The lady in red wants more revenue

The state Capitol was filled with folks wearing red shirts, red blouses and red jackets -- including the governor -- Wednesday morning at a rally to generate support for raising more state tax revenues. Gov. Bev Perdue -- a self-described "old teacher" -- spoke of her seventh grade teacher back in Grundy, Va. who told her she could become anything she wanted to be, and proved it by becoming governor. Perdue didn't outline specifics in her talk to folks jammed into the old State House chamber, but it's clear she wants more revenue than the $780 million-plus in the House budget.

The size of the budget shortfall is growing, she said -- $4.7 billion this morning, and getting worse the following year. "In North Carolina, we have to act boldly," she said. "I don't believe we can cripple education in this state."

Meanwhile, Rob Christensen and Mark Johnson report that Perdue also visited with state legislative leaders Wednesday morning and told them she wanted up to $1.5 billion in new revenue -- twice what the House would have raised. State Sen David Hoyle, D-Gaston, said he gulped at the size of the request, but it's not far off from a package of tax reforms that he, Sen. Dan Clodfelter, D-Mecklenburg, and Sen. Clark Jenkins, D-Edgecombe, have been working on for months that would provide more revenue as well as simplify state taxes and make it less susceptible to the vagaries of the state's economy.

Stanly County lawyers weigh back in

Stanly County has replied to Alcoa's filing last week that argued there's no reason to delay granting another permit to operate the Yadkin River hydroelectric generating units it operates.

Stanly County says Alcoa wasn't telling the full story, and asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to include the full transcript of a case before a state administrative law judge that blocked the issuance of a water quality certificate Alcoa needs for a license renewal. For those who want to read the whole filing, here's a link.

Parsing the N.C. Water Rights Committee

A longtime Observer reader recently asked me what I knew about the N.C. Water Rights Committee, which represents the views of citizens who oppose the request of Alcoa Power Generating Inc. for a renewal of its Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license to operate hydroelectric dams on the Yadkin River. Alcoa once employed a large workforce at its Badin aluminum smelter, but has a small workforce now. It wants to renew its license to generate power and keep selling it on the open market. Opponents regard it as an unregulated utility -- or at least not regulated like other utility companies in North Carolina -- and they hope to "recapture" the project license, as allowed but never exercised under federal law.

The reader may have been prompted by a recent news report that found the N.C. Water Rights Committee to be mysterious and tight-lipped. The committee apparently didn't want to answer questions about its operation, which, as anyone in public life can tell you, is a really dumb stance to take. In this age of transparency, the best course for institutions operating in the public eye is to be as forthcoming as possible. Anything less creates a lot of suspicion.

A week ago I began asking a few questions, and finally caught up yesterday with two members of the N.C. Water Rights Committee who were willing to talk about the group, which has a Web site at www.ncwaterrights.org. They were member Roger Dick, CEO of Uwharrie Capital, a holding company for several banks, and treasurer Chris Bramlett, a retired chemistry professor and businessman. They said N.C. Water Rights is an organization originally chartered by Bruce Thompson, a Raleigh lawyer who represents Stanly County. (Thompson said via e-mail Wednesday, “Our firm prepared the incorporation paperwork and I signed as the incorporator. After that, they ran their own organization and ultimately engaged Steve Levitas.) Dick and his companies are the primary financial supporters of the N.C. Water Rights Committee.

Dick said the group had more than 200 members and described them as "just a rag-tag group of home-spun, floppy-hat-wearing" citizens who are interested in environmental and economic issues along the river. Some of them contribute money to the committee, but Dick estimates he and his companies have provided 75 percent or more of the roughly $75,000 the N.C. Water Rights Committee has spent to communicate with the public over the last couple of years. The committee's primary purpose, he said, is education. He and Bramlett said that Stanly County, which has also opposed Alcoa Power Generating Inc.'s pursuit of another FERC license, is not a contributor to N.C. Water Rights Committee.

