co-Chairman, Dr. Myron Coulter (formerly the Chancellor at Western Carolina) attempted to restrain the members of the committee by suggesting that maybe the answers to these difficult questions could be put off until another time.

When the lottery was originally passed its  proponents vigorously  asserted that money from the lottery would only add to education funds and not replace them.  Reality sunk in during last session of the legislature when Governor Easley decided to use lottery dollars to pay money back to the General Fund that had already been used to fund classroom size reduction and More at Four.

The most comfortable man in the room at the meeting certainly had to be Lottery Director Tom Shaheen.  For once, he wasn't the man in the hot seat at the legislature.  Maybe Shaheen can get Pruette to come to all the meetings in the future and draw the fire of the watchdogs.

Are lottery funds being used to add to or replace eduction funds?  Some notable members of the Lottery Oversight Committee want to know.   

Healthcare: Doctors are Uniting for Reform

In this Open Letter, physicians are calling for reform that puts patients back at the center of the healthcare system (a system currently corrupted by bureaucrats, insurers, and care-providers).
-Max Borders

Poor City Attorney Burdened by Transparency

This poor, poor Charlotte city attorney, burdened by transparency, laments the types of information requests his department receives:

McCarley said Charlotte officials had no objection to requests like The Charlotte Observer's standing request for all e-mails and paper correspondence sent or received by Mayor Pat McCrory, City Manager Curt Walton and two city department heads. He then read a list of "the other kind" of public records requests: "Disgruntled, unsuccessful bidders wanting to know everything about a bid process and the other people in it, bloggers wanting information for their shots at the government, the alternative press who has no particular sense of reasonableness in what they ask for, the gadflies and the Libertarians who will admit to you they are looking to bog down government, potential litigants shopping for a claim, political opponents of current officials, and then the idly curious."

Hmm, are bidding processes closed (it's certainly not unusual for some N.C. contracts to be ol' boy relationships)? Are bloggers just a nuisance? What, pray tell, distinguishes the alternative press from the mainstream press--and what constitutes a reasonable request? Wouldn't more gadflies have prevented that abomination-on-tracks from being built in Charlotte at the expense of taxpayers who'll never, ever use it? Don't political opponents need information to make the case that they'd be better in the job? Is the curious citizen not an engaged rather than an idle one--or should civic life be left to our minders because they know what's best for us?

The above-quoted list may all seem like cases of annoyance to a bureaucrat who believes he and his pals raison d'etre is to dream up ways to spend your money and control your affairs. But if the government bureaucrat shirks his responsibility to be open because it is inconvenient, he has forgotten his real reason-to-exist: to serve the people who put him there. That service comes with all the inconvenience of dealing with the hoi polloi. Once you, gentle reader, wipe those crocodile tears from your face, remember that Mac McCarley is one of the many functionaries who earns a government paycheck to serve you -- not to ensure his work is hassle-free. Transparency is his duty.
-Max Borders

Mike Munger: Third Wheel?

Telemarketers Telepollsters are (systematically?) ignoring gubernatorial candidates in the general election, apparently. That is if you can even believe those third party candidates. I'll trust them when they can get their parties on the ballot. Of course, they'll have to get elected to change the rules--Wait. Lemme think about this.
-Max Borders

Easley: 'Ignore the Law'

With the election primary only a day over, Governor Mike Easley instructs the community colleges to ignore the law - as interpreted by Attorney General Roy Cooper. What does Easley II (Perdue) have to say about this now that she's got the primary in the bag? We'll see...My guess is she'll run from her succession line (i.e. to the right), which is where both the law and majority public sentiment lie on this issue.

One thing is for sure, however: Governor Easley is futzing around with the law like he's pardoning a guy on death row. Difference is, he's got the power to do the latter. Hey, Mike, I've got a few laws I'd like to ignore--particularly the ones that involve swat teams breaking into your house to protect you from your own vices. Oh, can I get a fiat-by-press-release on paying some of those ridiculous taxes? Can you help me ignore that pesky speed limit (I'm so often in a hurry)? Maybe you could wave your magic wand and let me drink a beer on the street, huh?
-Max Borders

Understanding Healthcare & How to Reform It

Americans find it difficult to understand why healtcare costs are going up, limiting access, and driving up the number of uninsured. In this two-part video, we explain why in pretty simple terms.
Part One


Part Two

-Max Borders

$22K? How would you spend it?

A beautiful piece in the N&O that will get you thinking about our "social safety net" -- such as it is.
-Max Borders

Gas Prices: Harmless Holiday

Brian Caplan has a great NYTimes piece on why the Clinton/McCain gas tax holiday is a relatively harmless symbolic gesture in a sea of possible bad policy options:

The first is that the tax holiday is a relatively cheap symbolic gesture that makes truly bad policies less likely. The main causes of high gas prices are probably factors beyond our control, like rapid growth in China and India and low real interest rates. But voters don’t want to hear this; they want politicians to “do something!”

