The anti-government ideologues behind NC GEAR
Published February 6, 2014
by Chris Fitzsimon, NC Policy Watch and NC SPIN panelist, February 4, 2014.
It’s not unusual for governors to create special committees or blue ribbon commissions to find ways to make state government more efficient. Usually the initiative comes in their first year in office or in the midst of an economic downturn to reassure voters that they are committed to rooting out waste and duplication and saving taxpayer money.
Governor Pat McCrory included his version of the panel, the North Carolina Government Efficiency and Reform initiative, or NC GEAR, in the budget he submitted to the General Assembly last year. Lawmakers approved $4 million to fund the effort.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with that. Everybody wants a more efficient government and there’s always room for improvement, though most of the panels seem to be designed as much for the publicity governors receive when they create them as for actually identifying inefficiencies to free up funding for education or other important programs.
Judging by the people involved with McCrory’s efficiency group, it could prove to be far more dangerous than irrelevant.
A recent Associated Press story noted that the initiative will be overseen by State Budget Director Art Pope and a key staff member will be Joe Coletti from the budget office.
Coletti used to work for the John Locke Foundation, one of the conservative think tanks funded largely by Pope’s family foundation. Coletti wrote often about the state budget and authored the group’s alternative budget proposals.
Among the recommendations Coletti made in the name of efficiency in 2009 were deep cuts to NC PreK and the abolition of Smart Start, increased class size at public schools to cut teacher positions, and steep tuition increases at universities and community colleges.
He proposed abolishing the widely recognized N.C. Housing Trust Fund, slashing Medicaid services and coverage for adults and children, cutting funding for children with autism, and even slashing funding for foster care and adoption assistance. The alternative budget also proposed replacing Medicaid entirely with a block grant program.
Coletti wanted to cut funding for the overcrowded court system, sharply reduce the number of workplace safety inspectors, and end state funding for the Clean Water Management Trust Fund.
And maybe most importantly, his alternative budget called for a constitutional amendment to arbitrarily limit state spending based on a flawed formula that would force deep cuts to education, human services and other vital state programs.
But Coletti is not writing fringe budget proposals for a right-wing think tank any more. He is now inside the state government he loathes and playing a key role in a new initiative to dismantle it.
It’s also worth noting that the communications chief of NC GEAR is the former Mecklenburg County Republican Party Chair Lee Teague whose background appears to be in real estate, not communications or budget policy.
Coletti told the Associated Press that NC GEAR is a “once in a lifetime opportunity to improve state government.”
And that is the problem. Coletti thought his 2009 budget proposal would have “improved” state government too, calling its draconian cuts to schools and human services “reasonable and responsible” when they were neither.
Looking for efficiencies is one thing. Radically dismantling vital state institutions that make an important difference in people’s lives is quite another—but that has long been the troubling goal of the folks Governor McCrory has put in charge of running NC GEAR.
February 6, 2014 at 9:08 am
Richard Bunce says:
Chris, everybody does not want a more efficient government starting with big government ideologues like you. The government school education industrial complex does not want more efficient higher value government, it wants as many taxpayer dollars as it can get funneled to it and any education alternatives that might take a slice killed.
February 6, 2014 at 11:35 am
Norm Kelly says:
What was the effect of trying to get state government more efficient over the last 100 years of Democrat rule? Were there state programs that were duplicated? Were there state programs that were run inefficiently but maintained their budget or had their budget expanded? Did the more efficient state government under Democrat party rule pay for a tea cup museum or was that simply a story misrepresented in the right-wing media? Did the more efficient state government under Democrat party rule accept high-speed rail dollars from the feds or was that right-wing misinformation? Did the more efficient state government under Democrat party rule accept the extended unemployment benefits from the feds with no plan to pay for those benefits as well as no plan to pay back the loan to pay for those benefits? When the Democrat party ruled Raleigh, did they repeatedly tell the taxpayers and citizens that the budget was cut to the bone, there was no more room for cuts, at the same time they were raising taxes & fees, buying lake-rated ferries to run on the open ocean, expanding Pre-K & SmartStart programs when they lack evidence that it improves anything or better prepares the targeted kids?
