Recent editorials from North Carolina newspapers:
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May 25
The Charlotte Observer on House Bill 2:
In the days before Monday’s Charlotte City Council meeting, the Charlotte Chamber urged council members to pursue a compromise with state lawmakers over HB2. That nudging included an op-ed in the Observer calling for the council to symbolically rescind the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance that HB2 had rendered null and void.
In those same days before Monday’s meeting, the Human Rights Campaign and other LGBT advocates told council members not to make a deal - and definitely not one that involved pulling back even symbolically from its ordinance.
Both organizations, the Chamber and HRC, were doing what they were supposed to do. The Chamber was advocating for businesses threatened by HB2. HRC was protecting an LGBT community that’s now more vulnerable to discrimination.
All of which happens every day with public officials and private groups. It’s called lobbying.
On Monday, HRC called it something else. A spokesman, following up on a tweet, said the Chamber was an “anti-LGBT bully.”
That’s a word - bully - that we hear a lot lately, including in this HB2 debate. You’ve heard it, too: City Council members bullied Charlotte businesses with its ordinance. State lawmakers bullied cities with HB2. The Obama position is bullying everyone on gender identity in bathrooms.
It’s a pretty powerful label, even when it’s used passive-aggressively. It resonates, especially with parents, thanks to the attentiveness these days on bullying at school or online. Add “anti-LGBT” to it, and you’ve doubled up with an even more potent “B’’ - bigot.
In the Chamber’s case, that’s also not true. In his Observer op-ed, Chamber President Bob Morgan emphasized in the opening paragraph that “the only acceptable outcome are policies at the city and state level that prohibit discrimination against all people.” A compromise, he said, was the best way to get there.
The HRC disagreed. So, by the way, did we. The particular deal the state was offering wasn’t a good one for Charlotte.
As it turns out, the HRC’s tactic worked. Instead of arguing for compromise, the Chamber howled Monday at being called an anti-LGBT bully. On Tuesday, it urged the state to let cities protect whomever they wanted from discrimination. Meanwhile, at least a couple council members who considered an HB2 compromise instead fell into place. The vote over repealing the ordinance was canceled.
So there’s a temptation to argue that the greater good was done here. And let’s be clear: We’re glad HRC has taken up the cause against HB2. The organization is very adept at defending LGBT rights, because it’s very adept at the hand-to-hand combat that comes with public debates. Look no further than the bruises left on Pat McCrory over HB2.
But this week, the organization went too far. It was an unnecessary attack, and it diminished the very real bullying that people endure, including individuals HRC wants to protect.
It also left a bad taste, even for some of us who want HB2 gone. The Chamber was tagged with a label that doesn’t wash away easily, and we’re disappointed that other than council member Kenny Smith, the mayor and council sat meekly by Monday while someone did damage to an important Charlotte organization.
You could almost call it the B-word. As for the council and mayor, we’ll settle for a C: Cowardly.
Online:
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/
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May 25
The Daily News of Jacksonville on state investments:
With a sizzling state economy fueling job growth, income-tax revenues are quickly filling the state’s coffers.
And although significant legislative hurdles remain - most notably the Senate - it’s good to see the N.C. House agrees with Gov. Pat McCrory that the state is in a good position again to make some needed strategic investments - most notably, teacher pay.
The legislators are in the thick of their every-two-year meeting known (sometimes inaccurately) as “the short session.”
North Carolina passes two-year spending plans. Before the second year begins, lawmakers reconvene to make needed adjustments, take care of other state business and then try to get out of town before seersucker weather sets in.
It must be heating up in Raleigh. After only a few weeks back in town, the House already has passed a revised spending plan for the 2016-17 fiscal year.
We don’t know if there’s something in the air or not but the result was the rarest of things - overwhelming bipartisan support for the House budget. The plan calls for average teacher pay raises of 4.1 percent, depending on years of service. Other state employees would get 2 percent raises, plus $500 bonuses.
In the past, some legislators have taken a hard line against raising teacher pay. Others have recognized the need for raises, but said the money simply was not there after revenues had taken a beating from the economic downturn.
But eight years after the Great Recession hit, the state’s economy is in high gear. More than 275,000 private-sector jobs have been added, bolstering income-tax revenue. Late last month, Gov. McCrory bragged that North Carolina has “one of the fastest growing populations as well as the fastest growing economy in the country.” The fact-checking site Politifact agrees with both claims.
Although some of the recent cuts made in Raleigh have encountered vociferous opposition, Republican leaders defended their plans, pointing out that spending had actually increased in certain areas where cuts were being claimed.
Recently, Gov. McCrory’s budget director, Andrew Heath, noted that with some serious recession-related budget problems now off the books (most notably the $2.5 billion federal unemployment insurance debt), the state is ready to invest in “strategic” areas and be better prepared for future spending emergencies.
House members seem to agree. The teacher pay raises are not exactly in line with what McCrory has proposed, but are close - and a good step in the right direction.
The rub will be getting the House and Senate to agree on a final plan. The Senate hopes to have a revised budget voted on in early June.
Online:
https://www.jdnews.com/
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May 23
The News & Observer of Raleigh on bending the rules on safe water:
In February 2014, a horrendous spill occurred from coal ash ponds at Duke Energy’s shuttered Dan River Steam Station near Eden. Some 39,000 tons of ash spilled into the Dan River. Duke was fined - not much, relatively speaking - and vowed a cleanup. It’s a cleanup environmentalists say has not occurred.
More than two years later, the state has told some 400 residents with wells near coal ash ponds that their drinking water is safe. But that directive, as reported by The Charlotte Observer, came after what appeared to be either arm-twisting of state officials who doubted that recommendation or too-dutiful appointees of Gov. Pat McCrory who continue to claim the water is safe enough and that levels of contaminants in the water are acceptable.
North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality has said that all of Duke Energy’s coal ash ponds have to be excavated. However, DEQ wants the General Assembly to let the department review any decisions in 18 months. That could mean that if Duke fixed the dams on its ponds and came up with alternative water sources for those homeowners whose wells are contaminated, Duke could avoid billions of dollars in cleanup expense.
This isn’t a confidence builder in the McCrory administration’s interest in protecting citizens instead of the power company.
Consider that the state epidemiologist. Dr. Megan Davies, said in a deposition she gave to the watchdog Southern Environmental Law Center that she was “conflicted” about letters that rescinded the “don’t drink” advisories sent to those well owners near ash ponds. Davies is a physician trained in health patterns.
But the doctor said McCrory’s office intervened in the wording of warning letters sent to well owners a year ago. The state reversed the “don’t drink” warnings in March.
The state’s health department says the water safety standards meet federal drinking water requirements. But the Observer reported that no standards exist for hexavalent chromium and vanadium, cancer-causing contaminants.
Catawba Riverkeeper Sam Perkins, who is connected to a foundation that is represented by the law center, put together data showing that the average levels of hexavalent chromium in private wells near two Duke plants - Allen in Gaston County and Buck in Rowan County - were more than 20 times higher than the averages in 11 public water systems, including Charlotte’s.
That is not acceptable. It’s clear the administration needs to focus on the water safety of these wells.
Online:
https://www.newsobserver.com/
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