During our last big energy crisis, in the 1970s, “something” turned out to be a salad of populist nonsense: price controls, rationing, windfall profits taxes, arcane loopholes and lots of lawsuits. That political response turned an inconvenience into a disaster.

We can do better this time. Since in an election year Congress will feel compelled to show the voters that it feels their pain, let’s do something that at least keeps energy markets in good working order. The tax holiday fits the bill. Markets will adjust to it, no problem. And it won’t cost much — the estimated $9 billion in lost revenue is about $30 per person. That’s not a bad price to pay for a little insurance against a rerun of misguided ’70s measures.

I'm glad they're letting some free-market "fundamentalists" into the NYTimes lately. Tyler Cowen, Brian Caplan and Alex Tabarrok are such a refreshing antedote to the incessant Krugmania we usually see.
-Max Borders

AG Cooper Weighs in On Illegals and Community Colleges

Five months after being asked whether illegal immigrants should be permitted to attend North Carolina's community colleges, Attorney General Roy Cooper issued a statement today that the colleges should "follow standards set by federal law."

The ruling comes after a December 3, 2007, letter written by Senator Fred Smith asked Cooper to "review and clarify the legal standing of a November 7, 2007, memorandum (CC 07-275) issued by the North Carolina Community College System."

Cooper's opinion may lay the groundwork for a statewide ban prohibiting illegal immigrants from attending all public universities and colleges. A similar policy in Virginia has already been ruled constitutional. More on that tomorrow.

New Maps of Election Results

Click below for new analysis and maps of the 2008 primary results. Maps show results by county with demographic details, like the percentage of unaffiliated voters registered in the county:

http://www.nccivitas.org/analysis/election-analysis

Read Our Lips: "No New Taxes!"

Our friend Mitch Kokai sums up the beating voters laid on local option tax increases last night.

"No North Carolina county has endorsed the land-transfer tax. That tax went 0-for-4 tonight.

Counties went 2-for-20 in seeking local sales tax increases.

Based on unofficial election night returns, 66 percent of the 536,805 votes cast in local tax referendums opposed tax increases."

These results are eerily similar to recent Civitas polling results, which found that 66 percent of voters think taxes in North Carolina are "too high." (question 16)

Such results show that lawmakers across our state are out of touch with North Carolina citizens. Their insistence on trying to reach deeper into our pockets rather than prioritizing their spending displays a complete disrespect for the true owners of tax dollars - the taxpayers.

Perhaps winning the award for "Most Out of Touch County Commissioners" should be awarded to Orange County. First, they spend $10,000 in taxpayer dollars to conduct a public opinion poll regarding voter opinion of a land transfer tax, with the results showing strong opposition. Not dissuaded, they insist on placing the transfer tax on the ballot anyway, spending another $100,000 on an "education" campaign essentially advocating for the tax to be approved. After all that, the tax still gets trounced by a 2 to 1 margin. They should be ashamed of themselves. Kudos to Orange County voters (and voters across the state) for taking a stand.

 

Balfour Evicerates Another Taxation Myth

See Brian Balfour's letter to the Cary News, which cuts up the guilt-envy-mythology of some leftist arguing by omission. Some juicy bits:

Ms. Wiehe attempts to exploit class envy veiled behind the mantra of “fairness.” Her article includes several numeric data points to support her argument, but failed to include some that readers may find interesting. According to the 2007 North Carolina Comprehensive Annual Report, the top 17.5 percent of income earners in the state contributed 69.5 percent of all income taxes paid in 2005. Further, the top 1.6 percent of taxpayers paid more than $2.5 billion in state income taxes alone, equivalent to roughly one-sixth of all General Fund tax revenue for that year.

Also missing from Ms. Wiehe’s calculations are the billions of dollars worth of public assistance received by the low-income households included in her comparison. Medicaid, Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, child care subsidies and a litany of other social programs significantly reduce the actual tax burden for low income households, but are not included in Wiehe’s estimates. Further, Wiehe leaves out the fact that people are highly mobile in terms of income. Today’s low-paid intern is tomorrow’s upper-middle class manager. Wiehe’s data merely represents a snapshot in time, and distorts the lifetime tax burden of today’s upwardly mobile society. Her recommendations would serve to expand government programs at the expense of economic growth, disproportionately harming the very same low income households she claims will be helped.
-Max Borders

Kudos to the State Board of Elections

It's pretty rare that you can say that government is doing something right, but the NC State Board of Elections did a fantastic job launching their new election results tracker.

If you haven't played around with it check it out here.

The live updates were timely, and the ability to quickly and easily see which counties had reported made figuring out how the races were going much easier.  I absolutely loved the interactive maps where you could click on a county and see quickly and easily the specific results for that county.

There were some minor glitches, but overall a fabulous new addition to the site.  I hate to say it but, my tax dollars well spent.

Corny Joke from the Onion

Greedy African children.
-Max Borders

Did you Vote Today?

If not, you'd better do so. Despite the fact that your vote probably won't break any ties, representative democracy is the only game in town. VOTE!
-Max Borders