Press Releases and Newsletters
Op-ed from Gov. Perdue calling on citizens to tell her about any rules and regulations in state government that defy common sense.
The gentleman from Greenville (let’s call him Mr. B) was direct and to the point: “I hope this is not a political nothing.”
His was one of more than 600 responses received the first week at www.setgovernmentstraight.nc.gov, the website devoted to bringing common sense back to the rules and regulations that pepper North Carolina state government. I can understand Mr. B’s hesitation. State government has been bogged down by red tape and needless bureaucracy for decades. Many rules set forth by state agencies are ancient and haven’t been reviewed for years, if ever. Even as Mr. B typed in the web address, he must have been thinking to himself — this sounds like a good idea, but is anyone really listening?
Let me assure you – yes, we are.
The global recession that descended on North Carolina has presented us with a choice: keep doing things the same old way and remain depressed, or innovate, grow, change and emerge from the recession’s dark cloud stronger, leaner and better. Here in the Tar Heel state we’ve chosen to push forward, as is evidenced by businesses, communities and families across the state who have made tough choices, thought outside the box and found a new way to survive. Because of that perseverance, North Carolina is recognized as the No. 1 place in America to do business, and we are leading the country out of the recession with the second highest job growth nationally.
Keeping that forward momentum is crucial. State government must continue to be a jobs-creating partner with private businesses. Any unnecessary red tape only serves as a road block to economic growth. So I’ve directed all my cabinet agencies to review all rules currently in place and to slow down any new rules. I’ve asked the rest of state government to do the same. And, most importantly, I’m asking you, citizens, business leaders, community leaders and state employees, to identify rules that defy common sense. Tell me what regulations keep business from moving forward. Show me the red tape that may slow our progress or hinder our ability to remain the best place in the U.S. to live and work.
That’s what setting government straight is all about.
Mr. B didn’t just write in to offer his political commentary. He also submitted a suggestion to eliminate a program. The result, he believed, would do exactly what we’re looking for: “create more construction, more competition, less bureaucracy and more cost effective organizations.”
I don’t know yet whether that suggestion will work. We have already amassed more than a thousand recommendations, and before we can act on them, each and every one must be reviewed. But what I do know is that by the time the General Assembly gets into full swing next year, I will have a list of rules and regulations that don’t make sense, and I will ask my agencies and the General Assembly to fix them, tweak them, or eliminate them altogether.
www.setgovernmentstraight.nc.gov. Tell us what we need to change. We are listening.
Gov. Bev Perdue
November 17, 2010
100 Days that Will Change North Carolina(Rep. Stam)
North Carolina’s state government must reduce costs and regulation on business, large and small, so that they can create jobs and prosperity.If the people of North Carolina entrust Republicans with a majority in the General Assembly on November 2, 2010, we commit to govern the State by focusing on these priorities:
1. Years of overspending by Democrats have given North Carolina the highest tax rates in the
Southeast and a budget deficit of at least $3 billion; we will balance the State budget without
raising tax rates.
2. High taxes are killing jobs. We will make our tax rates competitive with other states.
Within the first 100 days you will see us:
3. Passing The Healthcare Freedom Protection Act, exempting North Carolinians from the job-killing,
liberty-restricting mandates of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
(Obama Care).
4. Fighting to protect jobs by keeping our Right to Work laws.
5. Reducing the regulatory burden on small business.
6. Funding education in the classroom, not the bureaucracy.
7. Eliminating the cap on charter schools.
8. Passing the Honest Election Act, requiring a valid photo ID to vote.
9. Passing the Eminent Domain constitutional amendment to protect private property rights.
10. Ending pay-to-play politics and restore honesty and integrity to state government.
GOP leaders lay the groundwork for House, Senate leadership Stam,Tillis mentioned for House roles (M2Mpolitics.com)
State Republican leaders, fresh off their historic legislative victories Tuesday, are laying the groundwork for who will be at the helm of the Senate and the House when their majorities take office next January.
North Carolina GOP Chairman Tom Fetzer has been introducing Sen. Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, as the Senate president pro-tem in waiting, the choice for House speaker is less clear.
Two names have emerged as top candidates for the post: Rep. Paul “Skip” Stam, R-Wake, who is the House’s current minority leader, and Rep. Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, who is the House’s current minority whip.Both speak well of each other. And both say that the process for picking the next House speaker is just getting under way.
