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THE BUTNER-CREEMOOR NEWS
EDITORIAL PAGE
THURSDAY
December 9, 2010
Many Americans have
increasingly lost confidence in
the ability of the U.S. Senate
and House of Representatives
to “fix” the problems which
our country currently faces.
We send elected representatives
to Washington to
represent the people’s interests.
What we often get instead
is politicians determined
to make a career out of
their time in Washington.
Doing public service
sometimes takes a back seat
to getting done what it will
take to get re-elected.
Unfortunately the views
that get represented the best
ends up being those of the
special interests groups who
can basically afford to
contribute to the Senators and
Representatives campaign
coffers to help them buy expensive
television advertising
time to make the candidates
sound bites the message that
the voters are inundated with
commercial after commercial.
It has gotten to the point
in Washington where it only
is the career politicians who
have been in office for decades
that have the real power.
These politicians have
been there long enough under
the current system to have
made their way up to the
chairmanship of the
committees which can deliver
the earmarks (that used to be
called porkbarrel) back to
their districts.
Unfortunately the special
interest groups cater to the
legislators with influence to
help influence the special
interests agenda. They
leverage their requests with
dollars to help the elected
The Butner-Creedmoor News
(USPS 081-160) (ISSN 1536-3473)
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officials stay elected. Most
taxpaying citizens don’t have
the ability to financially affect
their elected officials and all
they can offer is their vote.
A way to get a more representative
government
dedicated to the will of the
people would be to require
term limits.
It would be better to have
elected officials who remembered
how difficult it was
to have to deal with high
taxes, to raise money for a
payroll or to make money
without being able to raise
taxes whenever you couldn’t
pay for the new gadgets you
wanted.
Term limits are primarily
opposed by career elected
officials and special interest
groups that depend on
manipulating the system for
their own advancement. The
special interests oppose term
limits because they do not
want to lose their valuable
investments in incumbent
legislators to extract
programs, subsidies and
regulations from the federal
government.
Elected office brings with
it numerous advantages
challengers don’t have. U.S.
Congress House and Senate
officials have salaries of
$174,000 or more plus
allowances for staff and
expenses and free mail which
totals over a million dollars
per year.
Term limits would begin a
process of returning the
power in Washington back to
the people who have to pay
the bills to get Washington
funds being spent.
We need to take our
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country back. The people who
are doing the job now are not
earning a passing grade.
We need to help them
flunk out and give someone
else a chance.
It is not a decision the career
politicians are going to
make by themselves.
The demand for term
limits will have to come from
the people themselves.
The fundamental premise
of the American form of
democracy is “government of
the people, for the people, by
the people.”
Let’s give the vote back to
the people who get elected for
what they stand for and not
for how much money they can
spend for commercials funded
by major insurance
companies, banks and big oil
companies.
It will take a citizen
grassroots effort to make a
change but it may be the only
way to ever get the
Washington politicians back
on track pushing for the
people’s interests.
Harry Coleman
More Tuition Hikes
No matter the political
party, North Carolina's
political leadership has
made clear that it isn't
particularly interested in
keeping the state's historic
commitment to low college
tuition.
Some leaders might take
issue with that statement.
The facts don't lie.
During the previous
recession, average tuition at
the 16 University of North
Carolina campuses rose by
more than 20 percent in both
2001 and 2002. From 1999
through 2003, tuition rose
by 71 percent.
Those increases
prompted outgoing UNC
system president Erskine
Bowles to announce a new
tuition policy in 2006
limiting average increases
over a four-year period to no
more than 6.5 percent.
An annual 6.5 percent
increase, of course, would
still mean university tuition
rising well above the rate of
inflation.
Bowles, caught in the
cross-currents of demands
by university administrators
and declining
s t a t e
revenues,
may have
done his
best to
stave off
higher
increases.
Still, the
policy was
b e i n g
undermined
even as he announced that
he would be leaving the
position of president.
Earlier this year, the
UNC Board of Governors
approved campus tuition
hikes as high as $200 for the
current school year. Then
came a budget provision
from state legislators that
allowed another $750
increase to offset budget
cuts.
At the state's flagship,
the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill,
tuition and fees rose $1,046
or 18.6 percent, in a single
year. So much for tuition
predictability for parents
and students.
A V IEW
F ROM
R ALEIGH
By Scott
Mooneyham
The Board
of Governor
a l s o
announced
t h a t ,
because four
years had
passed
under this
new tuition
policy, it was
time for a
new fouryear
plan.
Under the new plan,
schools could go above the
6.5 percent tuition cap
during "times of need."
No doubt, a time of need
is on the way.
Several schools have
already announced that
they will seek 6-plus
tuition hike for the next
school year. General
Assembly-initiated tuition
hikes could make a further
mockery of a tuition cap.
