poor folks getting the short end again...

This post first appeared at ThinkProgress. North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory and his wife Ann greet the public prior to taking the oath of office during the inaugural ceremonies at the state capitol in Raleigh, NC, Saturday, Jan. 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome) North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory and his wife Ann greet the public prior to taking the oath of office during the inaugural ceremonies at the state capitol in Raleigh, NC, Saturday, Jan. 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome) The 900,000 poorest working families in North Carolina just got another tax hike from the conservatives who swept state legislature elections in 2010. The change took effect at the beginning of 2014, meaning that the taxes those families file this spring will be the last to feature the state’s tax break for the working poor. The provision, known as the Earned Income Tax Credit or EITC, will also be 10 percent less generous in its final year. State-level EITCs work by tacking on an additional benefit to the federal EITC, and the law repealing North Carolina’s EITC for 2014 also cut the credit from 5 percent to 4.5 percent of the federal benefit. In order to qualify for the federal or state-level tax credit, tax filers must earn less than about $50,000. The goal of the credit is to buoy the incomes of working people whose employers pay them too little to provide the economic stability that having a job is supposed to ensure. Many conservatives who oppose other policies to boost poor peoples’ income, such as minimum wage hikes, support the EITC as an alternative way of keeping working people out of poverty without interfering with how private businesses operate. But that argument didn’t carry the day among North Carolina Republicans, and lawmakers slashed and then eliminated the state’s EITC during last year’s legislative session. That change was overshadowed by the GOP’s broader changes to the basic shape of the income tax code in the state to favor the rich and harm the rest. Along with the disappearance of the EITC, low-income North Carolinians will be paying higher taxes in order to pay for a tax cut for the richest people in the state. Republicans moved from a two-tiered, progressive income tax system to a flat tax rate of 5.8 percent. A person who earns a million dollars per year will get a roughly $10,000 tax cut thanks to that move, but the bottom 80 percent of the income distribution will see their taxes rise. That means that four out of five taxpayers in the state were going to pay more next year even before the EITC repeal. The combined effects of those tax changes give poor North Carolinians some incentive to move out of the state, a population shift Gov. Pat McCrory (R) hopes to encourage. There are 25 states that still offer some form of an EITC, including McCrory’s northern neighbor of Virginia, and the District of Columbia still maintains the credit as well. Alan Pyke Alan Pyke is the deputy economic policy editor for ThinkProgress.org.

More Bad News for North Carolinians in favor of clean water.

NC fracking panel passes chemical disclosure rule BY JOHN MURAWSKI jmurawski@newsobserver.comJanuary 14, 2014 Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/01/14/3532704/nc-fracking-panel-passes-chemical.html#storylink=cpy RALEIGH — Fracking companies won the right to keep secret the chemical cocktails they pump underground during shale gas drilling in North Carolina under a chemical disclosure rule approved Tuesday by the N.C. Mining and Energy Commission. The public safety standard will help the energy companies protect their secret sauce used in natural gas drilling, but critics said it would also keep residents in the dark about potent chemicals used near local farms and waterways. The rule passed unanimously after nearly three hours of intense debate Tuesday, and it follows more than a year of deliberations that had the commissioners tied up in knots. Commissioners sought to appease frightened residents, the energy industry and lawmakers eager to promote drilling for economic development. The rule as passed by the commission is merely a recommendation to the state legislature, which will have final say over fracking standards later this year or next year. But as it now stands, the rule puts North Carolina among the states that don’t require energy exploration companies to turn over corporate trade secrets to government agencies for safeguarding in case of emergency. “A lot of folks have heartburn because there are some states that do take possession of the trade secret,” said Commission Chairman James Womack. “We will have safe and responsible drilling in North Carolina.” Review of trade secrets Several experts said Tuesday that in some ways, North Carolina’s standard for chemical disclosure is more stringent than the public protections of many states that allow fracking. In this state, for example, a corporate trade secret claim would undergo an agency review to make sure it wasn’t bogus. “They get an opportunity to call B.S. on a bad claim,” said Wayne D’Angelo, a Washington D.C., lawyer who represents industrial clients on energy and environmental issues related to fracking. Shale gas exploration is under moratorium in North Carolina as the Mining and Energy Commission races to complete more than 100 regulations to protect the environment and public health. Chemicals are used in fracking to break up shale rock and release trapped gas and prevent pipe corrosion. They do not have to be publicly disclosed under a 2005 congressional exemption to the Safe Drinking Water Act, prompting states to come up with their own standards. The chemicals range from household cleansers to food additives and industrial solvents. North Carolina’s rule, if approved by lawmakers, will require that any trade secret claim be reviewed by the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The review process has not been created but would require a sworn statement from the company that the trade secret has not been publicly disclosed elsewhere. “The rule requires that permitees provide relatively detailed justifications when they claim trade secrets,” said Hannah Wiseman, a law professor at Florida State University who studies fracking regulations across the country. Access complicated Operators at a drill site are required by federal law to keep a safety sheet detailing chemicals used on that site; they are also required to turn over the data to public officials during a spill or accident. But getting the same data off-site is more complicated. Such a request would be handled by calling a 24-hour phone number, to be staffed by the energy company, as called for by North Carolina’s rule. The company would have two hours to disclose the information to medical professionals and emergency responders, but it’s not clear how the company would validate that the request is legitimate and authorized. Many have criticized this process as unworkable, especially if residents complained of polluted water or delayed symptoms long after the company and its contractors had left the state. “An individual can be sick, hospitalized, drunk or have the phone off the hook,” John Wagner, a Chatham County resident, told the commission. “Access means full and immediate access, not access to material at the office, or in a safety deposit box that is available on the next business day.” Chemicals shielded as trade secrets are commonly known by chemists and scientists, so the only issue is which chemicals a company is using in its mixture, and in what combinations. “The secrecy thing is to me a joke,” said Commissioner Vikram Rao, a former chief technology officer for energy conglomerate Halliburton. “The secret, such as it is, is only of value to the competitor.” Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/01/14/3532704/nc-fracking-panel-passes-chemical.html#storylink=cpy

SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING !!!

This is just a simple note. I am not running for Senate because I wish to be a rich man, nor a politician. I am running because I am a father and a husband, a regular citizen. Back in the old days that's who ran for office, and not to get a bunch of money from special interest groups or in exchange for favors; but TO CHANGE the things that were (in their opinions) wrong about how the government was working. That is why I am seeking office. I want to raise awareness. It is also because every time you get a group of people complaining about something, inevitably one of them says "well, why doesn't someone get up and DO SOMETHING about it, instead of just complaining?" Well, I AM DOING SOMETHING. I encourage you all to do the same. Protect the interest of the children, our beautiful natural resources and the place you live. Do it for posterity...remember the preamble of the United States Constitution? we the people, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice and ensure domestic tranquility; provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of Liberty, to ourselves and our posterity; do ordain, and establish this Constitution, for THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. lets let true freedom ring out again. DO SOMETHING!!! or watch it all fall away...

new article....vote for me. and pot!

What Matters Today MONEY & POLITICS The Best Reporting on the North Carolina Takeover January 3, 2014 by John Light and Laura Macomber 372 One of the biggest political stories of 2013 — a year of DC discord and gridlock — unfolded at the state level in North Carolina. In 2012, North Carolinians elected a Republican to the governor’s office. That same year, the Republican majority in the General Assembly — first elected in 2010 — grew to a supermajority. The result was that conservatives won the power to change state law dramatically — and over this last year, they used that power. The new legislation included ending benefits for the long-term unemployed; declining the Obamacare Medicaid extension; eliminating the earned-income tax credit; and passing what some observers call the worst voter suppression law in the country. In response, those critical of the right-wing legislative agenda united around protests at the state legislature on Mondays, part of a growing citizen movement that has come to be known as “Moral Mondays.” So far, the movement, however ambitious, has done little to slow the state’s Republican majority from pushing through its agenda. But this story didn’t start on Election Day 2012 — its roots run deep. And a similar situation could unfold in any of America’s 50 states. Here’s a rundown of some essential work by reporters following the money trail in North Carolina politics and the legislative agenda it has helped usher through. A police officer watches over demonstrators and NAACP-led supporters as they congregate at Halifax Mall near the state legislature during "Moral Monday" protests at the General Assembly in Raleigh, N.C., Monday, June 24, 2013. Protesters are angry over the rightward direction of the state on economic, social, education and voting policy. They focused much of their demonstration on looming unemployment benefits cuts that will end extended benefits for about 70,000 people at the end of June. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome) A police officer watched over demonstrators at a Moral Mondays protest June 24. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome) How did hardline conservatives win so big in what has long been considered the South’s most moderate state? –> In The American Prospect, two writers from the progressive, nonprofit Institute for Southern Studies — Sue Sturgis and Chris Kromm — provide a comprehensive overview of the social and political forces that came together to make the moderate (and sometimes even progressive) state move hard-right. Read more » The role of redistricting –> ProPublica reported on how big money powered the redistricting of the state. Once Republicans won control of the legislature in 2010, they used their power to draw new district lines meticulously, taking into account individual households’ voting habits. It paved the way for big wins in 2012. “Redistricting is supposed to protect the fundamental principle of one-person-one-vote,” ProPublica reported. “As demographics change, lines are shifted to make sure everyone is equally represented and to give communities a voice. In order for Republicans to win in North Carolina, they undermined the votes of Democrats, especially African-Americans. The strategy began in the run-up to the 2010 elections. Republicans poured money into local races in North Carolina and elsewhere. It was an efficient approach. While congressional races routinely cost millions, a few thousand dollars can swing a campaign for a seat in the state legislature.” Read more » Who is Art Pope? –> Most recently, he’s been Governor Pat McCrory’s budget director. But he’s been described as the architect of the conservative takeover. Pope is behind a foundation that backs three groups that were behind 75 percent of outside spending in North Carolina political campaigns in 2008, and is the primary funder of one of them. He used to be a North Carolina state