MNI Marketing, a Raleigh public relations firm, maintains the Web site for the N.C. Water Rights Committee at www.ncwaterrights.org. The Web site has a page where people can sign up to join the committee. The Web site says N.C. Water Rights Committee is a coalition of hundreds of people, but the committee has declined to release a list of his members or its income and expenditures on privacy grounds. The committee has a page where anyone can make contributions to the group, but donations are not tax deductible.

Bramlett said that when the group first began looking at this issue, it proposed some modest suggestions to Alcoa. "We wanted to partner in some way with the company" to improve economic development in the area. "We really didn't know if we owned the water or not," he added.

The committee's officers are President Nancy McFarlane, Raleigh City Council member, Secretary Nadine B. Bowers of New London, a retired investment consultant, and Treasurer Christopher L. (Chris) Bramlett of Albemarle, retired University of Alabama chemistry professor and former owner of Christopher's Jewelers in Concord. Its registered lobbyist is Steve Levitas, an attorney with Kilpatrick Stockton in Raleigh and former N.C. Deputy Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The committee's immediate past president is Keith Crisco, an Asheboro businessman now serving as N.C. Secretary of Commerce.

Lottery: 'Where does the money go?'

One reader had a sharp reaction to my Sunday column asking "What were they thinking?" She wanted to know: "Where does the money go?"

The column was about former Gov. Mike Easley and his arranging a job for his wife at N.C. State University, a process that has led to the resignation or firing of four people, including Mary Easley. The column mentioned problems related to the adoption of the state lottery in 2005.

The reader wrote:

One of the paragraphs in your "What were they thinking?" article in today's Observer really jumped at me.

"(The remarkable thing is that the N.C. Education Lottery, created in such sleazy fashion, has evidently been well-run and without the corruption that has marked N.C. government in the 21st century.)"

"IF it's been so well, run why are our schools in such dreadful financial condition? The supposed purpose of the lottery was to benefit the schools. And from the millions of dollars they advertise are waiting to be given away, when and where are the schools benefiting???? Seems to me that folks at the Observer are in a good place to start finding some answers. There is NO EXCUSE for teachers and programs to be getting terminated for lack of funds when the lottery is so full of money.
"I, for one, and probably lots of teachers, principals, parents, and students would be VERY interested in some sensible answers. Please tell us WHERE IS THE MONEY GOING???????"

It's a good question, and there's an easy answer. The N.C. Education Lottery Web site posts an annual report on where the money goes. Here's a link. The report shows that since inception, $725 million has gone to education; in 2008, $350 million went to education.

The money, by law, is split among school construction, college scholarships, class size reduction and programs for at-risk children.

I wasn't a supporter of the lottery and the way the legislature adopted it wasn't pretty, but my point in the column was that it appears to be well-run and is producing revenue for schools.

Alcoa: No reason to delay Yadkin permit

Alcoa Power Generating Inc. has filed a statement with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on why there's no reason to delay granting another permit to operate the Yadkin River hydroelectric generating units it operates. Here's a link.

Alcoa says “The present effort to block the issuance of the license via the challenge to the Section 401 Certification is yet another attempt to end-run around the Commission’s long-established relicensing procedures.”

The 11-page filing also notes, “The Commission’s precedent is clear: its practice is to issue a license to the applicant when its record is complete and a 401 certification has been received, regardless of whether an appeal of a Section 401 water quality certification is pending before state administrative agencies or courts, even if the certification has been stayed.”

Alcoa's 50-year federal license to operate the dams expired in 2008 and the company came close to getting it renewed last year. Since then, Gov. Bev Perdue has taken a position that the company ought not get the license renewal because it no longer has a substantial workforce in this state. Alcoa once employed about 1,000 workers at its Badin aluminum smelter. The General Assembly appears to be moving toward passage of a bill creating a Yadkin River Trust that might one day buy and take over operation of the hydro plants.