Just because I actually want a really more efficient state government, as well as a more efficient federal government, a more effective government, that lives within it's means, stops stealing money for purposes that are outside it's bounds, and puts more of a burden on all of us, does not mean I am an anti-government ideologue. It means I expect the government to do what it is SUPPOSED to do, and leave the rest of the system to private citizens and private business. Exactly the way it's conceived of in both the State and National Constitutions. The challenge with libs and Demoncrats (redundancy alert!) is that they see no end to government expansion, no end to the funds 'required'/'demanded' by government at every level. The challenge with libs is that they see no area of society that they can't improve by government intervention. When someone mistakenly says 'there oughta be a law', the challenge is libs/Demons take this literally and try to do exactly that. Libs idea is to pit one group of people against another group. Libs absolutely do NOT believe that people have the ability to take care of themselves. Libs NEVER admit failure in ANY of their programs. Their ingrained, automatic response when one program fails to achieve it's stated goal is to complain about the funding provided to that effort. Of course, they have a secondary response to failure. They implement ANOTHER program, with a goal that is a duplicate of the first program with slightly different wording so it's hard to tell it's a duplicate program. This allows them to have more funding, more employees, more dedicated people willing to vote for Demons at the next election cycle. But admit failure? Never gonna happen from anyone in the DemocRAT party. Their ideas are absolutely sound and work every time they are implemented. Just ask them. Any good lib, including Chris, will tell you the reason their programs fail is because of conservatives/Republicans getting in their way, preventing them from spending as much as they want on any given program, or preventing them from even implementing the program to start with.
Prove me wrong. Name a program that government has voluntarily cut while under Demon control. Name a program Demons have implemented in the past 30-40 years that didn't already have a similar counterpart, either at the state or federal level. Show me where state spending has actually been reduced on a given program because the expenditure had the desired affect and caused the need to go away. Which program have the Democrats in Raleigh NOT wanted to expand or duplicate? Just take the state ABC program as a perfect example. Proof that this is one of those corrupt state programs, yet the DemocRAT party vehemently opposed fixing the problem. Their idea: throw more money at the program, implement new rules & regulations, put MORE government employees in oversight. Has this solved the problem, made the ABC programs across the state more efficient? Of course not, cuz it simply added more government overhead to the program, costing us more, while claiming the entire program is more efficient.
Am I a anti-government ideologue? No. Do I believe the government is as efficient and effective as Chris seems to think it is? No. Do I believe that 'there oughta be a law'? No. Do I believe state government can be more efficient? Of course, because I have the ability to think! Do I believe there are a huge number of state programs that should not exist. Of course, cuz I have the ability to look at the results and KNOW that the program does not do it's job. Take pre-k and smart start. A tremendous waste of state money. But libs love these programs because it shows they 'care' about 'the children'. It simply does NOT matter to libs that the programs fail to meet their goal, the lib response continues to be lack of funding. No thought AT ALL of a better way to accomplish the goal. Just pointing fingers at opponents, complaining about our anti-government ideas. Private business can be held accountable. Private business can be put out of business. What government agency is put out of business? What government agency has been eliminated because they have simply failed?
Libs, including Chris, have failed to come up with ANY new ideas. Libs have failed to inspire people to vote FOR them, their goal is to inspire people to vote AGAINST Republicans. Their idea is to spend more, tax more, penalize success, duplicate programs, take freedom away from us, take more control of our daily lives. I can only hope that enough people have watched socialism since his high holiness was anointed to realize that some new ideas and expansion of freedoms is a better answer to the challenges that face us. It's time to try something new, not something tired, old, proven failed, like the libs propose. Next time you attend a 'town hall'-type meeting with ANY politician, ask them what new idea they have that should encourage you to vote for them. Don't let them dodge the question. Press them on what their plan is to expand freedom, expand opportunity, expand personal responsibility. You won't get an answer from ANY Democrat!
