Republicans sharing maps

Look for the first redistricting maps to be presented next week. Republican legislative leaders have been privately sharing them with other Republicans. The expectation is that Congressman Brad Miller will be put in the same district with David Price. Rumors from Washington say Miller is out looking a job so as to stay in Washington. If true it means either he won’t run against or doesn’t think he can win against Price. The maps are reportedly also going to put Democrats Larry Kissell and Mike McIntyre in a newly drawn district.

Budget cuts more than dollars

The state budget has always been as much a statement of philosophy of government as a document of dollars and sense, but House Republicans have raised this to an art form. The budget released Tuesday says more about philosophy as spending…and some of it, like the provision to continue unemployment benefits, is pure politics to the point of being almost cruel. Governor Perdue was right on this issue.

It was interesting watching reactions to the House budget. “Devastating” was the word former House Speaker Hackney used to describe the budget. Republican Dale Folwell responded the state was broke, the budget process was broken and the Republicans had been hired to fix it. Spare us the histrionics folks. Just as we said to Republicans when Democrats were in charge our message to Democrats is simple. If you don’t like their plan show us yours…or stop complaining.

The House has never had the same love affair with the university system as has the Senate but cuts to the University budget are deep and personal. By curtailing financial aid to students after nine semesters the House is telling the university and students to get degrees faster. UNC TV is quite obviously a target, in keeping with national Republican efforts to curtail funding for public broadcasting. Even though they cut funding in the continuation budget but restored much of it in one-time funding the message to UNC-TV is to become totally self-supporting.

UNC-TV is not powerless in this scenario. The old axiom of never getting into a peeing contest with a person who buys their ink by the barrel also applies to those who buy electricity by the megawatts. UNC broadcasts all over the state and can potentially influence public opinion more than can the legislators. If state funding is going to be eliminated, as it most certainly appears, perhaps UNC-TV should flex their muscles by using the weekly “Legislative Week in Review” to take the legislature to task for their shenanigans instead of throwing the constant bouquets to legislators and their actions. It may be painful detaching from the legislative feeding tube but it could be the best thing that ever happened to UNC-TV. We suspect the public would respond to a new independence and boldness from the network.

Budget progress

Will the Senate approve the House budget? We are hearing that there will no doubt be modifications and changes made but that the two chambers have been working together and are pretty close in philosophy about spending. Look at it as the House sending up a trial balloon to see how it flies. We suspect that when Richard Stevens gets his swing at bat some of the funding to the university will be restored, but who will then get the cuts? With about 80 cents of every dollar in the budget going to education and health and human services there are only so many places to cut 2.4 billion. There may be less to reconcile between the two houses this year than in many recent budget negotiations.

Overriding vetoes

Several weeks ago we mentioned in an ncblogger.com post that we were about to see Bev Perdue turn into “Governor No” and several pundits picked up our moniker. It is coming true as evidenced by Perdue’s two vetoes in one day….one for the history books.

Just what was the point of the veto on the State Health Plan? (Hate to brag but we predicted this on April 5^th) To be sure she was playing to her political constituency but now she owns the plan. Only one of three outcomes can happen: benefits are cut, employees and dependents pay more or the state puts in more money. The last option isn’t likely to happen so either way the employees and dependents are going to have to be affected, just as has happened in most every private health insurance plan. This veto may be overturned.

But the big question now being debated among insiders is whether the legislature can overturn the almost certain veto of the state budget. It’s a shame we are going to have to endure the spectacle sure to unfold over the next two months. The legislature will pass a budget sometime in early June. Perdue will veto it. Then it will be a contest of wills. It is understood that the Senate has the votes to override a veto but the House doesn’t and isn’t likely to get them. Some believed that Speaker Tillis and the House leadership might court conservative Democrats in order to enlist them on these veto contests but just the opposite has happened. If anything, the conservatives have been alienated by Republican leaders. Don’t count on them to help in overriding vetoes.

The games will continue like a serve and volley tennis match. The legislature will pass, the governor will veto, the legislature will try and fail to override. Sadly, North Carolina has become a little Washington…and we aren’t talking about the town on the Pamlico River.

It is time for an adult in the room. In this time of budget crisis petty bickering and gamesmanship is both demeaning and destructive to our state. Where are the voices willing to cry out to stop this scenario before it gets completely out of hand?

This legislative session is baffling. We understand it has been a long time since Republicans have had this much power but they seem to want to tackle every agenda item they’ve accumulated over the past decades in one legislative session. The only way Republicans can remain in power beyond the two years they were given is to demonstrate they can make things work better than did the Democrats, that their solutions to problems are reasoned and consistent with mainstream North Carolina. Last November voters responded to government they perceived wasn’t working. They won’t tolerate gridlock and mean spirited partisanship. If this continues don’t be surprised if voters don’t change teams again in 2012.

Friday’s 40^th

Speaking of UNC-TV, Thursday was the commemoration of 40 years of UNC-TV’s “North Carolina People,” with Bill Friday. About 400 gathered at the Watts Hill Center at UNC Chapel Hill to salute Friday, who turned 90 last year. Friday reminisced about some of the funnier moments of the show, telling us privately that people know him more for NC People than for his 30 years as President of the UNC System. “There is historic value in the stories people have to tell,” he said. “We have recorded for the future the way things were and the people who were part of the times.” He spoke to the current funding cuts facing UNC, saying “ In times of crisis the gathered strength of the people will respond.”

UNC-TV’s director Tom Howe, who emceed the event, was remarkably restrained in commenting on the proposed budget cuts. Betty Rae McCain spoke about Friday’s show, but couldn’t pass up the chance to comment on the proposed cuts to UNC-TV saying, “They are trying to eat Big Bird.” Sounds like a rallying cry.

One has to wonder why public TV’s funding is to be eliminated when other cultural entities like the Museum of Art, the NC Symphony, the state Zoo and Aquariums were not zeroed out. This just smells vindictive. 

We are told the Department of Cultural Resources is in crisis mode. Sources tell us that the Aycock birthplace, Polk birthplace, Vance birthplace, Fort Dobbs, Museum of the Cape Fear and other historic sites are being shuttered, shut down until funding is available to continue operations. We also hear the Transportation Museum in Salisbury will be privatized and operated strictly by donations.