INSIDE THIS ISSUE: DEPARTMENTS McCrory’s North Carolina 2 C A R O L I N A Education 8 budget Local Government 10 From Page 1 14 boosts pay, Higher Education 17 resets gas Books & the Arts 20 Opinion 24 tax/2 A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF NEWS, ANALYSIS AND OPINION Parting Shot 28 JOURNALFROM THE JOHN LOCKE FOUNDATION April 2015 Vol. 24 No. 4 STATEWIDE EDITION Check us out online at carolinajournal.com and johnlocke.org Tax Preparer Exposes Rampant Refund Fraud pendent claimed on an income-tax re- turn will result in a refund of roughly Hispanic preparer $1,000. The second type is stolen iden- concerned about tity refund fraud, in which criminals use stolen or fabricated identification fake child credits documents to file multiple income By Don Carrington tax returns, sometimes claiming thou- Associate Editor sands of dollars in fraudulent refunds. RALEIGH Court documents show that illegal im- Charlotte-area tax preparer migrants living in North Carolina have who contacted Carolina Journal been involved in a number of these last year about an illegal tax- SIRF schemes. Arefund scheme involving tax preparers Preparers encourage fraud who cater to Hispanic clients has con- ducted her own undercover operation Last year, CJ reported on a North to show that the scam is continuing. Carolina tax preparer of Hispanic de- The preparer, who is Hispanic, scent who claimed several tax prepar- enlisted the aid of a male friend, also ers in her region helped their clients Hispanic, to visit 10 tax preparation of- commit federal income tax fraud by fices in the greater Charlotte area and claiming false tax credits for children. record reactions to his suggestion that Tax preparer “Juanita,” who enlisted a friend to visit several tax preparers and claim The preparer, who spoke to CJ under fictitious children be included on his four nonexistent children, shows that the effect on a tax refund is $343 owed the the condition that her name and loca- tax return. government without the child credits, and $3,657 refund with the credits. (CJ photo tion not be revealed, will be referred to They found that tax preparers by Don Carrington) as Juanita. CJ met with Juanita in February engaged in the scheme are urging cus- may not exist or who live outside the lions of dollars in refund scams yearly and March. She sent a friend, Francisco tomers — typically using federal tax- United States. — fraud continues here and around (not his real name), to 10 tax prepara- payer identification numbers rather The scheme is one of two ille- the nation. tion offices in the greater Charlotte than Social Security numbers on IRS gal tax-refund ploys CJ has reported In one scheme, taxpayers claim area. Because Spanish was the default documents — to pocket fraudulent re- on over the past three years. Despite as dependents children who either do funds by claiming on their income tax federal efforts to combat the schemes not live with them in the United States returns as dependents children who — the IRS claims it thwarts several bil- or may not exist at all. Each phony de- Continued as “Tax,” Page 14 Spirit’s Job Numbers Far Below Expectations PAID centives for the Google data center in RALEIGH, NC U.S. POSTAGE Lenoir. PERMIT NO. 1766 NONPROFIT ORG. Tax-funded rail spur, The largest component of the Spirit package was a $100 million grant costing $24 million, from the Golden LEAF Foundation, the nonprofit grant-making agency is unused at GTP that handles North Carolina’s tobacco By Don Carrington settlement funds. Spirit also received Executive Editor Job Development Investment Grant RALEIGH and One North Carolina Fund awards hen Gov. Mike Easley an- from the state. nounced in May 2008 that In addition, state officials built a Spirit has failed to meet its targets six-mile-long railroad spur line con- Wichita, Kan.-based Spirit even though state and local officials necting the Spirit plant to a main rail WAeroSystems would open an aircraft lured the company to North Carolina line, saying the $24 million project was component manufacturing plant at the with a package of financial incentives essential to closing the deal with Spirit. Global TransPark in Kinston, he said that, according to an analysis by Trian- Even so, the company hasn’t used the the company would create 1,031 jobs gle Business Journal, could exceed $240 rail spur, saying it was less expensive within six years, but as of December million. TBJ said the Spirit deal ranked 2014 the company employed only 375 just behind the largest incentive deal The John Locke Foundation 200 W. Morgan St., #200 Raleigh, NC 27601 people. in state history — $260 million in in- Continued as “Spirit,” Page 15 PAGE 2 APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL North Carolina C a r o l i n a McCrory Budget Boosts Pay, Resets Gas Tax By Barry Smith and Dan Way $1.4 billion revenue bond, not requiring voter approval, for Journal Associate Editors transportation. RALEIGH Aside from gas taxes, the budget includes no tax in- Rick Henderson ov. Pat McCrory announced a budget for 2015-16 to- creases. It allocates $47 million to the state’s rainy day fund, Managing Editor taling $51.7 billion, with a General Fund budget of bringing the total to $698 million. It also provides $47 mil- $21.5 billion for the year, at a March 5 press briefing lion for repairs and renovations. Don Carrington atG the state Emergency Operations Center. Executive Editor Some highlights include increasing spending on K-12 Health and Human Services

teacher salaries by more than $111.4 million in each of the The budget recommends allocating $5.3 billion for the Mitch Kokai, Michael Lowrey next two years to fulfill a pledge of raising starting salaries Department of Health and Human Services in 2015-16, and Barry Smith, Kari Travis of public school teachers to $35,000. $5.5 billion in 2016-17. That is up from $5.1 billion in the Dan Way It adds money for projected enrollment growth and to current year. Associate Editors hire more than 1,400 new teachers over the two-year budget The $10.8 billion two-year appropriation represents cycle. The $235 million in additional K-12 funding is a 2.8 nearly one-quarter of the entire budget. Of that amount, $7.8 Chad Adams, Kristy Bailey percent increase over the 2014-15 budget. David N. Bass, Lloyd Billingsley billion, or 18 percent of the General Fund budget, is dedi- Kristen Blair, Roy Cordato Lee Roberts, McCrory’s budget director, said the bud- cated to Medicaid. There are 1.8 Becki Gray, Sam A. Hieb get spends a half-billion dollars million residents, roughly 18 Lindalyn Kakadelis, Troy Kickler more on K-12 education than percent of the state population, George Leef, Karen McMahan the previous budget, and that on the Medicaid rolls. Donna Martinez Karen Palasek the 2.9 percent increase in Gen- Medicaid is projected to Marc Rotterman, Jesse Saffron eral Fund spending is less than grow by $287 million in the Terry Stoops, Andy Taylor the state’s growth in popula- Michael Walden, Hal Young first year of the biennium, and tion and an allowance for infla- John Calvin Young $460.6 million in year two due Contributors tion, the so-called Taxpayer Bill to higher enrollment, higher of Rights limitation. utilization of services, and an- The budget assumes the ticipated costs per participant. Joseph Chesser, Zak Hasanin House will endorse the 35-cent- Democrats and liberal ad- Catherine Koniecsny, Austin Pruitt per-gallon gasoline tax that the vocacy groups have demanded Matt Shaeffer Senate approved earlier this further expansion of Medicaid, Interns year. That would be an im- but McCrory did not include mediate cut from the current Published by funding to expand the government insurance program for 37.5-cent-per-gallon tax, but it would leave the tax higher The John Locke Foundation the poor and disabled. than it would have been if the current gas tax formula were 200 W. Morgan St., # 200 “With all of the uncertainty surrounding the future Raleigh, N.C. 27601 left intact. of the Affordable Care Act — including the U.S. Supreme (919) 828-3876 • Fax: 821-5117 New spending totals $970 million in the first year of Court case over health care subsidies that won’t be resolved www.JohnLocke.org the biennium, of which 76 percent, or $741 million, will be allocated to education, Medicaid, and medical insurance for until June — it just makes sense to wait before making any children. The budget establishes a new Medicaid Risk Re- decisions about expanding Medicaid, which is a major com- Jon Ham ponent of the Affordable Care Act’s implementation,” said Vice President & Publisher serve fund of $175 million. It includes $10 million per year for film incentives and Katherine Restrepo, JLF health and human services policy Kory Swanson would restore and reform the Historic Preservation Tax analyst. President Credit, which sunset at the end of 2014. “We recognize the Supreme Court case could have McCrory’s budget allocates $8 million to the Brody major ramifications on everything related to health care, in- John Hood School of Medicine at East Carolina University. cluding Medicaid,” McCrory said. Chairman Health and Human Services would receive more than The DHHS budget also includes nearly $82 million $10.8 billion over the two-year budget, which is more than over the biennium in new funding for mental health and Charles S. Carter, Charles F. Fuller substance abuse services, including $16.6 million to open Bill Graham, John M. Hood 24 percent of the General Fund. Assad Meymandi, Baker A. Mitchell Jr., The budget doesn’t include across-the-board pay rais- the new Broughton Hospital. David Stover, J.M Bryan Taylor es for state employees. Economic incentives Board of Directors “What we should do in a situation of limited availabil- ity is use the money where it can make the most difference,” In economic development, a variety of controversial Carolina Journal is a monthly journal of news, Roberts said. “An across-the-board pay raise probably is not incentives are included in the proposal. Those include $99 analysis, and commentary on the most effective way of doing that.” million the first year and $107 million the second year to state and local government In addition to money for the state pension and the reimburse costs of commitments previously made under and public policy issues in health plan, the budget includes $81 million in longevity Department of Commerce programs to recruit and retain North Carolina. pay, Roberts said. He added that $82 million would be tar- quality jobs and large-scale capital investment. ©2015 by The John Locke Foundation geted to compensation for hard-to-fill positions. A Jobs Preservation Tax Credit is budgeted at slightly Inc. All opinions expressed in bylined articles Roberts said the budget includes $16 million over the more than $75 million, and there is a renewable energy cred- are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors of CJ or the next two years to help pay for changes in the state’s court it program budgeted at $7 million for sources other than so- staff and board of the John Locke Foundation. system requested by N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice lar energy. Material published herein may be reprinted as Mark Martin. (Martin had requested an additional $30 mil- An appropriation of $10 million each year would long as appropriate credit is given. Submis- lion.) Money would address costs associated with jurors, be included for filmmaking incentives, and the governor sions and letters are welcome and should be witnesses, interpreters, expert witnesses for prosecutors, would revive the expired Historic Preservation Tax Credit directed to the editor. equipment maintenance, hardware, and software. Roberts with $1.7 million the first year and $10.5 million the second. CJ readers wanting more information between monthly issues can call 919-828- also said the court system could share in the proceeds of a The budget recommends $5 million for the One North 3876 and ask for Carolina Journal Weekly proposed bond package that McCrory is seeking to revital- Carolina Small Business Program to fund small, high- Report, delivered each weekend by e-mail, ize state buildings and build new infrastructure. growth, high-tech businesses. or visit CarolinaJournal.com for news, links, The governor’s office plans to submit a $1.2 billion to “The administration’s been clear that nobody likes in- and exclusive content updated each weekday. $1.4 billion general obligation bond proposal to revitalize centives. In an abstract world, we’d all prefer not to have Those interested in education, higher educa- state buildings in disrepair and build other new facilities. them,” Roberts said. “We don’t live in an abstract world. We tion, or local government should also ask to General obligation bonds require voter approval. live in a competitive world, and to not have them would be receive weekly e-letters covering these issues. McCrory also plans to ask for a separate $1.2 billion to tying both of our hands behind our backs.” CJ APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL PAGE 3 North Carolina Senate Plan Would Cut Corporate Taxes and Cap Tax Incentives By Dan Way for us. That’s a problem we can solve imminent. Berger said there has been an im- Associate Editor that doesn’t pick a particular winner or balance in how JDIG funds are distrib- RALEIGH loser,” Berger said. “It basically applies Deals said pending uted, creating tension among smaller enate Republicans are pushing evenly across the spectrum of C corpo- Gunn said Skvarla argued there counties. Over the past two years more bills to reduce the state corporate rations.” are several pending deals that require than 80 percent of the JDIG grants income tax rate from 5 percent States traditionally have appor- immediate incentive funding, and S.B. were awarded to Wake, Durham, and thisS year to 3 percent in 2017 and re- tioned corporate taxes based on a mix 326 would provide that money even if Mecklenburg counties, where median structure the manner in which corpo- of property, payroll, and sales taxes. A the chamber’s larger tax proposals do income is $56,796. The other 97 coun- rate taxes are calculated. The intent be- single sales factor focuses tax calcula- not advance. ties, with a median income of $40,475, hind the legislation is to make the state tions on sales revenue, McCrory de- split the other 20 percent. more business-friendly and better able excluding property and nounced the Senate His bill would limit the total to compete with its neighbors in job re- payroll taxes. moves. awards to Wake, Mecklenburg, and cruitment. The Senate bill “It breaks the bank. Durham counties. JDIG grants award- Senate leader Phil Berger, R- would eliminate the jet It breaks the promises of ed in Tier 1 counties (low population Rockingham, with several leading Sen- fuel tax break Ameri- last year’s tax reform,” and/or high poverty rate) would re- ate Republicans at his side, discussed a can Airlines receives McCrory was quoted as bate companies as much as 80 percent pair of proposals at a March 18 after- at Charlotte Douglas saying during a presen- of the state income taxes withheld from noon press conference. International Airport tation to members of the new hires, Tier 2 counties would get a that amounts to about North Carolina League 70 percent rebate, and Tier 3 counties ‘Less costly’ plan $15 million a year. It is of Municipalities. “I also (high population/low poverty rate) Berger said the Senate is propos- scheduled to expire at would get 60 percent. They would the end of the year. The House legisla- think it divides North Carolina, which ing an alternative and less costly eco- is the last thing we want to do.” cover up to 50 percent of withholding nomic development package than the tion would extend it four years. taxes in Wake, Mecklenburg, and Dur- “We will have to make a decision “I’m trying to comprehend how NC Competes plan advanced by Gov. the governor wants to spend $1 bil- ham counties. Pat McCrory and passed by the House as to where we go with that,” Berger said. lion on new incentives, but considers 2,500-job eligibility as House Bill 117. it ‘breaking the bank’ to allow North Senate Bill 338, sponsored by Extends JDIG Carolina taxpayers and job creators to With speculation that a yet-to- Berger, Senate Majority Leader Harry keep about $500 million of their own be-identified automobile manufactur- Brown, R-Onslow, and Majority Whip The Senate bill extends the Job money,” Berger said. “The math does ing plant might be considering North Jerry Tillman, R-Randolph, lowers the Development Investment Grant in- not add up.” Carolina, the bill provides that any corporate tax rate to 4 percent in 2016 centive grant program for two years, According to Berger’s office, the company investing $1 billion in new and 3 percent in 2017. at $15 million per year, after which it latest estimates show the change to a capital investment in North Carolina Tax reform legislation passed in would expire. Whatever portion of the single sales factor would cost about 2013 required state revenue targets to $15 million is not used in a fiscal year and creating at least 2,500 jobs would be met before triggering corporate tax would be returned to the state treasury, $75 million, and the reductions in the be eligible for a JDIG grant of up to 100 reductions to ensure there was suf- not rolled over to the next year. corporate income tax rate would cost percent of the state-level taxes, Berger ficient money to pay for government The bill shifts a much larger about $500 million when fully imple- said. costs. Berger said those triggers would percentage of JDIG money to smaller mented in 2017-18. Donald Bryson, state director of Americans for Prosperity, said the Sen- be removed under his bill. counties that traditionally have been ‘Accept responsibility’ “As you know, the tax revenues cut out of the bulk of the incentive ate plan is “much better than what the on a year-over-year basis are growing funds. It also includes a major JDIG- “The governor needs to accept House has put forth as far as economic by a half a billion dollars, $500 million style incentive provision aimed at lur- responsibility for rapidly draining his development.” or more. So it is my belief, and it is the ing a major industrial employer such jobs incentive fund and directing close With a single sales factor and belief of many of us, that there will be as an auto manufacturer. to 90 percent of the state’s incentive lower corporate tax rates, “we’ve sort adequate revenues” available to allow Sen. Rick Gunn, R-Alamance, in- money to its richest three counties, in- of changed the game” in how to make the tax cuts, Berger said. troduced a complementary bill, Senate cluding his own,” Brown said. North Carolina more attractive with- The Senate plan overhauls the Bill 326, replenishing the JDIG account “These counties already receive a out having to rely on the tax-fueled corporate tax structure with a “single for the current fiscal year with a $5 mil- disproportionate share of sales tax and incentives bidding wars with other sales” factor mechanism already in lion infusion. transportation funds, and it’s time for states, Bryson said. place or being phased in by 26 states, That is a bow to McCrory and the 97 other counties in this state to be The Senate plan “gives us two including Virginia, South Carolina, Commerce Secretary John Skvarla, treated with respect. In fact, Mecklen- years to wean the state of North Caro- and Georgia. who say they need immediate incen- burg County receives more in sales tax lina off the drug that is corporate wel- “The folks around us are all go- tive funds to offer to prospective cor- revenue than 50 of our least prosper- fare,” Bryson said. “Hopefully, we’ll ing to it, and it creates a real problem porations whose location decisions are ous counties combined,” Brown said. get past that in two years.” CJ FIRST IN FREEDOM Transforming Ideas into Consequences for North Carolina In First in Freedom the John Locke Foundation’s president and research staff apply the timeless ideas of 20th-century con- servative thinkers to such 21st-century challenges as economic stagnation, tax and regulatory burdens, and educational medi- ocrity. To get your copy, go to JohnLockeStore.com. Cost: $10.

The John Locke Foundation, 200 W. Morgan St. Suite 200, Raleigh, NC, 27601 919-828-3876 • JohnLocke.org • CarolinaJournal.com • [email protected] PAGE 4 APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL North Carolina State Briefs Measure to Curb Bureaucracy Feared Causing More emoving outdated legal By Dan Way their resolution. actions against nondentists,” she said. barriers to consumer health Associate Editor Commission members’ salaries Bobby White, chief operations of- care choices could help cor- RALEIGH would be funded from licensing appli- ficer of the Dental Board, said the Su- Rral rising Medicaid costs in North U.S. Supreme Court decision cation and renewal fees. preme Court order does not prevent Carolina, reform advocates say. “With the special interests that many opponents of restric- “We estimate the funding would the board from investigating com- that consistently lobby to keep tive occupational licensing rules be less than 1 percent of their receipts,” plaints about teeth whitening, but in sawA as a victory for small-scale entre- Hefren said, and there would be “more the future the board will use the courts these laws in place, the certificate- of-need laws in North Carolina are preneurs may wind up being a setback reduction in costs than the annual to pursue complaints, a more costly approaching a state and regulato- as some lawmakers want to add bu- charge.” route than the cease-and-desist letters ry capture, which is very danger- reaucracy to administer the new rules. Hefren cited a similar model in it previously used. ous,” said Donald Bryson, North The General Assembly’s Program Texas, which he said more than made He noted that Dental Board mem- Carolina state director of Ameri- Evaluation Division wants to create an up for its costs through sharing infor- bers were “not alone in our belief” that cans for Prosperity. Occupational Licensing Commission mation technology, training, and other the board was immune from antitrust “Legislators as well as the to supervise occupational licensing services. laws. Attorneys general from 23 states, general public should view CON agencies and consolidate some of those Hefren’s report also recommend- the National Governors Association, reform as an integral supplement boards. ed reviewing 12 the National Con- to Medicaid reform,” Bryson said. Chuck Hefren of the Program occupational li- ference of State Bryson spoke at a March Evaluation Division on March 16 urged censure agencies Legislators, Coun- 11 press conference supporting creation of the new commission — to see if they are Licensing board cil of State Gov- House Bill 200. Rep. Marilyn Avi- staffed by state employees and housed still needed and ernments, and la, R-Wake, the primary sponsor, in the Department of Commerce — and consolidating 10 heads urge 16 other groups acknowledged the controversial gave other recommendations to mem- agencies with oth- signed onto the nature of the legislation, which bers of the Joint Legislative Program er licensing enti- legislators lawsuit. would begin to strip away protec- Evaluation Oversight Committee. ties in their field. not to overreact The Federal tions granted to hospitals, allow- The report stems from a 2012 “It’s not fea- Trade Commis- ing them to charge significantly legislative directive to study the is- sible or efficient to the court ruling sion told the Den- higher prices than costs at smaller sue, and its presentation comes on the … to add another tal Board, “You’ve doctor-led clinics, proponents of heels of the February decision by the layer” of regula- got to consent to the measure say. U.S. Supreme Court saying the North tions onto licen- the jurisdiction of The legislation would ex- Carolina Board of Dental Examiners sure boards, said John Fountain, rep- the federal government in this mat- empt diagnostic centers, ambula- violated federal antitrust laws by or- resenting two contracting licensure ter,” White said. Believing the board tory surgical facilities, gastroin- dering nondentists to stop providing boards. “We can do that without more was acting appropriately as a bona fide testinal endoscopy rooms, and teeth whitening services. bureaucracy.” He submitted language state agency in safeguarding the pub- psychiatric hospitals from certifi- At issue in the Supreme Court for draft legislation offering criteria to lic’s health and meeting its charge as a cate-of-need review. A CON is ba- case is whether occupational licensing establish licensing agencies, spelling licensure board, it refused, “and that’s sically a permission slip a provider boards are state agencies that enjoy im- out enforcement powers, and suggest- when the fireworks started.” must receive from the state in a munity from antitrust laws, and under ing payments to board members. Mark Merritt, vice president of regulatory approval process that what circumstances they lose that pro- Karen Cochrane Brown, Legisla- the North Carolina State Bar and an is dominated by hospitals that cur- tection. Many free-market advocates tive Research Division staff attorney, antitrust lawyer whose firm signed rently provide the services. hailed the ruling, but some advocates gave the committee an analysis of the onto the Dental Board’s lawsuit, said, Relaxing certificate-of-need of separation of powers cautioned that Supreme Court decision in the Dental “Our viewpoint is the Supreme Court laws “actually doesn’t make or the decision erodes federalism and ex- Board case. The court did not say that got it wrong,” and that teeth whitening break a hospital system,” Avila tends federal government power. the Dental Board would be subject to by definition is the practice of dentistry said. Since the federal government A number of the state’s profes- antitrust violations in performing “its over which the Dental Board has juris- abolished its mandate on states sional licensure boards sent represen- clear statutory duties of issuing licenses diction. to have a CON system in 1987, 24 tatives to the March 16 meeting urg- and disciplining licensees,” or that the However, he said, “We have to states have exempted ambulatory ing lawmakers not to overreact to the Dental Board “is powerless to take any deal with this new decision.” CJ surgery centers from their CON Supreme Court decision. They advised laws. taking steps to avoid a recurrence of the “We want to bring down the situation that faced the Dental Board cost of medical care and health by having other licensing boards fol- care in the state, and the way to low existing procedures and statutes do it is to put it on a competitive more closely. basis. CONs simply just knock out Others sent delegates to argue that competitive basis,” said Rep. against consolidating boards. And Mickey Michaux, D-Durham, a co- some agencies urged committee mem- sponsor of the bill. bers to create new licensure boards to Some areas of the state don’t regulate additional professions. have a nearby hospital, he said, Hefren said the state’s current and the restrictive CON laws pre- oversight regime does not report and vent ambulatory surgery centers monitor the agencies adequately, no- from opening, forcing residents to tify complainants of outcomes, and drive long distances for care. maintain records of information in Cody Hand, a spokesman for complaints. the North Carolina Hospital Asso- An umbrella Occupational Li- ciation, said the bill is dead on ar- censing Commission would provide rival in the association’s mind. He more direct supervision of the agen- said the association sees nothing cies, which could address the Supreme in the bill as even a starting point Court’s concerns in the Dental Board for discussion. case, he said. It also could facilitate At press time, the bill was disputes without involving the legisla- awaiting its first committee re- ture, evaluate whether the agencies are view. CJ protecting the public’s safety, health, and welfare effectively, and require — DAN WAY and catalog records of complaints and APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL PAGE 5 North Carolina JLF Only State-Based Think Tank Targeted in Senate Climate Probe

