Our Informer

Four Hickory area N.C. House representatives were named to the conference committee to hammer out a state budget. Weekend and evening hours will be spent as House and Senate differences are hammered out with compromises. The goal is to get a budge approved before Tuesday–the beginning of the new fiscal year.

Reps. Ray Warren and Joe Kiser are on the Subcommittee for Justice and Public Safety. Rep. Mitchell Setzer is a member of the Subcommittee for Finance and Rep. Walter Church of Valdese is working on the Subcommittee for Capital. All voted for the House version which was adopted overwhelmingly.

Rep. Mark Hilton of Conover and Sen. Austin Allran have no voice in the process. They voted against the budget which also include provisions to keep the I-40 interchange open. An article in the Hickory Record had Allran and Hilton patting themselves on the back because the interchange provision is in the spending plan. The Record reporter did not mention they opposed the budget.

Rep. Ray Warren, with the help of the Speaker’s office, was responsible for inserting the provision that will prohibit the Department of Transportation from closing any interstate interchange in North Carolina for one year. A year from now, a new governor and new DOT leadership will be in place.

TICK-TOCK: Every second of the day, North Carolina spends $628 in public money. The state’s budget of $21.2 billion spends over $2 million an hour–$380 million each week. Education, health and human services, prisons, transportation, economic development…all take money.

NEW DATE FOR TOWN MEETING: Rep. Ray Warren has announced new dates for the town hall style meetings in the region. Hickory and Catawba County leaders in education, public service, and the arts will be invited to a session in Hickory August 22. Joining Rep. Warren will be House Speaker Joe Hackney and House Majority Leader Hugh Hollimon. A similar meeting will be held in Alexander County.

NOT IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD: State Sen. Kay Hagan and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole are touting their “bipartisanship” as they battle the seat this fall. Both has identified bills they sponsored with members of the opposite party as co-sponsors. Sen. Dole, ending her first term, is ahead of Hagan by nine percentage points according to recent polls.

But bipartisan is not a word in the vocabularies of Northwest North Carolina Republican legislators, with the exception of Rep. Setzer who has a reputation for outstanding constituent service. Democrats Ray Warren and Walter Church work across the aisle because they have to get Republican votes.

MIXED NEWS FOR 10TH DISTRICT GOP: Public Policy Polling recently polled over 1,000 voters in the 10th congressional district and the findings offered mixed news for Republicans and encouraging news for Democrats. Since December, Republican identification in the 10th has dropped 7 percentage points, with independents gaining 4 percent and Democrats 3 percent.

Incumbent U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry has less than 50 percent preference, leading Democrat Daniel Johnson 49 to 38 percent. McHenry’s approval in the 10th is 45 percent, down from 53 percent seven months ago.

Voters in the 10th overwhelmingly are behind Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory in the governor’s race who leads Democrat Beverly Perdue by 25 points–55 to 30. McCrory’s strength is with women, whites, and older voters. GOP John McCain also leads Barack Obama in the 10th 52-31 in the district.

GOVERNOR BACKS JOHNSON: Gov. Mike Easley is host for a reception to raise money for Daniel Johnson this Monday evening. Invitations are been sent to key political figures in Raleigh and members of the legislature. The reception will be held in law offices on Glenwood Avenue.

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When Rep. Mark Hilton of Conover voted against the House version of the revised state budget last week, he also voted in favor of keeping Interstate interchange 131 closed. This I-40 access to Conover has been closed for over a year, shutting off Conover residents from easy access to the interstate and travel to Hickory. Efforts to get the State Department of Transportation to keep the access open have fallen on deaf ears.

Rep. Ray Warren, whose district includes Hickory, conferred with the House leadership. The decision was made to insert a special provision in the budget document that would prohibit DOT from closing any interstate exchange for one year. Warren’s amendment was approved overwhelmingly. Hilton, however, voted against the budget and in effect voted to keep the exit closed. This week the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a budget and left the Warren provision in the budget. The Catawba County spotlight now is on Sen. Austin Allran.

