Issues

I’m certainly prepared to believe that the Republican budget will damage education in North Carolina. But when it comes to the dire warnings about damage to the environment, I’m a skeptic.   It’s a skepticism honed by 40 years of hearing environmentalists warn that the sky (and air and land) are falling into ruination, while…

House Speaker Thom Tillis landed himself in a mess by picking the worst time on earth to pass out $30,000 a person pay raises to his staff.   The whole thing, given the timing, looks just plain crazy. On one hand Tillis is telling voters the legislature’s so flat-on-its-back-broke it has to cut budgets to…

Two members of Governor Perdue’s staff took issue with my view that Republicans have successfully minimized the differences between their education budget and hers. I invited them to spell out the differences. They obliged with an analysis headed “Setting the Record Straight: Perdue Budget Would Invest More Than a Half Billion Dollars More in Public…

I just knew there was a pony in the pile of manure that is the new state budget. And, thanks to Laura Leslie at WRAL, I found it.   From the start, let me confess: This is all about self-interest.   You see, we own a small condo at Nags Head. And one of my…

When I fled the country just before Memorial Day, Governor Perdue had the upper hand in her PR battle with the GOP over the budget. But she lost it.   She lost the battle – at least in the short term – because she couldn’t get the votes to sustain her veto. In politics, like…