Recent editorials from North Carolina newspapers:
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July 14
The StarNews of Wilmington on the state school superintendent:
State school superintendent Mark Johnson might be in the wrong job. Instead of in Raleigh, perhaps he should be in Washington, handling White House security.
We doubt there’d be any leaks on Johnson’s watch - or any other kind of information.
Since defeating Democrat June Atkinson back in November, Johnson - a lawyer who once taught school - has been running a tight ship at the Department of Public Instruction.
Just recently, he ordered his department’s staff to stay off their email server for the entire month of July, saying they would “take a break in the distribution of information to the field and to other lists for stakeholders.”
This struck lots of former employees - and members of the N.C. Association of Educators - as more than a trifle odd.
July is normally a busy month for the Department of Public Instruction. These might be the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer, but at this point the opening of the fall school term is only six weeks away.
State education officials have to sort through all sorts of new rules that The Honorables, in their wisdom, just imposed upon them, including 24 mandatory reporting requirements.
Johnson says the staff will communicate as necessary in other ways - by quill pen, perhaps, or carrier pigeon?
And besides, he’ll still email out public meeting notices required by law and updates to the student information system, which includes end-of-year requirements for the schools.
Otherwise, with the department’s communications director just retired, and the office vacant, all communications have to pass directly through Johnson’s office to be approved.
Vladimir Putin would be impressed.
Why the security crackdown? There are some possibilities.
A darling of the Republican faction running the state Senate, Johnson will be enforcing changes in the department required under the newly adopted state budget.
This will include budget cuts, even as the state’s total school enrollment grows, and the elimination of several specific posts in the department’s hierarchy.
By coincidence, many of these happen to have been filled by known associates of ex-Superintendent Atkinson and of state Board of Education chairman Bill Cobey, a Republican ex-congressman who has run afoul of the party’s current flavor of orthodoxy.
Apparently a lot of work needs to be done in the dark when nobody’s watching and cowed employees aren’t talking. It’s hard to see how any of this will do much good for North Carolina’s students.
Maybe Johnson could muster a tweet.
Online: https://www.starnewsonline.com/
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July 15
The Greensboro News and Record on the state’s fiscal status:
North Carolina Democrats, including Gov. Roy Cooper, jumped at a legislative staff report projecting a large state budget deficit opening a few years from now.
Republicans pushed back against that risk.
Tax-and-spending issues are sure to provoke partisan arguments these days. Yet, North Carolina - unlike, say, Illinois - is in remarkably good fiscal condition.
It’s true that the legislature’s Fiscal Research Division, a nonpartisan office, found that the budget enacted this month by Republicans over Cooper’s veto puts the state on track toward a billion-dollar deficit down the road. Expenditures are on pace to exceed revenues by 2019, the analysis requested by Senate Democrats said.
“This is exactly what Governor Cooper meant when he called this budget fiscally irresponsible,” the governor’s office said last week in a news release.
Republicans called the idea nonsense. Before a budget gap opened, they would plug it by slowing expenditures or drawing on reserves, they said.
That is entirely possible. North Carolina must balance its budget, and it always manages to do so. It happens to be in an exceptionally strong position now, thanks to more than $1 billion in reserve funds.
That’s one reason why the nation’s top bond rating agencies recently renewed the state’s AAA rating. In addition, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Virginia last week moved North Carolina up from 21st to 15th in its rankings of states based on fiscal condition. One indicator, according to Mercatus: “Long-term liabilities are 17 percent of total assets, or $1,028 per capita, which is far lower than the average across the states of $4,272 per capita.” There was a caution: The ratio of pension obligations to income is rising in North Carolina.
Nevertheless, whatever criticisms Democrats might hurl at Republicans in North Carolina, fiscal irresponsibility should not be high on the list.
Yet, there are different approaches to fiscal responsibility. One is to establish tax rates sufficient to generate enough revenue to cover necessary expenditures. In North Carolina, that would be enough to pay for schools that offer a sound, basic public education to all children; first-rate public university and community college systems; well-maintained roads, bridges and ports; strong public safety, public health and social services programs; and a court system that ensures equal and timely justice for all.
There are legitimate policy arguments about the right level of taxation and spending to achieve the best balance for the overall health of our state. Democrats think Republicans balance the budget too much with spending constraints while cutting taxes too much. Republicans think Democrats would spend and tax excessively.
There’s another debate about how to target tax cuts. Republicans have aimed the most relief at the wealthiest taxpayers and corporations - not for the sake of helping those who don’t need it, they say, but to stimulate the most positive economic effect. So far, revenues have continued to increase despite these rate cuts, but that benefit could begin to wane as economic growth slows. There’s also evidence - from a recent study by N.C. State University economist Michael Walden, for example - that North Carolina’s middle class is losing ground at a rate much faster than the national average. So, for many people, conservative fiscal policies aren’t bearing much fruit.
With tax rates already slashed to low levels, it’s time to hold them steady. If revenues dip or flatten, it would be detrimental to the state’s overall health for the legislature to limit spending further or tap into reserves just to balance the budget.
Online: https://www.greensboro.com/
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July 17
The Winston-Salem Journal on legislation meant to curb domestic violence:
Domestic violence is a scourge, no doubt. And it’s not a partisan issue. It has the potential to affect any family with deadly consequences.
So we were glad to see Gov. Roy Cooper sign into law three pieces of legislation that were presented to him by the Republican-led legislature, all designed to address domestic violence. WRAL reported on the signing last week.
Senate Bill 600 broadens the law to allow prosecutors to use previous convictions for domestic violence and stalking as evidence of premeditation. This allows prosecutors to pursue first-degree murder charges in cases where a domestic abuse victim is killed.
“Too often, domestic violence killers escape full justice because prosecutors struggle to convince juries that these offenders’ crimes meet the definition of first-degree murder under current law,” Cooper said during the signing. “We must keep working to ensure those who commit the crime of domestic violence face the justice they deserve.”
House Bill 343 allows domestic violence protective orders granted by a judge to take full effect even when under appeal, which keeps victims safer.
And House Bill 399, which blocks sharing and posting of private images online without consent, expands previous protections against so-called “revenge porn.”
Senate Bill 600 was titled “Britny’s Law” in memory of Britny Jordan Puryear, a 22-year-old who was shot and killed by her live-in boyfriend, Logan McLean, in their Fuquay-Varina home on Nov. 6, 2014, WRAL reported. McLean pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and is now serving a 32-year prison sentence.
Puryear’s family pushed for the change, and several family members attended the signing ceremony.
Domestic violence is a serious, multi-faceted issue in which victims are often compelled to keep quiet until it’s too late. We have many tools at our disposal to fight it, including education, protective harbors for victims and social support. When those fail, the punishment should fit the crime.
These changes will help.
Despite the deep divisions that are prevalent among our government leaders, they can still come together to improve the law and the lives of our citizens. Let’s have more of this.
Online: https://www.journalnow.com/
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