Up until about midnight Tuesday, the Republican leadership had been concentrating on getting GOP candidates elected to the House, they said.“We all agreed that the first thing to do is get to the majority, and that’s just where we are today,” Tillis said Wednesday.The Republican House members plan to caucus and select their nominees for speaker and speaker pro-tem, along with electing their majority leader on Nov. 20.
“There’s no question that whoever we nominate on the 20th will be elected on Jan. 26 (2011),” Stam said. That’s the date that the General Assembly convenes for the next session.
The House GOP leaders said it’s safe to assume that members of the current leadership team would play leadership roles next year.
They include the current deputy Republican whips, Reps. Nelson Dollar of Wake County, Carolyn Justice of Pender County and Fred Steen of Rowan County.
Berger said that while he plans to be a candidate for Senate president pro-tem, he doesn’t want to be presumptive.
As far as Fetzer’s reference to Berger being the next Senate leader, Berger said, “When you’re in a campaign, and somebody is running for president, you always introduce that person as the next president.”
Senate Republicans plan to caucus a couple days before their House counterparts to select their leaders. That will occur on Nov. 18. Berger said he expects other members of the current Senate GOP leadership team to be a part of the team next year when Republicans are in the majority. They include the three deputy Republican leaders, Sens. Harry Brown of Onslow County, Peter Brunstetter of Forsyth County and Neal Hunt of Wake County, along with the Republican whip, Sen. Jerry Tillman of Randolph County.
Who is selected speaker and president pro-tem is significant because they have traditionally directed the flow of legislation and appointed committees in their respective chambers.
The speaker of the House and president pro-tem of the Senate are actually formally elected during the first day of the new session.
Posted November 3, 2010 – 4:50 PM
From the Editors
(M2Mpolitics.com)
The Two Legislative Barbells (John Hood)
Because there hasn’t been a GOP legislature in North Carolina since the 1800s, the new Republican majorities have no shortage of policy initiatives to pursue in the 2011 legislative session.
In the past, most bills introduced by Republicans were either voted down on the floor by Democratic majorities or blocked from consideration by Democratic leaders. Now, with Republican running the state house and senate, bills to, say, remove the statewide cap on charter schools, privatize some state services, reform the state’s annexation laws, and amend the state constitution to protect property rights will probably get to the floor and pass both chambers.
But for all the pent-up demand to exercise legislative power on behalf of conservative causes, most of the heavy lifting during the 2011 session will be devoted to two massive barbells: the budget deficit and redistricting.
The fiscal challenge facing North Carolina is daunting. At a minimum, projected state revenues will fall short of planned state spending by more than $3 billion. Depending on one’s definition – should it include only immediate operating expenses or obligations such as state pensions? – the deficit could be described as $5 billion or more.
While past Democratic governors and legislators were responsible for most of the reckless fiscal decisions that created the problem, Republicans won’t find much political value from playing the blame game. They wanted power in Raleigh. Now they have it.
Having (properly) ruled out tax increases as the solution to the problem, Republicans now have the responsibility to help Gov. Beverly Perdue enact a balanced 2011-13 budget. That means proposing or agreeing to billions of dollars in short-term budget savings, as well as structural reforms of the budget process and a long-term plan for reducing North Carolina’s tens of billions of dollars in accumulated debts and unfunded liabilities.
Make no mistake: you can’t balance North Carolina’s budget simply by eliminating redundancies, axing obvious pork-barrel projects, eliminating vacant positions, and economizing on travel budgets. These are praiseworthy first steps, but their total value is denominated in the hundreds of millions of dollars at most, not billions. The new Republican legislature will have to make some tough decisions about such items as Medicaid and other welfare programs, non-teaching expenses in the public schools and universities, big state subsidies for private firms and nonprofits, and the use of costly imprisonment for nonviolent crimes.
Most North Carolinians are grown-ups. They’ll understand the need to make tough decisions to bring state expenses in line with state revenues. Most North Carolinians have already had to do that for their own households and businesses.
While the budget deficit is the biggest problem facing the new legislature, the responsibility to redraw North Carolina’s congressional and legislative districts may consume almost as much political and media attention. The maps will define the political playing field for a decade. And they may well determine the fate of dozens of political careers, including those of many sitting lawmakers.
