RALEIGH — The state-owned N.C. Railroad would be required to sell off some real estate, pay millions of dollars in dividends to the state, and submit to more thorough state oversight under legislation filed Thursday in the General Assembly.

A legislative staff report last year concluded that the N.C. Railroad has benefited since the state became its sole stockholder in 1998, but the state has not profited from the relationship. Sixty freight trains and 10 passenger trains run each day on NCRR tracks that curve across the state for 317 miles, from Charlotte through the Triangle to Morehead City.

Sen. Fletcher L. Hartsell Jr., a Republican from Concord, filed a bill that would implement legislative staff recommendations to:

• Collect a one-time $15.5 million dividend from the railroad by June 30.

• Collect annual dividends in future years worth 25 percent of the trackage fees paid to the N.C. Railroad by Norfolk-Southern Railway – about $3.7 million a year.

• Require the N.C. Railroad to set strategic objectives and create a performance management system.

• Require new, detailed financial reporting from the railroad, including the Form 10-K information that publicly held companies report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

• Have two railroad directors who also are members of the state Board of Transportation.

• Require the railroad to sell 14 parcels valued at $6 million that lie outside the rail corridor, and give the proceeds to the state.

Some of these sites generate rental income for the railroad – in all, nearly $100,000 a year. Most of the real estate is in Carteret and Craven counties.

The list includes the former sites of two 19th century train depots in the Triangle: a 5-acre tract in Hillsborough that includes a gravel parking lot for nearby businesses, and a 0.3-acre lot in Morrisville.

Hartsell is co-chairman of a joint House-Senate committee that endorsed the staff recommendations in October. Some legislators have said the state should sell the railroad itself, but committee members said it should remain in state hands.

“The proposed bill would give us a little more information as shareholders, and the corporation would get a little more direction from its shareholders,” Hartsell said Friday. “It’s really to enhance economic development and the function of the railroad.”

The legislature stopped collecting dividends years ago and told railroad officials instead to spend the money on tracks, bridges and other improvements. More than $150 million in investments are planned over the next decade, including $100 million to double-track the rails in Raleigh from downtown to the Beltline in Southeast Raleigh, and from Cary to Morrisville.

Scott Saylor, the railroad president, told Hartsell’s committee in October that the railroad might have to scale back improvement plans if it is required to pay dividends to the state.

By Bruce Siceloff
(The News and Observer)
Published Fri, Feb 01, 2013 09:47 PM
Modified Fri, Feb 01, 2013 09:48 PM

RALEIGH, N.C. By one measure, the to-do list for Republican legislative leaders this year at the General Assembly is very similar to what they wrote down in 2011, when they took new majorities in the House and Senate.

“We are focused on continuing a number of the things we initiated last time – making sure that North Carolina’s budget is balanced and in order, making sure that our tax situation is stable (and) trying to address the problems we have in education,” said Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham. And bills requiring voter identification, reducing business regulations and controlling Medicaid costs are again on the list.

But by another accounting, everything has changed as legislators begin filing and debating bills this Wednesday, when they reconvene the two-year session after ceremonial meetings Jan. 9 to elect leaders.

Democrat Beverly Perdue is no longer in the Executive Mansion, where she wore out her veto stamp against GOP legislation the past two years. She did not seek re-election. Republican Pat McCrory replaced her, opening the door for his party to fashion state government more to its liking than any other time in memory. Republicans haven’t controlled the legislative and executive branches simultaneously since 1870.

With expanded majorities and a friendly governor, GOP legislators say they’re ready to take on complicated issues that could anger political friends and enemies. Those issues include revamping an indebted unemployment insurance system through higher business taxes and reduced jobless benefits, and overhauling a state tax system that Democratic leaders weren’t able to complete.

“The next two years will really test our mettle,” said House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg.

Republicans say they’ll get along with one another and McCrory but acknowledge they’ll likely have occasional spats, as Democrats did. The GOP majorities – now 77-43 over Democrats in the House and 33-17 in the Senate – are veto-proof.

