Fitzsimon File

The latest Elon Poll seems to agree with national polls that President Bush is enjoying a slight bounce in his approval rating. More people in North Carolina still disapprove of the job Bush is doing than approve, but his approval numbers are up slightly.

The poll finds that people in the state overwhelmingly believe that the war in Iraq and terrorism are the most important issues facing the nation. No surprise there. But when asked about the most important issue facing the state, the top three answers are education, the economy, and immigration, with taxes a distant fourth.  That can’t be good news to the rabid anti-taxers running around trying to get signers to their absurd pledges.

 

The federal trial of former lottery commissioner Kevin Geddings continues to produce all sorts of interesting information that seems to have little to do with whether or not Geddings committed a crime when he failed to disclose his relationship with Scientific Games last fall.

One of the witnesses this week was Senator Harry Brown, one of two Republican Senators who were absent when the Senate reconvened at the end of the 2005 session to vote on the lottery that eventually passed after Lieutenant Governor Beverly Perdue broke a 24-24 tie.

Brown testified that he would have voted no if he had been present that day, meaning the lottery would have failed and we wouldn’t be having this trial, much the state preying on the poor.  Brown was on his honeymoon at the time in Myrtle Beach and said he had no idea that the Senate was back in session.

That is consistent with Brown said last year and seems just as difficult to believe now as it did then.  He went on a scheduled honeymoon, he didn’t elope, so surely some people knew where he was and could have reached him.   At last report, they have telephones in Myrtle Beach and it’s a pretty safe bet that Brown has a cell phone as well and that his legislative staff member and other Republicans know the number.

 

This has been the week of bad news about health care. The Economic Policy Institute reported that the percentage of people in North Carolina who receive health insurance from their employer is dropping.

Now Families USA has some troubling numbers about kids and health care. The group issued a report about uninsured children in North Carolina, finding that 89 percent of them have parents that work.

Roughly one in ten children under six is not covered by insurance. Fifteen percent of children aged 13 to 18 are uninsured.

 

One way to raise revenue to help pay for increased growth in urban areas and fund affordable housing programs is a transfer tax on home sales. Dare County started levying a one percent transfer tax in 1985.

Other counties have pushed for permission from the General Assembly to enact the tax as part of a menu of revenue options to pay for services required by an increased population and to build the schools that growth requires, but state lawmakers don’t seem inclined to allow it.

That’s largely because of opposition from the homebuilders and realtors, two powerful special interests in Raleigh that employ a battalion of lobbyists and are significant donors to legislative campaigns.

The Pitt County Commissioners were discussing their legislative agenda for next session recently when transfer tax idea came up. The president of the local association of realtors told the Board that the taxes are a burden to people who can’t afford extra fees, the poor and first time homeowners. 

That’s the illogical line of reasoning often used in the legislative halls by the realtors and homebuilders alike, that they are just looking out for the poor. Right. That must explain why both groups oppose a transfer fee even if it only applies to houses sold for more than $100,000 of a house or applies only to new construction.  

 

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 29th, 2006 at 2:25 pm and is filed under Fitzsimon File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.