The budget goes into a House-Senate Conference Committee and is expected to be adopted before July 1. Some legislators are predicting the session will adjourn before July 4.

WARREN AND HOUSE LEADERSHIP: House Speaker Joe Hackney and his leadership team have embraced Rep. Ray Warren. He is popular with representatives from both political parties and has worked hard on the House agenda. On August 14, Speaker Hackney and House Majority Leader Hugh Hollimon will visit Hickory and Alexander County to conduct town hall-style meetings. Government officials, law enforcement spokespersons, and leaders in economic development and the arts will be invited to attend. The Democratic leadership wants to keep Warren’s star on the ascendancy. Since his election, he has brought millions of dollars to the district, including a state prison facility in Alexander that will provide 200 jobs.

OBAMA-McCAIN: Polls are showing John McCain leading Barack Obama 45-41 percent in North Carolina, meaning the state is in play for the fall elections. Libertarian candidate Bob Barr is showing 2 percent with 12 percent undecided. Our red has a purple tint.

JOHNSON ON LIST: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has listed Daniel Johnson on a list of 20 “surprisingly strong candidates running in exceptionally difficult districts.” This makes Johnson visible for additional financial support from national donors. Johnson has raised more than $300,000 for his battle against incumbent Patrick McHenry. He will need another $500,000 at least to run a competitive campaign.

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Sen. Austin Allran obviously is nursing bruised feelings from his primary race. On Tuesday, he unloaded with an angry outburst on Bebe Leitch, head of the Hickory-Conover Convention and Visitors Bureau, who visited his office to promote a one-cent increase on the hotel occupancy tax. The tax is paid by visitors who rent rooms in the hotel.

Word of Allran’s tirade reached other legislators. Several Republicans called Allran’s outburst “stupid.” “She was only doing the job her board had asked her to do,” said one representative. One lawmaker close to the scene said Allran and Rep. Mark Hilton had promised to support the additional tax initiative last December after Catawba County commissioners and the boards of the CVB and Tourism Development Authority had requested the increase. The money would have been used to market the Hickory Metro in national and regional media….to put more heads in the beds. Allran and Hilton were accused of breaking their promise.

TRAP STRATEGY? Rep. Ray Warren also agreed to support the increase for the occupancy tax. But he insisted that other members of the delegation sign the bill and Rep. Hilton has balked. Why? Hilton is taking a lead in the campaign for Mark Hollo who is seeking to recapture his seat from Warren. If Warren had taken the lead, Hilton could have used the “tax-and-spend Democrat” label on Warren. Warren and a fellow area representative smelled a rat…and they declined to feed it.

HOUSE BUDGET: Thirty-nine Republicans joined 63 Democrats to approve a $21.3 billion budget this week. Only 12 Republicans opposed the budget which represented a 3.5 per cent increase in annual spending. Most of the increases–some $366 million–went for salary increases for public school teachers and state employees. Retirees got a 2.2 percent increase.

Rep. Mickey Michaux, chair of the Appropriations Committee which rolled out the plan, noted that North Carolina is much better off than neighboring states. Virginia, Mississippi, and Kentucky gave no increases in salaries and in South Carolina the figure was 1 percent.

There are no tax increases in the House version and Senate leaders also have also said there will be no tax increases, although there may be some shifts in the formula for salary increases. House members capped salary increases for lottery officials to that for other state employees and that provision may be eliminated on the Senate side. Lottery officials are the highest paid employees in North Carolina, four of which are paid more than the governor who get $135,000 a year.

OUT IN JULY: Legislators are pushing to end the short session in early July. After the Senate completes its budget version–probably in two weeks–it will go to a conference committee and could be adopted by July 1. That’s the goal.

JOHNSON REACHES OUT: Several Republican businessmen and party activists have received personal telephone calls from Democrat Congressional candidate Daniel Johnson. Johnson, it is said, has met with Dean Proctor, longtime GOP leader, who is supporting him and presumably gave him names of people to call, including Jerry Phillips. Phillips is among those who are not happy with U.S. Congressman Patrick McHenry who is considered an embarrassment by some business executives.

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