State business leaders have high expectations. They see the $2.5 billion the state owes the federal government for paying unemployment benefits and unnecessary regulation as major obstacles to accelerating the economic recovery in a state with one of the highest jobless rates in the nation.

“There’s a common recognition that North Carolina has a job creation problem,” North Carolina Chamber chief executive Lew Ebert said, adding: “We’ve got to increase the rate and pace of change.”

Many Democrats and liberal-leaning activists are worried about efforts to scale back unemployed worker weekly benefits by as much as one-third and tax overhaul proposals they say would stick more of the financial burden on the poor.

Republicans also are sure to pass a voter identification requirement – probably photo ID – to vote in person, which critics say erodes voting rights. Perdue vetoed a photo ID bill in 2011.

“The stakes seem to be a lot higher than they have been in many years, regardless of the party in power,” said Adam Searing, a longtime General Assembly lobbyist who directs the North Carolina Health Access Coalition.

Writing a two-year budget before July 1 is the General Assembly’s primary job. With the state’s slow economic recovery expected to keep revenue growth under 4 percent – or roughly $800 million for the 2013-14 fiscal year – there will be little money for new initiatives.

Extra revenue largely will go to pay for teaching additional students in the public schools and the University of North Carolina system and for higher Medicaid costs, said Art Pope, McCrory’s top budget adviser. Legislative budget-writers want to find cost savings that can be redirected to repair and renovate aging state buildings and infrastructure.

Tillis said an unemployment insurance proposal should clear the House in early February. Senate Republicans and McCrory have largely supported the measure recommended by a study committee. Detractors say the balance between benefit cuts and higher taxes for businesses to pay down the debt and restore the state’s unemployment trust fund is skewed heavily against working families.

“It suggests that people almost begin to look at working people who’ve suffered great (from) this recession, lost their jobs, they’ve suddenly become the enemy of the people of the government of North Carolina,” said Gene Nichol with the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Senate Republicans have floated a tax overhaul plan to eliminate corporate and individual income taxes in exchange for expanding the sales tax to include most services currently exempt from the tax, including the state’s share of the sales tax on groceries. McCrory hasn’t ruled out the idea but seems more comfortable lowering income tax rates. Tillis said he wants the corporate income tax eliminated but is preaching patience before disentangling the rest of the tax system.

“We’re talking about revising 50 years (of tax laws) in five months, and it seems like a daunting task,” Tillis said.

The Democrats who remain in the legislature – now barely one-third of the 170 members – have their own ideas for a tax overhaul and unemployment insurance changes to ensure the solvency of the trust fund, said Senate Minority Whip Josh Stein, D-Wake.

“The chance for common ground is there, but a lot of it will depend on how are (Republicans) going to govern,” Stein said. “Are they going to be open to Democratic ideas or are they just going to shut the door?”

Republicans recognize that they have a lot riding on the legislative session.

“I personally do not think that Republicans have a mandate in North Carolina,” said Pope, McCrory’s deputy budget director and a former state House member. “Republicans have an opportunity.”

(News & Observer)
By GARY D. ROBERTSON – Associated Press
Published Sat, Jan 26, 2013 10:09 AM
Modified Sat, Jan 26, 2013 10:14 AM

New pro-business tax study outlines four big proposals(News & Observer)

A pro-business group is releasing a study Monday that outlines four options for overhauling taxes in North Carolina — the latest proposal in the mix ahead of the legislative session.

The Tax Foundation study was commissioned by the Carolina Business Coalition — a limited government, low-taxation interest group whose board includes former Republican Gov. Jim Martin. Its options put everything on the table — but favor businesses more than other plans. (None include the business license tax Senate Republicans have suggested nor a repeal of all tax exemptions currently in law.)

Here are the options identified in the study, obtained by Dome. (Click link for full study.)

