US/NC

page type::article thing type::US state name::North Carolina

About
This page is for issues local to the state of North Carolina in the 🇺🇸.

sub

 * /2011/SB/514: the "Amendment 1" initiative
 * /charter schools: funding rules are unfair to both charters and regular public schools
 * /religious requirement: the NC constitution violates the US constitution
 * /voting: discussion of voting issues in NC
 * /gov: government actions
 * indexes:
 * /2011: events in 2011
 * /2012: events in 2012
 * /elections

related

 * Durham, NC: issues local to Durham
 * Blackwater USA (aka Xe Services LLC and Academi) is a mercenary training company located in NC.
 * The John Locke Foundation is a conservative think-tank based in NC and yielding considerable political influence
 * Art Pope is a prominent businessman and funder of conservative projects in NC

Limits to Municipal Internet
House Bill 1587, aka "The Local Gov't Fair Competition Act" aka the bill to prevent local government from competing "unfairly" with the local internet monopolies (the people who name these things obviously have the same sense of irony as the real-estate developers). This issue appears to be dead for the moment, as the bill has gone to committee – but don't be surprised if it appears again in another form.
 * 2007-07-24 N.C. Bill Limiting Municipal Internet Effectively Killed!

State-Wide Negotiation for Cable Services
The state has, after much lobbying from the cable industry, apparently passed a law which prevents local municipalities from negotiating with cable companies and instead makes it a state-wide contract. As the state is much less likely to take the time to ensure that each municipality gets what it needs from the cable (e.g. local access programming), this has been a huge victory for the cable companies and monopolistic practices in NC generally.

I have dog-eared a recent issue of the Independent with some details of the consequences, but it hasn't made its way back to my desk yet. (It's also not clear how this affects any cable company not involved with the contract, but would seem to imply that they are effectively locked out of doing business in the state -- ensuring a statewide monopoly. How is this good?) --Woozle 11:50, 13 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 2008-10-01 What if Durham told its own story? &ldquo;At the beginning of 2008, the franchise agreement between Durham's government and Time Warner Cable expired. Because of a state law passed in 2006 with the heavy backing of cable industry lobbyists, Durham couldn't negotiate a new deal to preserve its local cable-access channels. .. Suddenly and without warning, people who had been producing public access TV programs for years were cut off.&rdquo; (The one comment on that article is a good sample of neocon reality inversion...)

Reference

 * (stub as of 2007-08-05)
 * NC hate groups at the Southern Poverty Law Center
 * NC hate groups at the Southern Poverty Law Center
 * NC hate groups at the Southern Poverty Law Center
 * NC hate groups at the Southern Poverty Law Center
 * NC hate groups at the Southern Poverty Law Center

Projects

 * 2007 The NC Home Sales Tax: It's a Bad Idea
 * This appears to be a site created by the NC real estate industry. The tax was not on "equity" but on the sale of homes, paid by the seller. It's not clear how this is different from an impact fee, but the industry has certainly done its best to get rid of impact fees wherever possible (Durham recently did away with them, 2006?) in spite of the obvious need for impact fees to pay for new infrastructure (utilities, schools, roads...).
 * Where was the real estate industry when Durham raised our property valuations?? That tax hits the people who actually live here, rather than people who are moving in or out of the area. The latter group are already prepared to deal with possibly taking a financial hit as they move from one area to a possibly-more-expensive one on their way up the corporate ladder. --Woozle 10:34, 7 August 2008 (EDT), edited 2012-05-09

Articles

 * 2007-06-06 Cities fight bill to limit broadband: "House Bill 1587, "The Local Government Fair Competition Act," is supported by the telecommunications and cable industries, which say cities have unfair advantagesâ€”they don't pay taxes and can subsidize a money-losing Internet business with revenue from the city budget. The bill sets out a long list of strict financial and political requirements should a government get into the broadband business. But the N.C. League of Municipalities and a growing number of cities oppose the measure, saying it would effectively make it impossible for local governments to provide Internet service in rural and low-income areas where private industry has decided not to."
 * 2007-04-18 A ferry ride to an Orwellian future? by Peter Eichenberger: a nostalgic field trip turns into some unpleasant discoveries about the penal industry in NC: the River's Correction center run by GEO Group, formerly a subsidiary of Wackenhut; mentions Blackwater USA.
 * 2006-08-16 The Vanishing Voter by Bob Geary, The Independent: gerrymandering and other systematic political corruption in NC government

News

 * 2007-08-05 Campus research hits budget jackpot: "North Carolina has long been generous in its financial support of universities, and this year is no different. But another thing stands out in the new state budget approved by the legislature: big bucks for research. .. The centerpiece is a cancer research fund at UNC-Chapel Hill -- $25 million in the coming year, growing to $50 million a year starting in 2009."