FORUM
Why everyone should vote AGAINST the bond
Nicole .
Revels
Guest
Columnist
On the March 15 pri
mary election ballot, NC
residents will be asked to
vote for or against a pro
posal to borrow 2 billion
dollars in the form of a
bond. I intend to vote
AGAINST the bond.
A bond is not free
money. It's a method of
spending money now and
leaving future generations
of taxpayers to pick up the
tab later. Many legislators
are supporting the bond
because it's a way for them
to spend money on
grandiose projects and earn
political points back home
while not having to claim
the expenditures as an
operating budget spending
increase.
The problem is that
they're piling debt onto
today's children. Another
term for this is deferred
taxation. It is a much more
fiscally responsible prac
tice to prioritize items by
their importance and pay as
we go.
There is no transporta
tion nor k-12 education
funding within the bond. I
emphasize that fact
because many voters have
been misled by pro-bond
marketing, which describes
the measure as an "infra
structure and education"
funding bill.
The bond was original
ly proposed as a transporta
tion funding bill titled
"Connect NC," but by final
adoption, all road binding
was stripped from the bill,
a move that some legisla
tors have dubbed a "bait
and switch."
Bond proponents tout
the necessity of the
water/sewer line item with
in the $2 billion bond pack
age, but there is actually no
specific allocation within
the bond legislation for any
single water/sewer project.
The plan is to place $309
million into a fund to hold
onto for future allocation
once a municipality applies
to receive them. It makes
no sense for our state to
borrow money simply to
store it away for potential
future redistribution to
municipalities, paying mil
lions in interest in the
meantime!
There's also a section
of the bill titled "realloca
tion," which enables legis
lators to change the bond
money allocations after the
bond is passed. Such a pro
vision means that voters
have no guarantee that
what they think they're vot
ing on is what the funding
will actually be used for.
North Carolina's history
with the gas tax being
diverted to purposes other
than roads should remind
us that we need better guar
antees over allocation
before signing off on a
blank check.
Sixty-six percent of the
$2 billion will be given to
the N.C. university and
community college sys
tems for new buildings and
renovations. Very few
details of the specific proj
ects have been revealed.
Whether community col
leges are renovating class
rooms or building tennis
courts and swimming
pools with the bond
money, we do not know.
Community colleges are
not required to submit their
specific multi-million dol
lar projects for which the
funding will be used until
after the bond is approved
by voters!
The bond is an
omnibus spending bill for
items, that should be con
sidered individually and
funded during the budget
adoption process based on
their own merits. The tax
payers of North Carolina
will be forced to pay the $2
billion debt and interest,
whether by direct tax
increase or by taking
money away from other
future priorities in order to
pay for the projects of
today.
Bond proponents claim
that adopting this bond is
equivalent to a household
adopting a mortgage to
purchase a home. That
claim has no merit. The
entirety of this bond is less
than 10 percent of our
state's annual operating
budget. There's no logical
comparison of this bond
and our state budget to the
cost of a home to a house
hold budget. North
Carolina households have
to be resourceful with our
budgets, and legislators
need to do the same. Vote
AGAINST the $2 billion
bond.debt proposal.
Nicole Revels is direc
tor of NC Against the
Bond, based in Louisburg,
NC. The organization's
email is
Againstthebond@gmail.com
Cooper's spokesperson misleads public with statement
By concerned students
for k.alvin michael
smith
On Thursday, Feb. 18,
we brought students
together from Wake Forest
University, Winston Salem
State University, and
Salem College to do what
Attorney General Roy
Cooper has actively
refused to do for the past
eight years: to publicly
declare our outrage at the
failure of our criminal jus
tice system in keeping
Kalvin Michael Smith
incarcerated.
We urged Mr. Cooper
to act in the Silk Plant
Forest Case, to uphold the
oath of his office and to
usher in the long-awaited
justice that Kalvin Michael
Smith, Jill Marker, and our
community deserve, but
instead, Mr. Cooper's
office released a statement
that misleads the public
and evades his prosecutori
al responsibilities. In
response to over 150 stu
dents converging to call on
A.G. Cooper to join
Kalvin's defense counsel in
petitioning the Superior
Court to vacate the 1997
wrongful conviction,
Cooper's spokeswoman,
Noelle Talley, was quoted
in the Winston-Salem
Journal, saying: "We
understand the communi
ty's concerns, and we want
to work with them on sys
temic issues in the criminal
justice system," Talley
said. "But at this point in
the legal processs, only a
court of law can overturn
Kalvin Smith's conviction
and release him from
prison."
To admit there are""sys
temic issues" in our crimi
nal justice system necessi
tates addressing the havoc
that those "systemic
issues" have wrought on
specific people's lives?on
Kalvin Michael Smith's
life.
A.G. Roy Cooper has
the power to review the
case, to review former FBI
Assistant Director
Christopher Swecker's
report, and to join the
defense counsel, Duke
University Professor James
Coleman Jr., in a motion to
vacate the conviction.
A.G. Cooper is no
stranger to Mr. Swecker, a
former Assistant Director
of the FBI; Mr. Cooper
entrusted him in 2010 to
audit thousands of cases
from the SBI Forensic Lab.
Mr. Swecker's investiga
tion reported over 200
cases of malfeasance that
violated the constitutional
rights of defendants, and
Mr. Cooper followed his
recommendations.
However, in Kalvin
Michael Smith's case, Mr.
Cooper has actively
ignored Mr. Swecker's
review, refusing to even
meet with him.
There is also precedent
for what we are asking Mr.
Cooper as a state prosecu
tor to do. In 2004, Forsyth
District Attorney Tom
Keith filed jointly with
Darryl Hunt's defense
counsel to overturn his
wrongful conviction.
Similarly, Mr. Cooper did
not hesitate to intervene,
investigate and exercise his
prosecutorial discretion in
the 2006 Duke lacrosse
case to dismiss the charges
against three-wrongfully
charged affluent white
men. Yet Mr. Cooper
remains silent about this
injustice facing Kalvin
Michael Smith, a working
class black man.
We believe that prose
cutorial ethics require Mr.
Cooper to meet with for
mer Assistant FBI Director
Christopher Swecker and
to acknowledge the truth
that his review uncovered.
The truth, as the Swecker
Report states, that "only a
new trial that considers the
full record and evidence
not available, misrepre
sented or omitted in the
original trial" will provide
the full measure of justice
deserved.
Mr. Cooper should also
meet with Winston-Salem
Police Department's Lt.
Joseph Ferrelli and Sgt.
Chuck Byrom, who led an
18-month review of the
case which found there to
be "no credible evidence"
that Kalvin was at the
crime scene and concluded
"no confidence" in the
original police investiga
tion.
Mr. Cooper should
meet with these men
immediately and meet in
public.
Hayden Abene from
Wake Forest University,
Jaylon Herbin from
Winston-Salem State
University and Virginia
Parnell from Salem
College.
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.
The WSSU Rams are
coming to you this spring!
Saturday, March 19
Charlotte, N.C.
Saturday, April 2
Wilson, N.C.
Saturday, April 9
for the official
Spring Football Game!
Atkins High School, Old Greensboro Rd., Winston-Salem
There will be prizes, giveaways and
games. Bring a canned good for
entry and in support of the
Harvest Food Bank.
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