FORUM
More bad news from General Assembly:
Teachers and state employees lose out
Chris
Fitzsimon
Guest
Columnist
The state
budget is now
59 days late.
That makes it
the second lat
est two-year
state budget
since at least
1961 and prob
ably ever. And
this from Republican leaders who prom
ised to make government more efficient
and transparent.
The House and Senate passed another
continuing resolution this week that keeps
government operating until Sept. 18. The
latest resolution comes amid speculation
that House and Senate budget leaders are
closing in a final agreement on a two-year
spending plan. This week the two sides
announced they had settled the issue of
raises for teachers and state employees.
Most of them will not get a salary
increase and will instead receive a one
time $750 bonus toward the end of the
year. Legislative leaders have not decided
on any cost of living increase for state
retirees, and it's hard to be optimistic they
will come up with the money for one.
Budget subcommittees also received
their spending targets, almost all of which
were lower than the original House budget,
which itself made inadequate investments,
particularly in education and human serv
ices.
Now presumably the subcommittees
will begin ironing out the details of a final
agreement with major questions remain
ing, including funding for teacher assis
tants (TAs) and teachers. The Senate budg
et cuts 8,500 teachers over the next two
years and uses some of the money saved to
hire more teachers to reduce class size in
the early grades.
The House would leave TA funding the
same, though it's been cut dramatically in
the last few years. And the funding that is
at stake is for the school year that started
Monday, Aug. 24, leaving local officials
and thousands of teacher assistants won
dering about their jobs.
It's also hardly a forgone conclusion
that the agreement on the non-raise and
other target numbers means lawmakers
will pass a final budget by the new dead
line. The two sides have dozens of budget
items in dispute big and small, maybe the
most contentious of which will be tax
changes.
Both budgets include another decrease
in the corporate income tax rate but Senate
?A* ^oiCve^
NC Policy Wmtck
leaders want to reduce the personal income
tax rate, too. That might hold up a final
budget. There are changes in Medicaid,
local sales tax distribution, and Gov. Pat
McCrory's bond proposal. None of those
are in the budget document at this point,
but Senate leaders said this week that they
are all still connected.
If the General Assembly fails to pass a
budget by the new Sept. 18 deadline and
takes another week, it would be the latest a
two-year budget has passed in modern his
tory. And don't bet against it.
There's a reasonable chance that a
budget deal is coming soon, but there is
still a lot of animosity between the House
and Senate that will make it a challenge to
wrap things up.
Meanwhile, teachers, teacher assis
tants, students and parents wait and worry.
Bad news for McCrory
in right-wing poll
*s
The rough summer for Gov. Pat
McCrory continues. Not only do lawmak
ers still seem lukewarm about his top pri
orities for this legislative session, a poll
from a right-wing group generally support
ive of McCrory shows him trailing
Attorney General Roy Cooper, his likely
2016 opponent, among independent vot
ers.
The Civitas Institute, where McCrory's
Chief of Staff Thomas Stith used to work,
issued a press release Friday morning with
a headline downplaying the findings.
"Civitas Poll Shows McCrory Support
Shifts in Key Voting Bloc" was how it was
billed and what the poll apparently found
was that McCrory now trails Cooper
among unaffiliated voters 34-32 percent.
McCrory was
the choice of 44
percent of unaf
filiated voters in
a June Civitas
survey.
You would
think that the
headline of the
release might
be, "Cooper
pulls ahead of
McCrory with
unaffiliated vot
ers," but that
probably
wouldn't sit too
well with the
Cooper
McCrory camp.
The poll also found that 50 percent of
unaffiliated voters in the state approve of
the job President Obama is doing while 48
percent disapprove.
Forty-six percent of the voters sur
veyed have a favorable opinion of Obama
and 44 percent have an unfavorable view
of him while only 36 percent of voters
view McCrory favorably while 43 percent
have an unfavorable opinion.
So not only McCrory is losing tc
Cooper among the all-important unaffiliat
ed voters, he is significantly less populai
with them than Obama, who's still bitterly
attacked every day by groups like Civitas.
A tough summer indeed.
Another week and the Confederate flag
is still flying on North Carolina license
plates
And in case you are wondering, the
State of North Carolina is still selling
license plates that feature the offensive
Confederate flag, now more two month.'
after Gov. Pat McCrory said in the wake ol
the Charleston shootings that the state
should stop selling them.
Maybe those unaffiliated voters are
looking for a governor who takes decisive
?action, not someone who makes a state
ment and doesn't follow up on it.
From the Fringe
It has been a while since there's been z
From the Fringe segment of the Follies anc
this one is a doozy. It comes from George
Leef who posted on the primary blog of the
John Locke Foundation this week thai
Florida International University Law
Professor Elizabeth Foley "nailed it" in hei
take on the horrific murder of two journal
ists at Roanoke television station.
