Fitzsimon File

In case you wondered if Governor Easley’s veto of legislation to give Goodyear up to $40 million had worsened relations between the Governor and the leadership of the General Assembly, House Speaker Joe Hackney answered that shortly after Easley’s veto news conference Thursday.

Hackney not only said he would bring the House back in special session and had the votes to override the veto, he took the opportunity to get in a shot at the Administration.

Hackney said legislative leaders have had a hard time working with the Administration and that “we really wish he had worked with us earlier to help craft the bill instead of doing it this way."

Working closely with the General Assembly has never been Easley’s style, but this is one of the few occasions when lawmakers’ frustration at Easley lack of engagement has been so public.

One of the most frustrating parts of the business incentive game is the perception that corporations are blackmailing the state into giving them huge tax breaks or at the very least playing one state against another to maximize their take.

Goodyear‘s reaction to Easley’s veto only reinforces that impression. The company issued a statement saying that a delay in an incentive package could threaten its plans to invest in upgrades of the Fayetteville plant. The statement said "If such government support does not happen in a timely manner, Goodyear will consider options to redirect its investments."

In other words, give us the money or we might close the plant. That sounds pretty close to blackmail.

Easley’s defended his veto by saying that the legislation would allow Goodyear to receive the $40 million even if eliminated 700 jobs at the Fayetteville factory that now employs 2700 people.

Hackney’s response was that the Easley’s Administration crafted a $242 million incentive package for Dell computer that allowed the company to reduce its workforce by 40 percent a year after creating the 1,500 jobs its promised.

Seems like the only ones winning in all this are the corporations that get the money.

 

The N.C. Budget Tax Center is on a roll in recent days, issuing both a thoughtful analysis of the Goodyear giveaway and what the latest U.S. Census figures about poverty and health care mean for North Carolina.

The Center also has a few reminders for us to think about this Labor Day weekend, the most disturbing of which is that a smaller share of the population is employed now than in 2000 with the largest declines in employment for African-Americans and less educated workers.

That stands in sharp contrast to the rosy economic figures that keep coming out of Washington. So do the numbers the Center cites about the struggles of people trying to find a job. The share of unemployed people who have been out of a job for six months or longer jumped from 10.3 percent in 2000 to just over 19 percent in 2006.

Don’t tell those folks there has been an economic recovery.

 

At the risk of jumping on the bash lobbyist Don Beason bandwagon, one of Beason’s clients hasn’t been mentioned much as the media continues to report on Beason’s activities.

For the last three General Assembly sessions, Beason has represented the Albemarle Mental Health Center that serves Northeastern North Carolina. The Center is one of the Local Management Entities (LMEs) created as part of the 2001 mental health reform initiative that continues to sputter along.

The LMEs are supposed to administer local mental health services in their region of the state by negotiating with providers and making sure local citizens have input into decisions about mental health care.

Every one of the other 25 LMEs in the state came together to form a coalition around their common interests and hire lobbyists to represent them in the General Assembly. The Albemarle Mental Health Center opted not to work with the group and instead hired Beason and his son Mark to represent them.

That’s not the only unusual decision made by the center. Its director Charles Franklin was paid more than $300,000 a year, more than twice the salary of any other LME directors, including ones that work for agencies that serve much larger areas like Charlotte and Raleigh.

Legislation last year put Franklin’s salary more in line with other directors. The Albemarle Center also hired the PR firm French West Vaughn to handle its media work, another unusual decision for an administrative agency of government.

None of that was mentioned in the last study of LMEs and the state’s mental health reform efforts. But somebody needs to look into what’s going in with mental health services and taxpayer money in the Northeastern corner of our state.

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 31st, 2007 at 12:51 pm and is filed under Fitzsimon File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.