Option A: 6 percent income tax, 3.5 percent sales tax, repeal corporate and franchise taxes

Option B: 5 percent income tax, 5 percent sales tax, 5 percent corporate income tax and repeal the franchise tax

Option C: 8.75 percent sales tax, no income tax, repeal corporate and franchise taxes

Option D: no state sales tax, 10 percent income tax, repeal corporate and franchise taxes

(News & Observer)
Submitted by John_Frank
on 2013-01-28 08:21

It’s usually a slow, predictable walk from the beginning of the budget-writing season to the release of state budget proposals in late winter and early spring. But budget surprises got off to an early start this year with Gov. Pat McCrory picking Art Pope, former legislator, multimillionaire and conservative foundation financier to be his budget director and with Senate leader Phil Berger’s pronouncement that he wants the state budget, now at $20.2 billion, to be smaller next year.

McCrory will present his budget in March, and the state Senate has the first crack at writing the legislature’s version.

Pope said it’s too soon to talk specifics, but there’s going to be little money to pay for expanded government services.

The state budget is on firmer footing than in recent years, but there’s not much cushion. Rather than the $3 billion-plus shortfall the state stared down two years ago, budget writers could begin the next budget with a tiny surplus, projected to be about $100 million.

Next month, Pope and the legislature’s fiscal research staff will make public their expectations for revenue growth. At 3.3 percent – which former Gov. Bev Perdue’s office predicted – the state would bring in an additional $800 million. But most of that would be claimed by increases in public school and university enrollment, Medicaid increases, and the cost to continue state agency work at its current level, Pope said.

“There’s going to be a very tight budget,” Pope said.

He also said the state hasn’t spent enough on building repairs. Sen. Pete Brunstetter, a Winston-Salem Republican and a chief budget writer, said that an adequate repair and renovations fund is essential to creating a solid, post-recession budget.

Other than boosting the Rainy Day reserve account and building funds, no one is talking about budget priorities.

But when it comes to writing the budget, the state’s biggest expenses, education and Medicaid, are also the biggest targets for cuts.

After failing to contain Medicaid costs as they expected, legislators have kept a close eye on spending on the government health insurance program for the poor and disabled.

Medicaid spending will get more scrutiny, and optional services, those the federal government does not require states to offer, may be cut. Most of what the federal government considers optional are what many think of as a basic part of a health insurance plan, such as prescription drugs and hospice care, but the state already has begun to trim some medical services.

The Senate proposed deeper reductions in optional services in its budget two years ago, and may consider it again, Brunstetter said.

The state offers a “broader array” of optional services compared with other states, he said, and Medicaid spending takes money away from other priorities.

“Every part of the state budget, whether it’s education or corrections, is subsidizing the Medicaid budget,” he said. “We have to solve that problem if you want to invest appropriately in other areas.”

(News & Observer) By Lynn Bonner
Published Sat, Jan 26, 2013 07:58 PM
Modified Sun, Jan 27, 2013 07:58 AM

The Republican legislature’s “tax reform” plan represents a high-risk political strategy for the GOP.

In fact, Republican tax reform has the potential to do for the GOP what health care reform did for the Democrats – create tremendous political blowback.

Republican lawmakers are considering a nearly complete rewrite of the tax code, abolishing corporate and income taxes and replacing them with sales taxes and taxes on services.

The rationale is that the current tax code, the product of the 1930s, is antiquated – a point with which nearly all the experts agree. And they argue that abolishing those taxes would make North Carolina more economically competitive – a point on which there is no consensus.

But without going into the pros and cons of the proposal, shifting much of the tax burden to the sales tax – which people pay every time they go to the store – is politically explosive.

The sales tax was enacted in 1933 as part of a restructuring of state government. One of North Carolina’s smartest governors, O. Max Gardner, pushed through the new tax code so the state could finance operations during the Great Depression.

But he was so wary of the sales tax that he left it to his successor, John C.B. Ehringhaus, to enact a 3-cent sales tax.

Gov. Terry Sanford in the 1960s ended the sales tax exemption on food to help pay for the state community college system. The tax was so unpopular that Sanford was dubbed “Food Tax Terry.”