By Dan Way affiliations, payment amounts and duration ofre- Associate Editor search, reasons for payment, copies of grants and/ RALEIGH or contracts “including any terms containing restric- .S. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., chairman of tions related to the disclosure of the source of the the Senate Committee on Environment and payments,” and publications or written materials Public Works, in late February accused com- that resulted from the research. Umittee Democrats of an “attempt to silence” the John The request included turning over 10 years Locke Foundation — and 106 other organizations of funding data for “grants, fellowships, scholar- that have expressed skepticism over apocalyptic ships, consulting contracts, contracts, honoraria, claims of the role of human activity regarding cli- and speaking events” related to “climate, climate mate change — by demanding the groups surrender change, global warming, environmental issues, air 10 years of detailed funding source data. quality, atmospheric or oceanic topics, greenhouse Inhofe and the other 10 Republicans called the gas emissions, associated impacts of greenhouse gas Democrats’ letter “a wholly inappropriate effort” to emissions, carbon dioxide, methane, aerosols, solar limit climate science research. In resonse, the Repub- radiation, vulnerable animal species or ecosystems, licans sent a letter to the nearly nine dozen universi- geology, paleoclimatology, meteorology, astrophys- ties, private companies, trade groups, and nonprofit ics, or heliophysics.” organizations that received the earlier letter. The “Senator Burr is looking into the committee’s GOP letter supported “scientific inquiry and discov- request,” a spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, ery.” R-N.C., said. JLF was the only research organization focus- “All of the majority members of the committee ing on policy in a single state that was targeted by the are aware [of the Democrats’ letter]. This was done Democratic senators. by the minority, by the Democrats, and obviously not “We ask you to not be afraid of political reper- in consultation or coordination with Republicans,” cussions or public attacks regardless of how you re- another senior Senate aide said. spond” to the Democrats’ letter, the Republican re- In the response letter to the 107 targeted groups, sponse said, urging the groups to “protect academic Inhofe and the other Republicans wrote: “Rather freedom despite efforts to chill free speech.” than empower scientists and researchers to expand “What it’s meant to do is chill debate on the the public discourse on climate science and other en- subject and to quell the other side, rather than refute vironmental topics the [Democrats’] letter could be any positions. They’re trying to shut people up with viewed as an attempt to silence legitimate intellec- letters like this,” said Roy Cordato, JLF vice president tual and scientific inquiry.” for research and resident scholar. “We’ve been skep- The Republicans said the credibility of scientif- tical of the standard sort of alarmist line, and we’re ic findings and research should be based on compli- being targeted for that by people who are trying to The letter from Senate Democrats was sent to 107 ance with the scientific method, principles of sound McCarthyite us.” organizations that have expressed skepticism about science, and ability to stand on their own merits. Democratic Sens. Edward Markey of Massa- human-caused climate change. “The scientific method is a process marked by skep- chusetts, Barbara Boxer of California, and Sheldon ticism and testing, rather than dogma,” they wrote. Whitehouse of Rhode Island sent the Feb. 25 “de- if such payments have been made,” their letter said. “Federal government-sponsored research is mand” letter on official committee letterhead. One An April 3 deadline was issued for the material. good and necessary, but such funding has limits. The was sent to JLF President and CEO Kory Swanson. The Democrats wrote that they are “interested “We write to request information about pay- in understanding how your organization has un- federal government does not have a monopoly on ments made by the John Locke Foundation in sup- dertaken such efforts and the degree to which these funding high-quality scientific research, and many of port of scientific research and scientists, as well as efforts have been publicly disclosed, particularly in the nation’s environmental laws require decisions be support for other efforts related to climate change, light of recent articles about funding Dr. Willie Soon based on the best scientific information available — received from corpora- not just federally funded research,” the Republican tions and foundations senators wrote. in support of his work “At the core of American ingenuity are those that he failed to disclose researchers who challenge the status quo whether in matters of climate, economics, medicine, or any field when publishing his re- of study,” they wrote. sults.” “Institutions of higher learning and nongov- Soon is a widely ernmental funding are vital to facilitating such re- respected astrophysi- search and scientific inquiry. Limiting research and cist and global warming science to only those who receive federal govern- skeptic employed by the ment resources would undermine and slow Ameri- Smithsonian Institution. can education, economic prosperity, and technologi- His supporters say cal advancement.” he is a victim of a witch Curiously, Markey was among the most vocal hunt by environmental critics of Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia’s former Republi- groups and media lib- can attorney general, when he launched an investi- erals for not disclosing gation in 2010 of Penn State University climate scien- that $1.2 million in re- tist Michael Mann, whose widely criticized “hockey search funding support- stick” global temperature graph and the research ing his work came from associated with it erupted into what was called “cli- companies with ties to mategate.” fossil fuels. At the time, Markey rebuked Cuccinelli for us- As a result, Mar- ing “intimidation tactics” that were “a threat to aca- key, Boxer, and White- demic freedom and open scientific inquiry.” house told JLF and the Mann was no less kind to Markey, say- other 106 organizations ing the Democrats’ Feb. 25 letter was “heavy to supply names of re- handed and overly aggressive.” Markey’s of- cipients, institutional fice did not respond to requests for comment. CJ PAGE 6 APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL North Carolina New House Rule Could Minimize Last-Minute Surprises

By Barry Smith nical or grammatical changes in legis- Lewis said that the House com- Lewis hopes that having the bill Associate Editor lation to a complete rewrite of a bill. mittee chairs have embraced the new rewrites available early will allow RALEIGH Sometimes, a lawmaker will use a PCS rule. “They want folks to know what’s committees to be more thorough. If new rule adopted by the state to strip the language of a bill entirely going on, too, to be fully able to partici- the details of legislative proposals are House could mean that rep- and replace it with a new version cov- pate in committee,” Lewis said. worked out in committee, broader pol- resentatives would face fewer ering different subject ma- He said the rule icy debates can take place when a bill surprisesA at committee meetings, and terial. would help committee reaches the House floor. members of the public with interest in “It’s hard for people to North Carolina members seeking to amend “It’ll hopefully cut down on the specific legislation also could be better walk into a room and try to General Assembly or modify a bill. If they can less-significant debate on the floor if informed. If honored by House mem- understand a 40-page docu- get the rewrite earlier, there they’ve been able to participate in com- bers, the rule could bring more open- ment you’ve never seen be- will be more time to make mittee,” Lewis said. ness to the General Assembly. fore,” Lewis said. sure that amendments are Lewis gives former Rep. Melanie “We’re really just tying to increase The N.C. Coalition technically correct and cite Goodwin, D-Richmond, credit for the transparency,” said Rep. David Lewis, for Lobbying and Govern- the appropriate page and idea of making proposed committee R-Harnett, who chairs the House Rules ment Reform has endorsed line numbers. substitutes available the night before a Committee. the change. Jane Pinsky, director of the Pinsky said the rule would aid committee meeting. The new rule says that updated group, said she recalls attending a leg- members of the public who have an Before the GOP gained a majority in the House, Goodwin co-chaired the versions of legislation to be considered islative committee meeting years ago interest in specific legislation or topics. House Election Laws and Campaign in committee — in legislative jargon and seeing a “well-written PCS” being “If I’m a citizen and I’m inter- Finance Reform Committee. “She al- known as a proposed committee sub- distributed during the last 15 minutes ested in the bill … I could see the PCS ways to the best of her ability made stitute, or PCS — must be transmitted of the meeting. The document was dra- the night before and let my legislator sure the PCS was available the night to committee members and the bill’s matically different than the previous know what I think,” Pinsky said. “If before,” Lewis said. sponsor by 9 p.m. the night before a version, she said. I’m a citizen and [the PCS] comes up in When Republicans won House committee meeting. Lewis said the “It was clear that many of the the middle of a committee meeting, I control in 2010, Lewis chaired the PCS also would be available electroni- committee members hadn’t seen it,” would have no way of knowing about House Elections Committee and said cally to members of the public. Pinsky said. “They didn’t know what it until the committee has already tak- he tried to continue Goodwin’s prac- A PCS can vary from minor tech- to do with it.” en action.” tice in that committee. CJ Effort to Kill Map Act Passes First Legislative Hurdle

By Barry Smith Map Act amounted to the taking of Brown’s repeal bill is “very welcome. from three years to 60 or 90 days would Associate Editor property. Judge Linda McGee, writing The Court of Appeals has held that be meaningless, saying it takes longer RALEIGH for the court, said the Map Act em- transportation corridor maps that en- than that for DOT to acquire property. s landowners wait to see if the powers the DOT to exercise the state’s cumber property for long or indefinite Meantime, Sen. Bill Rabon, R- N.C. Supreme Court will hear power of eminent domain. That pow- periods constitute takings for which Brunswick, has filed Senate Bill 364, an appeal of a recent appel- er, when exercised, “requires the pay- compensation must be paid,” he said. a measure that would reduce DOT’s Alate court decision enhancing property ment of just compensation,” she wrote. “This isn’t just a matter of fairness; holding period from three years to rights along highway corridors, law- During the March 24 transpor- it’s a constitutional requirement.” two and require construction on any makers in Raleigh are moving a bill tation committee meeting, a DOT DOT officials did not respond to highway corridor covered by the Map that would eliminate the state’s Map official announced the agency has requests for comment on Brown’s pro- Act to commence within 10 years. Act altogether. asked the Supreme Court to over- posal. Previously, a DOT official said At press time, no committee action Rep. Rayne Brown, R-Davidson, turn the Court of Appeals’ decision. that lowering the permit hold period had been taken on the bill. CJ introduced House Bill 183, a measure The case stemmed from the repealing the Map Act. It was ap- DOT’s use of the Map Act in a pro- proved March 24 by voice vote in the posed highway corridor in Forsyth House Transportation Committee and County. The Map Act also has been Visit moved to the House Finance Com- used in other places, and the rul- mittee, where it was at press time. ing could affect up to 1,500 property Carolina Journal Online North Carolina is one of only 13 owners in Guilford, Wake, Cleveland, states with Map Act statutes, which al- Cumberland, and Pender counties. low states to block building on or subdi- Matthew Bryant, attorney for the viding parcels of private property that plaintiffs in the Forsyth County case, are designated for highway construc- said that the suit, if upheld, could result tion. The Tar Heel State’s restrictions in payments of hundreds of millions of are the toughest in the nation, letting dollars to affected property owners. the N.C. Department of Transportation Brown said she got involved block owners from using property with- in the Map Act issue after learning in highway corridors for three years. of a proposed N.C. 109 corridor in Other states with compara- Davidson County. She later toured ble statutes offer property owners the Forsyth County neighborhoods two choices: the option of demand- involved in the Map Act litigation. ing immediate acquisition of their “It’s a nightmare,” Brown said. property or release from an official “And this has gone on for decades.” map; or shorter limits on the length She said she was surprised at the of time an official corridor map can “subjective” nature of DOT deci- block building and subdivision ap- sions to buy property quickly in some plicants, ranging from 80 to 365 days. hardship cases but not in others. On Feb. 17, the N.C. Court of Jon Guze, director of legal stud- http://carolinajournal.com Appeals ruled unanimously that the ies at the John Locke Foundation, said APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL PAGE 7 Washington Meadows Backs End to Pro Sports Leagues’ Tax Exemption

By Dan Way Mark Walker, who represents North Some proponents of eliminating “You’ll see the team send forms Associate Editor Carolina’s 6th District, are on that com- the NFL tax-exempt status point to to the IRS reporting the income for all RALEIGH mittee. Walker did not respond to re- the lucrative salary league owners pay of the players, and all of the coaches, .S. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-11th quests for comment. commissioner Roger Goodell. and that really does get taxed” for all District, wants to sack the Na- H.R. 547, the Properly Reducing “Certainly, if they can afford a 32 teams, he said. tional Football League’s tax-ex- Overexemptions (PRO) for Sports Act, $44 million salary for the commis- Cole said each of the pro sports Uempt status because, he said, it’s unfair targets sports associations with annual sioner, I would think that they could associations have “specific grandfa- for a multibillion-dollar sports enter- revenues exceed- afford to pay the thered tax and legal status because of prise to enjoy special tax treatment ing $10 million. taxes on any po- their very weird and unique organiza- usually reserved for The NFL gener- tential earnings tions,” and changing their tax structure churches, educa- ates about $10 that they might may be warranted, though he has no tional entities, and billion annually. have,” Meadows strong opinion about it. charitable organiza- While the said. And there Some congressional members be- tions. NFL may be are many mil- lieve all guilds should be taxed, Cole “Even though the best-known lions of dollars said. Others have submitted bills to I’m an avid NFL entity H.R. 547 more being paid rescind the NFL’s tax-exempt status and football fan, would address, to NFL admin- because it allows the Washington Red- it’s hard for me to Meadows said, istrative person- skins franchise to retain its name de- say they should get “there are dozens nel, attorneys, spite protests from political activists a free pass and not Rep. Mark of professional and the like. and some American Indian groups. have to pay taxes, but Meadows, R-NC sports organiza- “I’m a busi- While he is not as familiar with hard-working moms tions that enjoy ness guy, so any- the NHL, Cole said most U.S.-based and dads should,” Meadows said in nonprofit sta- body making a hockey teams other than the New York explaining why he will co-sponsor a tus,” including The move to eliminate the NFL’s non-profit high salary is Rangers frequently lose money, “so I bill by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, the NHL, PGA, status has moved onto the internet, with not as much an would wonder whether there is any to rescind the NFL’s 501(c)6 nonprofit and LPGA. several online petition campaigns working issue for me as taxable income there at all.” Individual designation as a trade or industry as- M a j o r to end the exemption. it is if they’re us- franchise owners are “almost certainly sociation. League Baseball ing other hard- taxed correctly” for wages and sales in Chaffetz is chairman of the House forfeited its tax-exempt status in 2007, working American taxpayers’ dollars the same way NFL teams are. Oversight and Government Reform and the NBA never received the non- to pay that,” he said. “It’s not a matter of tax revenue Committee. Meadows and Republican profit perk. Meadows does not foresee “a di- and the dollar amount as much as it rect impact” on individual sports fran- is in the spirit of just trying to be fair chises if the legislation passes because and equitable” to working Americans, they already operate as for-profit busi- Meadows said. “The logical conclu- nesses at the team level. sion” is that if MLB and the NBA are Representatives from the NFL, deemed for-profit associations, the www.JohnLocke.org NHL, Carolina Hurricanes hockey NFL should be as well. team, and Carolina Panthers football “We see this more as a policy is- YOUR HOME ON THE WEB FOR team did not respond to requests for sue” to ensure nonprofit status is con- NORTH CAROLINA PUBLIC POLICY comment. ferred only on those truly deserving of The congressional Joint Commit- it, he said. tee on Taxation said in 2013 that repeal- Nor does he worry this legisla- Creating your own personal Key Account at ing the tax exemption on the NFL and tion could be expanded to target other www.JohnLocke.org is a great starting place for tracking NHL alone would raise about $109 nonprofit organizations that may be million in revenue over a decade. out of favor with a political party or a the critical public policy issues facing North Carolina. “The main point would be that presidential administration. it isn’t really going to do anything” “If the IRS gets overzealous like Each day, your Key Account searches a comprehensive in raising significant tax revenue, said they are with targeting conservative Alan Cole, an economist with the Tax groups, that’s something that we’ve database of JLF reports, briefing papers, news articles, Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research been passionate about on the Over- press releases, and events notices to display timely group. sight and Government Reform Com- In terms of the NFL, “you’re talk- mittee,” and lawmakers would fight information about the issues of your choice. It’s an ing about removing the tax exemption back against any unintended conse- excellent tool for those drafting legislation, researching from an office that essentially runs the quences, Meadows said. league, but it doesn’t have any owners, The bill currently is in the Ways policy issues, preparing news stories, planning political the money doesn’t flow back to share- and Means Committee chaired by U.S. holders, there aren’t profits to be taken. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. Meadows said or lobbying campaigns, or seeking information with Where the profits go is generally to the Ryan has made tax reform his “highest which to be an informed teams themselves,” Cole said. priority” as the committee’s chairman “When people propose revok- and will push much bigger issues. voter and citizen. ing the tax-exempt status, it’s more of “What I think you will see within a symbolic gesture than anything else, the first six months of this year is a real Visit www.JohnLocke.org and the places where all of the money concerted effort to make the tax code actually goes, the IRS has been collect- simpler, fairer, and certainly less bur- and create your personalized ing millions of dollars for years,” Cole densome on the American people,” Key Account today! said. Meadows said. “The big picture is if you’re from “With that said, it is a herculean Carolina, the tax revenue there comes task that [Ryan] faces, and if we don’t from Jerry Richardson’s individual see real progress in the first six to seven tax forms. Right there on his 1040 he’ll months of this Congress, I don’t think have the income from the Carolina we’ll see it happening over the next Panthers,” Cole said. two or three years,” Meadows said. CJ PAGE 8 APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL Education

