Fitzsimon File

Governor Mike Easley gets the it’s not my problem award for standing by and watching local governments in the Triad lose their minds trying to outbid each other for the Dell plant that is coming to the area.

Easley convinced the General Assembly to pass a $242 million incentive package for the company, but as it turns out, that was just the beginning. In past incentive deals, the state and local offers have been combined in the negotiations that have generally also included a specific site for the new plant.

Not this time. Dell convinced the state to pass the incentive package with only the assurance that the company would come to the Triad. Now the company is playing the local governments in the area like a fiddle, with the bidding up to $40 million from one county.

There is no truth to the rumor that the latest offer includes a promise that Old Salem will be converted into an outdoor employees lounge.

Speaking of Governor Easley, he might want to talk to outgoing Washington Governor Gary Locke, who presented his last budget to the state legislature recently. It seems that Washington has a $1.8 billion budget hole to fill and Locke has declared that it cannot be filled without hurting the state’s most vulnerable people.

Instead he has proposed a $504 million tax package to pay for increased enrollment at schools, raises for state workers, and to keep the state’s health care program for the poor at current funding levels. Let’s hope Easley gets a copy of Locke’s budget before he puts his own budget proposal together.

Locke also asked a question that is just as relevant in North Carolina as in Washington. “The next governor and next legislature have to ask themselves what kind of state they want.” Wonder how our leaders would answer that?

The award for the bizarro world Santa goes to the Rep. Richard Morgan. Morgan was so happy that Rep. Joe Kiser was elected Minority Leader by the Republican lawmakers that he told his local paper that he was “thinking about donning a Santa Claus suit.”

Kiser was elected in a close rose with Rep. David Lewis, who was supported by the anti-Morgan faction, which includes the leadership of North Carolina Republican Party. Party leaders called lawmakers to campaign for Lewis.

But the man wanting to wear a Santa suit won. Just days before the victory, Morgan sent word to Lewis that his services would no longer be needed as the chair of a legislative study committee. Lewis was given the message just before the committee was scheduled to meet.

Isn’t Santa supposed to give people presents, not take things away?

The misleading spin award is shared by too many people to list here and the reports that repeat their misleading information about Medicaid. Politician after politician and story after story refers to the exploding cost of Medicaid, or the out-of-control cost or the massive increase in cost.
The truth is that last year the cost of Medicaid grew less than the cost of private health care costs. Health care costs are rising across the board. But it is easier to defend proposals to clash the benefits of Medicaid if it is perceived as spiraling out of control. It is simply not true.

Senator Bill Purcell is the hands down winner for the quote that best gets to the point. He said he had heard from some parents who were unhappy about the new state law that requires children who weigh less than 80 pounds to be buckled in a car booster seat.

The parents told Purcell that their children would be miserable in the seats. Purcell said his response to those parents is “do you want them miserable or do you want them alive?”

That pretty much sums it up.

Finally, the Kinston Free Press gets recognized for what is apparently its happiness about the state budget problems. The paper’s editorial writers, who see a tax increase behind every grassy knoll, were worrying about discussions about a rewrite of the state’s antiquated tax code.

Included was the statement that “big government advocates are already lamenting a $1 billion-plus gap in projected revenues and what they’d like to see spent on state programs.”

Either the writer doesn’t mind the budget shortfall—just big government advocates do–or he or she disagrees with that wacky idea that we should pay for the additional kids that show up at school next year.

You parents of five year-olds might want to reform your big government ways and stop expecting a teacher to show up to teach your kid’s class.

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 17th, 2004 at 3:05 pm and is filed under Fitzsimon File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.