The Senate budget and the two Carolinas

by | May 11, 2017 | Editor's Blog, North Carolina | 7 comments

When we hear the term “the two Carolinas” we generally think of North Carolina and South Carolina. But there are two more Carolinas—the one where I live today and the one where I grew up. Those two Carolinas share few similarities.

The Carolina I live in today has a vibrant downtown with plenty of restaurants and a healthy merchant class. Our schools are among the best in the state and some are ranked among the best in the nation. We have well-groomed parks, bike trails, bus service and sidewalks. We’re fifteen miles from a major airport and both north-south and east-west interstates are just minutes away. Our crime rate is low and our biggest struggles concern balancing growth with maintaining our quality of life.

In contrast, the Carolina where I was raised is losing population and the unemployment rate is above the state as a whole. The downtown of Wadesboro is a shell of the place where I sold newspapers and bought everything from clothes to bicycles to baseball gloves. A major artery connecting downtown to Highway 74, the major road running through the county, stayed closed for more than year because the town didn’t have resources to repair a collapsing bridge. Other towns in the county are essentially empty, devoid of any businesses other than a convenience store or two.

So, when the state Senate rolled out their budget touting tax cuts, especially for big corporations, guess who benefits? That’s right. My neighbors today, not the ones who grew up with me. But guess who supports these regressive tax cuts that disproportionally benefit the wealthy and urban/suburban areas?  Those rural legislators whose constituents are increasingly getting left behind.

Republicans claim their tax cuts have led to magazines citing North Carolina as among the best states for business. That may be true, but those national publications are talking about places like the Triangle, the Triad, and Charlotte, not places like Anson County, Scotland County or Wilkes County. The GOP budget has hung those places out to dry. To add insult to injury, the Trump administration announced yesterday that it was sending just $6 million of a requested $900 million for Hurricane Matthew relief. The areas hurt most by Matthew are home to some of North Carolina’s poorest citizens.

In many of those areas, the state is the largest employer, but the Senate would stop providing health insurance to state government retirees for anybody joining the state workforce after 2020. That’s a great recruiting tool.  It’s like throwing an anchor to a sinking boat.

If rural North Carolina is going to catch up and compete they need a serious investment in infrastructure including broadband internet, not more tax cuts. They need the resources to train a workforce that will attract businesses and give residents the skills and tools to start their own. The companies of the 21st century aren’t moving to places with outdated services and local entrepreneurs are going to leave for places with the amenities they need to thrive.

The Senate budget reflects the Republican philosophy. Much of rural North Carolina is a casualty of the free trade agreements of the 1990s and the GOP is not going to put government resources into helping them compete. In Republican parlance, that’s picking winners. Unfortunately, the people who represent too many of the areas struggling the most have turned their backs on the plight of the places they represent.

In contrast, Governor Roy Cooper submitted a budget that invested in people and infrastructure. It used the budget surplus to invest in rural broadband and rural economic development projects. It increases funding for schools and community colleges far above what the Senate proposes. In short, it offers the areas suffering the most a big boost, while the Senate budget stiffs our small towns and rural communities. Cooper is working to breach the divide. The Senate budget expands it.

7 Comments

  1. Ebrun

    The author and commenters do not recognize the difference between very rural, agricultural counties and counties dominated be small cities and larger towns. The very rural counties in SE NC along the SC border are declining as are most of the rural counties in NE NC. And, BTW, these declining rural counties still vote heavily Democratic.

    But small cities and towns in the Piedmont, foothills and costal plains are doing quite well. Look at places like Hickory, Lenoir, Salisbury, Lexington, Kannapolis, Burlington, Greenville, Concord, Statesville, Gastonia, Southern Pines/Pinehurst, Jacksonville, Hendersonville, Goldsboro, Mooresville and Linconton. Even little Polk County is predicted to boom with the opening of the new international Equestrian Center. Plus exurban counties are like Harnett,, Union, Chatham and Davie are experiencing steady population growth.And
    areas attractive to tourists like Watauga, Carteret, Dare, Currituck Brunswick and Pender Counties are enjoying modest growth.

    No doubt these small city, larger town areas are not experiencing the rapid growth of metropolitan areas like Raleigh and Charlotte. But to imply, as Mr. Mills seems to, that NC areas outside the major metropolitan centers are empty and devoid of economic activity shows a lack of understanding of the state’s demographics.. And many residents of these smaller places would contend that their quality of like is much better that the congestion, crime and pollution endemic in our larger cities, (Anyone who thinks Charlotte has a low crime rate should watch the local TV stations’ nightly newscasts.)

    The real issue for liberals like Mr. Mills and his followers who post here is that the state’s Republican political strength is primarily in areas where small cities and larger towns are predominate. Thus, the left’s disingenuous campaign to convince the public that the Democrat-dominated big cities are some kind of Nirvana and Republican-dominated smaller places are impoverished and backward.

  2. David Scott

    Having lived in rural NC most of my life, I can vouch for this tragedy that is happening in NC and the U.S. This is not just a geographic split but, more importantly, a socio-economic and political one. Because rural areas have no political clout, they are powerless to improve their circumstances. Rural young people either become disillusioned as a result of lack of opportunity and move to urban areas or they lapse into crime and/or poverty. While urban NC becomes richer, rural NC is becoming a third world state. Raleigh ignores this fact at their risk.
    This as the Legislature awards a $40 MILLION incentive package to Credit Suisse to come to the rich Piedmont. This story will have a sad ending!

    • willard cottrell

      Anything ANY republican touches – from local, state or national governments comes to a sad ending.

      • Jim Cohen

        You post as a fool.

    • Ellen Jefferies

      “Rural people have no political clout…” huh!?? Rural people are the ones electing republicans. They are getting what they are voting for

      • David Scott

        Ellen,
        Please be aware that there is a marked difference between rural and urban Republicans. The rural ones vote out of ignorance and misinformation and general lack of sophistication due to poor schools and lack of opportunity. Urban Republicans vote out of self-interest, no appreciation of the common good, and undeveloped empathy skills. Rural Republicans can be educated. Urban ones have to be beaten at the polls.

        And by the way, all rural people are not Republicans.

      • Thomas Hill

        Ellen is correct. It is only when rural people feel the pain their heroes are creating that they will begin to accept reason, and cause and effect, rather than phony trickle-down and fanatical religious agendas. Meanwhile, the dishonest politicians who are creating the problems simply do not care. When the stuff hits the fan, they will have left for new worlds to destroy.

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