Red Clay Citizen

The Nine Million Dollar Stimulus Tracker

The nice folks here at Red Clay want you to know that we are looking out for you. 

The fact that $787 billion of your money is being spent by 537 people who have probably never even met you really troubles us.  We think you know how to spend that money better then they do.  The only saving grace in this whole process is the fact that the 537 people were nice enough to give you a website that you can use to track the money, and how it is being spent...Red Clay already knows what the first item put up for tracking will be.  It will likely look like this:

$9.5 million Spent on Stimulus Tracking Web site

It is interesting that this happens at the exact moment when Red Clay is revamping its blog.  I am told that it will be state of the art, and capable of displaying multiple pie charts and bar graphs (and the occasional picture of Bev Pedue as money).  See, we here at Red Clay World HQ think that you deserve to know what is going on in your government and home state.  We do these things because we care.  And by the way, it is only costing us one intern, one Mountain Dew per day, and an Apple Computer (that is called job creation folks). 

Just here to help.

Annexation and Taxation without Representation

The proposed committee substitute for House Bill 524 (a combination of house bills 524, 645, and 727) is a really bad plan.

If this bill becomes law, cities and towns would be able to annex, with the approval of the Local Government Commission, and collect taxes for three years, but ultimately never provide services.

The LGC is a government board that deals with local governments' financial issues. Board members include the State Treasurer, Secretary of the Department of Revenue, Secretary of State, State Auditor, and a handful of appointed lawyers and former city officials.

Legislators in committee described LGC oversight as “meaningful” and emphasized its power to deny annexation proposals that are not financially feasible. The bill does give the LGC that power, but in reality it is unlikely that the LGC will use it wisely. If you take a good look at the board members, it’s pretty obvious that they won’t be paying much attention to the interests of the annexees.

LGC oversight will probably be a rubber stamp that allows cities and towns to collect property taxes from people they never intend to provide services. The bill extends the window for the provision of services from two to three years. If after three years no services have been provided, cities and towns must stop charging taxes.

In short, this bill allows local governments to use involuntary annexation as a way to fill temporary budget holes. It gives them the power (with rubber stamp approval) to levy taxes on people who will never really be part of the city or town and will never receive any services.

NC needs annexation reform, but this bill is not the answer. 

More Annexation Antics

Without question forced annexation remains one of the biggest abuses of municipal government in North Carolina.  My friend Curtis Wright, who helped to plan  and coordinate last week’s Coastal Conservative Conference in Wilmington, wants us to know of the latest violation of citizen rights.  Earlier this week the city of Wilmington abused its powers to annex the residents of Monkey Junction. WWAV-TV Video here. In a  May 5th letter to Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo, Daren Bakst of the John Locke Foundation ,details how the city failed to comply with the state’s annexation statute and how such actions may also involve constitutional violations. If this story doesn't make you angry at the unchecked growth of government power, nothing will.

Free Market does GREEN better than government

In an Op-Ed in today's Raleigh News and Observer Jon Preyer points out how private industry is better equipped and incentivized to handle environmental mitigation efforts.

His column also serves to illustrate how government programs, no matter the good intentions, start small and grow big at the taxpayer's expense.

NC Government Stopping Job Growth

According to the Charlotte Business Journal, the NC Division of Health Services Regulation (why this agency even exists is a completely different topic) denied Gaston Regional Hospital's application to spend $21.9 million and create 100 new jobs to build a freestanding emergency room in Mount Holly.

Can anyone come up with one good reason why NC government should be telling a company that wants to expand and create new jobs that it isn't allowed to do so?

As our state battles near double-digit unemployment, this company wants to take a risk, spend $21.9 million on new construction, employ 100 additional people and the government is telling them "no."  Are you kidding me?  If this was a company relocating 100 jobs from another state, the Department of Commerce would be cutting them an eight-figure check in no time flat.  Yet here we have government standing in the way of organic job growth.  Unbelievable. 

We're not slouching towards socialism, folks.  We're already there.

States and Corporate Incentives: The Flailing Continues

Stephanie Simon of the Wall Street Journal writes an insightful article about the innane race among states to woo companies with tax breaks and speical incentives  --- even while many of the states are reeling from declining revenues and making significant budget cuts.

Does all the courting work? Simon says it's hard to say. Interestingly, Brent Lane of the Center for Competitive Economics at UNC which studies the issue in North Carolina, offers WSJ his own candid assessment of corporate incentives and politicians: 

..."the political imperative is to be seen to be doing something, even if it's not effective in the long term.  I have a lot of sympathy for these politicians. They're desperate to do something"

Translation: All that glitters isn't gold. Corporate incentives may look good to companies and politicians, but they usually fail to produce lasting benefits. Do we ever learn? (See: Dell, Global TransPark, Skybus).   

Al Gore is Losing

As much of North Carolina sits under a Winter Storm Watch for the threat of snow tomorrow, a new poll released today by Rasmussen Reports shows more and more Americans think global warming is caused more by long term planetary trends than by human activity.

According to its poll, 44% think it's planetary causes while 41% think it's human activity.

While these numbers are fairly close (and inside the margin of error) it does show a decided trend towards the public becoming more and more skeptical of the man-made global warming alarmist rhetoric of the left fringe.

In July 2006, 46% of voters said global warming is caused primarily by human activities, while 35% said it is due to long-term planetary trends.

In April of last year, 47% of Americans blamed human activity versus 34% who viewed long-term planetary trends as the culprit. But the numbers have been moving in the direction of planetary trends since then.

So in less than one year we've had a 16 point shift in public sentiment away from hysteria and towards common sense.  A couple more years like this and maybe we can make Al Gore even more irrelevant.

Looking to get involved?

If you have ever had an interest in helping to shape state laws, here is your chance. The The Joint Study Commission on Municipal Annexation is holding a meeting on Jan 6th at 10:00 am. You can find out information at http://stopncannexation.com/ where you can also find out how you can be involved.

Annexation in NC is one of the last vestiges of "Taxation Without Representation." Cities have an almost unfettered right to take people into their boundaries and tax them with the affected citizens having NO SAY in the decision.

Here is a chance to be involved and have a positive impact on the future.

Central Planning 101

Beijing?  Shanghai?

Fill in the blank here:

"Twenty years from now, the era of unchecked urban sprawl in _______ could be a distant memory.

New homes would be smaller and built close together in urban centers and along major roads. Getting around on foot, bike or mass transit would be not only possible, but preferable to going by car.

"If we do nothing ... [the growth] will continue just to spread across the region like peanut butter," he said. "We can either intervene and shape the growth or not intervene and continue to sprawl."

If you said Raleigh, give yourself a red gold star.

The elitist Raleigh leadership thinks it knows best where future Raleigh residents will live.  Want a nice sized house with a backyard in a neighborhood?  Too bad.  Condo living is what's best for you.

And EVERYONE wants to be able to bike to work, right?  Or at least, we all want government to dictate to us what form of transportation we should use.

My biggest beef with this is the sheer arrogance that a few people think they know best how other people should live their lives.  Just because they don't like "sprawl" means other people are forced to live by the rules of a few.  Hmm... seems we revolted against that type of tyranny once already.

"Smart Growth is the New Jim Crow"

Love this from the Anti-Planner: That’s why Joseph Perkins, head of the Northern California Home Building Association (who happens to be black) says that “smart growth is the new Jim Crow.”