As I’ve previously discussed, I favor amending the North Carolina constitution to reform our redistricting process – both to create a redistricting commission and, more importantly, to apply additional neutral rules to the resulting maps. But we’re out of time.
The earliest general-election date for voters to consider such a constitutional amendment would be a year from now, and the 2011 ballot will feature only municipal and school-board races. Major changes to our constitution are best considered in high-turnout elections. Besides, even a November 2011 date would be too late to get maps approved by both a commission and the U.S. Justice Department before the start of candidate filing in early 2012.
Instead, GOP leaders should advance three pieces of legislation in 2011. First, they should enact new redistricting rules that telegraph their commitment to compactness and other neutral principles for drawing districts. Second, they should enact new maps according to those rules. And third, they should enact legislation authorizing a referendum to write such rules, and a commission system, into the state constitution.
If the Republican legislature can lift both the budget and redistricting barbells over their heads next year, the rest of the session ought to be no sweat.
Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation.
John Hood’s Daily Journal
November 04, 2010
Oberstar ousted; House T&I in limbo (PUBLIC WORKS News Service)
It’s been called the surprise of the night.
Out of nowhere, Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), the 18-term chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, was edged out of office by 4,000 votes to a political newcomer in the biggest mid-term shift of power in 70 years.
The defeat ends Oberstar’s 30-year tenure on the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, raising renewed concerns about the future of transportation infrastructure.
“Who comes next is the question,” Christian Klein, vice president of government affairs for Associated Equipment Distributors, said of Oberstar’s replacement. He posited that Democrats Peter A. DeFazio (Ore.) and Jerry F. Costello (Ill.) may get the nod to replace Oberstar, but he also acknowledged that “it’s not an issue people have talked much about because nobody expected him to lose.”
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Executive Director John Horsley said he thinks the Democratic Caucus will elect its senior member – Rep. Nick Rahall (D-West Va.) – who in May 2008 said he would urge President Obama to appoint Oberstar as secretary of transportation. Obama chose Oberstar’s former colleague, former Representative Ray LaHood (R-Ill.), for the cabinet job.
Rahall, who chairs the Committee on Natural Resources, is the senior Democrat on the House T&I Committee.
Meanwhile, John Mica (R-Fla.), who has served as the ranking member under the Democratic majority, is expected to be elected to Oberstar’s now-former post as chairman once the 112th Congress convenes Jan. 3, 2011. Although the House immediately begins adopting resolutions assigning its members to, the process usually lasts through January and has lasted in recent years into March.
“Mica is highly regarded for the role he’s played as ranking member. There’s a consistent pattern of bipartisanship in this committee that we hope continues,” said Horsley, who called Oberstar “a terrific national leader on all facets of transportation.”
In 2009 Oberstar proposed a $450 billion, six-year federal surface transportation bill in conjunction with the Obama administration’s push for an 18-month extension of the existing law. The bill – a 57% increase over the $286.5 billion bill approved in 2005 – would have set aside $87 billion in highway trust fund money for transit, would have consolidated the current 108 programs by eliminating or combining 75 of them, and would have established a National Infrastructure Bank.
Few lawmakers expected it to pass. “Power was ceded from committee chairmen to (House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s) office, so transportation infrastructure hasn’t been on anyone’s agenda,” Klein said.
But he is optimistic that the shift in power – and ideology – may move the issue to the forefront.
“The big issue is how to pay for a new bill,” Klein added. “They’re also going to have to address other issues such as whether the next bill will be designed to expand capacity or maintain the current system, and whether it will improve urban mobility to the disadvantage of rural economic development.”
Klein is optimistic about full reauthorization in the next two years rather than more one-year extensions. He expects the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works to have a renewed focus on transportation with well-regarded conservative and ranking member James Inhofe (R-Okla.) working closely with Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who has recently backed down from her push for climate change legislation.
“If there’s anyone on Capitol Hill in the Senate who can build a bridge from Barbara Boxer to some of these new Republicans, I think Jim Inhofe is the guy to do it,” Klein said.
The extension of the bill expires Dec. 31, but Horsley, too, is optimistic that a full reauthorization may pass the 112th congress. “The fact that the president has weighed in twice – on Labor Day and then Columbus Day – is helpful. Rep. Mica has spoken of his desire to move this legislation. Sens. Boxer and Inhoff also have made commitments to move legislation as well, so there’s great interest in a new bill” – particularly because Mica’s home state of Florida remains one of the fastest growing in the nation despite the recession. So any bill under his leadership likely will focus on increasing capacity.