COMMENTARY State Board Wants to Close Paying Lip Service To Career Readiness Charter School for Disabled By Barry Smith said the reality of going to a larger Associate Editor or today’s students ― tomor- dia habits. At the experiment’s end, school and the “social complexities” of row’s earners ― communica- tech-free preteens demonstrated RALEIGH going to middle school had proved too tion skills are money in the significantly more improvement in ozens of Triangle-area middle- much for their son, who was hospital- jobF bank. Communication skills their ability to read emotions than and high-schoolers and their ized for anxiety and thoughts of sui- now outrank reading, math, team- students remaining in a digital, parents could be looking for cide twice since starting middle school. work, and even science proficiency Danother school next year if the State “Now that he is home and at- media-rich environment. as work force must-haves. So says Senior author and UCLA psy- Board of Education closes the Dynamic tending DCCS, his anxiety levels have Community Charter School — a school improved and he is much happier and Pew Research Center’s American chology professor Patricia Green- intended to fill a void for disabled chil- able to focus on school,” they wrote. Trends Panel of 3,000-plus adults: field hopes these findings spark dren who have not fit in at traditional He’s making friends and loves going to Surveyed recently about which more balanced discussions about public schools. school every day, they wrote, adding, skills they deemed “most impor- technology’s impact on interper- The school, in its first year of “He continues to grow and thrive.” tant for children to get ahead in the sonal skills, especially as schools operation, serves 70 students. Its Web Medley said the school’s woes world today,” adults gave commu- embrace digital immersion. “Many nication top honors. page says it enrolls students with a can’t be overlooked. “They were going people are looking at the wide range of disabilities, including to have a significant financial deficit Turns out, this trend benefits of digital media panel is right on target. autism, Sotos syndrome, intellectual at the end of the year,” he said. Plus, in education, and not delays, dyspraxia, Medley said, the Recruiters for the world’s many are looking at the most successful compa- fetal alcohol syn- school is not meet- costs. Decreased sensi- drome, congenital ing its IEP obliga- nies say they want new tivity to emotional cues hires who are masterful genetic disorders, tions. ― losing the ability to and anxiety issues. Among the communicators. On the understand the emotions latest Corporate Recruit- At its March concerns expressed of other people ― is one meeting, the state by state Depart- ers Survey from the of the costs,” she noted in Graduate Management board initiated steps ment of Public In- a press release. to close the Ra- struction staff were Admission Council, KRISTEN Should we swipe owner of the GMAT, leigh-based charter lack of structure in BLAIR less and speak more? recruiters for some 600 school. The school the classroom, a Yes. But digital media companies ― including has appealed, and lack of using evi- also offer compelling 36 Fortune 100 firms ― a three-member dence-based prac- opportunities for enhancing and listed proficiency in oral communi- appeal panel ap- tices shown to be customizing education. Plus, the cation as the most-desired skill in a pointed by the state effective in teach- ability to leverage information and job candidate. board’s chairman ing students with Should this marketplace real- communication technologies and Bill Cobey will hear the appeal March autism, and the lack of an opportunity ity affect classrooms? K-12 educa- platforms effectively is a non-ne- 30 before making a recommendation to for students at the school to interact tors today talk incessantly about gotiable component of work force the full board. with “typically developing peers.” ensuring students are career-ready. communication today. “They were going to have a sig- Brady said some of the problems If good communication is the secret It’s time, though, for a nificant financial deficit at the endof cited are found in traditional public to workplace success, are we, liter- thoughtful, holistic examination the year,” Joel Medley, director of the schools. ally, putting our money where our of how best to use digital media Office of Charter Schools, cited as a rea- “I think that we’re challeng- mouth is? for readiness, whether in school, son the charter revocation process was ing the way that special education is New research suggests the career, or life. Ironically, in view- started. “According to the Exceptional taught in North Carolina,” Brady said. balance sheet might come up short. ing children primarily as human Children’s Division, they are not serv- “It seems that they are targeting us for Immersion in digital media may capital (and digital immersion as ing the children in accordance with the things that are not ordinarily an issue have a hidden cost: undermin- one of the best investments), we IEPs.” IEPs are individualized educa- in traditional public schools.” ing children’s “EQ,” or emotional may be depriving them of the skills tion programs established for teaching Brady also said the school is ex- intelligence quotient ― a critical they need most for success in work children with disabilities. pected to close the school year without a component of effective communi- and life. Parents and faculty members budget deficit, in part because it recent- cation skills. Arguably trickier to We also should acknowledge are hoping to convince the panel, and ly received an $80,000 grant designed teach and measure than algorithms that there is much we don’t know eventually the state board, to allow for schools enrolling a significant num- or algebra, such interpersonal “soft about screen saturation’s effects Dynamic to continue operations. ber of home-schooled students. Brady skills” get their boost from in-per- on children. Parents and educators “My son has progressed expo- said about one-third of Dynamic’s stu- son, not screen-based, interactions. would be wise to set and model nentially this year because his self- dents came from home schools. Published recently in the jour- healthy limits, allocating abundant confidence has progressed,” said Sara Medley isn’t as optimistic. “The nal Computers in Human Behavior, screen-free time for talking and Brady, president of the parents associa- deficit has been projected to be in ex- this research from UCLA scientists listening. Human relationships tion at Dynamic. She said that before cess of $200,000,” he said. linked digital media use with a di- and face-to-face interactions, not attending Dynamic, her son had dis- Cobey said the state board could minished ability to identify human screens, teach us how to under- cussed dropping out of high school. make a final decision as early as this emotions. Researchers evaluated stand one another, and thus, how But now, he not only wants a high month. 105 California sixth-graders who to communicate well. school diploma but also wants to be- If the state board continues the were similar in their daily use of Paying lip service to career come a teacher. process of revoking Dynamic’s charter, smartphones, computers, televi- readiness is not enough. Develop- Parents have written to the state’s the school can appeal to the Adminis- sion, and video games. All students ing soft skills is hard work, face Charter School Advisory Board and trative Office of the Courts, and even- were assessed in their baseline abil- to face. But training children to be the State Board of Education urging tually to Superior Court, Cobey said. ity to recognize emotion in facial empathic, powerful communica- the state not to close the school. Par- Cobey said that whatever the expressions and nonverbal interac- tors yields huge dividends ― in ents describe how their children were state board decides, the school and tions. Half were sent for five days and out of the marketplace. CJ bullied at traditional public schools be- parents have raised awareness that a to nature camp with no access to cause of their disabilities. school like Dynamic fills a need. “I’m technology; the other half attended Kristen Blair is a Chapel Hill- One couple wrote of their son’s in support of this type of school as an school and maintained normal me- based education writer. troubles in a traditional middle school, alternative for parents of children that saying he is thriving at Dynamic. They have a disability,” Cobey said. CJ APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL PAGE 9 Education New Student Data Mining System Raises Privacy Concerns By Dan Way grant, and the state expects to seek a Services with built-in safeguards pro- studies at the John Locke Foundation. Associate Editor one-year extension from the U.S. De- tecting the confidentiality of student He is a member of the Longitudinal RALEIGH partment of Education in the coming and family information, Fabrizio said. Data System Committee overseeing orth Carolina public schools weeks. No full-time employee is as- Officials in that office referred ques- development of P-20W. are developing a multimillion- signed to the program, but about 10 tions back to DPI. “Some of it’s definitely benign,” dollar student data mining employees do some amount of work “If you like privacy, and you such as test scores and attendance re- systemN intended to compile and ana- on it. have concerns about how people cords, Stoops said. And he can envision lyze reams of information to improve “ T h e might abuse ways in which the information can be educational outcomes. But critics say it c h i l d r e n c o l l e c t i v e analyzed for beneficial and legitimate poses a “creepy” potential to engineer don’t fill out data, then it’s purposes to enhance the delivery of the work force and easily could fall any infor- creepy. And I education and its outcomes. prey to a variety of “malicious” abuses. mation. This think people “But from the K-12 perspective, Known as the P-20W system, the is all infor- who find it there’s data being collected on behav- program captures student data from mation that creepy have ioral issues, [the] number of times a pre-K through graduate school and fol- we’re col- l e g i t i m a t e student’s been suspended or put into lows individuals into their work years. lecting from c o n c e r n s , ” detention, and that sort of thing I think The Department of Public In- the parents,” said Neal parents would object to,” he said. struction is collaborating with the F a b r i z i o McCluskey, Medical records such as vacci- UNC system, North Carolina Commu- said. associate di- nations, primary care physicians, and nity Colleges System, North Carolina M u c h rector of the medications taken “are areas … where Independent Colleges and Universi- of the data Washington, most parents would draw the line, say- ties, the state Department of Health was being D.C.-based ing the school doesn’t have any right and Human Services, and the Depart- c o l l e c t e d Cato Insti- to maintain any data about what kind ment of Commerce to gather, manage, prior to the tute’s Center of medications a student is taking,” and analyze the information. P-20W initia- This slide, from a presentation by the N.C. Depart- for Educa- Stoops said. “We’re hoping that through this tive through ment of Public Instruction titled “North Carolina: tional Free- Leading the Way in P-20W Data Systems,” shows The state has received an Early system we can have a better under- the Power the agencies that will receive data from the P-20W dom. Learning Challenge Grant that will be standing of the outcomes that come School Stu- data collection. “You do used to collect information on K-3 stu- from kids going to different schools dent Infor- have a prob- dents that eventually will be incorpo- in North Carolina, and what happens mation Management System. At the lem of hubris among researchers who rated into P-20W. to them after they graduate,” said Lou end of each year, information collected think that because they have been able “This is going to be a much more Fabrizio, DPI director of data, research, in that system transfers to the Common to statistically control for various fac- problematic set of data because it’s and federal policy. Education Data Analysis and Report- tors that they can reach universal con- going to include social and emotional “We are required to report cer- ing System, a longitudinal database clusions about how that can be used to skills, and teachers will have to assess tain things to the U.S. Department of that would become part of the P-20 educate people,” McCluskey said. whether a student can function well Education, all in aggregate form, in system when it becomes operational. That makes it easier for politi- in a group, is aware of their own emo- terms of things like how many kids … The General Assembly in the last cians to cherry-pick data in developing tional state, etc.,” Stoops said. “We’re graduate from high school and enroll session passed Senate Bill 815, “which public policy for work force outcomes, talking about very young children.” in a community college or a university has to do with student data privacy, “and then the biggest danger is that With a growing database of fam- within 16 or 18 months after their high and every fall the superintendents are people, politicians or experts, try to ily, medical, educational, law enforce- school graduation, and how many kids supposed to send notifications home use this to engineer society,” McClus- ment involvement, and other informa- actually complete one year of higher to the parents telling them that we do key said. tion comes the risk that “bad people ed or community college within two have safeguards in place for any data,” The P-20W system is another who are looking for information on years of graduating,” Fabrizio said. Fabrizio said. concern layered atop the National someone to use against them for what- The system still is being devel- The system will be housed in the Education Data Model established by ever reason” could leak the records oped as part of an initial $3.4 million Office of State Information Technology the federal government to collect more from inside, or hack into it from out- than 400 data points. side, Stoops said. “You can see how this could be Like McCluskey, he worries how seriously abused and dangerously far officials may go in demanding pub- used to say potentially we encourage people not to [practice] a particular lic policy to comport with interpreta- religion, or will start saying how chil- tions of the research. dren should be raised by their parents, “I think the expectation is that legislating it and saying not to do what [the main users will be] university- the research suggests would be crimi- based researchers, doctoral students nal abuse or something like that,” Mc- writing dissertations, individuals, pro- Cluskey said. fessors and researchers from univer- And with recent reports of data sities, as well as administrators from breaches hitting everything from Tar- the departments that may be looking get stores to the national health care for ways to improve their services,” exchanges, privacy security is a con- Stoops said. stant concern. While they are not supposed to “These inventive hackers or have access to the databases, “What people who steal data are malicious would prevent a private business, or people who seem to find a way to get the state, or federal government from data that people think is secure,” Mc- accessing the data to use for various Cluskey said. purposes, whether it be to market “I would say probably that most goods or target voters?” Stoops said. North Carolinians have no idea the ex- Since the federal government tent to which these databases are being provides so much of the funding, he brought together by P-20W,” and most asked, “Will you have a point where parents don’t know they can opt out of the federal government says, ‘Be- the data collection, said Terry Stoops, cause we pay for it, we are then enti- director of research and education tled to it’?” CJ PAGE 10 APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL Local Government Town and County Several Bills Would Alter Local Governing Boards W-S airport de-annexation By Sam A. Hieb For its part, the Greensboro News & Record aggressive- A Forsyth County commis- Contributor ly opposes the measure, hammering away almost daily with sioner has suggested that Winston- GREENSBORO editorials and blog posts. Salem de-annex its airport. The everal bills altering the makeup of local governments That stance has moved past the editorial page, as met- move is intended to make the facil- are working their way through the current General As- ro columnist Susan Ladd has used her space in the paper to ity more competitive, reports the sembly session, raising charges by liberal advocates rally opponents. Winston-Salem Journal. Sand pundits that the GOP-led legislature is maneuvering to “Sadly, politics has become an irony-free zone,” Ladd The Triad currently has two give Republicans a foothold in local governments that now wrote in her March 9 column. “How else could Wade decry commercial airports, Winston- are under Democratic control. the overreach of government, then use her power as state Salem’s Smith Reynolds Airport While one bill would reduce the size of the Rocking- senator to deny the city its power of self-governance?” and Piedmont Triad International ham County Board of Education, and another would reduce Under the headline “A great example of rotten poli- Airport, which is located near but the size of the Trinity City Council, the measures generating tics,” Ladd also criticized a perceived lack of adequate no- not actually in Greensboro. As a re- the most controversy are bills that would affect two of the tice before Wade’s bill was taken up by committee. Oppo- sult of that placement, planes and state’s larger cities, Raleigh and Greensboro. nents of Barefoot’s bill leveled similar complaints. other assets based at PTI pay prop- Wake County commis- At its March 17 meeting, erty taxes only to Guilford County, sioners now represent seven the Greensboro council took while aircraft based across the Tri- geographic districts, but vot- the only legal step available ad at Smith Reynolds pay property ers countywide elect each to fight Wade’s bill, passing taxes to both Forsyth County and commissioner. an ordinance extending the the city of Winston-Salem. Win- Senate Bill 181, spon- terms of members of the City ston-Salem collects about $282,000 sored by Sen. Chad Bare- Council from two years to a year from private property at the foot, R-Wake, would increase four years, and a resolution to county-owned airport. the size of the Wake County hold a binding referendum on Commissioner Ted Kaplan Board of Commissioners to the four-year terms. asked the Forsyth County Com- nine members and realign the Mayor Nancy Vaughan mission to recommend that the districts to coincide with those pointed out that ordinance General Assembly remove Smith of the county’s Board of Edu- would preserve the current Reynolds from the city’s tax rolls. cation. council structure with five An exemption from city property Seven of the nine school members elected from dis- taxes would attract more planes board members represent geo- tricts, three elected at-lareg, to the airport, Kaplan argued. His graphic districts and are elect- and a mayor with veto power, proposal was supported by the ed by voters living in their dis- which has been in place for Airport Commission of Forsyth tricts. The two other districts more than 30 years. County, which oversees the facility. divide the county in half. (One district basically covers the “We were faced with a dilemma,” Vaughan told Caroli- city of Raleigh. The other comprises the rest of the county.) na Journal. “We wanted to preserve the 5-3-1, but how could Voters choose one school board candidate from their geo- we tweak it to make the change? So it would be to either Buncombe horse rules graphic district and a second from the “at large” district in go from two years to four years or change the year of the which they live. election. Those were the two options we could pursue to Buncombe County has re- Arguing for his bill on the Senate floor, Barefoot said preserve the current structure.” scinded rules requiring owners of his proposal would provide better representation for Wake In a CJ phone interview, Greensboro City Attorney horses to provide social interac- County citizens. Representation is too concentrated in Ra- Tom Carruthers confirmed Vaughan’s statement that the or- tion and shelter. The move came leigh with the districts drawn as they are now, he claimed. dinance change preserves the 5-3-1 system. after intense criticism from horse “Seventy-five percent of towns in Wake County don’t “The mayor’s comment is correct — the ordinance as owners to the Buncombe County have any representation on the county commission,” Bare- adopted does not alter the 5-3-1 system — it reaffirms it,” commission’s 4-3 vote enacting the foot said. “This bill gives my constituents and all Wake Carruthers said. The ordinance change and the referendum rules, reports the Asheville Citizen- County residents a much-needed voice within their county “are not symbolic. They’re adopted pursuant to law,” he Times. government.” added. The ordinance, adopted in Opponents claim Barefoot’s bill is merely a Republi- However, during the March 17 meeting, council mem- January, stated that dogs, horses, can power grab. ber Tony Wilkins — the lone supporter of the seven-district mules, ponies, and other equines At the very least, any attempt to restructure local gov- system — characterized the votes as a “legal ploy which I “require shade in the summer and ernment should be decided by local citizens by referendum, am not privy to.” protection from wind and cold in argued Sen. Josh Stein, D-Wake. “The local communities In other words, the ordinance change and scheduled the winter.” ought to decide the policy decisions that affect their lives,” referendum — passed while Wade’s bill was still working “The bottom line is we want Stein argued. its way through the legislature — would serve as the basis to do the best thing for horses and The Senate passed Barefoot’s bill by a 31-16 margin. for a court challenge should Wade’s bill become law. people,” said Commissioner Ellen By a similar 33-15 margin, the chamber also passed Senate In a later phone interview, Wilkins described the votes Frost, the main proponent of the Bill 36, sponsored by Sen. Trudy Wade, a former Greensboro as a “legal maneuver,” adding “I don’t see how it preserves rules. City Council member. the 5-3-1 system.” “We’re not trying to hurt Wade’s bill would restructure the Greensboro council Wilkins also disputed the notion that Wade’s bill anybody,” Frost said. “We’re after by reducing its members from nine to seven. All members would result in watered-down representation for Greens- people who are neglectful.” would be elected from redrawn districts, with only the may- boro residents. The North Carolina Horse or elected at large. The mayor also would no longer vote, “What services are [opponents] talking about that they Council, however, found the rules except to break a tie or when voting to hire or fire the city say would not be addressed?” Wilkins asked. “I can’t imag- unnecessary, noting that horses manager and the city attorney. ine a council member not responding to a constituent.” have the ability to develop ad- Wade did not respond to a request for an interview but As of this writing, both S.B. 181 and S.B. 36 were work- equate insulation and survive out- has said publicly that her bill would provide Greensboro ing their way through the House of Representatives. Both doors in far colder climates than residents — especially minorities — with better representa- are expected to pass, and since they are local bills, they do North Carolina. Horses also don’t tion, a notion disputed by some council members. not require Gov. Pat McCrory’s signature to become law. necessarily like dark, enclosed ar- “You’re going from having five people representing Carruthers says it’s unclear how Greensboro would eas. you to one person representing you,” council member Mari- respond if S.B. 36 become law, effectively making its ordi- The council voted unani- kay Abuzuaiter said during the council’s March 17 meeting. nance and referendum votes moot. mously to change rules affecting The vast majority of incumbent council members, “To the degree that there’s an ambigu- equines. CJ some of whom would lose their seats should the bill become ity, council would have to decide the appropriate law, have expressed vocal opposition to Wade’s bill. course to resolve that,” he said. CJ APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL PAGE 11 Local Government Durham Promises More Public COMMENTARY Input in Cell Tower Location Beginning of the End