When the Republicans won control of the state House during the 1994 Republican revolution, one of their battle cries was the elimination of the food tax – which they enacted.

Now, two decades later, Republican legislators are proposing to restore the food tax – and likely make it far higher.

The sales tax is unlike any other tax. It is paid over and over again. It shows up on every sales slip.

At campaign time, Democrats would almost assuredly mass-produce bumper stickers like: “Vote against the GOP food tax” or “Food Tax Pat.”

Republican arguments that they did it to get rid of the corporate and income taxes won’t fit on a bumper sticker.

Republican lawmakers will also likely anger powerful – and Republican-leaning – constituencies such as retailers, who will not relish being turned into North Carolina’s major tax collector.

The seven states that have no income tax tend to have streams of revenue that North Carolina does not have – oil fields in Texas and Alaska, casinos in Nevada and tourism in Florida.

Last week, Art Pope, Gov. Pat McCrory’s budget director, put some distance between the governor and the legislature’s idea of replacing the personal and corporate income taxes with a sales tax.

Pope also said he had “great concerns” about the concept.

House Speaker Thom Tillis, a likely U.S. Senate candidate in 2014, said last week that the legislature needs to move cautiously. Tillis, like McCrory, is committed to cutting the corporate and personal income tax rates but seems nervous about a more sweeping overhaul.

Health care reform is the main reason Republicans are in power in Raleigh – having won office as part of a Republican backlash in 2010. A similar backlash could be in the works for the Republicans.

It would be ironic if Republicans, who built their image as the low-tax party, inadvertently rebrand themselves as the tax party because of the proposed tax overhaul.

(News & Observer)
By Rob Christensen
PUBLISHED SAT, JAN 26, 2013 05:16 PM
MODIFIED SUN, JAN 27, 2013 07:16 AM

Newly sworn-in N.C. Commerce Secretary Sharon Decker returned to her Charlotte roots Monday, and said the state could take a cue from its largest city’s history of growth.

Speaking at the Charlotte Chamber’s quarterly advisory board meeting, Decker said Charlotte has “set the pace for this state for a long time.” She cited unpublished figures that showed that 30 percent of the jobs and 41 percent of the capital investment in North Carolina in 2012 came from the Charlotte region.

And she said the state needs the same type of leadership that Charlotte had when a group of business leaders made decisions that led to growth for the city and for its major companies. The group would have to be larger and more diverse now, she said, but the focus is the same.

“We’re in one of those transformational periods in North Carolina right now,” Decker said. “The table needs to be larger now, but it takes the right kind of commitment.”

Her rapid-fire speech touched on the legislative issues she’ll deal with, like tax reform and infrastructure funding.

Decker said the goal of her department under Gov. Pat McCrory’s administration is not just to bring in new jobs but to raise the quality of life for North Carolinians.

And she laid out a handful of broad areas where her department would focus: health care, education, infrastructure, tax reform, business incentives, small business, arts, culture and tourism, and quality of life and the environment.

Decker was a familiar face to the Chamber crowd gathered at Central Piedmont Community College’s Harris Campus.

Decker was chairwoman of the Chamber in 1998 after she became the first female vice president of Duke Energy, where she spent 17 years. She grew up in the Charlotte area and was named Charlotte Woman of the Year before she moved to Rutherfordton in 1999 to run women’s apparel line Doncaster.

She was sworn in as commerce secretary Jan. 5 after being tapped by McCrory, which Chamber CEO Bob Morgan called an “inspiring choice.” McCrory is a former Charlotte mayor.

Since then, Decker has focused on wrapping her arms around the department and getting to know her team, she told the Observer in a short interview after the meeting.

She said she’s already working on several industrial projects, including manufacturing and information technology. The department is also putting together ideas for a proposal on tax reform.

The Chamber board of advisors also approved Monday the Chamber’s legislative agenda for the upcoming session.

It includes tax code “modernization” that would include lower corporate and personal income rates, annexation and zoning laws that encourage growth, and funding for Charlotte area highway projects.