No matter what the committee comes up with in the next two years, lawmakers will still have to figure out where to pull the revenue from. That issue falls under the jurisdiction of the House Ways and Means Committee, currently chaired by Sander Levin (D-Mich.) but likely to be chaired by current ranking member Dave Camp (R-Mich.).
One likely scenario, according to Klein, is that the Senate passes a consensus bill and sends it to the House, where a possible bipartisan coalition will approve it. “The bottom line is that the highway program has had a terrible PR problem (think the ‘bridge to nowhere’),” Klein said. “But Mica is the guy who can turn that around. The Republicans need to restore confidence in the federal highway program. It’s sort of like when we said only Nixon can go to China. Well, only the Republicans can get a highway bill done.”
Source: PUBLIC WORKS News Service
Publication date: November 3, 2010
By Michael Fielding
AN HISTORIC DAY WILL LEAD TO A BETTER NORTH CAROLINA (Paul Stam)
On November 2, 2010, voters sent a clear message. The number one issue in North Carolina is the economy – jobs, jobs, jobs. Years of overspending by Democrats have given North Carolina the highest tax rates in the Southeast and an estimated budget deficit of at least $3 billion for next year. High tax rates inhibit hiring.
Republican members of the House and Senate have united against legislation which limited our freedoms and stifled small business growth. Republican candidates across the state campaigned against excessive spending, tax rate increases and the job-killing, liberty-restricting mandates of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obama Care). And for the first time in 112 years, Republicans have gained majorities in both the state House and Senate.
The people of North Carolina have entrusted us with the responsibility to govern the State by reducing costs and regulation on business, large and small, so that they can create jobs and prosperity. Voters have spoken and Republicans are committed to:
• Balancing the State budget without raising tax rates.
And within the first 100 days:
• Passing The Healthcare Freedom Protection Act, exempting North Carolinians from the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obama Care).
• Fighting to protect jobs by keeping our Right to Work laws.
• Reducing the regulatory burden on small business.
• Funding education in the classroom, not the bureaucracy.
• Eliminating the cap on charter schools.
• Passing the Honest Election Act, requiring a valid photo ID to vote.
• Passing the Eminent Domain constitutional amendment to protect private property rights.
• Ending pay-to-play politics and restore honesty and integrity to state government.
Posted by Paul Stam, NC House Republican Leader on November 3rd, 2010
http://twurl.nl/jhiteo
GOP wins control of N.C. General Assembly (News & Observer)
Republicans made history on Election Day as they seized control of North Carolina’s legislature for the first time in more than a century.
Democratic leaders in both the state House and Senate conceded to their Republican counterparts late Tuesday.
Sen. Marc Basnight, the Democratic leader in the Senate, said he told Republican leader Sen. Phil Berger of Eden that he will do whatever he can to work with the new regime.
Republicans last held a majority in the Senate in 1898. This year, they rode a wave of voter discontent and forced some veteran Democrats into heated struggles.
“In serving the people, you understand a day like this may come,” said Basnight, of Manteo, who led the Senate for the past 18 years. “You are hopeful that the change is beneficial, new ideas, different thoughts. This is only what the people want, so that means it is good.”
Unofficial returns indicate that Republicans won at least 28 Senate seats and 62 in the House, according to an Associated Press tally. The current House is a 68-52 Democratic majority and the Democrats control the Senate with 30 of the 50 seats. . “We are going to govern in a different way,” Rep. Paul “Skip” Stam of Apex, the current House minority leader, told a cheering crowd at the GOP victory party in Raleigh. “We’re going to govern in a frugal way, in a responsible way.”
Challenges ahead
That pledge will quickly be put to the test as legislators return to the capital early next year to start dealing with an expected budget shortfall of more than $3 billion. The Republicans also will have to work with Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue, who has the power of the veto.
In early returns, Republicans were trouncing Democrats in eastern House and Senate districts. Republican Bill Rabon of Southport was winning the Senate district held by Democratic Sen. R.C. Soles of Tabor City, the state’s longest-serving legislator. Soles decided not to seek re-election after he shot a young man in the leg last year. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. Rabon beat former Democratic House member David Redwine of Shallotte.