By Michael Lowrey ers. “They don’t need a medical doc- For the Map Act? Associate Editor tor. They end up in a hospital and stay RALEIGH there until they can go where they n most states, when the depart- The DOT denied this allega- he siting of cell phone towers should have been taken in the first ment of transportation or a tion, asserting instead that the Map local government needs land Act moratorium was simply an or- continues to be controversial, place.” forI a highway, it obtains it the old dinary exercise of the state’s power with Durham the latest locality And that place often is a psychi- fashioned way — by buying it. It to regulate the use of land for which toT address the issue. After two years atric facility, though it may take hours or even days before they are trans- uses the state’s power of eminent no compensation was required. The of debate, a new rules package for the domain to condemn the property, trial court agreed with the DOT. ferred there. towers is ready for consideration by and it compensates the property’s The property owners appealed. And “It’s better care; it’s less expen- the city council and county commis- owners at a level commensurate won. sive; it’s the right answer,” said Dave sion, says the Raleigh News & Observer. with the market value at the time of The Court of Appeals con- Richard, deputy secretary for behav- The issue of size, location, and the taking. cluded that the Map Act is “a ioral health and developmental dis- conditions under which cell phone Under North Carolina’s Map cost-controlling mechanism” under towers — technically known as “wire- abilities at the N.C. Department of Act, however, the N.C. Department which development moratoria less communica- Health and Hu- of Transportation has been able are imposed “with a mind toward tion facilities” man Services, of to take a different approach. The property acquisition. …The Map — can be posi- the Wake County act empowers the DOT (and other Act empowers NCDOT with the tioned became Cherokee model. “We’d agencies) to create “trans- right to exercise the state’s an issue in late like to see it rep- portation corridors” with- power of eminent domain 2012, when the licated in places in which “no building ... which power, when city-county plan- to where it makes permits shall be issued for exercised, requires the ning depart- sense.” any building or structure payment of just compen- ment approved Such rep- or part thereof ... nor shall sation.” a 120-foot tower Currituck lication outside approval of a subdivision The court remanded without prior Wake County ... be granted.” There is the case to the trial court notice to nearby would take a no time limit to how long to consider “the extent of change to Medicaid and Medicare residents. Protests ensued, and in re- land may be subjected the damage suffered by rules. The Wake County initiative is sponse, Mayor Bill Bell requested that to such a moratorium on each plaintiff as a result one of a number of pilot programs un- JON the planning department review local development, and as a of the respective tak- derway nationally to test whether such rules. result the DOT has been GUZE ings” and “the amount of diversion programs are safe and effec- “This subject matter, wireless able to control large tracts compensation due to each tive. The state could, however, request communication facilities, is one of the of land for years without plaintiff for such takings.” a waiver from the federal government condemning them and This is a stunning most legislated and litigated issues of if it sought to expand the program. without paying compensation to victory, not only for the long-suf- land use, bar none,” said Pat Young, their owners. fering property owners in Forsyth the planning department’s assistant Google Fiber challenges Land within a transportation County who brought the lawsuit, director. corridor loses value and becomes but also for all the property owners Under draft regulations approved In January, Charlotte and the Raleigh-Durham area were selected to difficult to sell, which is precisely across the state whose lives have in March by the planning department, the point. At the time of passage, been blighted by the Map Act. It is cell phone towers in most residential receive Google Fiber high-speed Inter- net service. Even so, local officials have the General Assembly was surpris- also a stunning victory for constitu- areas would require a special-use per- much to do before rolling out the ser- ingly candid about its intentions for tional government in North Caro- mit. Property owners must be given vice, writes The Charlotte Observer. the Map Act, lina. advance notice and an opportunity to Google Fiber offers speeds as which it de- For years, scribed as, “An the John Locke object to the proposed tower at a pub- much as 100 times faster than conven- act to control Foundation lic hearing. In addition, a balloon test tional broadband at rates comparable It’s about time the cost of ac- has urged the would be required, in which a balloon to the top tier of cable Internet options quiring rights- NCDOT quit General As- would be floated to the height of the while providing lower rates for slower of-way for the sembly to repeal proposed tower, allowing residents to speeds. state’s highway abusing property the Map Act in see whether it would obstruct views State law doesn’t require tele- or cause other aesthetic concerns. Cell system.” its entirety. A communications companies to provide A recent owners with group of House towers would be restricted to 20 feet comparable service to all areas the decision by the the Map Act members, led above the allowable height limits un- company serves. Indeed, Google has N.C. Court of by Rep. Rayne der the zoning code for an area, and been selective about where it expands, Appeals, Kirby Brown, R- additional setback restrictions would offering service in areas only after get- v. NCDOT, puts Davidson, have apply. ting a commitment from enough local the state on the defensive, where it sponsored House Bill 183, doing residents to make the investment in in- belongs. Among the transportation exactly that. It repeals the various ER overcrowding frastructure profitable. corridors created by the DOT are sections of the General Statutes That has led to concerns in low- Wake County Emergency Medi- two in Forsyth County that tie up that pertain to the Map Act, and it income areas. cal Services ambulances don’t always land for a future beltway around gives the DOT six months to “study “It was just very, very challeng- Winston-Salem. Ever since the cor- the development of a process for take a patient to the hospital. Some- ing,” said Julie Porter, president of the times, as part of a pilot program, the ridors were created, the owners of acquiring land for future highway Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Part- the affected property have lived in a construction that is in accordance destination is a psychiatric facility or nership, who previously worked to state of limbo. The western corridor with ... Kirby v. NCDOT.” a substance abuse clinic, reports The sign up low-income residents in Kan- was created in 1997! Thirty-seven states manage News & Observer. sas City. Eventually, some of these For- to build highways without abusing The Wake pilot program prevent- “I wanted to make sure that Char- syth County property owners sued property owners in this way. North ed 764 emergency room admissions lotte didn’t have the same experience.” the DOT. They alleged, among other Carolina can, too. CJ over the past two years, saving Medic- A 2012 survey showed that 85 things, that the indefinite morato- aid $500,000 annually. percent of adults in Mecklenburg rium constituted a taking for which “People call 911 because they County had used the Internet in the they had a constitutional right to be Jon Guze is director of legal stud- don’t know what else to do,” said previous three months and most of the compensated. ies for the John Locke Foundation. Wake County EMS director Brent My- users had access at home. CJ PAGE 12 APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL Local Government Alamance School Records Case Heads to Appeals Court

By Dan Way come clean with the records, and you Associate Editor don’t come clean with the public about RALEIGH why that level of government action is three-judge panel of the state taken, and why you spent that kind of Court of Appeals has scheduled tax money to do it,” Bussian said. oral arguments for April 6 in a “On a macro-level … access to Ahigh-profile case pitting the public’s government is what makes our sys- access to official records against local tem different and better than any other government attempts to suppress in- The case began as an effort by The Times-News of Burlington to access copies of government system in the world,” a closed meeting of the Alamance-Burlington Board of Education prior to a vote to formation from public view. fire its superintendent. Bussian said. “There’s a long tradition The outcome could have major of the public having the right to know implications for the public’s right to ball program under coach Jim Valvano then the law’s supposed to be read so in this country, and it starts with access know in North Carolina. was a public record that should be dis- as to enhance public access,” Stevens to local government, and even school The Times-News newspaper of closed even though it was a personnel said. board meetings and records.” Burlington sued the Alamance-Burl- matter discussed at a closed session. “I think in this [Times-News] case, Stevens said North Carolina ington Board of Education for copies The justices ruled that exceptions that proper reading would make these presents “a mixed bag” of govern- of closed meeting minutes at which a to public disclosure are no longer valid public records,” Stevens said. “I think ment transparency and compliance report was released about questionable once the need for secrecy has elapsed. the school board should lose on that, with open meetings and public records activities by then-Superintendent Lillie Bussian argues the circumstances and I hope they do.” laws. That varies from city to town to Cox in preparation for a vote to fire her. of the Times-News case mirror those Bussian said the Times-News case county, usually depending on the atti- Cox subsequently resigned when the in the Poole case. In both instances, an offers important lessons in the value of tudes of professional staff and elected board went into open session. investigative report was compiled, it robust public records laws. officials. A measure of the importance of was discussed at closed meetings, and “It’s important on a real micro- The State Treasurer’s Office, De- this case is the powerful interests filing a decision was made. Once the vote oc- level because in Alamance County partment of Insurance, and “a couple friends-of-the-court briefs. The North curred, there was no longer a need for they spent $300,000 or thereabouts of of the other departments” are gener- Carolina Association of Broadcasters secrecy. public money to get rid of a superin- ally compliant” with the law, he said. and the North Carolina Press Associa- The defendants argue the cases tendent whose contract had only been “There’s a lot of complaining about tion lined up behind the Times-News. are not analogous. renewed two months before, and then foot-dragging, or slow responses on The North Caro- Writing for the North Carolina they wouldn’t tell the public why they the part of people ranging from the lina School Boards School Boards As- did it,” he said. university to the governor’s office to Association sup- sociation, staff at- “It just doesn’t add up. All it does particularly the Department of Health ports the defen- The case has been torney Christine is just create suspicion when you don’t and Human Services.” CJ dant school board. Scheef said, “De- “In the lore joined by powerful spite Dr. Cox’s of North Carolina status as a former Stay in the know with the JLF blogs appeals rulings on media groups employee, her per- Visit our family of weblogs for immediate analysis and commentary on issues great and small open government sonnel informa- law, this is poten- concerned with tion, including the tially a very big issues discussed case. The battle open government during the May lines are drawn,” 30, 2014, closed said John Bus- session, remained confidential. The personnel statutes The Locker Room is the blog on the main JLF Web site. All JLF employees and many friends of the sian, a media attorney representing the foundation post on this site every day: http://www.johnlocke.org/lockerroom/ Times-News, which already obtained a do not address ‘the need for secrecy’; first-of-its-kind Supreme Court order instead, they compel the local board directing the Appeals Court to expe- of education, except under limited cir- dite the case as required under public cumstances not present here, to main- records law. tain the confidentiality of the closed “When you have a combination session discussion.” of the North Carolina Association of “All of the cases that have ad- Broadcasters — essentially every ra- dressed the part of the open meetings dio and television outlet in the state law that requires a school board and The Meck Deck is the JLF’s blog in Charlotte. Jeff Taylor blogs on this site and has made it a must-read — allied with the Press Association — every other government agency to for anyone interested in issues in the Queen City: http://charlotte.johnlocke.org/blog/ which is most of the major print publi- produce minutes of closed session se- cations and website publications in the cret discussions say that there is a fuse state — arguing in favor of access, that on the length of time those minutes tells you something,” Bussian said. can be kept secret from the public, and The decision rendered by the there is no case that says that the fuse three-judge panel — Chief Judge Lin- doesn’t exist when it comes to school board personnel,” Bussian said. da McGee, Judge Robert N. Hunter, Piedmont Publius is the JLF’s blog in the Triad. Greensboro blogger and writer Sam A. Hieb mans the and Judge Richard Dietz — will decide “The fuse exists for everybody,” controls to keeps citizens updated on issues in the Triad: http://triad.johnlocke.org/blog/ whether public records laws and court he said. precedents trump state personnel con- “There are some parallels,” be- fidentiality exemptions. tween the Poole and the Times-News Much of the lawsuit’s framework cases, said Hugh Stevens, a Raleigh- is built around the landmark News & based attorney who argued the Poole Observer v. Poole Commission case. The case for The News & Observer before the two parties interpret the outcome and Supreme Court. intent of that Supreme Court decision “The Poole Commission case is al- The Wild West is the JLF’s blog in Western North Carolina. Asheville’s Leslee Kulba blogs in this site, very differently. ways helpful because that’s where one designed to keep track of issues in the mountains of N.C.: http://western.johnlocke.org/blog/ The Supreme Court ruled unani- of the big principles laid down … by mously in 1992 that an investigatory the courts was that unless there is a report compiled about misbehavior very specific and explicit exception or in the N.C. State University basket- exemption to the public records law, The John Locke Foundation, 200 W. Morgan St., Raleigh, NC 27601 | 919-828-3876 APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL PAGE 13 Local Government Supreme Court Ruling on Pot Highlights Partisan Divide

By Michael Lowrey effects, against unreasonable searches and tradition does not enjoy Fourth Hudson. Associate Editor and seizures.” U.S. Supreme Court Amendment protection. “Because I conclude that this de- RALEIGH precedent recognizes that the Fourth The majority also determined termination is based upon a mistaken he issue of warrantless search Amendment extends to a house’s that the seizure without a warrant of assumption about how the doctrine and seizures by police was again “curtilage,” the area “immediately the plants was justified by “exigent cir- applies when the view and seizure before the N.C. Supreme Court surrounding and associated with the cumstances.” occur from outside a constitutionally inT a case underscoring the divergent ju- home.” “Reviewing the record, it is ob- protected area, a ‘pre-intrusion’ sce- dicial philosophies of the high court’s The N.C. Supreme Court rein- jectively reasonable to conclude that nario, I respectfully dissent.” Republican and Democratic members. stated Grice’s someone may Hudson argued that the case fell On May 5, 2011, the Johnston c o n v i c t i o n . have been under a different line of court prec- County Sheriff’s Office received an “Defendant home, that edents. In her view, the officers simply anonymous tip that Jerry Grice Jr. was chose to grow the individu- had no right to enter Grice’s yard with- growing marijuana. Two detectives m a r i j u a n a al would have out either a warrant or probable cause were sent to Grice’s house to talk to in his yard, been aware of and exigent circumstances. She did him about the claim. Grice’s front door plainly vis- the officers’ not believe that exigent circumstances was unusable, as it was covered by ible to any p r e s e n c e , existed in this case, and the detectives plastic and blocked by furniture. The visitors to his and that the should have obtained a warrant before officers noticed a side door that ap- home. The i n d i v i d u a l seizing the plants. peared to serve as the building’s main law enforce- could easily “Usually, the suspect and the con- entrance. ment officers have moved traband are in one location, and the of- No one responded to a knock at who visited or destroyed ficers are in a different location — as in, the door despite the presence of a car defendant’s the plants if the officers are outside the house and in the driveway. While standing in the home careful- they were left the suspect is inside with the contra- driveway, an officer saw three contain- ly limited the scope of their intrusion, on the property,” wrote Martin. band, contemplating potential destruc- ers with marijuana plants about 15 and their seizure was justified under Though nominally nonpartisan, tion of it. Here, on the other hand, it is yards away. The detectives seized the the plain view campaigns for the the officers and the contraband that are plants to prevent their destruction. A doctrine and sup- court are generally together, and the suspect is nowhere to search warrant was obtained later, and ported by exigent de facto partisan be seen. If these circumstances support the house and yard were searched the circumstances,” The court split 4-2 affairs. Martin, as a finding of exigent circumstances, it next day. Grice admitted that the plants wrote Chief Jus- on the case, the well as the three is difficult to imagine when a simple seized the previous day were his. tice Mark Martin justices that joined sighting of portable contraband would Grice eventually was convicted for the majority. four being in his opinion — not.” of manufacturing a controlled sub- In reaching Robert Edmunds, In Hudson’s view, Grice’s Fourth stance and was sentenced to a sus- this conclusion, Republican, the Paul Newby, and Amendment rights were violated, and pended term of six to eight months in Martin held that Barbara Jackson — he should receive a new trial without prison with supervised probation. the site where two Democrat are Republicans. reference to the marijuana plants — The N.C. Court of Appeals over- Grice’s marijuana Justices Rob- which she concluded were seized im- turned Grice’s conviction, holding that plants were lo- in Hudson and properly. the detective’s warrantless seizure of cated, 15 yards from his house, in an Cheri Beasley, both Democrats, dis- The court’s seventh justice is Sam the plants violated his Fourth Amend- unfenced area, and not behind a fence, sented from the majority holding. Ervin IV, a Democrat who joined the ment rights. The state then sought re- does not qualify for protection under “The state argues, and the major- court in January. The case was argued view before the Supreme Court. the Fourth Amendment. Even if it did, ity agrees, that because the marijuana in November 2013, more than a year The Fourth Amendment states the plants still would have been eas- plants in defendant’s backyard were in before he joined the court. “[t]he right of the people to be secure ily visible from a portion of the prop- ‘plain view,’ their seizure was justified The case is State v. Grice, in their persons, houses, papers, and erty — the driveway — that by custom under the ‘plain view’ doctrine,” wrote (501PA12). CJ Help us keep our presses rolling Keep Up With Publishing a newspaper is an ex- pensive proposition. Just ask the many daily newspapers that are having trouble making ends meet these days. State Government It takes a large team of editors, re- porters, photographers and copy editors Be sure to visit to bring you the aggressive investigative CarolinaJournal. reporting you have become accustomed com often for the latest on what’s go- to seeing in Carolina Journal each month. ing on in state government. CJ writ- Putting their work on newsprint and then delivering it to more than 100,000 ers are posting several news stories readers each month puts a sizeable dent in the John Locke Foundation’s budget. daily. And for real-time coverage of That’s why we’re asking you to help defray those costs with a donation. Just breaking events, be sure to follow us send a check to: Carolina Journal Fund, John Locke Foundation, 200 W. Morgan on Twitter (addresses below). St., Suite 200, Raleigh, NC 27601. We thank you for your support. CAROLINA JOURNAL: http://www.twitter.com/CarolinaJournal JOHN LOCKE FOUNDATION: http://www.twitter.com/JohnLockeNC John Locke Foundation | 200 W. Morgan St., Raleigh, NC 27601 | 919-828-3876 PAGE 14 APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL From Page 1 Tax Preparer Uses Undercover Plan to Expose Rampant Tax Fraud Continued from Page 1 language used at each location, all the tax preparers appeared to be owned by Hispanics and seemed to cater primar- ily to Hispanic clients. Francisco arrived at each office with a fake W-2 wage and tax state- ment as well as fake individual tax- payer identification numbers for four fictitious children who, he claimed to the tax preparer, lived in Mexico. Franciso also carried an audio re- cording device, which was concealed from the preparers. He asked each tax preparer to calculate the return with and without the children. Each pre- parer informed Francisco that if he wanted to obtain a refund from the federal government, he would have to say the children live with him. Each phony child was worth about $1,000 in refunds. In every instance, Fran- cisco qualified for a $3,657 refund if he claimed the nonexistent children lived with him, but would owe the IRS $343 if the children lived in Mexico. In one of the recordings, Francis- co asked the preparer, “Am I going to be in trouble?” The preparer respond- ed, “If you get audited, the most that Honduras native Mario Iberra Raiz and girlfriend Miriam Alvarado-Barahona, who lived at the Alta Mobile Home Park in Clayton, could happen is that you will be asked perpetrated more than $1 million in stolen identity refund fraud before their arrests in January 2014. (CJ photo by Don Carrington) to return the money, but the chances of being audited are slim.” aggressive SIRF schemes have spread Mobile Home Park in Clayton — had by aliens who do not have Social Se- Juanita says she refuses to in- across the country at an alarming rate. perpetrated more than $1 million in curity numbers. These ITINs are then clude phony children on tax returns, “The plan is frighteningly sim- SIRF fraud before their January 2014 used in the preparation and filing of even though some potential clients ple — steal Social Security numbers, arrest. fraudulent federal income tax returns have asked her to do so. One potential file tax returns showing a false refund According to court documents, which falsely purport to be filed by customer came with 12 government- claim, and then have the refunds elec- the pair was part of “an ongoing multi- persons identified therein, and which issued ITINs and said he wanted to tronically deposited or sent to an ad- million-dollar tax refund fraud scheme falsely claim income, withheld federal use only four. She refused to prepare dress where the offender can access the that is being perpetrated primarily income taxes, and a tax refund owed. his return. refund checks,” she said. by Hispanic persons, many of whom The refund checks are mailed to and She said she hopes the IRS will The schemes often are imple- are Honduran nationals, and many acquired by perpetrators who are not crack down on this type of fraud. “I re- mented in early January before honest of whom are illegally in the United the persons named on the refund, who alize now that it is going to be a huge taxpayers file their returns. The goal is States.” then seek out an accomplice who is fight to try to stop this,” Juanita toldCJ . to take advantage of the IRS’ effort to Their cases were handled by the willing and able to cash the checks. …” She also said that it appears the pay refunds quickly. A taxpayer whose U.S. attorney’s office in Nashville, In September, Raiz and Barahona unscrupulous tax preparers do not Social Security number has been stolen Tenn. Raiz and Barahona transport- each pleaded guilty to a charge of con- charge extra for preparing returns us- and used for a fraudulent return will ed fraudulently obtained IRS refund spiracy to defraud the United States. ing phony children. face problems when he files his return checks from North Carolina, using an Each received a sentence of 24 months with the IRS. “The economic and per- accomplice who worked at a check- in federal prison, and jointly they are Stolen identity refund fraud sonal consequences can be severe and cashing business in Nashville to cash responsible for $1,044,910 in restitu- them. The accomplice cashed the The extent of tax refund fraud often long-term,” said Ciraolo. tion. “The prosecution of SIRF crimes checks “for a fee that significantly ex- If deported, each “shall not re- has caught the attention of the federal ceeded what the facility charged for government at high levels. is a national priority,” she said. “And, enter the United States without the ex- together with our law enforcement cashing legitimate checks,” court doc- press permission of the Attorney Gen- “The high potential for financial uments reported. gain and low physical risk have made partners, we will continue to look for eral or the Secretary of the Department the most effective ways to bring this When arrested in Tennessee, Raiz of Homeland Security,” according to stolen identity refund fraud the new and Barahona each admitted being in choice for drug dealers and gangs,” conduct to an end and to punish these court documents. wrongdoers. Indeed, enforcement ef- the United States illegally. Barahona is Acting Assistant Attorney General the parent of two or more children. Obama executive action Caroline Ciraolo said March 12 in testi- forts are critical, but the goal is to stop fraudulent refunds at the door.” The source of the fraudulent mony to the U.S. Senate Committee on checks was a person living in Raleigh If it stands, President Obama’s Finance. Ciraolo did not discuss the ex- executive action deferring the depor- tent of the involvement of illegal im- or Durham identified as Mario A. Car- “Combating the illegal use of So- camo. Records indicate officials are tation of illegal immigrants would migrants in SIRF, nor of the extent of cial Security numbers and other per- pursuing Carcamo, known as El Primo complicate the relationship be- phony-children fraud schemes. sonal information to file false returns in federal documents, but the status of tween some immigrants and the IRS. seeking fraudulent refunds is a top N.C./Tennessee scheme his case is unclear because most of his Obama’s action — currently on priority of both the Tax Division and court filings are sealed. hold as court challenges proceed — the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices across the One of the more spectacular According to the initial criminal would allow those illegal immigrants country, “ she said. hauls by illegal immigrants using these complaint, “The elaborate scheme ini- to file amended tax returns claiming Ciraolo explained the schemes tax fraud methods involved a couple tially involves the acquisition and use Earned Income Tax Credits going back included filing returns containing in- living in North Carolina. of identity documents pertaining to three years. As a result, approximately flated and false deductions, false W-2 Honduras native Mario Iberra persons who for the most part reside 800,000 claims could cost the govern- income statements, and preparing re- Raiz, also known as Jose Vallecillo- outside the United States, to fraudu- ment $1.7 billion over the next 10 years, turns and failing to remit the refund Lozano, and girlfriend Miriam Alvara- lently apply for individual taxpayer based on an estimate by the Joint Com- to the taxpayer. She said that the more do-Barahona — who lived at the Alta identification numbers, which are used mittee on Taxation. CJ APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL PAGE 15 From Page 1 Spirit AeroSystems Far Below Job Numbers to Satisfy Incentives Continued from Page 1 to transport components from the port at Morehead City to the GTP by truck. Because Spirit hasn’t employed as many people as promised, the com- pany won’t get all the incentives that were available. State officials say such targets and “claw back” provisions are a reason to continue offering taxpayer incentives to attract businesses, be- cause companies that don’t meet their goals won’t further drain state coffers. Critics of the incentives say any purported “sav- ings” are beside the point, and that it is impossible to Sen. Bob Rucho, predict how well R-Mecklenburg a company will perform. “The job numbers have always been an is- sue of concern,” said Sen. Bob Rucho, R-Mecklenburg, one of the General As- sembly’s most outspoken opponents This six-mile-long railroad spur was built for Spirit AeroSystems at a cost of $24 million in taxpayer dollars, but it has been of business incentives. “Rarely does unused since it was completed in 2012 because the company finds it cheaper to deliver by truck. (CJ photo by Don Carrington) someone go back and check. Under the circumstances, this brings into ques- Spirit qualified for up to $20.2 million cause it didn’t hit employment targets. installments of $29,342.72 Payments tion if incentives work at all.” through the JDIG program, but it has “These programs are working the were to start in January 2015. received just $1.4 million and is unlike- way they are designed. If the compa- Golden LEAF President Dan Ger- Commerce agreements ly to receive any more because of the nies don’t meet the goals, they don’t lach told CJ the lease payments will get the money,” Wilson said. continue as long as Spirit is below the One part of the Spirit incentive lower job numbers. Under the agreement, Spirit was agreement thresholds, and the amount package was a JDIG award from the Golden LEAF grant will vary depending on Spirit’s actual North Carolina Department of Com- expected to hit a target of 1,031 job po- sitions by December 2014, with a mini- employment. Gerlach said lease pay- merce. Under JDIG, recipients annu- Spirit’s lower-than-expected job ments to the GTP would be transferred mum of 825 jobs, far below the 375 jobs ally are returned a percentage of the counts require it to make lease pay- back to Golden LEAF. state annual income tax withholdings the company had in December. ments, beginning this year, to the GTP, made by employees as long as capi- Wilson said Commerce also its landlord. Unused rail spur tal investment totals, average wage awarded Spirit a separate One North The $100 million Golden LEAF Carolina Fund grant worth $5 million grant was awarded to the GTP Author- The six-mile-long rail line was goals, and job threshold numbers are completed and ready for service in over a period of three years. The com- ity. The GTP gave that money to Spirit met. JDIG refunds can last for up to January 2012 at a cost of $24 million, pany has received just $180,000 and 12 years. Commerce spokesman Gra- to build its 500,000-square-foot build- according to N.C. ham Wilson told Carolina Journal that may have to give some of that back be- ing. Agreements Department of between GTP and Transportation Golden LEAF, and Spirit, at 375 jobs, Rail Division Di- between GTP and rector Paul Wor- Spirit, outline the has fallen ley. Spirit was details of the ar- expected to trans- rangement. far short of its port the large air- The GTP craft components owns the building projection by rail to the but leases it and Morehead City of 1,031 jobs and Wilmington approximately 300 ports, but instead acres of land to Spirit is trans- Spirit. Spirit occu- porting by truck. pies the site for free as long as it meets “Spirit has always intended capital investment goals and annual to use the rail spur from the Global job thresholds (which are different TransPark to the port at Morehead from the JDIG job targets). Spirit has City, and rail remains the company’s met the investment goals but was re- preferred method of shipment,” Spir- quired to create a minimum of 500 jobs it spokesman Jarrod Bartlett told CJ. by the end of 2014, 600 by the end of “However, rail carrier charges have 2015, and 800 every year after that. been more expensive than shipping By failing to meet the job targets, product by truck.” While noting that “staffing num- Spirit must make lease payments to bers have not met the original projec- the GTP, and at the end of 2014, the tions,” Bartlett said, “We are proud company was short of its target by 125 to be part of the North Carolina com- jobs. So, according to the conditions of munity and expect to continue mea- the agreements, Spirit owes the GTP sured hiring to support production $352,112.64, payable in 12 monthly demand.” CJ PAGE 16 APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL Interview Beckett Urges People to Read the Nation’s Founding Documents