Foley's post that Leef was so taken b>
described the obviously troubled suspect
who was a former employee of the statior
and shot himself after the murders, as "r
sad but ineluctable product of the progres
sive left's incessant race-baiting anc
claims of minority entitlement. He is
essentially, the love child of A1 Sharptor
and President Obama (with Elizabeth
Warren as the surrogate)."
Lovely.
Chris Fitzsimon. Founder anc
Executive Director of NC Policy Watch
writes the daily Fitzsimon File, delivers c
radio commentary broadcast on WRAL
FM and hosts "News and Views," a weekly
radio news magazine that airs on multiph
stations across North Carolina.
Contact him a\
chris@ncpolicywatch .com.
URL to article: http://www.ncpolicy
watch.com/2015/08/28/the-follies-234/
Ernie and Elaine in 1974, soon after starting The Chronicle.
Chronicle since 1987.
Committed
from page A6
Artist-L. Cornell. Allen
Johnson helped launch
"Black College Sports
Review". He is now the
editor of the editorial
page at The News and
Record. Angela Wright
who gave the school
superintendent so much
hell that he called her my
"pit bulldog." She went
on to the Charlotte
Observer.
Kevin Walker,
Chronicle Managing
Editor for 16 years, led
The Chronicle in becom
ing a premiere commu
nity newspaper. During
the course of publishing,
we discovered that the
black community was
not the only voice neg
lected in the majority
press; there were many
small voices. There
were numerous nonprof
its and small organiza
tions who couldn't com
pete for the editorial
space in dailies. So The
Chronicle expanded its
vision to community
journalism to be inclu
sive and to become a
bridge between the black
and white communities
where advocacy, under
standing, and a voice
could make a difference.
Kevin was a master at
community journalism;
each week he would put
together a collage of sto
ries that covered nation
al, local, business, birth
days, and anniversaries.
Kevin deferred his
dreams of graduate
school for many years,
but this August, he was
accepted to graduate
study at American
University. The
Chronicle and this com
munity owes Kevin a
great deal of thanks for
his many years of sacri
fice and dedication. We
wish him well and know
he will make a difference
%
wherever he decides to
go from there.
When The Chronicle
coverage included the
Hispanic community, Dr.
Maya Angelou called to
say that now she could
say that The Chronicle
was truly her hometown
newspaper. Dr. Angelou
and I became friends and
she later warned me that
when I began to advo
cate for not just black
people but poor and dis
enfranchised people that
it could be dangerous.
She said that when Dr.
King included them his
fate became prophetic as
well as poetic; she
reached out to my wife
during my incarceration
and sent me an auto
graphed copy of her
book as a show of sup
port.
Dr. "A" was so
impressed with our mis
sion and commitment to
the community she
wrote a column for The
Chronicle. We were the
only newspaper in
America to have her as a
columnist, she charged
us $33 per column. We
miss her voice.
There were many
other notable editors and
community journalists
over the years including
Yvette Belton, Rudy
Anderson, Robin
Barksdale Irvin, Angela
Wright, Sheridan Hill,
Richard Williams, Sam
Davis and more recently
Layla Garms and Todd
Luck.
1 didn't have to wear
as many hats when Alice
Pearson joined our sales
team and then Julie
Perry. Circulation
Manager Melvin Wilkins
and Lynn Hairston led
the Chronicle in its first
circulation audit. Later
Mike Pitt became circu
lation manager and then
advertising manager
Ernie Pitt accepts the top NNPA award for The
Chronicle in 2008.
before starting his own
business.
Business staff like
Verisia West, Ericka
Asbury, Vicky Warren
(deceased), LA Cheryl
Mitchell, and most
recently Andrea Moses
all helped this newspa
per better serve our read
ers, subscribers and
advertisers. Paulette
Moore continues to be in
a category by herself as
the consummate ambas
sador with Chronicle
visitors and assisting
with community news
submissions.
Now, 41 years later
we're still here ...
stronger than ever thanks
be to God. And, we are
grateful for the many
people who are proud
Chronicle readers. They
know that they are
always welcome in our
office and that we
always have time for
them and the issues that
I
suffocates and smothers
progress in our commu
nity.
We are extremely
proud and blessed with
this issue and we thank
our more than 25,000
readers for your contin
ued support of this,
YOUR COMMUNITY
NEWSPAPER.
May God bless each
and every one of you and
we expect to be around
41 more years. Make
sure you let your chil
dren and grandchildren
know this story.
Please forgive an old
publisher for being long
winded in his memories
on The Chronicle's 41st
anniversary (birthday). I
am sure 1 have omitted
thanking some people;
please charge it to my
head and not my heart.
Thank you Winston
Salem for 41 years and
an awesome journey in
community publishing.
I