Tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy or raises for teachers?

by Chris Fitzsimon, NC Policy Watch and NC SPIN panelist, March 14, 2014.

North Carolina still ranks 46^th in the country in teacher pay according the latest rankings released this week by the National Education Association.  And it looks it will be a while before that changes.

Eric Guckian, Governor Pat McCrory’s education adviser, told a crowd of several hundred people at the North Carolina School Administrators conference this week that McCrory’s proposal to raise pay only for starting teachers was just a first step but that other raises depend on state revenues.

Guckian and McCrory himself have refused to endorse a proposal by former Governor Jim Hunt to raise teacher salaries to the national average in four years. Hunt addressed the conference right after Guckian Thursday morning and made the proposal again with Guckian sitting in the front row.

Hunt also pointed out that last year North Carolina was one of only three states in the country that did not give teachers a raise. West Virginia and Louisiana were the other two.

As for state revenues, Guckian did not mention that lawmakers slashed taxes last year on out of state corporations and wealthy individuals or that there’s another tax reduction scheduled to phase in next year.

McCrory and state lawmakers could raise salaries for all teachers if they made the raises a bigger priority than cutting taxes again. They could also close some of the massive corporate loopholes scattered throughout the state’s tax code.

Hunt received a standing ovation at the end of his remarks and one time during his speech, when he stressed his opposition to the private school voucher scheme created by state lawmakers last session in the budget that McCrory signed.  Guckian didn’t mention vouchers in his address.

One other note from Guckian’s remarks. He said plainly that Governor McCrory supports Common Core, though he is worried about the excessive amount of testing in public schools. The folks on the Right in the Republican Party, led by Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest, are adamantly opposed to the Common Core standards and curriculum, setting up an interesting dynamic in education policy for the next few years.

Berger’s staff lashes out defending pay to play

The staff of Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger seems awfully defensive these days about the role Senator Berger is playing in the congressional campaign of his son, Phil Berger Jr.  The Insider reported this week that lobbyists had contributed at least $19,400 to Berger Jr.’s campaign, most of it given at fundraiser in December featuring Senator Berger.

Lobbyists are prohibited by law from contributing directly to state legislators, but not Congressional campaigns.   That means lobbyists can give money to the son of the most powerful man in the General Assembly just a few months before lawmakers return to Raleigh to consider bills the lobbyists are paid to pass or defeat.

The Insider story quoted Bob Hall from Democracy North Carolina calling the fundraiser featuring Senator Berger a “simple-minded pay-to-play scheme” and that is exactly what it is. There’s normally not much of a reason for lobbyists at the General Assembly to give money to a congressional campaign. But when the head of the state Senate is involved, there is a powerful and obvious reason.

The Insider asked Berger’s staff for a comment and was directed to Ray Martin with the Senate Republican Caucus, which Berger runs. His response was to lash out at Bob Hall for making the comments on the day of Senator Martin Nesbitt’s funeral.

Hall of course was simply answering questions from a reporter about the obvious ethical questions about Senator Berger raising money for his son from lobbyists with interests before the General Assembly that Berger controls.  There’s no defense for it really, so Martin pitifully attacked Hall instead.

And Berger’s not the only one with ethical issues. House Speaker Thom Tillis is raising a lot of money from lobbyists too, for his bid for the U.S. Senate.  Tillis still runs the state House and presumably still has a lot to say about what will pass in this summer’s session. A group of lobbyists even held a fundraiser for Tillis in December.  Pay to play is stronger than ever in Raleigh these days.

McCrory’s selective claims about injecting politics into coal ash disaster

Governor McCrory apparently only thinks its “politicizing” the Dan River coal ash spill when Democrats say that Duke Energy customers should not have to pay to clean up the company’s leaking coal ash ponds.

McCrory criticized Attorney General Roy Cooper this week after Cooper said he would fight any effort to force ratepayers to pick up the tab for the cleanup. McCrory said that decision was up to the N.C Utilities Commission, though the Attorney General’s office does have the authority to play a role in rate hikes.

News reports also quoted Rep. Mike Hager, a Republican and co-chair of the legislature’s Environmental Review Commission, saying he wants to keep the cost of the cleanup off ratepayers too. McCrory has yet to admonish Hager for politicizing the spill.

- See more at: http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2014/03/14/the-follies-195/#sthash.2G53QgSy.dpuf