legislator, and once ran for lieutenant governor. But at the root of Pope’s political power is his fortune, which comes from a discount store business (think regional Dollar General–esque chains) begun by his father. Though a private citizen at the time, he was in the room as Republicans redrew the new districts that would reinforce their 2010 wins in 2012. (Fun fact: Pope helped found the Libertarian Party of North Carolina but resigned when members spoke too frequently and too seriously about mythical beasts such as Sasquatch.) In the The New Yorker, Jane Mayer’s 2011 profile chronicled Pope’s path from wealthy businessman to political puppet master. Read more » Art Pope on Raleigh CBS affiliate WRAL. The end of clean judicial elections –> In 2002, the North Carolina Legislature set up a program of publicly funded elections — a system by which taxpayer money helps cover the cost of political campaigns to minimize the influence of rich individuals and corporations. (For example, the system would protect a judicial candidate from being forced to accept or refuse a campaign donation from a lawyer or business that might later appear before her in court.) As a state legislator at the time, Art Pope played a leading role in the fight against the system, the Institute for Southern Studies’ publication Facing South reported. Over the next decade, Pope’s outside spending groups continued the battle — and once installed as McCrory’s budget director, Pope was well positioned to end public funding. His first budget slashed funding for the program. Read more » “Sinful and tyrannical”? –> A case study in some Pope-funded rhetoric: The Civitas Institute, for which Pope provides majority funding, wrote an op-ed saying there was “no moral justification” for publicly funded judicial elections, which are “sinful and tyrannical” (a common and deliberate misreading of Thomas Jefferson, which the late, brilliant Aaron Swartz debunked succinctly). Read more » Supermajority in action –> The Nation’s Ari Berman summarized the legislation that drove Moral Monday protestors to raise their voices this summer: “So far this year, legislation passed or pending by Republicans would eliminate the earned-income tax credit for 900,000; decline Medicaid coverage for 500,000; end federal unemployment benefits for 170,000 in a state with the country’s fifth-highest jobless rate; cut pre-K for 30,000 kids while shifting $90 million from public education to voucher schools; slash taxes for the top 5 percent while raising taxes on the bottom 95 percent; allow for guns to be purchased without a background check and carried in parks, playgrounds, restaurants and bars; ax public financing of judicial races; and prohibit death row inmates from challenging racially discriminatory verdicts. ‘They’ve drank all the Tea Party they could drink and sniffed all the Koch they could sniff,’ [North Carolina NAACP president Rev. William] Barber says.” Read more » Members of North Carolina student chapters of the NAACP and opponents of voter ID legislation wear tape over their mouths while sitting silently in the gallery of the House chamber of the North Carolina General Assembly where lawmakers debated and voted on voter identification legislation in Raleigh, N.C., Wednesday, April 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome) Demonstrators wore tape over their mouths as they protested new legislation regulating voting by sitting silently in the gallery of the House chamber of the North Carolina General Assembly, April 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome) The “worst voter suppression law” –> North Carolina’s new voting restrictions were signed into law less than two months after the Supreme Court gutted the voting rights act. The Nation’s Berman reports that the NAACP and a coalition of voting rights groups filed lawsuits to block the legislation on the same day that Gov. McCrory signed it. “The sweeping law requires strict government-issued photo ID to cast a ballot, cuts the number of early voting days by a week, eliminates same-day voter registration during the early voting period, makes it easier for vigilante poll watchers to challenge the validity of eligible voters and expands the influence of unregulated corporate money in state elections,” wrote Berman. “[S]ince the Supreme Court took away their most potent weapon for fighting voting discrimination, voting rights groups have no choice but to hope that the compelling and disturbing facts of this case persuade the courts to block the ‘monster’ new law.” Read more » Now what? –> North Carolina’s General Assembly adjourned at the end of July, though protests continued. The Rev. Dr. Barber, one of the Moral Mondays protest organizers, says that the new year will see the “largest, most robust march in the South since Selma.” The 2014 legislative session begins in May. Last week, The News & Observer reported that activists from 12 states converged on Raleigh to attend a meeting to learn how to start Moral Mondays protests in their states. Meanwhile, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that demonstrations may be coming to Georgia as soon as this month: Protestors there plan to call on the legislature, which convenes this month, “to expand Medicaid, restore funding to public schools and [raise] the minimum wage.”

