Lobbyists accountable
Monday, July 11th, 2005
By Chris Fitzsimon
North Carolina’s lobbying laws are among the weakest in the nation. We at least have a right to know how much lobbyist are spending wining and dining the people elected to represent us.
Last 5 posts in Your Soapbox
- Misc payment - March 6th, 2008
- For Blueprint Partners ONLY, A Class With The Master of Messaging - January 25th, 2008
- Campaign contributions - December 16th, 2005
- Is it time to "decriminalize drugs"? - November 15th, 2005
- Open forum - November 3rd, 2005
Email This Post
Print This Post
July 11th, 2005 at 7:55 am
Citizens deserve to have representatives who enable them to learn about and participate in the decisions that affect them. If this is our guiding democratic principle, it follows that sunshine laws and close monitoring of lobbyists is absolutely necessary. All lobbyist activities should be open to public report and scrutiny, and the amounts or items donated should be revealed along with the name of the person or group receiving the donation.
July 12th, 2005 at 12:41 pm
Legislation under consideration now in the General Assembly is one small step in the right direction for reforming our state’s inadequate lobbying disclosure regulations. However, it’s not that there is “too much” money being throw around by lobbyists–the problem is that it’s not being done in public, where it would be obvious who is paying for what. The result is egregious legislation like the so-called “School Calendar Bill” (more correctly known as the “Cheap Child Labor Bill”) of last session.
July 22nd, 2005 at 5:26 am
Dell sucks another $7m out of North Carolina (bringing the total to $284m)
After pumping North Carolina for more than $270m, Dell decided it wasn’t done yet. Actually pay for the land its new factory will sit on? Hell, no!
In a confusing exchange deal, Dell will “pay” the city of Winston-Salem $7m for land in return for $7m worth of roads and grants from the city to Dell, so it gains the 200-acre factory site for free. Dell currently faces a massive lawsuit over other parts of the North Carolina package.
. . .
“Now, Dell pays us directly for the land,” said Derwick Paige, assistant city manager of Winston-Salem confirmed in an interview with us. “However, of the $7m that they pay us, we will put all the money in a general fund and take $1.5m to put toward infrastructure improvements and the other $5.5m we’ll give to them over a two year period in the form of grants.”
With the extra $7m, Dell’s total North Carolina incentives package now comes to $284m. That’s $244m more than Virginia, the second leading bidder for Dell’s factory, was reportedly willing to offer.
Dell’s package includes the land money, tax breaks, police protection, special Dell training classes at local colleges, new roads and a host of other fixes. In return, Dell could deliver as many as 1,600 jobs to the city, although it can fire close to half that amount and maintain the package perks. Locals have complained that the company has received unfair advantages that will harm smaller businesses. The net benefit for employment in the city is far from clear.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/21/dell_land_nc/