Curtis Blackwood

Curtis Blackwood Newsletter 05.07.2009

As always, spring here in the Legislature is just flying by! Last newsletter, I mentioned how the pace was really revving up; well, we are now in “full intensity” and worked last Friday and this Monday with special committee meetings and an early session Monday evening in order to clear the agenda. Going back to the budget shortfall, based on the April 15 tax collection, income tax revenue was down 40% from last year. The latest info from the House Appropriations Chair, Rep. Mickey Michaux, is that the state still needs to find $3.2 B in order to have a balanced budget, which is required by the North Carolina Constitution. Just wanted to let y’all have an idea of what’s happening here in Raleigh and how serious our economic situation is. 

As to the local level, Rep. Gibson and I negotiated out HB 565, Union Fire Fees. As many of you know, I felt that the fire fees were extremely regressive. Rep. Gibson agrees and also ascertained that the fees would not be able to fund the needs of the Volunteer Fire Departments long term. As much as I despise doubling taxes, I reluctantly agreed to do so for one year contingent upon all fire fees disappearing July 1, 2010. This should give the county and the fire departments time to switch over to a fire tax, which I consider infinitely more equitable. Before anybody starts crying about the short time available to remedy the fire fee problem, let me point out that the fire fees were instituted in 1992 as a “temporary measure” while a permanent solution was to be found. Eighteen years is more than ample time to come up with a permanent solution. Again, I want to commend all the fine men and women who have become volunteer fire fighters and praise them for the invaluable service they provide their communities.

Moving on to a new topic: During the month of April, the Democrats pushed through House Bill 88, a sex education act which they euphemistically called the “Healthy Youth Act.” I actually got up on the floor and stated that, as elected representatives, we should have the integrity to call things what they are, rather than hide them from the voters through “mislabeling,” and thus keep our constituents from knowing what is actually going on down here. Since the mid-1990’s, North Carolina has had a comprehensive sex ed curriculum which focused on abstinence. This program has reduced teen pregnancies by a third and had an “opt-out” provision whereby local boards of education could adopt a different sex education program. In fact, fifteen of our 115 school districts did bring a referendum before the voters in order to change to a broader curriculum. Fortunately, Republicans were able to force the Democrats to make several changes and thus mitigate some of the worst aspects of HB 88. For example, the phrase “long term committed relationships” was removed from the bill. For a more extensive analysis please go to the North Carolina Family Policy Council’s website at www.ncfamily.org. On this website, you can look under “Issue Briefs” for the article, ‘Healthy Youth Act’ Would Put Adolescents and Teens at Risk. For more information, feel free to contact either Bill Brooks or Brittany Farrell at the NCFPG. For the record, I voted against HB 88 on the House floor as well as in committee. 

One issue that is still up in the air is HB 593, Change School Starting Date. This bill cleared the K-12 Subcommittee on Education rather easily, but was killed in Commerce, Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee last week. The liberals pushing this bill brought it back up after it was defeated (which is unusual) and had their supporters pack the committee Monday night so they were able to pass it. I have supported and continue to support the present school calendar law in that I believe children need the summer off in order to develop creativity and individual initiative rather than being regimented from age 5 through 18. I don’t believe you can wave a magic wand over an 18 year old and make that person a creative, independent thinker. The fact that our SAT scores have gone up while the current calendar law has been in effect has been totally ignored by those proponents of changing the calendar. The proponents have also said that having students miss school in the middle of the year would reduce the funding of the local school systems. This is blatantly untrue: this funding is based on the first 20 days Average Daily Membership (ADM) Another argument they have used deals with the retention curve, i.e., how long students will remember what they are taught. The proponents of change say that our teachers have done such a poor job of teaching that the students will not remember what has been taught after a two week vacation. I firmly believe that the teachers generally do a good job of instructing and that our students would track the general retention curve, which shows information being retained much longer than that. Hopefully, the Senate will see fit to leave the school calendar as it is.

 

This newsletter has gone on long enough and while there is still much pertinent legislation in process, instead of making this an epistle, I will save that information for our next newsletter. Here’s wishing you and your families a “merry month of May.”

 

Curtis Blackwood Newsletter 04.02.2009

Folks, I don’t know about you, but the month of March just flew by! The pace intensifies here in Raleigh as members continue to file legislation and the bills multiply. We are now up to 1025 bills on the House side, down somewhat from previous “long sessions.” Of course, the budget continues to be the big issue down here, so let me share some budget related observations with you.