Against this backdrop,
North Carolina college
students are racking up an
average of $19,983 in
student debt while in
school, according to the
Project on Student Debt.
The Raleigh Report
malicious
abuse or
torture of
an animal
from a
Class I
Felony to a
Class H
Felony.
Susie's
Law, as the
legislation
A number of new laws
went into place in North
Carolina this week. Some of
them you may have heard
about, while others have
received less attention. I
wanted to point out a few of
them to you this week. I
believe all of them will help
make our state a better place
to live and help provide a
better environ-ment for our
people.
If you would like to see a
full listing of the laws that
went into effect Dec. 1, visit
www.ncleg.net and look
through the News &
Information section of the
page.
Thank you as always for
your interest in state
government. If you have any
questions about this information
or anything else that
I can help with, please contact
me. I am always glad to be of
service.
Criminal Law
• We gave final passage
to new protections for victims
of domestic violence by
increasing penalties for
trespassing at shelters and
safe houses for those covered
by protective orders. (SL2010-
5)
•Legislation that
increases the penalty for
killing an animal from a Class
A1 Misdemeanor to a Class H
Felony has been signed into
law (SL2010-16). The
legislation would also
increase the penalty for the
is comm
o n l y
known, is
n a m e d
after a dog found burned and
left to die in a Greensboro
park last year.
•The state has
strengthened its prohibition
on video gambling. The new
law (SL2010-103) makes it
illegal to operate, or place into
operation, a machine or device
to conduct a sweep-stakes
through the use entertaining
displays. The first violation of
the law is a misdemeanor.
Subsequent violations are
felonies.
Good government
• The Government Ethics
and Campaign Reform Act of
2010 (SL2010-169) creates
stronger standards for elected
officials and government
workers. Among other things,
the act: increases the penalty
for illegal campaign
donations; improves the
state’s campaign finance
database by making it easier
to search; makes complete
salary histories of gov-
ernment
workers
public;
requires
T HE
the government
R ALEIGH
to pay
R EPORT plaintiffs’
legal fees
in cases
where
By Jim
they are
Crawford found to
h a v e
violated
o p e n
records laws without a
written basis; increases
economic disclosure
requirements for judicial
officers, legislators, and
public servants.
• The state continues to
crack down on Medicaid
fraud. A new law explicitly
makes it illegal to knowingly
and willfully solicit or
receive kickbacks, bribes, or
rebates in exchange for
inducing a person to buy
items or services paid for by
Medicaid. The law also
covers the purchase,
recommendation or lease of
goods, services or a facility.
(SL2010-185)
Miscellaneous
• Retired probation and
parole officers can now be
excused from firearm safety
and training courses
required to carry a concealed
handgun. To qualify for the
exemption, officers must
apply for the permit within
Nationally, the amount of
debt taken on by students
rose 24 percent between 2004
and 2008.
Steve Eisman, the hedge
fund manager whose bets
against mortgage-backed
securities were chronicled in
the Michael Lewis' "The Big
Short," sees similarities
between the mortgage
industry earlier this decade
and what's occurring in the
financing of higher education.
Eisman is focused on the
for-profit education industry,
online schools and the like.
"It's just like subprime, which
grew at any cost and kept
weakening its underwriting
standards," he said at a
conference earlier this year.
For-profit, non-profit or
public, the unsustainable
trends are the same -- a
commodity's price rising far
faster than inflation and
more buyers taking on higher
levels of debt to purchase it.
To reverse the trends,
parents and students could
turn to the courts. The state
constitution calls for tuition
to be free "to the extent
practicable."
They aren't likely to get
any relief anywhere else.
two years following the date of
retirement. They must also
have been authorized to carry
a gun in the course of their
duties and met firearms
training standards, never have
been subjected to disciplinary
action that would have
prevented them from carrying
a gun and not be prohibited by
state or federal law from
receiving a firearm. (SL2010-
104)
• The courts-martial rules
for the state National Guard
have been updated to more
closely follow the system used
by United States military
courts. The law (SL2010-193)
will help ensure that military
court pro-ceedings are handled
consistently and professionally
for our National
Guard members.
Notes
•Fountain Powerboat
Industries Inc., a designer and
manufacturer of offshore sport
boats, sport fishing boats, and
cruisers, will expand its facility
in Beaufort County, creating
411 jobs and investing $5.1
million over the next five years
in Washington.
•FAS Controls Inc., a
manufacturer of custom
designed electromechanical
components, will expand in
Cleveland County. The
company plans to create 52 jobs
and invest $1.5 million over the
next year in Shelby.
• Global textile firm Sattler
AG will bring 76 jobs and invest
$4.56 million during the next
three years in Caldwell County.