Republican Thomas Goolsby was leading Democrat Jim Leutze to replace three-term Democrat Julia Boseman in a New Hanover County district. Republican challenger E. B. “Buck” Newton, a Wilson attorney, was ahead of Democratic Sen. A.B. Swindell, a five-term veteran.
Republican Rick Gunn, a real estate executive from Burlington, was winning his rematch with Sen. Tony Foriest, a two-term senator from Graham. And in the mountains, incumbent Democratic Sens. Steve Goss of Boone, Joe Sam Queen of Waynesville and John Snow of Murphy were all trailing Republican challengers.
In the House, two-term Democrat Van Braxton of Kinston was trailing Republican Stephen LaRoque, a former legislator seeking to return to lawmaking. Republican challenger Norman Sanderson of Arapahoe was ahead of Democratic Rep. Alice Underhill of New Bern, who has served four terms in the House.
In a swing district in Wake County, Rep. Chris Heagarty, a Democrat who has served less than a year, lost to Republican Tom Murry of Morrisville. Outside groups flooded Heagarty’s district with mailers attacking him, at least one of which blamed him for a budget vote taken before he was appointed.
Riding discontent
Democrats were vulnerable this year as members of the party in charge both statewide and nationally amid an unemployment rate higher than 9 percent.
State Republicans had an above-average fundraising year, boosted by massive expenditures by Raleigh businessman Art Pope to support groups aligned with the GOP. Freed from limits on corporate contributions by a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, those outside groups flooded districts with campaign mail attacking Democrats and bought large blocks of time on radio and television.
The party that controls the legislature will be in charge of drawing district lines for legislative and congressional seats. The shapes of districts help determine whether Democratic or Republican candidates will have an easier time winning them.
The victors also will have a major say in state spending and social policy in the next two years.
Long one of the most powerful politicians in the state, Basnight was key to the enactment of environmental laws, including legislation that created the Clean Water Trust Fund. He is a powerful champion of the state university system, and helped push a $3.1 billion higher education bond issue. His protégés include Perdue, Lt. Gov. Walton Dalton, U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan and others who left the Senate for statewide or federal office.
Basnight said he would not stand for minority leader in Senate, passing leadership of the Democratic caucus to Sen. Martin Nesbitt of Asheville.
Berger, the current Senate minority leader, is in line to become the next Senate president pro tem.
‘Just a wave’
House Speaker Joe Hackney of Chapel Hill declined to comment on whether he planned to stand for minority leader in the House.
He said he didn’t think his party’s reversal had anything to do with a particular policy or vote in his two terms as speaker.
“It was just a wave,” Hackney said.
“I was here for the national Republican wave in 1994, and this is like that.”
Stam and Rep. Thom Tillis of Cornelius are expected to be the Republican contenders to hold the speaker’s gavel.
Tillis said it was too early Tuesday night to speculate about who would take the reins.
“We’ll start talking about that tomorrow,” he said.
BY LYNN BONNER AND MICHAEL BIESECKER
[email protected]
Posted: Wednesday, Nov. 03, 2010
Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx Among Four U.S. Mayors Named as Fellows by the Urban Land Institute Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership in Land Use (PRNewswire-USNewswire)
Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx Among Four U.S. Mayors Named as Fellows by the Urban Land Institute Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership in Land Use (Urban Land Institute)
The Urban Land Institute (ULI) Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership in Land Use has named Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx and three other outstanding local community leaders to serve in fellowships for the Center through 2011. Foxx’s local team will join three others led by the mayors of Detroit, Houston, and Sacramento.
The mission of the ULI Rose Center is to encourage and support excellence in land use decision making. By providing public officials with access to information, best practices, peer networks, and other resources, the Center seeks to foster creative, efficient, practical, and sustainable land use policies.
“The City of Charlotte is proud to have the opportunity for our community leaders to participate in the Urban Land Institute’s Daniel Rose Fellowship program,” said Foxx. “The exchange of ideas with the other mayors and their teams during the forum will help guide the land use, smart growth and sustainable development throughout our community both now and in the future.”
Foxx and his team will offer guidance to ULI in the development of products, programs and services that cover a broad spectrum of work incorporating three over-arching themes: real estate finance and development; the interdependencies and respective roles of the public and private sectors; and the role and importance of the public realm in creating viable, thriving communities.