Due in part to overspending in last year’s legislative session, the General Assembly goes into drafting this year’s budget with a $3 plus billion shortfall. Republicans have noted several things about the Governor’s budget proposal:

1) Government spending increases by half a billion dollars. Spending for 2008-09 will total $20.3 billion; her budget proposes spending $20.9 billion in 2009-10.

2) There is a structural deficit of at least $1.7 billion.

3) Gov. Perdue’s budget includes new taxes and fees of over half a billion dollars. Over the next 2 years, it raises taxes and fees by $1.2 billion. A recession is not the time to raise taxes on North Carolina’s families.

4) Her budget continues spending growth; these rates of growth are not justified by current economic conditions. This is particularly true as news from the State Budget Office continues to worsen each week. Perdue’s budget protects and perpetuates growth in the government budget at the expense of family budgets. Her budget forecasts revenue growth in excess of 5% in the second year and may be overly optimistic. At the national level, a private blue-ribbon economic group forecasts 2.1% growth and President Obama’s economic forecast is 3.2%.

5) Adoption of this budget will cost jobs. Many jobs lost will be in manufacturing, particularly in the Triad area.

6) The Governor’s proposed budget fails to take advantage of Republican savings proposals.

This is a missed opportunity to reign in state government spending. The economic slowdown necessitates spending cuts; the public expects and is prepared for government spending cuts, not a spending increase.

Changing gears, let’s go to a different topic. As most of you are probably aware, I came to Raleigh with the point of view that government should serve the people, rather than people serving government. You are probably also aware that I have been actively involved in the on-going battle to curb what I consider to be an abuse of governmental powers when it comes to involuntary annexation. It is my belief that people should be able to decide if they want additional taxes and services (in some cases, folks have had additional taxes inflicted on them and received less services). It is also my opinion that the voters should be able to decide which governmental entity will control the zoning of their property. With that in mind, I filed House Bill 950, Union Annexation and Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Referenda. This bill requires a vote of the people (those living within the impacted area) to decide whether or not they would want to be annexed or ETJ’d. Involuntary annexation has been a very contentious issue in Union County with one case going all the way to the Supreme Court. I have a 1”-1 ½” thick petition from people who do not want to be ETJ’d into a town as well as innumerable phone calls and emails from people not wanting to be forcefully annexed. House Bill 950 would require referenda on all annexations and ETJ’s taken in Union County since January, 1, 2005. An exception would be if a municipality had extended utilities (i.e., water and sewer) to an area that had been annexed. It would be unfair for a city to have expended large amounts of money to provide services to people and then remove the people from the city.

Let me close by wishing you and your families a beautiful spring, a happy Easter and joyful Passover.

 

Curtis Blackwood Newsletter 01.29.2009

Greetings from Raleigh! As I’m sure you folks are already well-aware, the big issue facing the General Assembly this session is the gigantic budget deficit. Three billion dollars is being acknowledged in the newspapers, but when you include the under-funding of the state employees, teachers and retirees health care for the current budget year, I personally believe the deficit to be between $4 and $5 billion. I have been brought to task by certain liberals and reporters for not voting in favor of the last budget. I don’t think there was anyway in good conscience one could have voted for it, when the Legislature knew we were looking at a $2B and growing deficit.

Some of the reporters were asking me what my agenda was in the 2009 Legislative Session. My agenda is and has always been to try and give you good government. As I told some lobbyists for the League of Municipalities earlier this month, I came to Raleigh to represent the individual people in my district. I am more than happy to help the county commissioners on issues with which I agree and the same for the various Union County municipal governments. But, again, my primary concern is for you, the people.

At this point, we are waiting to see the budget that will be proposed by the Governor, but I think that everyone needs to be prepared to see an austere budget, unless the Federal government chooses to send billions of dollars to the state. Hopefully, the silver lining to this crisis will be that the ineffective programs will actually be de-funded and that we will adopt a zero-based budget approach, (i.e., where the various state agencies will actually have to justify the monies they receive) and that government in general will be streamlined and efficiencies will be implemented as the primary means of balancing the budget.