From CJ Staff RALEIGH “I think the founders really understood riginal documents should play an important role in American that for self-government to work, you history education. That’s the had to have an educated society. You approachO from Roger Beckett, execu- tive director of the Ashbrook Center at had to have a society that was not only Ashland University. Beckett explained his preference for original historical literate, but also understood some- documents over textbooks during a recent presentation for the John Locke thing about its government, really, for Foundation’s Shaftesbury Society. He this experiment in self-government to also discussed the topic with Mitch Ko- kai for Carolina Journal Radio. (Head be successful — something that was to http://www.carolinajournal.com/ cjradio/ to find a station near you or to absolutely critical.” learn about the weekly CJ Radio pod- cast.) Roger Beckett Executive Director, Ashbrook Center Kokai: There is a wealth of histor- Ashland University ical documents available about Ameri- ca, and, from your vantage point, we need to spend some time looking at them and studying them. story. It’s a great story that they need comes out — Madison’s debates in the tions about America as well, and look to have a better understanding of, and Constitutional Convention, which we at the nice, written word that we’ve Beckett: One of the blessings we you can’t get it from a textbook. have a few excerpts from in this book. been given and have conversations have as Americans is this wealth of the I often think to myself that I That’s really where you get into the about what it means. And your under- written word, where we argued with wouldn’t want to read a textbook my- nitty-gritty of how constitutional gov- standing of that will evolve over time. one another, and laid out our cases in self. Why would I want my kids to ernment ought to work. newspapers and in pamphlets, and just Kokai: It sounds as if this also made our case about how to best cre- read one? And we should be thinking And that’s really where the story might be a good way for parents and ate constitutional self-government in the same with schools. And the advan- is. It’s also full of some beautiful things their kids to interact. Parents reading this country. And so, we are fortunate tage of these original documents is that like [Martin Luther] King’s “I Have a this to kids and saying, “What do you to have a wealth of these things that they’re much more engaging for stu- Dream” speech, or George Washing- dents. They really get into the nuances ton’s letter to the Hebrew congrega- think this means?” And then giving we’re just not taking nearly enough their own interpretation — great inter- advantage of in our schools. of the real story of America. tion at Newport where he, in just a poetic way, explains religious liberty action tool. Kokai: Kokai: And that’s something There are plenty of docu- in America and how it was developed ments to choose from, but what are here for the first time in the world. Beckett: Exactly. And one of that is really different from even the the things we provide in the book is a other societies that people would look some of the ones that people absolute- ly have to review and study? Kokai: Very fascinating. … short introduction and some questions up to. Many of their governments de- to think about, just to point you in a veloped over time, and as historical Some people might be listening to us Beckett: There is a wealth of and saying, “That sounds really good. few directions there. It’s absolutely a preferences changed. But the United great tool for parents to use with kids, States really started as an experiment. things. And if you don’t mind me fill- Some of these documents might be ing in a plug, we put together a set of kind of hard to understand or interpret for homeschoolers to use. We found a 50 core American documents at Ash- without a textbook, or without some lot of grandparents giving it to their Beckett: Exactly. And I think the grandkids. It’s something that really is founders really understood that for brook that are just a set of documents expert leading me through it.” Is that that we most frequently use in our pro- true, or are these documents ones that much more accessible than you might self-government to work, you had to think. have an educated society. You had to gram. We’re not saying that these core most people would be able to compre- American documents are everything hend and get the proper sense of them have a society that was not only liter- Kokai: How will our society be that you need to understand the coun- themselves? ate, but also understood something better off if people spend more time re- try, but they’re a great starting point. about its government, really, for this viewing, studying, and learning from They point to some of the great Beckett: Yeah, I think often we experiment in self-government to be these original documents? successful — something that was abso- debates in America. And they point take educated people a little too seri- lutely critical, and it’s just been there to some of the ways that America is ously. I think the notion that we have Beckett: For constitutional self- from the beginning for the country, exceptional with religious liberty, and to have someone who has devoted government in America to work, you and we are very fortunate for that. economic liberty, and many of the their career to studying these things really do have to understand some- great things that have happened in this explain how government in America thing about the history of the country Kokai: I want to circle back to country. It’s a great starting point, and ought to work is something that the and about why it was established. Not something you said a little bit earlier. you can go to fiftydocs.org and down- founders would have been shocked by. just how our government works, but You mentioned that perhaps we aren’t load it free online. Certainly, some of these things why it works that way. spending enough time in the schools are hard, but you have to work Most of the political conversa- looking at these documents. How are Kokai: I’m sure people will think through them. And every time I read tions that we have on the national we failing in the schools to be review- of the Declaration of Independence The Federalist Papers, I find something level are not new. Most of them have ing these documents we should be and the United States Constitution, but new in them. You’re not going to get been conversations that we have had looking at? what are some things in that book that everything the first time you read these before, and it’s just part of an ongoing we might not think of right away? things. You just have to begin working conversation in America. And there Beckett: We do a lot of work at through these things, having conver- is a lot to this story already if you re- Ashbrook, where I am, helping teach- Beckett: Certainly, the Consti- sations, and I equate it to something ally want to be more thoughtful about ers improve their understanding of tution and the Declaration are impor- close to what we do in churches, with how you approach issues today, take original documents so they can put tant. The Federalist/Antifederalist Bible study. You have conversation advantage of what we’ve been given textbooks aside and instead use these debate over the Constitution, that’s re- about Scripture. already, and the people who’ve dealt documents, which really tell America’s ally where the story of the Constitution Well, you have to have conversa- with similar issues in the past. CJ APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL PAGE 17 Higher Education

Governor’s UNC Budget Proposal COMMENTARY Seeking Efficiencies on Campus Jobs Data Can’t Prove By Jesse Saffron • The state currently subsidizes Benefits of College Degree Contributor universities’ private fundraising ef- RALEIGH forts. The proposal would cap the ’m writing this on a cold, snowy mean a college graduate is receiv- he beginning of 2015 has been amount spent on such activities at $1 day in North Carolina but will ing any added compensation — consequential for the Univer- million per year for each university. imagine that instead it’s during any “return” on his degree. Many sity of North Carolina system. Roberts said that would affect 12 of Ia summer heat wave. For several graduates are working in jobs InT January, the Board of Governors the 17 campuses and save the state $18 days in a row, the temperature has where their education is mostly if forced president Thomas Ross to re- million. hit 99 degrees, and someone com- not entirely irrelevant — such as sign from his position (he’ll leave in • The proposal also calls on ments, “Well, this certainly ought taxi and Uber drivers. early 2016), and in February the board the UNC Board of Governors to find to shut those global warming The favorable job statistics garnered national attention after vot- $49 million in cuts to the system by skeptics up!” for college graduates tell us that ing to close three centers — including getting rid of some administrative po- Argumentation of that kind is having a degree positions you the controversial sitions and “ad- common in the global warming de- better in the job market compared John Edwards- justing faculty bate, but the reasoning is fallacious. with people who don’t have those founded Center workloads, elimi- Pointing to a spell of hot weather credentials. That’s all. Many em- on Poverty, Work, nating redundant no more disproves the case against ployers who need workers for jobs and Opportunity and low-enroll- global warming than a requiring only basic abili- at UNC-Chapel ment programs, spell of very cold weath- ties and a decent attitude Hill. restructuring re- er disproves the case for now screen out people As momen- search activities, it. Short-term fluctuations who don’t have college tous as those and using alter- cannot prove or dis- degrees. events have been, native funding prove arguments about The college degree the state budget sources.” long-term conditions has become so ubiquitous battle that will R e s p o n d - or trends. Passionate that many companies take place over ing to the budget people, however, often know they can fill their the next few months likely will have a proposal, Ross said that he is “disap- put good reasoning aside needs without interview- bigger impact on the day-to-day oper- pointed” by the potential funding re- when they think they can ing applicants who are ations of the system’s 16 public univer- ductions and that “North Carolina GEORGE presumably less capable sities. In early March, Gov. Pat McCro- score a point. must continue to maintain and invest LEEF and somewhat harder to ry began the process with the release A perfect example in our strong public university sys- of that is a recent Inside train just because they of his 2015-17 budget proposal, which tem.” the General Assembly will debate and Higher Ed article, “The haven’t been through the Evidence suggests that recent re- New Bachelor’s Payoff,” by Paul college mill. Consequently, people amend this summer. ductions in administrative costs — a For UNC, the governor recom- Fain. He begins by declaring: without degrees are increasingly focus of the McCrory administration’s mends a cut of roughly $26 million (or “Doubts about the labor market re- confined to the shrinking, low-pay efforts — have not harmed educational 0.98 percent) in 2015-16 and $14 million turns of bachelor’s degrees, while sectors of the labor market — un- outcomes at UNC campuses. (or 0.55 percent) in 2016-17, based on never serious, can be put to rest.” less they can succeed in one of In the wake of the Great Reces- the university system’s current $2.65 I have long been one of those the remaining fields where abil- sion, budget cuts prompted officials to billion state appropriations. Although doubters, so that caught my atten- ity counts for everything, such eliminate more than 500 vacant faculty the end result would be a net budget tion. as entrepreneurship, sports, and positions and reduce the number of reduction, the recommendations for Exactly what proves that entertainment. administrators. Yet graduation rates, the next two years also include a few my doubts were never serious? Pointing to better employ- one metric of educational success, have big-ticket expenditures, including: Answer: last month’s federal jobs ment prospects for people who increased at almost all system schools. have a college degree is irrelevant • $42.5 million for programs report. Fain writes about “a rock- And across the system, universities to the cost-versus-benefit debate. aimed at boosting private-sector bottom unemployment rate of 2.8 continue to offer more than 1,000 un- The college grad group contains growth. McCrory wants to connect en- percent for workers with four-year dergraduate degree programs, 700 most of the highly skilled, ambi- trepreneurs to the university system degrees or more” in comparison master’s programs, and 200 doctoral tious segment of the population, and turn research into commercial in- with the overall unemployment novations that help to create jobs in the programs. while the noncollege group con- rate of 5.7 percent. state. Some of those degree programs, tains many of the least skilled and That’s the equivalent of the • $130 million to fund projected however, are in niche fields that have ambitious. Moreover, a great many heat wave supposedly disproving enrollment growth. The UNC system attracted few students (or have not jobs are foreclosed to those without says it expects a 3.2 percent increase in helped graduates land jobs in their the global warming skeptics. degrees, while there is no corre- full-time-equivalent students over the fields of study) and may be wasting re- Let’s assume that the govern- sponding discrimination against next two years. sources. University officials who want ment’s unemployment figures are workers with them. • $16 million lifeline for East to find ways to absorb potential cuts accurate (often, they have to be re- There’s no denying that many Carolina University’s Brody School of may find program consolidation and vised) and also that they correctly young Americans make great “hu- Medicine, which for years has strug- elimination beneficial. measure the degree of unemploy- man capital” strides as a result of gled financially. For example, its ac- The governor says his budget ment (even though they leave out their college studies. creditor requires Brody to have a 90- proposal would encourage university all those who might want to work The point the doubters have day cash reserve of $40 million, but the officials to be better stewards of tax- but have become so discouraged been making, rather, is that we have school recently reported only $32 mil- payer dollars. The university system that they have dropped out of the oversold higher education so much lion on hand. and its political allies will not cede turf market). Does the low unemploy- that a high percentage of students When state budget director Lee without a fight, however, so the trajec- ment rate among college graduates gain little or nothing from college Roberts presented the budget in March, tory of the governor’s spending plans prove that the cost of earning their except debt. CJ he said that the state has a “moral ob- could be altered dramatically. CJ degrees was a sound investment of ligation” to use tax dollars efficiently. time and money? George Leef is director of re- A couple of provisions in the proposed Jesse Saffron is a writer and editor Absolutely not. Simply be- search for the John W. Pope Center for budget are intended to enhance effi- for the John W. Pope Center for Higher ing employed in some job doesn’t Higher Education Policy. ciencies: Education Policy. PAGE 18 APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL Higher Education Campus Briefs UNC’s Ross Laments Focus on Work Force Training his summer, UNC-Chapel Hill’s incoming freshmen By Dan Way Still, he said, with only limited exceptions, “our fac- and transfer students will Associate Editor ulty and staff have had only two small salary increases, av- Tbe assigned Bryan Stevenson’s RALEIGH eraging about 1.5 percent, during the last six years.” Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and NC system president Tom Ross warned at a March Ross called that “a dangerous trend for North Caro- Redemption. Stevenson is a veter- 10 luncheon at City Club Raleigh, where he gave a lina, and one we must address,” or risk the flight of the best an attorney, a long-time advocate state of higher education address at the inaugural faculty to private industry, taking federal research dollars of “social justice” causes, and the NationalU Public Affairs Forum, that “America is losing her and associated jobs with them. “The UNC system has far more flexibility than other director of the Equal Justice Initia- way with regard to higher education.” state agencies to provide pay increases to faculty and staff,” tive, a progressive legal advocacy The outgoing president, who has overseen the 16-cam- Tronovitch countered. It receives an appropriation of nearly group. His latest book is a legal pus UNC system since 2011, said insufficient state funding can prevent students from attending college or saddle them $1.5 million annually “specifically to recruit and retain ex- memoir that examines issues re- ceptional faculty and staff.” lated to racial inequality and mass with stifling tuition debt, a situation he called “a dangerous trend.” “I have been asked repeatedly by some policymakers incarceration. The author encour- why our faculty conduct research. Why are they not in the ages readers to “take action” on “Today, I fear we increasingly view our colleges and universities as nothing more than factories that must dem- classroom teaching,” Ross said. “At its core, research is an- those issues. onstrate an immediate return on investment for consumers, other form of hands-on learning.” Mass incarceration — espe- places that only train people for the work force,” Ross said. Public and private universities annually attract $2 bil- cially of offenders convicted of “We hear constant calls to lion in research grants to North nonviolent crimes — and racism drive out costs and produce more Carolina, Ross said, with UNC in the justice system are real prob- product at less cost. There is far campuses accounting for $1.2 bil- lems that deserve serious atten- less talk about academic quality lion of that. Those research dol- tion. But Chapel Hill should not and excellence, and more about lars support 22,000 jobs across the require first-year students to read operational efficiency” while mea- state and have led to the spin-off Just Mercy before they’ve had an suring the value of education in of 135 companies, including SAS, opportunity to study history, eco- immediate postgraduation earn- Cree, and Quintiles. nomics, statistics, and logic — a ings, Ross said. Ross said by putting the cost base of knowledge that would While acknowledging the of public higher education out of give such students a firmer un- need for accountability metrics, he reach for many students, and fail- derstanding of the public policy said there are “greater benefits” to ing to invest in faculty and staff, issues raised in Stevenson’s book consider, such as students learn- “we will be unable to develop the and help them separate facts from ing how to think for themselves, talent our businesses will need in the author’s occasionally ideologi- to work collaboratively with oth- the years ahead.” cal rhetoric. ers, to foster a value for lifelong “Although [UNC schools’] Besides, as a recent report learning, and to communicate enrollment rate has gone up, their from the educational assessment more effectively. graduation rate is poor. They take company Renaissance Learning “Those are important fac- six years to graduate when it reveals, many students entering tors,” state Sen. Jerry Tillman, R- ought to take four, and their drop- college are reading at seventh- and Randolph, chairman of both the out rate is high,” Tillman said. He eighth-grade levels. Instead of as- Senate Education/Higher Educa- believes universities should limit signing Stevenson’s memoir, why tion and Finance committees, said enrollment to students with a 3.0 of the intangibles Ross chronicled. not urge students to read some of grade point average or higher. “He’s missing the point. The the classics that they might have “You’ve got to look at the No. 1 factor is: Can I get a job and skipped in high school? The stu- cost to the parents and the students. I think we’re missing make a living so that I can sustain my family, and be a con- dents will have plenty of other the boat on a segment of kids that should be channeled to tributing member to the society? Can I get an education that the community colleges” to be trained for well-paying jobs opportunities to become “social will lead to a job, or have I got an education for education’s justice” advocates and learn that rather than pushing them to seek four-year degrees, Tillman sake?” Tillman said. said. some groups are “oppressed” and “There better be some return on investment because that others are “privileged” and Richard Vedder, director of the Center for College Af- he’s spending taxpayer dollars,” Tillman said. fordability and Productivity in Washington, D.C., who has that, as Stevenson says, “The op- Ross doesn’t believe North Carolina spends enough posite of poverty is justice.” spent more than 50 years as a scholar and teacher at the uni- on its university system. versity level, described the UNC system as “a jewel.” He UNC schools, like many oth- “I have managed one budget cut after another, includ- ers around the country, have a his- has spoken before its Board of Governors in the past. ing the largest in UNC’s long history — more than $400 mil- But he said Ross’ use of global competitiveness as jus- tory of using freshman reading lion in 2011 alone,” and he faces another this year, Ross said. tification for more funding is “the standard line” of higher programs — which are intended Gov. Pat McCrory’s budget, released in March, pro- education apologists. “There are jobs out there that are re- to acclimate students to college poses $2.621 billion for the UNC system in 2015-16, com- spectable jobs, some of them are high-paying jobs that don’t life and academic rigor — to as- pared with $2.646 billion in the 2014-15 authorized budget, require a college degree,” Vedder said. sign trendy, unchallenging books a $26 million reduction, or just under 1 percent. The 2016-17 A welder with a high-school degree and a year of that either promote statist causes proposal is for $2.632 billion, $14 million less than the 2014- training at a technical school can earn more than $100,000 a or peddle new grievances. Before 15 budget, or about 0.5 percent. year, he said. Walmart is the nation’s largest employer, but students set foot in a college class- “Higher education has been essential to North Caro- it’s unlikely even 5 percent of its 1 million employees need a room, they’re bombarded with lina’s success since colonial times. North Carolina spends a college degree to do their jobs, which is representative of “a “progressive” talking points. greater percentage of tax revenues — 17 percent — on high- whole host” of other employers, Vedder added. Higher education reform- er education than any other state, and our in-state tuition Indeed, there are perverse incentives to pumping out ers often criticize universities for is third-lowest in the country behind Louisiana and Arkan- more college graduates, Vedder said, invoking Say’s Law of teaching students what to think, sas,” said McCrory spokesman Ryan Tronovitch. economics, which asserts supply creates its own demand. rather than how to think. Unfor- “The governor’s budget continues North Carolina’s “Employers seeing this large army of unemployed col- tunately, freshman reading assign- commitment to higher education,” he said. lege kids are now slapping on requirements for their jobs, ments tend to promote the former “We have asked all government agencies, including the university system, to identify savings by eliminating re- saying bachelor’s degree required,” even though the job type of “thinking.” CJ dundancies and inefficiencies,” Tronovitch said. does not require college education, Vedder said. More than Ross conceded North Carolina has shown stronger 15 percent of today’s taxi drivers have a bachelor’s degree, Compiled by Jesse Saffron, a support than other states toward its public university sys- compared with less than 1 percent in 1970. writer and editor for the John W. Pope tem, and that North Carolina’s in-state tuition rates at all “Why should we be funding higher ed more,” he aked, Center for Higher Education Policy. campuses are in the lowest 25 percent among their public “when a large proportion of the graduates are living in their peers. parents’ basements because they can’t get a decent job?” CJ APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL PAGE 19 Higher Education Opinion Universities Struggle With Handling Incivility in the Digital Age sad fact about some of today’s media app allow- similar “yaks” Norwich University in Vermont have college students — particularly ing users to publish that she describes banned its use. At other schools, such those of the leftist variety — is short posts anony- Issues as “very hurtful” as Clemson and Emory universities, thatA they place greater value on their mously. said, “Free speech student leaders have denounced Yik emotions and ideology than they Yik Yak is in isn’t just, ‘You can Yak as a platform for “hate speech” do on tolerance, sensibility, and free used on more than say whatever you and called on university leaders to speech. 1,000 campuses in Higher Education want without any censure it. Increasingly, such students are the United States consequences,’ and But are bans effective? urging university administrators to and around the Yik Yak gives that Eric Stoller, a blogger for Inside disinvite commencement speakers world. It’s similar platform.” Higher Ed, pointed out the obvious in who hold opposing political views. to Twitter except Winston a Jan. 22 post: Blocking the app from Others want pro- that it’s tailored to college students Crisp, UNC-Chapel Hill’s vice chan- a university’s Wi-Fi network doesn’t fessors to provide and others who prefer to rant online cellor for student affairs, has issued a ban it on campus. Any student with “trigger warnings” incognito. Anyone with the app can statement condemning the app, which a smartphone, i.e, the typical student, before lectures read, up-vote (i.e., “like”), and com- some have construed as a threat of a can access Yik Yak via his or her wire- and book assign- ment on the posts of other users who campuswide ban: “Yik Yak adds little less network. So, at best, banning the ments to “protect” are within a 1.5-mile radius. to no value to our community and cre- app is an empty gesture aimed at mol- students who may Most students use the app to talk ates more problems for our students lifying some hypersensitive campus be offended or trash about other than it will ever be group. It’s not an effective means of affected psycho- schools’ basket- worth. We want curbing online incivility. logically by course ball teams, brag Carolina to be If UNC-Chapel Hill were to material dealing about how much The app Yik Yak a place where peo- “ban” Yik Yak today, students either with racial issues, JESSE they drank at last ple feel comfort- SAFFRON is making would find a workaround or create sex, or violence. night’s keg party, able talking about another app/website. And, more The ridiculousness and make passive- race and other campuses debate important, the incivility that exists in of that standard aggressive jabs at issues, and we are the minds of the offending students was on display last year when a old girlfriends and working hard to free speech would be unaltered. Rutgers University student wrote an boyfriends. Oc- create opportuni- The appropriate — and constitu- op-ed advocating such warnings for casionally inter- vs. speech bans ties for them to do an assignment of The Great Gatsby be- mingled with in- that in a construc- tional — response for a public uni- cause it “possesses a variety of scenes nocuous posts and tive and respectful versity is instead to counter offensive that reference gory, abusive, and hip college humor, way.” words with positive and persuasive misogynistic violence.” however, are racist, homophobic, and A media spokesperson at UNC- arguments about the benefits of civil- Sometimes, university officials otherwise derogatory remarks. Chapel Hill told the Pope Center that ity in discourse on and off campus. stand up for free speech and open Last fall, during the “Black Lives while the university has no immediate Thanks to the Internet, the market- discourse and refuse to comply with Matter” student protests at Chapel plans to ban the app, it is currently place of ideas is as free and open as the students’ demands. Unfortunately, Hill’s campus (regarding the nation- discussing with Yik Yak officials and ever. UNC-Chapel Hill and other in other cases, they’ve yielded to the ally publicized police shootings of students how to handle issues arising schools that are concerned about of- mob and allowed offended, “progres- black teenager Michael Brown and from the app’s use. fensive language — on Yik Yak or else- sive” student constituencies to dictate 43-year-old Eric Garner), one person Across the country, several where — should use that marketplace what counts as acceptable speech on wrote, “The way blacks are acting universities — usually at the behest to their advantage. CJ campus. right now kind of justify [sic] slavery.” of offended student groups — have Recently, that kind of illiberalism In a recent interview with UNC-CH’s blocked the app on their Wi-Fi net- Jesse Saffron is a writer and editor has reared its head in controversies student paper, The Daily Tar Heel, a works. Augustana College in Illinois, for the John W. Pope Center for Higher related to Yik Yak, a popular social concerned student who has monitored Utica College in New York, and Education Policy. PAGE 20 APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL Books & the Arts