(Charlotte Observer)
By Andrew Dunn
Posted: Monday, Jan. 28, 2013

Lawmakers will return to Raleigh Jan. 30 to begin to debate legislation during the 2013 long session, which is expected to last at least four months. The following are 10 issues to watch, from a Southeastern North Carolina perspective. Of course, there are others.

1. Tax reform
Much of the pre-session talk has been about Republicans’ intentions to overhaul the state’s antiquated tax system. State Sen. Bill Rabon, R-Brunswick, will be a leader of the effort as co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

Preliminary ideas of the GOP-controlled Legislature, according to published reports, include imposing a 1 percent real estate conveyance fee, expanding sales taxes to include many services not currently taxed, and increasing business license fees to offset cuts to, or the elimination of, corporate and personal income taxes. Other proposals are also being circulated.

This topic is expected to generate much debate in Raleigh for months. Advocacy groups are already weighing in on one side or the other.

The existing tax code was put in place in the 1930s. But tax reform has been attempted before and didn’t make it far. Will lawmakers find the political will to make this year different?

“I don’t know,” said freshman Rep. Rick Catlin, R-New Hanover, in a recent interview.

2. Film incentives
Film and other targeted incentives to industries will be on the table during the broader tax debate. The cities of Charlotte and Wilmington – the two most successful in the film business in North Carolina – again are urging lawmakers to extend, or eliminate, the Jan. 1, 2015, sunset date on film production tax credits in North Carolina. Both cities include the issue as part of their legislative agendas.

Last year, during an end-of-session flurry of legislation, the film incentives program was extended for a year by the GOP-led General Assembly that hasn’t always favored such perks. The film industry lost a top ally when Rep. Danny McComas, a New Hanover County Republican, retired from the Legislature last year. Most of the newer crop of Wilmington-area lawmakers has vowed to continue to fight for the industry.

Conservative advocacy groups that often have the ear of lawmakers are already calling for the elimination of the incentives altogether. But in a tough economy, the industry just finished its best year on record in the state.

Will the film incentives program survive another year of GOP rule?

3. Voter ID
Republican leaders – including House Speaker Thom Tillis and Gov. Pat McCrory – are now saying that they would support requiring some form of identification – but not necessarily an ID with a photo – to vote in person.

Tillis had said previously that a bill requiring a photo ID to vote would move quickly through the Legislature this year. Last session, then-Gov. Beverly Perdue vetoed the Republicans’ voter ID bill, which would have required a photo ID, and the GOP couldn’t amass enough votes to override it.

But some type of voter ID bill is still expected to emerge from the General Assembly early in 2013. Proponents of requiring a photo ID to vote say that it would safeguard elections from fraud and that photo IDs are required for many less important activities. Opponents say requiring photo IDs would deter hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians from voting.

4. Budget
The state budget is getting less attention this year, perhaps because there doesn’t appear to be a multibillion-dollar gap to fill as in the past couple of years. But the budget still holds the pursestrings for government agencies, public schools, community colleges and universities, environmental and other government programs. As always, plenty of debate and controversy are anticipated, especially given the cuts Republicans have already made the past two years.

Medicaid and transportation spending – how should the state pay for billions of dollars of needed roads and bridges? – are expected to be topics highlighted during budget talks.

5. Coastal funding
Also part of budget negotiations will be the need for a dedicated, recurring funding source for beach nourishment, inlet dredging and similar coastal projects. With federal funding becoming more uncertain, beach towns are seeking new ways to pay for projects that counter beach erosion and keep inlets open to boat traffic.

Wilmington’s legislative agenda includes new revenue streams for “shoreline preservation, restoration and beach nourishment.”

Sen. Thom Goolsby, R-New Hanover, said he hoped funding for those types of projects would be included in the next budget.

“That’s what the whole coastal caucus will be working toward,” he said, referring to a newly formed caucus of eastern N.C. legislators expected to meet regularly this year.