Lawmakers once met six days a week, sort of

While the House contemplated an unusual Friday session this week to consider its version of the state budget and a $784 million package of tax hikes, it reminded me that earlier legislatures were routinely in session on Fridays, though those sessions often were short. The current schedule for the House and Senate usually calls for convening on Monday evenings at 7 p.m., then full days Tuesdays and Wednesdays as well as sessions on Thursdays -- sometimes long sessions, sometimes fairly short. That lets most legislators get home Thursday afternoon or night, though committee meetings and other duties can keep legislators in town all week long to work on bills, constituent problems and other issues. For a number of legislators, the General Assembly is a full-time job, but with formal sessions just four days a week.

It wasn't always that way. When I came to Raleigh in 1977 for the Greensboro Daily News, there were full sessions on Thursdays and formal, though often short, sessions on Fridays. I asked Gerry Cohen, head of the legislature's bill drafting operation and for my money one of the leading historians on the N.C. General Assembly, about work schedules. Here's what he said, via e-mail exchanges:

Friday sessions were held regularly in the House until about 2001, and regularly in the Senate until about 1997. I may be off a few years. They were like Thursday sessions are now. Through 1969 there were Saturday sessions but only non rollcall local bills were taken up.

I asked about the Saturday sessions, and Cohen replied:

My predecessor Clyde Ball who hung around 1955-1980 told me that until the constitution was revised in 1970 they could only adjourn ONE day without a joint resolution, so a Saturday session was required. Then it was changed to allow THREE days, so they dropped the Saturday session, but still had working Fridays. Eventually they dropped Friday, using up all three days of allowed break.

Cohen said the Saturday sessions were attended by only a few:

On Saturdays only Wake legislators would show up and have a pro forma session and vote on some local bills ocassionally, or so I am told. I started hanging around in 1971 so it was fresh in people mids back then. I will try to find an illustration.

He found several:

Went back to old journals, in 1969 and 1959 I checked three or four Saturdays, they were all pro forma, a member from Wake was designated by the Speaker to be Speaker Pro Tem for the day and called House to order, another member from Wake moved approval of the journal, and a third member from Wake moved to adjourn.
Went back to 1947, and Saturdays transacted lots of business every week, but it appeared to be morning only. Recorded votes, etc.

And there you have it. Legislators once spent at least parts of six days a week in Raleigh on formal sessions; Now it's four days a week. But, of course, with technology and staff and sophisticated ways to analyze problems, lawmakers have many more ways to be productive. And a lot of them work on legislative business seven days a week, no matter whether they're in Raleigh, Ramp Cove or Rodanthe.

But there aren't many Friday sessions, and I don't hear many folks lobbying for them, either.

Should businesses cut more roadside trees?

Alan White of Charlotte read Wednesday's editorial about a proposal by billboard companies and other businesses to allow more cutting of vegetation and trees in the public right of way, and was reminded of a scene he saw while driving down U.S. 74 near Rockingham about eight years ago -- but it was about highway construction, not billboards or businesses. He shot this photo with a 35 mm camera, he says, while rolling along, so it's not as sharp as he'd hoped. But it clearly illustrates a point. He wrote:


Great editorial this morning! Keep on those DOT people. They'll just pave over or clear the entire state if gone unchecked.
Attached is an ironic picture of a stretch of road that had some magnificent old growth trees that was cleared for yet another 74 bypass several years ago...

In a follow-up e-mail, he added:

I took it about 8 years ago when they were clearing the roadbed near Rockingham. This section is along the Pee Dee River where the forest is (was) very thick. It broke my heart to see how they bulldozed through that area. The DOT could've worked the bypass a little closer to town instead of plowing through the nice hillside along the river. It's the point where the new bypass splits from the old 74. Now that the bypass is open, undoubtedly bisecting private farms, Rockingham has begun marketing the area as industrial sites. I'm sure you've seen this section.
This is what can be expected when they build the new bypass around Monroe.