From the Liberty Library Book review

• The 2014 midterm election was one of the most significant in Ginsberg Considers War From Both Sides of Ledger recent memory, with a decisive • Benjamin Ginsberg, The Worth of War, Prometheus Books, many remained. In some respects, Ginsberg says, African- turning of the tables in favor of 2014, 256 pages, $24.00. Americans were treated more as citizens when added to the Republicans. With a Republican- military roster during the Korean War. controlled Senate and House at By Lloyd Billingsley So war has worth, but the author does not neglect the odds with a Democratic president Contributor downside. War builds an administrative state which then who has only RALEIGH “redeploys to regulate the civilian economy.” On this theme two years left in hen the cover of The Worth of War recently filled Ginsberg references the classic Crisis and Leviathan by Robert office, the fault the screen on C-SPAN, viewers who didn’t switch Higgs. A similar dynamic is at work on the intelligence side. lines within and to “Antiques Roadshow” may have expected a In war, states expanded their techniques of surveil- between both par- Wbemedaled general or General Dynamics executive to come lance and secrecy, and these do not diminish when the con- ties have never on next. Instead they saw bald, soft-spoken political science flict ends. Ginsberg noted that President Truman expanded been more tenu- professor Benjamin Ginsberg, director of the Center for Ad- the agencies authorized to classify information. On this ous. In The Surge: vanced Government Studies at Johns Hopkins University. front, President Obama has made only one change, a move 2014’s Big GOP Larry Sabato No worries — professor Ginsberg is not a warmonger and to declassify old documents. The President’s Surveillance Win and What It believes America is “excessively willing to go to war.” Program dates to 2001, when George W. Bush was presi- Means for the Next Presidential Elec- “War is brutal and ter- dent. Ginsberg is not upbeat tion, prominent elections scholar rible, and we should not about what all this means for and political commentator Larry grow fond of it,” he writes. the nation. Sabato brings together respected “The fact that war is terrible, “Today, indeed, the journalists and experts from across however, does not mean that state keeps more and more the political spectrum to examine nothing is to be learned from of its activities secret while every facet of the midterm election it.” Ginsberg has a few items the citizenry has less and results and the implications for the in mind, such as rational less privacy.” America has 2016 election cycle. In frank, ac- thinking and the ability to “turned its wars inward, cessible prose, each author offers plan, all parts of the “audit eroding political freedom.” insight that goes beyond the head- of war.” He sees war as the Further, “Privacy for politi- lines to analyze what the midterm most severe form of competi- cal activities is, like the secret results mean and what is at stake tion, and as such a driver of ballot, an important element in the coming presidential race. innovation, better ways of of political freedom.” For more, visit www.rowmanlit- doing things. The belief that no presi- tlefield.com. Even in wartime, some dent would be willing to use societies resist such change surveillance against oppo- • Lifelong liberal Kirsten and indulge what he calls nents, the professor writes, Powers blasts the Left’s forced “magical thinking,” such as is comparable to believing march toward conformity in an the Lakota belief that a “ghost in Santa Claus or the Easter exposé of the illiberal war on free shirt” would stop bullets. Bunny. He mentions Nixon’s speech. No longer champions of Other examples include Nazi plumber’s squad and the tolerance and free speech, the “il- racial theories and “Aryan IRS offensives against the liberal Left” now viciously attacks physics.” Magical thinking Tea Party. The belief that and silences anyone with alterna- is “not amenable to reconsid- the current administration tive points of view. In The Silenc- eration based on new facts (“not a smidgeon of corrup- ing, Powers asks, “What ever hap- and information,” and the tion”) is not involved in that pened to free speech in America?” professor speculates that this is comparable to belief in the explains why many societies For more information, visit www. tooth fairy. “no longer exist.” The au- regnery.com. The Worth of War is an thor notes that the Moriori important and timely book, of the Chatham Island stuck • Firebrand conservative but Barack Obama does to their pacifist principles, columnist, commentator, Inter- not get the attention he de- with the result that “most of net entrepreneur, and New York serves. Professor Ginsberg the Moriori were enslaved or Times best-selling author Michelle does note, however, that “the Malkin tells the fascinating, little- killed, even eaten, by the Maori invaders.” Ginsberg understands that war is expensive and thus modern equivalent of the ghost shirt is the idea that war can known stories of the inventors somehow be organized or legislated out of existence.” who have contributed to Ameri- requires societies to learn the rudiments of fiscal policy. The military fosters discipline, applicable to the world of work Readers will see echoes of that in the president’s con- can exceptionalism and techno- sistent soft-pedaling of the threats facing the United States. logical progress. In July 2012, and commerce. War involves mass production, the “bedrock of civilian industrial economics.” An “engineer” was origi- Genocidal anti-American groups are really the junior var- President Obama infamously pro- nally a person who designed and built military equipment. sity, on the run, and so forth. But on the domestic front, the claimed: “If you’ve got a business The microwave oven is “a spin-off of military radar.” president sheds the rhetorical ghost shirt and escalates the — you didn’t build that. Some- (Indeed, the first consumer models were marketed under conflict. body else made that happen.” the name “radarange.”) The jet engines in the Messerschmitt The massive surveillance of Americans, well charted Malkin wholeheartedly disagrees. 262 fighter were the basis for today’s passenger airliners. So, here, is supposed to protect us from terrorists. Domestic Who Built That is a rousing trib- as Ginsberg sees it, “copying the sword produced an im- snoops had Maj. Nidal Hasan’s emails to terrorist bosses but ute to the hidden American capi- portant plowshare.” The Internet was an outgrowth of the did nothing to stop him from murdering 13 at Fort Hood in talists who pioneered everyday Advanced Research Projects Agency, a military enterprise. 2009. So Americans easily can surmise that massive surveil- inventions. They’re the little big So in most realms, Ginsberg says, “war and technological lance is really intended for other purposes. Ginsberg does things we take for granted: bottle progress seem to go hand in hand.” But there’s more. not get into Hasan’s “workplace violence,” but readers will caps and glassware, tissue paper, In war, even a regime as loathsome as Stalin’s backed appreciate his sense of where we are now as a nation. flashlights, railroad signals, bridge off on domestic repression. In the United States, Great Brit- “Absent war abroad,” he concludes, “the state seeks cables, revolutionary plastics, and ain, and Canada, women’s suffrage got a huge boost dur- enemies at home against whom to protect its people. In so more. Learn more at www.simo- ing World War I. By allowing women to vote, the reasoning doing, it transforms citizens into victims who will pay fear- nandschuster.com. CJ went, they would be better supporters of the war effort. And fully for protection from one another.” Agree or not, The war production placed women in the work force, where Worth of War is well worth reading. CJ APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL PAGE 21 Books & the Arts Plank Roads Were an Economic Engine Before the Civil War uring the 1840s, North Caro- ond, construction plans were provid- bate. Allegations of collusion between In the 1850s approximately 500 linians embraced the use ed. Third, subscriptions — the money government and private actors some- miles of plank road were laid in North of plank roads to improve given by investors for construction times arose. Carolina. The longest plank road was theD state’s economy. These wooden costs — were solicited and acquired. The public soon learned that the Fayetteville and Western, stretch- highways — built mainly with private Fourth, when the starting amount was construction was not for those lack- ing 129 miles from Fayetteville to funds — were purported to be an raised (which varied by law from 10 ing heart or brawn. The arduous task Salem. It was one of the few that re- improvement over percent to 25 percent of the total ex- required more effort, money, and ceived state financial assistance. Each rough, dirt roads pected cost of the road), stockholders maintenance than previously thought. year the Fayetteville and Western and a necessary convened to elect directors, who then Workers first graded a roadbed. Then made a profit. step to create an gained control of subscription money. they elevated the center of the road so Some scholars suggest that plank intrastate (and Fifth, directed by a board and presi- that water could drain. Next, wooden roads were doomed from the start: eventually an dent with the power and privilege of sills measuring approximately 5 feet Railroads, a faster mode of transporta- interstate) trade property rights, the companies were by 8 feet, were laid as support. After tion, provided competition; the eco- network of plank incorporated. that, pine planks measuring approxi- nomic panics of the 1850s discouraged roads, railroad Many North Carolinians were mately eight feet long, eight inches many investors; and they suffered hubs, and sea- excited about the possibilities of plank wide, and four inches thick were laid much damage and destruction during ports. TROY road construction. According to one on top of the sills. Laws required the the Civil War. roads to be a minimum width of eight Even so, historians have consid- During the KICKLER historian, “The spirit of progress was feet and a maximum of 60 feet, and ered plank roads an important devel- late 1840s, entre- everywhere.” Mountaineers hoped typically plank roads were eight feet opment that rescued the state from its preneurs started plank roads would connect them wide and adjacent to a well-graded “slothful” economic condition. More receiving government charters to with the rest of the state. Those in dirt road. To avoid getting stuck in scholarship needs to be done, howev- build plank roads, and by the mid- coastal towns, such as Wilmington, the mud, teamsters traveled on the er, to determine whether the failure of 1850s, enthusiasm for such projects envisioned plank roads leading to planks, while individuals and light the plank road movement was “inevi- reached its statewide zenith. Support and from the ports and contributing carriages passed on the dirt roads. table” and if the Tar Heel State was for plank roads, however, divided greatly to an intrastate trade network. As with any construction project, indeed economically stagnant. usually along partisan lines: Nearly From the mountains to the coast, and the skill and speed of work crews, For more information, see Alan three-fourths of Whigs supported con- everywhere in between, entrepreneurs the accessibility of raw materials, and Watson’s Internal Improvements in struction, and about the same number projected profits and consumers an- weather determined the time needed North Carolina (2002). CJ of Democrats opposed it. ticipated quicker shipments of needed for completion. On average, a team of The charter process was similar goods. 15 could lay 650 feet a day, approxi- Troy Kickler is director of the North for most plank road companies. First, At times, the logistics of road mately one mile a week, or 40 miles a Carolina History Project (northcarolina- company officers were elected. Sec- construction produced contentious de- year. history.org). BOOKS BY JOHN LOCKE FOUNDATION AUTHORS