The city’s agenda also urges the state to invest in the economic impact of the Port of Wilmington. Some N.C. State Ports Authority board members hope the General Assembly will provide regular funding for port infrastructure.

6. Freshman lawmakers
Three N.C. House members from the Wilmington area – all Republicans – will serve their first full terms in 2013-14. Two have big shoes to fill. Rep. Chris Millis, R-Pender, replaces former Rep. Carolyn Justice, who retired last year. He will represent all of Pender and part of Onslow County in House District 16. Republican Rep. Ted Davis Jr. is taking the seat of former Rep. Danny McComas in District 19, which includes parts of New Hanover County, including the three beach towns. Also, Rep. Rick Catlin, R-New Hanover, will represent the new House District 20, which was formed by redistricting and includes much of northern New Hanover.
The three local freshmen join dozens of other new lawmakers from across the state in the House and Senate. Will they get anything done and be responsive to their constituents?

7. Regulatory reform
Republican lawmakers began during the past two years passing “regulatory reform” legislation designed to make it easier to do business in the state by reducing government red tape. That process is expected to continue. The House created a new Regulatory Reform Committee to consider bills. Committee members include Rep. Frank Iler, R-Brunswick, as well as Catlin and Millis.

Environmental groups will be watching closely for proposals that scale back environmental protections.

Millis said in a recent interview that lawmakers would target “unnecessary regulations.”

“We live on the coast, and the environment is paramount. …To me, it’s not a trade-off between environment and business.”

Of course, “unnecessary” is subjective.

8. Ferries
What would a legislative session be without a debate on ferry tolls? While some lawmakers want to see riders pay more of the cost of ferry operations, they haven’t yet gotten their way. Last year, fierce opposition from coastal residents and lawmakers and a controversial executive order from Perdue persuaded Republicans to back down from plans to charge tolls on all of the state’s ferry routes and increase tolls on those that already charge passengers, including the Southport/Fort Fisher route. The idea is expected to be revisited again in 2013.

9. Coastal insurance
This is becoming a perennial fight for coastal lawmakers, and one that will consume a lot of time during coastal caucus meetings. The Business Alliance for a Sound Economy, which represents real estate and development interests in the Wilmington area, will continue to fight what it deems “excessive homeowners insurance rate discrepancies” in coastal North Carolina, according to the group’s legislative agenda.

A recent proposal by insurance companies would raise homeowner insurance rates by an average of 30 percent for beaches and inland areas along the coast. The average proposed increase statewide would be 17.7 percent, according to a filing by the N.C. Rate Bureau.

10. Eugenics
Tillis, the House speaker, has vowed to try again to pass legislation in the House to compensate victims of the state’s former eugenics program, which during parts of the last century sterilized residents deemed unfit to reproduce. McCrory has also said he supports payments to the surviving victims of the movement. But legislation to provide $50,000 to each living victim failed in the Senate last year.

So were Republicans just waiting for their governor to take office so they can take full credit for compensating victims? Or will the Senate again kill the bill?
As more victims die, it might be now or never.

By Patrick Gannon
(StarNewsOnline)
Published: Monday, January 14, 2013 at 9:47 a.m.

DURHAM —Rather than building their own crime lab, local officials increasingly see the solution to evidence-testing backlogs as paying the state each year to hire technicians to work only on Durham cases.

On Friday the Durham Crime Cabinet endorsed a proposal to channel $180,051 a year to the State Bureau of Investigation so the agency can add three chemists to test drug and blood samples city and county investigators collect.

The next move is up to the City Council and the County Commissioners, one or both of which would have to agree to supply the necessary funding.

But “if we want it to be considered, we need to get it in the hopper now” because City Manager Tom Bonfield and County Manager Mike Ruffin are ready to start work on their fiscal 2013-14 budget proposals, Commissioner Ellen Reckhow said.

Reckhow is co-chairwoman of the crime cabinet, a joint panel that also includes justice-system officials, business leaders and representatives from nonprofit groups.