agenda. 01/01/2014

This will be a completely unfunded, grassroots and word of mouth campaign. I will seek as many write-in votes as I can get, based on how many ballots I actually get my name on. My platform is simple: -grill our leaders on both sides of the aisle over relations to Progress/Duke Energy about real, tangible plans for green energy for our state. Many people are convinced that we have people at the highest elected levels fighting against hydraulic fracturing, and the $1B restoration of an aging nuclear power plant in Western NC; we do not, to my knowledge. -protect our wild horses. __ -expose the under-reported stories of campaign fraud and it's far reaching implications going back several electoral cycles and spanning decades. __ -address the issues of our failing infrastructure, fix what needs immediate repair and develop a plan going forward to more responsibly develop our coastal plain for the benefit of not only the future generations of residents and guests, but to also enrich the coffers of inland counties that could be utilizing massive natural resources with minimal environmental impact. __ -work woth leaders at state, county and town level to take a serious look at the fiscal responsibility we bear; not only for our health and viability as a community, but for our posterity as well. __ -tackle our legislature's latest moves to fight against the rights of women, minorities and poor people. i am talking about working families, single parents on Work First that should not have to take drug tests, disenfranchised voters that were stabbed in the back with our state's recent dismantling of The Voting Rights Act of 1965 and all of the good folks that have been lied to by nearly every one of our leaders. __ -last, i wish to take down the Southern Environmental Law Center. when it comes to this very powerful lobby, most people say i have no chance, but i have a dream. many have tried this, but it can work, i believe it can. i want to engage lawmakers at the federal level and persuade them to force the SELC to cease all hostilities against the people of Hatteras Island. the actions of this cruel, mis-guided NGO have caused too much suffering for our southern neighbors, and all frivolous lawsuits that they tie up our system with need to be thrown out. they act as if they were an 'eco-terrorist- organization. their means, in my opinion, will not justify a clean, compromised solution. __ -i am writing it all down, so take careful aim. you might be in the book. __ pete 4 senate 2014 happy new year. p.s., legal marijuana would be great too! xo

Here is a recent article from the Associated Press. What is your take?

AP: OK AG traces NC contributions to illegal gambling operation By KIRK ROSS December 27, 2013 | Posted in: Elections, Law, News | Tags: Pat McCrory, Phil Berger, sweepstakes, Thom Tillis | Comments closed A new story out from the Associated Press picks up the thread of contributions to North Carolina politicians by an Oklahoma sweepstakes gambling magnate. The state’s Attorney General says the funds have been traced to an illegal gambling operation. The story of the contributions seemed to be building last summer after reports that the sums delivered to NC politicians put the effort by the sweepstakes gambling industry at the top of the list for contributions to the North Carolina General Assembly during the 2012 election cycle. The contributions included tens of thousands sent to Governor Pat McCrory, House Speaker Thom Tillis and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger. Last month, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt finalized a separate agreement in which Burns agreed to forfeit $3.5 million from bank accounts seized as part of the investigation. According to Pruitt, the money came directly from the “laundered proceeds” of Burns’ sweepstakes software company, International Internet Technologies. Court filings reviewed by The Associated Press show $1 million of that forfeited money came from a checking account in the name of the Chase Burns Trust — the same account used to send political donations to the campaigns of North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, state House Speaker Thom Tillis and Senate leader Phil Berger, among others. Days before they were replaced by McCrory, members of the State Board of Elections said they wanted to investigate the contributions. According to today’s AP story, the review of the contributions could be wrapped up by the end of the year. BND— AG: Checks to NC pols came from illegal gambling We’ll have comments and updates as they come in. Previously in The Mercury • Report says indicted internet gambling operator top NCGA donor • McCrory received $70,000 from donors linked to sweepstakes gambling • Blank checks at the heart of sweepstakes scandal • Sweepstakes donations may have been bundled • Elections officials call for investigation of $235,000 in sweepstakes donations Here’s the full Democracy NC report from earlier this year. 2013 Democracy NC report on NCGA contributions from Chase Burns by CarolinaMercury