If you don’t know about Edenton, North Carolina, your knowledge of U.S. history is incomplete and your knowledge of North Carolina insufficient. Organized women’s political activity in America was born in Eden- ton. The concept of judicial review—that courts can declare legislative acts unconstitutional—was champi- oned here. Ideas for a national navy and defense were implemented here. Many passages of the N.C. Con- stitution (1776) and the U.S. Constitution originated here. Leading proponents of the U.S. Constitution (a.k.a. Federalists) lived in this small place, and so did nationally known jurists and politicians. Dr. Troy Kickler, founding director of the North Carolina History Project, brings Edenton, its people, and its actions into proper and full focus in his book, The King’s Trouble Makers. Go to northcarolinahistory.org for more information. PAGE 22 APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL Books & the Arts Book review Axelrod’s Believer Easily Could Be Titled The Audacity of Hype • David Axelrod, Believer: My Forty issue with any leftist ideas, including He picked the church of the Rev. Jer- Believer concedes that Obama Years In Politics, Penguin Press, 2015, the support of a command economy emiah Wright, a man known for “fiery faced “withering criticism from all cor- 509 pages, $35.00. and backing of the Soviet Union’s re- jeremiads filled with bitterness and vit- ners,” including the left, but Axelrod pressive and expansionist policies. riol and anti-American slanders.” That explains, “I was witness to a different By Lloyd Billingsley Born in 1955, Axelrod drew in- is quite charitable. As Obama’s strate- and truer picture.” In his view Obama Contributor spiration from the Kennedys, particu- gist, Axelrod had a problem when Ben boldly rescues the economy and builds RALEIGH larly John F. Kennedy, elected presi- Wallace-Wells of Rolling Stone wrote new energy industries. The Solyndra avid Axelrod started as a jour- dent in 1960. After JFK’s assassination, “This is as openly radical a background failure escapes notice, since that would nalist, but he faced a serious brother Teddy might have picked up as any significant American politi- sully Axelrod’s portrait of an “undeni- problem. A key aspect of jour- the torch, Axlerod says, but for the cal figure has ever emerged from.” So able path to a recovery.” The fair shake Dnalism is to expose unpleasant realities “scars of Chappaquiddick, where, in “radical” politics was the kind Axelrod for all finds fulfillment in the Consum- politicians want concealed. As Believer: 1969, a young woman and Obama both be- er Financial Protection Bureau, a new My Forty Years in Politics shows, “Axe,” drowned in Teddy’s lieved in, but that is not federal bureaucracy to accompany as Obama calls him, would be more car after he drove off a how Believer spins it. comfortable concealing the unpleasant small bridge and fled.” Obama was “no new entitlements such as Obamacare, realities that diligent journalists seek to The young woman was dreamy reformer,” the here portrayed as an unalloyed bless- reveal. Mary Jo Kopechne, 28, author says. Both ideal- ing. As communications director and readers will find istic and pragmatic, he Axelrod has little tolerance for for U.S. Sen. Paul Simon, D-Ill., Axel- the best account in Leo was “ready and willing unbelievers, those Tea Party types and rod was surprised “how naturally I’d D’Amore’s Senatorial to do what was neces- “right-wing provocateurs.” Criticism adjusted to my new role.” But at that Privilege: The Chappa- sary to advance his po- of Obamacare, for example, is “root- point he wasn’t all in, explaining: “I quiddick Cover-up. litical and legislative ed in race: a deep-seated resentment frankly doubted America was ready Obama suppos- goals.” That is probably of the idea of the black man with the for a jug-eared bow-tied liberal as edly personified the the truest sentence in Be- Muslim name in the White House. The president.” With Barack Obama it was kind of politics Axel- liever, but Axelrod does facts notwithstanding, to them, health a different story. rod believed in, but Be- not follow up with an reform was just another giveaway to “Barack personified the kind of liever fails to mention outline of the IRS crack- poor black people at their expense.” politics and politician I believed in,” Obama’s longtime men- down on conservative Beyond that, “some folks simply re- Axelrod explains. He cites the “fun- tor Frank Marshall Da- groups and the massive fuse to accept the legitimacy of the first damental conviction,” that everyone vis, an old-line Stalinist surveillance campaign black president and are seriously dis- who’s willing to work should get a who counseled Obama until the end on all Americans under a supposedly comforted by the growing diversity of fair chance to succeed. Since Barack of the 1970s. For the story on Davis, transparent administration. our country.” Obama and David Axelrod did not in- readers should see The Communist: Axelrod, after all, is a “believer,” For such a true believer, with vent that conviction, which everybody Frank Marshall Davis, The Untold Story and that is in the sense of the Monkees’ not the slightest trace of doubt in his shares, something else is in play here. of Barack Obama’s Mentor by Paul Ken- “I’m a Believer” and Eric Hoffer’s clas- mind, it’s all that simple. David Axel- Axelrod notes that his mother gor of Grove City College. In Obama’s sic The True Believer. True to form, Axel- rod is not a man to speak the truth wrote for PM, a daily newspaper with 1995 Dreams From My Father, Davis rod freights his account with hagiogra- a “decidedly leftist bent.” The “pro- appears simply as “Frank,” but Frank phy. Obama is “brilliant and honorable to power, the role of the journalist. gressive literati” in his parents’ milieu disappears entirely in the 2005 audio and motivated by the best intentions.” On the other hand, his book included journalistic icon I.F. Stone, version of the book. Believer is silent on Obama “could transcend race and confirms that the former journalist but the author does not note that Stone any role Axelrod may have played in class divides with a remarkable ability adjusted naturally to his new role of hobnobbed with the KGB and authored that caper, but the political strategist to appeal to our common values, hopes concealing or altering the truth on be- The Hidden History of the Korean War, could not avoid another mentor. and dreams.” And so on. Obama’s Au- half of the powerful. Sooner or later, which charges that South Korea invad- In Chicago, Barack Obama had dacity of Hope was “written with the some brave insider will give read- ed North Korea. Believer does not take hundreds of churches to choose from. narrative skill of a gifted novelist.” ers the real story. CJ Help us keep our presses rolling Share your CJ Publishing a newspaper is an ex- pensive proposition. Just ask the many daily newspapers that are having trouble making ends meet these days. Finished reading all It takes a large team of editors, re- porters, photographers and copy editors the great articles in this to bring you the aggressive investigative reporting you have become accustomed month’s Carolina Jour- to seeing in Carolina Journal each month. nal? Don’t just throw it Putting their work on newsprint and then delivering it to more than 100,000 in the recycling bin, pass readers each month puts a sizeable dent in the John Locke Foundation’s budget. it along to a friend or That’s why we’re asking you to help defray those costs with a donation. Just neighbor, and ask them send a check to: Carolina Journal Fund, John Locke Foundation, 200 W. Morgan to do the same. St., Suite 200, Raleigh, NC 27601. We thank you for your support. Thanks. John Locke Foundation | 200 W. Morgan St., Raleigh, NC 27601 | 919-828-3876 APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL PAGE 23 Books & the Arts Book Review Buckley Offers Remedies for Unconstitutional Spending Gimmicks • James Buckley, Saving Congress from have learned so little about the Con- or if they do, would be done more ef- they want to remain and the better Itself: Emancipating the States and Em- stitution and its philosophy.) The only ficiently without the inevitable fed- they learn to play the re-election game. powering Their People, Encounter Books, responsibilities of the federal govern- eral strings. (If any construction is in- In another bad decision, U.S. Term Lim- 2014, 102 pages, $19.99. ment were enumerated in a short list of volved, for example, labor regulations its v. Thornton, the court ruled that the items concerning the national interest. mandated by the Davis-Bacon Act kick states cannot impose term limits on By George Leef Regrettably, the Supreme Court in, substantially increasing the cost.) federal representatives, so we need an Contributor demolished the barriers against the The upshot of all these grants is that amendment to the Constitution to give RALEIGH federal government overstepping its the federal budget grows, while state states that option. oughly one-sixth of the federal bounds in a number of New Deal deci- and local revenues are diverted away Second, Buckley suggests that budget goes for grants to state sions. Buckley (who served many years from real priorities because it’s po- the court find a case that would undo and local governments paying as a federal appellate court judge), litically hazardous for officials ever to the blunder of Steward Machine and Rfor local programs that have no con- points especially at Steward Machine Co. turn away federal money. “affirm that Congress has no authority nection to the national interest. Those v. Davis as the culprit Buckley offers to induce the states to adopt programs grants fund a vast array of programs in this story. That 1937 a Swiftian “Modest or policies that it itself has no power and projects, such as: decision misinterpreted Proposal” to solve to enact.” • $65 million so New York and the Constitution’s Gen- this problem: Con- I have only one quibble with the New Jersey can promote themselves as eral Welfare Clause as gress should go cold book. In discussing arguments back- “good places to do business.” permitting Congress to turkey, eliminating ing the continuation of state and lo- • $3.9 million for the airport in spend money on any- all of these grants. cal grants, Buckley notes that, on bal- St. Cloud, Minn., which has no daily thing it regarded as To permit any excep- ance, supporters say they redistribute commuter flights. beneficial, thus greatly tions would prove wealth from wealthier states to poorer • $532,000 to beautify one block eroding the principles fatal to the effort. For ones. In reply, he writes, “if redistribu- on Main Street in Rossville, Kans. (pop. of federalism and lim- five years, the same tion of wealth among states is a valid 1,150). ited government. amount of money federal objective, there are better ways The mushrooming cost of these Federal politi- as went into these of accomplishing it” than direct federal constitutionally illegitimate outlays is cians were now free to grants would con- payments. the subject of Saving Congress from Itself “induce” state and lo- tinue as unrestricted That’s disappointing. Evening by James Buckley. Buckley observes cal governments to do block grants to the out differences in wealth among the that the United States “is spending it- things just by offering states, but after that, states is absolutely not a proper federal self into bankruptcy, and its legislative them money. Members no more. concern, neither as a matter of consti- branch appears incapable of focusing of Congress realized Doing this tutional law nor of common sense. on critical problems long enough to re- that they could enhance their re-elec- would require the sort of political lead- If we could get Congress to break solve them.” tion chances by “bringing home the ership that Congress hasn’t seen in a its bad, unconstitutional habit of toss- A large portion of that spending bacon” — i.e., getting federal funds for long time. But maybe the combination ing money to state and local gov- never should have been permitted in all sorts of projects back home. Today, of dangerously rising deficits and (at ernments, the federal budget would the first place. That’s because Congress a gigantic part of every official’s po- last!) falling trust in the federal gov- shrink by over $700 billion this year. has only a few powers under the Con- litical strategy is roping in such grants ernment would catalyze that leader- Those cuts almost would erase the stitution and giving money to state and for the state or district and publicizing ship and help us return to the wisdom deficit, but we still should enact a bal- local governments is not among them. them to the utmost to show the legisla- of the Founders. anced budget amendment to restrain Buckley begins by discussing the tor’s “effectiveness.” (Buckley learned Two other helpful changes that spending in areas where Congress concept of federalism and the Found- that while serving one term in the U.S. Buckley advocates are term limits and does have authority. ers’ rationale for putting strict limits on Senate.) a push for the court to revisit its Gen- America has been on the wrong federal authority. (Sadly, many young- Most of these grants support eral Welfare Clause jurisprudence. track, fiscally and constitutionally, for er Americans reading his chapter will projects and programs that state or He argues that the longer politi- the last 80 years. I applaud Judge Buck- find it surprising, since most of them local governments don’t need at all, cians remain in Washington, the more ley for showing us the way back. CJ

Books authored By JLF staFFers Free Choice for Workers: Selling the Dream A History of the Right to Work Movement Why Advertising is Good Business

By John Hood President of the John Locke Foundation By George C. Leef ViceDirector President of Research for Research at the at John the W. JohnPope William Center Pope for HigherCenter for Education Higher “[Selling the Dream] provides a EducationPolicy Policy fascinating look into the world of advertising and beyond ... “He writes like a buccaneer... Highly recommended.” recording episodes of bravery, Choice treachery, commitment and April 2006 vacillation.” Robert Huberty www.praeger.com (Call Jameson Books, 1-800-426-1357, to order) Capital Research Center PAGE 24 APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL Opinion

COMMENTARY Super Perks, Salaries, and Turnover ublic school superintendents school board hired Burns again. have been in the news lately, This time around, he received a and it’s not been flattering. contract worth close to $300,000 to PDesperate to move on from the remain as interim superintendent contentious tenure of Superinten- until the board hires a permanent dent Katie McGee, the Brunswick replacement. His total yearly pen- County Board of Education hired sion income is $162,000. Edward Pruden in 2010 at a salary A public school superinten- of $159,400 a year. Late last year, the dent has a tough job. He or she is school board fired him and bought hired to manage a multimillion/ out the remainder of his contract at billion-dollar operation consistent a cost of nearly $94,500. with the needs and dictates of the Shortly after his departure, school board, parents, taxpayers, the N.C. Department of Public elected officials, government agen- Instruction hired Pruden cies, and — most impor- EDITORIAL to be a school transforma- tantly — children. tion coach at a salary of But like every pro- $57,000 for seven months. fession, it has its fair share Ironically, Pruden failed to of problems. Two of the Election Laws transform the Brunswick most notable are turn- County Schools. Of the over and compensation. 18 schools that received Turnover drives compen- performance grades, Have Consequences sation, and compensation 11 earned C’s and four earned D’s. drives turnover. More attractive o the extent that Roy Cooper So shortly after Martin took Bill Harrison, former TERRY has a reasonable chance of office in 1985, leading Democrats Cumberland County su- salaries and benefits give STOOPS superintendents an incen- defeating Gov. Pat McCrory for began to strategize about how best to perintendent and chair of Tre-election, it’s because many of his weaken his office, reduce his influence tive to make any stay a the N.C. State Board of Ed- fellow Democrats failed in their efforts in Raleigh, and ensure that neither he ucation, served as interim temporary one. There is no shortage of opportunities to to change the electoral process in the nor any other Republican would hold superintendent of Alamance-Bur- 1980s and early 1990s. the office for long. lington Schools until the district’s move up the superintendent career The Republicans running today’s During that session, both school board voted to offer Har- ladder, given the relatively high General Assembly may want to keep chambers of the General Assembly rison the permanent position and turnover rates among larger and a salary of $330,000 per year. He is often wealthier school districts. that in mind as they consider several (controlled by Democrats) passed the highest paid superintendent in Indeed, it is no wonder that modifications to state election law. constitutional amendments repealing the state and one of the highest paid small, rural districts have a difficult On the calendar are bills changing the gubernatorial succession and moving public-sector employees in North time convincing exceptional (or composition of the Greensboro City North Carolina’s nonfederal elections Carolina. even mediocre) superintendents to Council and the Wake County Board to odd-numbered years. Democrats Excluding University of North stay put. Rarely can those districts of Commissioners, which in recent figured that without help from GOP Carolina system and hospital em- match the salaries and benefits of- years have become dominated by presidential candidates at the top of ployees, only state chief investment fered by urban and suburban coun- Democrats. State lawmakers already the ticket, Republicans would have no officer Kevin SigRist’s $351,000 terparts. In most cases, this means have shifted the state’s presidential chance in races for governor, legisla- salary is higher. Just as a point of that positions in these districts primary from May to February, and ture, and other offices. comparison, SigRist manages the merely serve as entry-level jobs. that move could cost North Carolina Both were set to go before voters North Carolina Retirement Systems There are no ready-made precious presidential delegates. The in 1986. But neither measure became investment portfolio, which is ap- solutions to the problem. Encourag- Republican National Committee vows law. One reason is that Democratic proaching a $100 billion valuation. ing districts to hire nontraditional to penalize states that try to mess leaders had second thoughts. What The Alamance-Burlington Schools superintendents, that is, candidates around with its nominating schedule. if these changes proved to be so budget was around $180 million last from the private and nonprofit sec- If the February change stands, the Tar year. unpopular that they hurt Democrats tors, may dissuade districts from Heel State may be no more relevant in The N.C. School Boards As- with the voters? And what if electoral hiring career ladder superinten- sociation reports that five school 2016 than it has been in recent election patterns changed? Democrats refused districts currently have super- dents. cycles. to campaign for the second measure, intendent vacancies. Of the five, More importantly, school With that in mind, remember and the General Assembly repealed Orange County Schools has had a boards should conduct their own 1984, when U.S. Rep. Jim Martin was the succession amendment before it particularly difficult time retaining superintendent searches, rather elected governor of North Carolina. reached the ballot. a superintendent. Patrick Rhodes, than contract with organizations Martin was the second GOP governor In 1991, Senate Democrats who had served as superintendent and “head hunters” that appear of modern times and the first with the passed an amendment switching of Orange County Schools since to recycle establishment candi- constitutional authority to run for re- the Council of State races from the 2007, retired in 2013. The school dates. Perhaps there is an innova- election, an authority secured by his presidential cycle to the midterm board hired former Wake County tive and inspiring leader with a predecessor, Democrat Jim Hunt. cycle. It died in the House. Had voters superintendent Del Burns to be an personal connection to the district Martin won with 54 percent of adopted that amendment, Roy Cooper interim superintendent. who would be a better long-term fit the vote, a larger margin than Jesse might have had his showdown with than those recommended by a third Burns’ replacement was the Helms secured in his re-election bid McCrory in 2014, a GOP-friendly year. former superintendent of McDowell party. CJ for the Senate against Hunt. And Mar- So the message to today’s North County Schools, Gerri Martin. She tin came into office with an ambitious resigned after seven months on the Terry Stoops is director of re- Carolina Republicans is this: Change agenda of tax cuts and government job and subsequently received a search and education studies at the John an electoral rule if it makes sense on severance payout of $100,000. The Locke Foundation. reforms that Democrats both didn’t the merits, but don’t do it assuming like and feared might prove popular. that your party will benefit. CJ APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL PAGE 25 Opinion