Local officials have talked of starting a Durham crime lab for years, but to date little has happened. Administrators have estimated such a facility would cost about $1 million to launch and another $250,000 a year to operate.

The desire for one comes because the SBI’s lab traditionally is slow to turn around samples police and sheriff’s department from around the state send in for testing.

It usually takes more than six months to secure results from the state lab, said Emily Leik, an intern for the city and county who helped assemble a report on the issue for the Crime Cabinet.

The delays contribute to extended jail stays for some suspects awaiting trial, or, on the flip side, to moves by judges to lower bail because they know there’s going to be a long wait for evidence.

Leik and Deputy County Manager Lee Worsley sized up several other options, including joining forces with another county to start a new lab or farming out the testing process to a lab in the private sector.

But recent changes to state law – brought on by complaints from defense attorneys about the SBI’s reporting practices – have made it harder to start a local lab, Leik said.

As for private labs, the most prominent ones in this area specialize in employment-related screening, she said.

Officials pondered asking the Duke University Health System to do the testing, but Leik couldn’t find anyone affiliated with the system who was willing to discuss the idea.

One Crime Cabinet member, Partners Against Crime District 3 activist Patricia Burchett, thought officials should try harder to make a deal with Duke. But Duke Police Chief John Dailey said it’s unlikely the university would be interested.

“I can’t speak for the medical center, but I would imagine the liability involved in this is going to be a very hard hurdle for Duke to overcome,” Dailey said.

Worsley acknowledged that the SBI option initially hadn’t seemed like it would gain much traction either, until Acting District Attorney Leon Stanback intervened.

“When we initially started this conversation, the SBI said no,” Worsley said. “The district attorney got involved and started talking to the SBI and the no changed to a yes. At the very beginning, we never thought we’d end up in this spot.”

Leik said paying the SBI would allow a speedier attack on the backlog, and “is the least expensive of all the viable options.”

But City Councilman Eugene Brown said any local approach amounts to a bailout of the state.

The SBI lab hasn’t been keeping up with its workload because “the leadership at the state level is not there” for funding a sufficient number of technicians to handle it, Brown said, adding that the state’s decisions are “putting the burden back on cities and counties” to solve the problem.

By Ray Gronberg
(Herald Sun)
Jan. 11, 2013 @ 06:19 PM

One might think North Carolina municipal leaders should feel pretty relaxed about state legislative issues as the 2013 session approaches. The new governor will be the former seven-term mayor of the state’s largest city, and the House speaker represents the same urban area.

But the state’s mayors are rightly concerned about the new political reality in Raleigh. With complete Republican control of the legislative and executive branches, they worry that annexation laws and urban-growth policies will be changed and that state budget cuts will lead to increased costs being tacked onto city budgets.

There’s some basis for these concerns. During the 2011-12 sessions, the Republican legislature had testy relations with the N.C. League of Municipalities, the organization that represents the state’s cities and towns. City leaders said that the legislature injected state policy into purely local decisions, and there are constant concerns that GOP lawmakers will further weaken annexation laws that keep this state’s urban centers financially healthy.

Lawmakers must keep in mind, next year, that North Carolina is no longer the rural state some of them may think it is. More than half of the state’s population lives in urban areas, and it’s those areas that are growing the fastest. Voters in those cities and suburbs elect their local officials on the basis of local issues, and voters expect those officials to have the call when it comes to running local affairs. They don’t expect the legislature to decide how, for example, Winston-Salem, operates its municipal services.

Republicans have long complained about the unfunded mandates that Congress and the General Assembly have pushed down on subordinate government bodies. Now that they are in charge, they can practice what they have long preached.

Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane, speaking for a group of mayors, says she’s received assurances from Speaker Thom Tillis that the legislature will not balance the budget on the backs of cities. Gov.-elect Pat McCrory certainly shows no indication of doing such, either.

If North Carolina is to prosper, it needs vibrant cities. Let’s hope legislators understand that.

by Journal Editorial Board
(Winston-Salem Journal)
Posted: Wednesday, December 26, 2012 12:00 am