The Charlotte team will work with the other selected mayors and their respective teams to address the most challenging land use issues facing their communities. Over the upcoming year, Foxx and his team will work with leading experts in the real estate development, finance, and land use fields with the intention of tackling complex land use issues facing each community.
“The slow pace of economic recovery is continuing to take a toll on our nation’s cities. This is undercutting America’s overall economic stability, because the nation’s economy is largely based on the strength of its metropolitan areas,” said ULI Chief Executive Officer Patrick L. Phillips. “ULI looks forward to working with the new class of Rose fellows to help them overcome obstacles posed by the current economic environment, reposition their cities for long-term prosperity, and establish a course for success that can be applied to other cities.”
Foxx’s 2010-11 ULI Daniel Rose Fellowship team members are as follows:
• Debra Campbell is the Planning Director for the joint City-County Planning Department. Campbell joined the City-County Planning Department in 1988 as a Senior Planner and held several positions, including Interim Director, Assistant Planning Director, and Planning Division Manager before being named Planning Director in 2004. She began her full-time public service career with the Tennessee State Planning Office and was a housing consultant with the Enterprise Foundation/Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise before moving to Charlotte.
• Gene Conti is the North Carolina Transportation Secretary. From 2001-2003, Conti, 63, served as Chief Deputy Secretary for the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Before his appointment to Chief Deputy Secretary in 2001, Conti served three years as Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy at the United States Department of Transportation.
• Danny Pleasant is the Director of the Department of Transportation for the City of Charlotte. Pleasant joined the City of Charlotte in 2002, following a 14-year career as Transportation Planning Bureau Chief for the City of Orlando, Florida. He also worked as a transportation planner for the cities of Atlanta, Georgia, and Chapel Hill and Fayetteville, North Carolina.
The ULI Rose Center was created in 2008 with a $5 million endowment by Daniel Rose, chairman of New York City-based Rose Associates, Inc., whose career has involved a broad range of professional, civic, and nonprofit activities. Rose Associates is a leading developer and manager of more than 30 million square feet of major office towers, commercial retail centers, mixed-use complexes, and high-rise residential buildings throughout the East Coast.
According to Rose, the Center is unique in how it facilitates collaboration among leaders in land use by bringing participants together from the public and private sector. “Each has much to learn from the other,” he said. “The more knowledgeable and better trained people are on both sides of the table, the more effective they are. The most successful projects invariably reflect those relationships.”
In addition, ULI has assembled a team of eight urban development and design leaders from around the nation who will be serving as faculty for the 2010-2011 Rose Center Fellowship cities: Hilary Bertsch, associate principal at Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects in New York City; Carlton Brown, chief operating officer at Full Spectrum of New York City; Andre Brumfield, urban design and planning principal at AECOM Design + Planning in Chicago; Antonio Fiol-Silva, principal at Wallace Roberts & Todd, LLC in Philadelphia; Calvin Gladney, managing partner at Mosaic Urban Partners, LLC in Washington, DC; Con Howe, managing director of CityView’s Los Angeles Fund; Mark Johnson, president of Civitas, Inc. in Denver; and Marilee Utter, president of Citiventure Associates, LLC in Denver.
The current class of Daniel Rose Fellowship teams follow the inaugural 2009-2010 class, led by the mayors of Minneapolis, Nashville, Philadelphia and Phoenix.
“The Rose Fellowship has been a tremendous asset for us,” said Philadelphia Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Alan Greenberger, a 2009-2010 fellow. “It has given us an opportunity to step back and think about a particular land-use problem with outside expert help. That is very difficult to achieve in the public sector, when all of our time is extremely pressured. Through this fellowship, we were able to travel to other cities, interact with colleagues, and hear from other experts in fields that are related to what we’re doing. That is not an opportunity that comes often in the daily course of life.”
For more information on the Daniel Rose Fellowship program, visit: http://www.uli.org/rosecenter
About the Urban Land Institute
The Urban Land Institute (www.uli.org) is a nonprofit education and research institute supported by its members. Its mission is to provide leadership in the responsible use of land and in creating and sustaining thriving communities worldwide. Established in 1936, the Institute has nearly 34,000 members worldwide representing all aspects of land use and development disciplines.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ —
Setting Government Straight (Gov. Perdue)
Setting Government Straight (Gov. Perdue)
What is Regulatory Review?