EDITORIALS COMMENTARY Sizzling Job Growth Political Operatives Positive signs for the N.C. economy Recycle Hagan Claim ccording to a recent High Job creation isn’t the only mea- Point University poll, North sure of an economy’s health. If more suppose if you thought Kay half of North Carolina households Hagan’s re-election campaign got a tax cut, 35 percent got a tax Carolinians feel better about people enter the labor force seeking was a brilliant exercise in politi- increase, and for the rest the results the direction of the economy than they jobs than can find them, gains in em- A calI rhetoric, you might try to reuse were a wash. Why didn’t they lead have in years. According to recently ployment may not be as impressive as her talking points to win the politi- with this less-apocalyptic finding released data from the U.S. Bureau they seem. cal debates of 2015 or the political rather than just surrender it later of Labor Statistics, North Carolinians Fortunately, the Bureau of Labor races of 2016. when pressed by reporters? The seem to have a pretty good grasp of Statistics measures that phenomenon, But Hagan lost. One reason, question answers itself. what’s going on in their job market, at too. In 2014, the U-6 rate in North surely, is that her campaign made Moreover, the ITEP/Justice least. Carolina — including not only un- extravagantly ridiculous claims Center study wasn’t the only one. On March 17, BLS released a re- employed people actively looking for about then-House Speaker Thom A 2013 analysis by the General vised set of employment numbers for work but also discouraged workers Tillis and the work of the General Assembly staff and a 2014 Beacon North Carolina and other states going who have dropped out of the labor Assembly under his lead- Hill Institute study for the back to 2010. They show that 2014 was force as well as those are moving, ership — claims that even John Locke Foundation the second-best year for job growth retraining, or working part-time liberal newspapers and estimated that the large since the turn of the 21st century. because they can’t find full-time jobs fact checkers didn’t buy. majority of North Caro- From December 2013 to Decem- — was 12.1 percent — down from 14.7 The most egregious lina households got net ber 2014, there was a net increase of percent the year before. Our 2.6-point was that the tax reform tax cuts. enacted by the legislature The Beacon Hill/ 110,000 jobs in North Carolina, an drop was one of the biggest in the and signed by Gov. Pat JLF study made another increase of 2.7 percent. Only 2006 fea- country. McCrory raised taxes on important point: To get tured a higher rate of job creation, 3.9 To observe that North Carolina 80 percent of North Caro- to a significant number percent. Otherwise you’d have to go is doing comparatively well is not, linians. The Washington of households losing back to the 1990s to find comparable of course, to claim that the state’s Post called the claim “ab- JOHN from tax reform, you gains in North Carolina. economy has recovered all the ground surd.” The nonpartisan HOOD have to count the loss of Comparing North Carolina over it lost during the Great Recession. Our staff of the General As- the Earned Income Tax time not to itself but to other states, point here is simply that during 2014, sembly, most hired under Credit. That’s fine, but the our 2014 performance on job creation North Carolina took some big steps in previous Democratic management, 2013 tax reform didn’t eliminate it. still looks good. From December the right direction. called it false. As a matter of basic The EITC was a temporary mea- 2013 to December 2014, employment If you’re trying to claim that the mathematics, it was impossible. sure scheduled to expire, and the growth for the U.S. economy as a upswing in job creation didn’t hap- Yet here we are a year later, legislature chose not to authorize whole was 2.3 percent. For the 12 pen at all, your argument is with the with households filing their first it. By that logic, you also have to Southeastern states, including North Bureau of Labor Statistics, not with us. income tax returns under the state’s remember that the same Republican Carolina, the average was 2.4 percent. Good luck. CJ new code, and the usual suspects legislature chose to allow a massive are repeating this impossible, false, sales-tax hike to expire in 2011. That and absurd sales tax hike claim. Their goal had cost lower- is transparent: to income house- mislead North Those peddling holds much A Federal Case Carolina voters more than into believing this falsehood the EITC had ‘States’ rights’ vs. your rights what isn’t true saved them. so they will toss want to defeat Thus the net ef- he proper relationship between States and localities do not have out McCrory fect of the Gen- states and the federal gov- unbridled authority to encroach on and Republican McCrory and eral Assembly’s ernment is back in the news the individual rights of American lawmakers next policies was becauseT of two recent decisions from citizens. When it comes to economic year. GOP legislators to reduce their Washington that involve North Caro- freedom, the federal government can The source taxes, not raise lina. On Feb. 25, a 6-3 majority of the and should intervene when states or of the false claim them. U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the localities abuse their regulatory pow- is a 2013 report the Washington- When filling out their returns North Carolina State Board of Dental ers. Kudos to the Supreme Court for based Institute for Taxation and for the 2014 tax year, many North Examiners violated federal antitrust its dental-services decisions. Economic Policy provided to the Carolinians are discovering that laws by ordering unlicensed service We can’t offer similar praise to left-wing North Carolina Justice their refunds are smaller than they Center — a distributional analysis used to be. But when taxpayers providers to stop whitening teeth. A the FCC commissioners, however. of the tax reform bill. ITEP modeled actually compare 2014 taxes paid day later, the Federal Communica- They didn’t strike down state laws the effects within each quintile (20 to previous years, most find that tions Commission voted 3-2 to nullify that blocked one private provider percent) of taxpaying households. they are better off. A refund simply state laws in North Carolina and Ten- from competing with another. Instead, Rather than producing and distrib- means you’ve given the govern- nessee placing fiscal and procedural they struck down laws designed to uting a count of the share of North ment an interest-free loan. conditions on cities seeking to expand keep localities from abusing their Carolinians getting tax hikes or tax Those now peddling Kay their municipally owned telecommu- own governmental powers to deliver cuts, however, ITEP/Justice Center Hagan’s discredited claim about nications systems in competition with a commercial service in competition focused on the “average” effect North Carolina’s new tax code are private companies. with private firms. Surely states are within each quintile — and then not serious participants in the tax- Modern conservatives place a the proper level of government to made the claim that for the bottom reform discussion. They are liberal high value on federalism. We believe ensure that such abuses don’t occur. four quintiles in household income, propagandists and partisan opera- that fiscal and policy decisions ought North Carolinians can take the the bill would raise taxes “on aver- tives whose efforts will, I suspect, age.” meet a similar fate. CJ to be made as close to local communi- opportunity to ponder the virtues and That phrase is important. In ties as necessary. limits of federalism. It’s not a tool for fact, ITEP/Justice Center later ad- John Hood is chairman of the But federalism isn’t the only protecting “states’ rights.” It’s a tool for mitted that its numbers showed that John Locke Foundation. value in the system. Another is justice. protecting your rights, and ours. CJ PAGE 26 APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL Opinion MEDIA MANGLE Telling Both Sides Of the Story ne of the first things you learn in Journal- ism 101 is to give your reader “both sides of the story.” The assumption is that there OIS one, and sometimes maybe several. But, like many things that have been dis- mantled by postmodernism, post-structuralism, and political correctness, a reporter telling “both sides of the story” has become not only less important to some in the media, but sometimes can be considered downright irresponsible. Raleigh’s own Jim Goodmon, owner of the WRAL-TV empire, told a group gathered for a Martin Luther King prayer breakfast JON in January 2011 that telling HAM “both sides of a story” can be a bad thing because it’s akin to giving flat-Earthers the same credence as those who know the world is Differing Views of the Economy round (http://bit.ly/1N8oONL). recent poll showed people split almost 50-50 than $22 an hour “low-paying jobs.” Unfortunately, the “other side of the story” between satisfaction and dissatisfaction with During the last five years of job recovery in is not always so easily discredited. Once one goes the state of the economy and whether the the state, 40 percent of jobs added have been high- down the journalistic path of believing there is economyA is improving or declining. How can these paying, 19 percent have been middle-paying, and 41 a “right side” and a “wrong side” of a story, and divergent views be explained? percent have been low-paying. Interestingly, the al- the goal becomes ignoring the “wrong side,” you Let’s start by looking at the evidence from most equal split between high-paying and low-pay- are doing propaganda, not journalism. perhaps the most followed element of the economy: ing jobs mirrors the 50-50 split seen in polls between In September I wrote a column in this space jobs. North Carolina lost more than 335,000 pay- optimism and pessimism over the economy. titled “Don’t Let the Narrative Trump the Facts.” roll jobs during the Great Recession. The state’s Moving beyond jobs also reveals some divi- It was about the national media’s rush to judg- job market hit bottom in early 2010, but since then sions in our economic condition. Total household ment on the Michael Brown shooting in Fergu- almost 380,000 payroll jobs have wealth (the value of investments minus the value of son, Mo. “When will the media learn to wait to been added. Still, the state is debt) has rebounded from the big hit it took during find out what really happened before writing only 44,000 jobs ahead of where the recession. But surveys of household finances history?” I asked. it was prior to the recession in show the gains have been much stronger for higher- Since then, it has been made abundantly early 2008. income households than for lower-income house- clear by local prosecutors, a local grand jury, and There also is a continu- holds. even the U.S. Justice Department, that Michael ing issue with unemployment. Another measure of economic well-being is Brown was not a “gentle giant” who put his At the end of 2014, there were the percentage of household income that is spent hands up and said “don’t shoot,” and that Officer 250,000 individuals officially on “necessities” — items like food, shelter, utilities, Darren Wilson was defending himself legally classified as unemployed, repre- clothing, transportation, and health care. For all when he shot Brown. senting 5.4 percent of the labor households, the latest data show spending on these force. Both the number and rate MICHAEL items takes 68 percent of income, slightly higher As a result of being confronted with the real are less than half of what they WALDEN than the 67 percent in 2008 before the recession. facts of the case, many media outlets have had to were at the height of the reces- But again, there’s a difference in the trends for admit that they were wrong to accept uncritically sion. high-income and low-income households. High- the “hands up, don’t shoot” meme. However, there are well-known problems with income households have seen the share of their The New York Times’ mea culpa (http://nyti. this measure of unemployment. First, to be “offi- income devoted to necessities decline since before ms/19KHsgM) is especially interesting. Public cially” counted as unemployed, an individual must the recession, whereas low-income households have editor Margaret Sullivan originally, back in Au- have looked for a job actively in the last month. A experienced the opposite — an increase in their gust, criticized the Times reporter for providing second issue is that “underemployed” individu- income share going to necessities. in his first reporting “dubious equivalency” and als — those working less than they want — are not Here’s one last economic observation. Al- “false balance” by quoting anonymous sources included in the measure. though consumer debt is now rising, household who said Brown never had his hands up (http:// If individuals who want a job but have given monthly payments for borrowing are at a 30-year nyti.ms/1pXJuOC). up looking for work are added as unemployed, low. Of course, this has resulted from the tremen- On March 23, however, after seven months then the state’s jobless rate in 2014 was 7.6 percent. dous drop in interest rates that occurred during of ruminating, she wrote this: “In retrospect, Further, if those individuals working part-time the recession and continued even as the economy it’s clear to me that including that information only because they can’t find full-time work are also improved. But if interest rates rise, look out. wasn’t false balance. It was an effort to get both included as unemployed, then the state’s rate rises For me, this review of recent economic sides.” to 12.1 percent for 2014. Both these rates are well changes helps explain the divide we feel about the The question this raises is how a person below their recessionary highs, but they do suggest economy. If you have a high-paying job, have seen working for what is thought to be this country’s a more serious problem in the job market than indi- your stocks gain, and have benefited from super- greatest newspaper ever could come to the con- cated by the most-quoted unemployment rate. low interest rates, you probably feel good. But if clusion that NOT including both sides of a story What about the quality of jobs added in the you’re unemployed or underemployed, have taken is a responsible thing to do. last five years? Of course, job quality is a broad con- a lower-paying job, and are still coping with debt, Maybe we should ask Jim Goodmon. CJ cept, but a starting point is pay. The average hourly your feelings are likely the opposite. CJ wage rate for private-sector jobs in North Carolina Jon Ham is a vice president of the John Locke is $22. So let’s call jobs paying more than $22 per Michael Walden is a Reynolds Distinguished Pro- Foundation and publisher of Carolina Journal. hour “high-paying jobs,” jobs paying around $22 fessor at N.C. State University. He does not speak for the per hour “middle-paying jobs,” and jobs paying less university. He does not speak for the university. APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL PAGE 27 Opinion Poverty Center’s Demise is UNC’s Gain

n Feb. 27, the UNC Board a critical issue that the board presum- puses — including UNC-Chapel Hill center make. of Governors voted to close ably disliked or felt uncomfortable and N.C. State University — have The center’s meager and frankly the Center on Poverty, Work, about. The board’s argument that the enumerated, stringent policies on the low-quality output since 2005 is prob- andO Opportunity at its Chapel Hill center proved “unable to demonstrate formation and continuation of these ably less than expected of an individual campus. Many on the left and faculty any appreciable impact on the issue entities. tenure-track faculty member; its accom- within the UNC system argued the of poverty” was particularly unhelp- They vary by campus and time, plishments in the time period are cer- board’s decision was political and ful because, accurately or not, it was but it is fair to say they tend to share tainly fewer than mine (and I get paid an attack on academic freedom. The interpreted as describing the center’s three fundamental characteristics: less than half of what Nichol does). A center is directed direct and material influence on actual any center should (1) constitute a sizable portion of the small amount of by professor Gene standards of living, something practi- formal collaborative effort of faculty money the center received for its opera- Nichol of UNC cally impossible to achieve and there- across fields and units (otherwise the tions came from the UNC Law Foun- Law School, a fre- fore unreasonable to demand. task could be performed within the dation endowment and presumably quent critic of Gov. Instead, the board should have existing administrative structure); (2) could be diverted to the school’s more Pat McCrory and explained that the alleviation of provide synergies to that effort (other- mission-critical operations. the Republican poverty is a tremendously important wise the task could be performed by If subjected to the rules in place majorities in the issue requiring close study by experts individuals); and (3) secure a steady, today, therefore, the center never General Assembly. in disciplines like public policy, eco- significant, and independent resource would have been established. It is Those opposing nomics, and sociology. It is the job of base that will not detract from the hard to judge whether a third claim the decision saw university faculty to suggest various university’s ability to perform its core of the center’s supporters, that it did it as revenge for ANDY courses of action based upon data and mission — external funding or a line not consume public money, is correct. Nichol’s vitriolic TAYLOR sound analysis, not undertake them item in the state budget are desirable. Nichol did get at least one course buy- out — possibly more, as he seems to commentaries on through political organizing. The The poverty center seems to do a lot less teaching than colleagues conservative poli- center was doing the wrong kinds of fail all three of these “tests” — and — but that may have been paid for cymakers published in The News and things, and, as demonstrated by his UNC board chairman John Fenne- from his named professorship. Re- Observer. bresque touched upon this in a News qualifications and actions, Nichol was gardless, he no longer has an excuse Media reports frequently de- and Observer piece published follow- an unsuitable director. to stay out of the classroom as much. scribed the decision as petulant, It also should be noted the center ing the final decision. The center is a If one good thing came from this, it is and the board did itself no favors by was set up in 2005 essentially to serve small enclave within the Law School, that Nichol will be doing more to help providing a rather mealy-mouthed former Sen. John Edwards’ presi- and any intra- and inter-campus con- the university meet its fundamental explanation of what it had done. It dential aspirations. The decision to nections it enjoys seem ad hoc and responsibilities. By all accounts, I’ve should have responded more directly create it was at least as political as the personal. In fact, most of the center’s heard he’s a pretty good teacher. CJ and forcefully to the principal argu- board’s critics have characterized the work is clearly Nichol’s and, at least ments for keeping the center open. decision to shut it down. according to his melodramatic person- Andy Taylor is a Professor of One questioned the decision Second, the board should have al statement following the decision, Political Science in the School of Public because it was so blatantly political. discredited the idea that the center’s this episode was always about him. and International Affairs at N.C. State Not only was the board attempting to very existence conferred some kind of If he’s right, then closure made sense. University. He does not speak for the quiet a foe, it wanted to stop work on legitimacy on it. UNC system cam- A single faculty member does not a university. Why Energy Costs Matter nergy is necessary for just about associated with building and main- authority under the Clean Air Act to shares of the power plants, greatly everything we do. And when taining the infrastructure to supply regulate power plant emissions to reduce the debt, and allow Duke to the cost of energy goes up, we electricity, North Carolina’s public “fight” climate change. Senate Bill lock in lower fuel costs — immedi- Epay more over and over and over. utilities, like most across the country, 303 would prohibit the state Depart- ately reducing energy costs by 10 to 15 Residential customers pay more to are regulated public monopolies. As a ment of Environment and Natural percent for those harmed by the bad keep the lights on and the refrigerator result, choices are limited and prices Resources from enforcing any federal deal. Local governments should not running. Business owners pay more heavily controlled. Federal and state standard that jeopardizes the “health, own power plants. to keep the lights on and the machines regulations are sometimes duplicative, safety, or economic well-being of a • Encourage energy explora- running. Consumers pay more when rarely reviewed, cumbersome, and citizen of this state.” A House propos- tion. In 2011 the General Assembly businesses pass along higher energy costly. Government subsidizes energy al would develop a North Carolina- passed a law opening discussions costs at the retail or wholesale level. with direct cash payouts, tax breaks, specific plan to comply with the EPA’s about natural gas exploration in North Taxpayers pay more when govern- loans, and research and development federal greenhouse rules. Meantime, Carolina. Finally, the first permits for ment agencies grants. All forms of energy get some DENR Secretary Donald van der Vaart hydraulic fracturing have been issued. spend more on kind of government subsidies. With recently testified before Congress, say- Natural gas exploration holds oppor- energy costs for subsidies, there are winners and los- ing “states shouldn’t have to create a tunity for new jobs, new investments, vehicles, build- ers. Taxpayers and ratepayers are the plan to meet the federal standards un- ings, and schools. biggest losers. til after the courts settle lawsuits seek- and an affordable, locally developed, Each cost increase But as North Carolina’s economy ing to derail the EPA’s climate effort.” cost-effective energy source. Shale gas reduces our free- recovers, lawmakers are looking at Van der Vaart thinks the EPA has is clean-burning, plentiful, inexpen- dom to use those ways to remove impediments to a acted illegally; let’s hope the courts sive, and subsidized much less than resources some- freer market in the energy sector. agree or Congress passes legislation mandated renewable sources: wind, where else. • Repeal the renewable energy blocking the EPA’s overreach, making solar, and biomass. Note to the natural When almost portfolio standard. House Bill 298 these state measures unnecessary. gas industry: North Carolina is open 10 million North BECKI aims to “reduce the burden of high • Prioritize and define the role for business. Carolinians must GRAY energy costs on the citizens of North of government. In the 1980s, 32 local If we want to be the most at- pay higher energy Carolina” by capping, sunsetting, and governments in eastern North Caro- tractive state for people to build and bills, it becomes repealing a 2007 mandate requiring lina jointly invested taxpayer money expand businesses, raise families, and a real drag on economic prosperity, that 12.5 percent of North Carolina’s in power plants — a disastrous deci- enjoy freedom, low energy costs are reduces economic growth, and makes energy come from expensive, highly sion resulting in billions of dollars in part of that formula. Kudos to North the state less competitive with our subsidized renewable energy sources. debt and electricity rates that are 35 to Carolina’s leaders for moving forward neighbors. • Fight federal encroachments 40 percent higher than Duke Energy with real energy reform. CJ The market for energy is not by the Environmental Protection customers paid over the same period. free; it’s riddled with government Agency. A dozen states have joined a Senate Bill 305 outlines a plan for Becki Gray is vice president for out- interference. Because of the huge costs lawsuit challenging the EPA’s claimed Duke Energy to buy back ElectiCities’ reach at the John Locke Foundation. PAGE 28 APRIL 2015 | CAROLINA JOURNAL Parting Shot New GOP Incentive Plan to Feature Welfare Wednesdays (a CJ parody)

By J.M. Canes said. Economics Correspondent One legislator who is opposed to the program RALEIGH and who requested anonymity shared the informa- group of Republican legislators is planning to tion — which is a proprietary document and not sub- expand the discretionary business incentive ject to public records requests — because the legisla- powers of the governor’s office, calling the tor says it takes the incentives concept too far. Aprogram Welfare Wednesdays, Carolina Journal has “Corporate welfare critics have characterized learned. these programs as a system where government bu- At the core of the Welfare Wednesday initiative reaucrats pick winners and losers,” the lawmaker is the theory that, when properly administered, in- said. “It’s clear from this plan that they think every centives pay for themselves. idea will be a winner, and that is simply impossible. Professors at N.C. State University — most of I think taxpayers will be left holding the tool belt, so them not economists — have developed models with to speak,” the lawmaker said. a multiplier effect showing that every project sup- The Welfare Wednesday plan would funnel all ported by incentives more than pays for itself, plac- business incentive programs through a one agency, ing taxpayers at no risk of default. the soon-to-be-announced Division of Corporate Sometime next year the supporters of the new Welfare, a source confided to CJ. The office would be WW program will ask voters to approve a $1 billion open only one day a week, Wednesdays, to accept bond to fund the program, CJ has learned. grant applications from any company that plans to The architects of the plan will defend it pub- Tim Allen, right, and Gov. Pat McCrory have been taping move to or expand in North Carolina. licly by claiming that all incentives programs pay for some public service announcements for the new Welfare Under the plan, any type of legal business ac- themselves by creating jobs through a multiplier ef- Wednesday initiative. (CJ spoof photo) tivity could qualify for and receive an award. The of- fect, according to the draft document. fice also would accept grant applications from film Gov. Pat McCrory said after taking office in CJ also has learned that McCrory and Com- production companies, developers who want to re- 2013 that the General Assembly should supplant merce Secretary John Skvarla have contacted repre- store old buildings, and entrepreneurs with unusual the Commerce Department’s public efforts to recruit sentatives of actor Tim Allen — who played TV’s Tim business ideas that have not received start-up capital businesses and expand jobs with a nonprofit known “The Tool Man” Taylor in the “Home Improvement” through conventional sources. as the Economic Development Partnership of North sitcom — about working with the state to promote A grant committee appointed and chaired by Carolina. He urged the General Assembly to set up the new incentives plan. the governor would review applications and make the arrangement because he said the state’s economic “No other state has done anything like Welfare awards. development team needed to be more “nimble” and Wednesdays,” said the governor. “I have said that “Since we know that properly configured in- needed more tools to compete with other Southern our job-recruiting organization needed to be more centive deals always pay for themselves, the staff states. nimble, that I needed more tools. Well, this will be must make public the equation it used to make the Now, the governor says the new nonprofit lacks the ultimate tool belt for me, and with Tim ‘The Tool award decision,” the draft document states. the necessary tools and is not nearly as nimble as he Man’ Allen as a spokesman, I will have the best tool Allen’s representatives did not re- expected it would be. in the nation in the war for job announcements,” he spond to requests for comment. CJ

We Have North Carolina Talking! THE NC SPIN NETWORK Every week, hundreds of thousands of North NC SPIN has been called ‘the most intelligent TELEVISION RADIO • WLOS Asheville, Sunday 5 am • Chapel Hill, WCHL-AM 1360, Sunday 6 pm Carolinians watch NC SPIN for a full, all-points half-hour on North Carolina TV’ and is consid- • WCCB Charlotte, Sunday 6:30 am • WXLV Greensboro/Triad, Sunday • Goldsboro, WGBR-AM 1150, Sunday 4 pm discussion of issues important to the state. Poli- ered required viewing for those who play the 7:30 am • Cable 7 Greenville, Sunday 10:30 • Greenville, WTIB-FM 94.3, Sunday 9:30 am tics • Schools • Growth • Taxes • Health Trans- political game in the Tar Heel State — whether am, Monday 9:30 pm, Wednesday portation • Businesss • The Environment they are in government, cover government, 6:30 pm, Thursday 9:30 pm, Friday • Jacksonville, WJNC-AM 1240, Sunday 10 am 9 pm want to be in government, or want to have the • WITN (7.1 & 7.2) Greenville/Wash- • Laurinburg, WLNC-AM 1300, Sunday 10 am ington/New Bern, Sunday 11 am A recent poll showed 48% of North Carolina ear of those in government. • WTBL Lenoir, Sunday 9 am, Monday • Morehead City, WTKF-FM 107.1, Sunday 10 am ‘influentials’ — including elected officials, lobby- 5:30 pm, Tuesday 12:30 pm • WRAL Raleigh-Durham, Sunday • Rocky Mount, WEED-AM 1390, Sunday, ists, journalists, and business leaders — watch If your company, trade association, or group 6:30 am 9:30 am • WRAL-DT Raleigh-Durham, Sunday NC SPIN, with 24% saying they watched the has a message you want political or business 6:30 am • Sanford, WWGP-AM 1050, Sunday 7:30 am • WRAZ “Fox 50” Raleigh-Durham, show ‘nearly every week.’ Thousands of North leaders to hear, NC SPIN’s statewide TV and Sunday 8:30 am • Smithfield, WTSB-AM 1090, Sunday 7:06 am Carolinians also visit NCSPIN.com and get the radio networks are the place for you to be! Call • WGSR-TV Reidsville, Saturday 7 am, 9 am, Sunday 12 pm, 10:30 pm • Statesville, WAME-AM 550, Sunday 5:30 am latest political news, rumors, and gossip from its Carolina Broadcasting (919-832-1416) for ad- • WNVN Roanoke Rapids, Sunday 10:00am • Valdese, WSVM-AM 1490, Monday 6 pm weekly newsletter “Spin Cycle.” vertising information about TV or radio. • WHIG Rocky Mount, Sunday 1:30 pm • Wanchese, WYND-FM 97.1, Sunday 7:30 am • Cable 10 Roxboro, Sunday 6 pm • WILM Wilmington, Sunday 5 am • Wilmington, WAAV-AM 980, Sunday 5:30 pm