While I don’t pretend to be an economist, let me share my concerns regarding the economy with you. Unfortunately, I believe the current economic downturn will be steep and last for some time; so I would encourage each of you individually to prepare for this scenario. My lifelong philosophy has been to “hope for the best and prepare for the worst.” Personally, I have found this to be very helpful and it has allowed me to cope with the bad times and prosper during the good times. I hope this doesn’t sound too hokey, but I would feel remiss if I didn’t share my views on this economic downturn which is the major issue facing us all.

Recently came across some information that may help a number of you. Both Union County and the City of Monroe are making discount prescription drug cards available at no cost to their residents, (obviously, there will be some cost associated with filling the prescription.) To get more information on the county’s discount card, you can visit their website at www.co.union.nc.us/HumanServices or call 1-877-321-2652 toll free. For the Monroe City card, you can go to City Hall or the website handling this at www.nlc.org .The only requirement for these cards is that you be a resident. There are no restrictions based on age, income level or existing health coverage. Please share this information with anyone you think might benefit from these programs.

A closing thought: winter is almost over and we have a beautiful new spring to look forward to. Also, for those of you who have plenty of idle hours, you are more than welcome to ask me about my new granddaughter!

Representative Curtis Blackwood is serving his fourth term in the N.C. House, representing District 68 (Union County). He may be reached at his Raleigh office, Room 1317 State Legislative Building, Raleigh, NC 27601, (919) 733-2406, or via email at curtisb@ncleg.net. 

 

 

Newspaper ad from October 2008

At my wife’s urging, I’m responding to some of the allegations made by my opponent. I thought they were so ridiculously misleading that they did not merit a response, but it is not fair to my supporters to let others be led astray by half truths.
Remember the old TV shows, when people testifying were required to tell “The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” because everyone knew that a half truth was the most effective lie? So many half truths have been used by my opponent that it is easy to find examples of intentional deceit.

For my opponent to blame me for the misdeeds of the party that is providing guidance and funding for his campaign is the height of hypocrisy. Representative Gibson has been in Raleigh twice as long as I have, is a member of the majority party, has a leadership position, and is, according to the rating system my opponent seems fond of using, rated highly effective. How is it then that my opponent blames me rather than Gibson and the rest of the Democratic leadership for the fact Union County has been unfairly treated?

The current Democratic leadership would not be supporting my opponent if they thought he would truly challenge the status quo. The fact they’ve targeted me is a real compliment and should make the people of Union County aware of how effective I have been in representing you, even when it wasn’t popular with people like Jim Black or Marc Basnight.

Please check the facts for yourself (see below), and insist on the whole truth before voting. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Representative Curtis Blackwood

Paid for by Blackwood for NC House

BEWARE OF HALF TRUTHS

My opponent’s campaign literature makes so many misleading criticisms there’s not room to cover them all, so this just covers his three main half truth attacks.

 Half Truth

Union County is “First in Debt”

Whole Truth

The level of per capita debt in Union County is determined by the county commissioners, usually with the approval of the voters, not by the legislature. Most of our debt was due to our high rate of growth, and voters have repeatedly supported bond issues to build schools. Has my opponent ever organized opposition to a bond issue for school construction? What’s his point?

Half Truth

Union County is “114 out of 115 school districts in state school funding”

Whole Truth

Union County has been short-changed because the Democratic Party has consistently promoted funding formulas that short-change prosperous counties like ours to divert funds to low income rural counties such as Tyrrell. Even the original lottery formula penalized well run counties with low tax rates by giving a higher share of funds to poor counties with high tax rates.

Because funding formulas give extra funds to poorly performing schools, we are penalized by the good work of our teachers and the success of our students. Should we perform more poorly to improve our state funding, or is my opponent objecting to the funding formulas put in place by his party? When has he criticized his party’s leadership?

Half Truth

Union County is “95out of 100 NC counties in state road funding”

Whole Truth

The Democratic leadership has misallocated highway funds for many years. I ran against Senator Aaron Plyler because I realized we were being short-changed, and in 2002 when I was elected to the House, Union County got a new Republican Senator. At that time, Union County was 100^th out of 100 counties, or dead last in highway funding, over the period from 1990-2002.  Exposing the fact we had been shortchanged helped improve our share of funding.

To raise the rank to 95^th, when talking about a multi-year average, was actually a very positive thing, and I hope to be able to do even more. Somehow I don’t remember my opponent ever criticizing Senator Plyler, Representative Gibson, or any of the Democratic leadership who took our road money to build freeways down east.

 

Why would you trust someone you know has used half truths to mislead you?

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