Regulatory Review is Governor Bev Perdue’s newest initiative aimed at setting government straight. It is a new process that asks you – citizens, community groups, businesses, state employees, local governments or schools – to tell us what rules and regulations in state government don’t make sense.
The Governor has instructed all of her cabinet agencies to stop creating new rules unless they are absolutely necessary and justifiable, until a thorough review can be completed. Every suggestion you send in will be reviewed by the Office of State Budget and Management, and ideas that work will be sent to the agencies to act on. If the Governor can make the change herself, she will; if she needs legislative approval, she will ask the General Assembly to make the change next year.
Why do we need it?
Put simply – because North Carolina has thousands of rules on the books that probably have not been reviewed in a long time and may not be relevant anymore. They may be outdated, inefficient or costly. They may defy common sense. State government is long overdue for such a review.
Gov. Perdue says, “My rule is the ‘plain common sense rule’ – if a regulation is needed, make sure it’s efficient for the user, transparent to the public and has real value for North Carolina citizens.”
How can I help?
Have you had contact with a state agency and found one of its rules to be outdated, frustrating or inefficient? Did it defy common sense? If so, we want to hear from you.
“I am calling on the people of this state who come into contact with state government to talk to me,” Gov. Perdue says. “Tell me what isn’t working for you when you go to a state agency for a permit, or a license, or any other project that falls under state regulation.”
Mayors attack high power bills (News and Observer)
Mayors attack high power bills (News and Observer)
SMITHFIELD The word coup jokingly came up several times in at a recent meeting of about a dozen Eastern North Carolina mayors.
Organized by Smithfield Mayor Daniel Evans and the mayors of Kinston and Elizabeth City, the gathering brought together mayors from public-power towns throughout Eastern North Carolina. And though the mayors won’t be overthrowing anybody, they agreed that doing nothing about high electric rates was no longer an option.
“No longer can you stick your head in the sand and say ‘that contract was signed long ago,'” Evans said.
In the 1970s, power looked to be scarce, so 30 or so towns in Eastern North Carolina came together to buy shares in nuclear plants to be built soon, including the Shearon Harris plant in Wake County. Then regulation prompted by the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster caused construction costs to skyrocket, and that put the towns billions of dollars in debt. Those debt payments, folded into every power bill, won’t end until 2026.
But several mayors said Thursday that the 1970s contract wasn’t the only reason electric rates are so high. They blame decisions made by Electricities, the member organization that manages the electricity purchases for the towns.
Several mayors said the high electricity rates cause developers and businesses to locate elsewhere – typically in nearby towns or unincorporated areas powered by Progress Energy at lower rates.
“That’s a big factor in stifling our growth,” Evans said, noting that Smithfield had fared better than other public power towns because it is near Raleigh.
In a recession, “we’ve got an organization that’s just going to build up its cash balance” rather than lower rates, Washington Mayor Archie Jennings said. “That’s just unreal.”
Elizabeth City Mayor Roger McLean noted that private utility Progress Energy recently cut its rates; he said Electricities should do the same.
And Evans said the organization had made questionable spending decisions that had resulted in even more debt. “Electricities has made some investments that they’ve lost money in,” he said. “I want to put a stop to any future debt.”
Roy Jones, a senior vice president for Electricities, said the agency has refinanced its debt to take advantage of lower interest rates.
The group formed the Eastern N.C. Mayors’ Association and agreed to a series of actions. They want to meet again in October or November with Electricities officials and the state Attorney General’s Office to review the electricity contract and determine what options the towns might have.
Early next year, they plan to get state and national lawmakers involved. The mayors’ group is also looking at getting members elected to the Electricities board of directors to push for changes. Electricities’ Jones says his agency plans to be there. “Our goal is to work with them and provide them with the information that they need,” he said.
Pikeville Mayor Johnny Weaver said Electricities needed to cut all unnecessary spending from its budget. He noted that the group recently donated $700 for a Sept. 11 observance in his town. “That ain’t doing anything but buying the good will of the Electricities board,” he said.
Weaver said even he’d rather live just outside Pikeville and enjoy cheaper electricity. “If I could have sold my house, I wouldn’t be mayor,” he said.
Clayton Mayor Jody McLeod and Benson Mayor William Massengill said that while they could not attend the meeting, they support the group’s goals and plan to be involved.
[email protected] or 919-836-5768
Modified Tue, Oct 12, 2010 12:12 AM
