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Ongoing NC GOP debacle thread

Deadbolt said:
There's a lot of GOP infighting over it. Hard line TP conservatives don't want to fork over the cash while more moderate Pubs (including McCrory) are pleading with them to get this done so NC can at least compete for new business. Thus far it's been a long stalemate while the legislature has been focusing on red meat social conservative issues to keep the base riled up. Even McCrory has called them out on this.

ETA: to put it more succinctly, those tax cuts they like to crow about are making it hard to get this done.
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I can tell you that Volvo wanted to build these plants in NC starting as early as 2007. They've waited for NC to offer them anything and finally got tired of waiting. They really weren't asking for that much either.
 
4000 jobs in Edgecombe County would have been a game changer. Even low paying jobs.
 
Meanwhile, here in the Triad, local governments are throwing money they don't have at two different "megasites". One of the smaller counties just raided its reserve fund to buy into one of the megasites so they can "have a seat at the table". The people profiting off of this nonsense are private developers and real estate brokers, who are getting taxpayer-funded utilities extended to parts of the counties that would otherwise remain untouched - because no one in their right mind would build 20 miles of sewer out to a green field in the middle of nowhere, right?

So the taxpayers of the Triad are going to throw money at this, but there is absolutely no chance of landing the white whale with the legislature we have now. Instead of a very, very small chance of this multimillion dollar gamble using taxpayer money paying off, it's a zero percent chance.

Moreover, given how much the General Assembly hates cities, as a Greensboro taxpayer I am confident that even if a factory landed on one of these megasites out in the county, the GA would find some way to reallocate the benefits thereof to prevent Greensboro reaping the benefits it paid for.

Basically, the whole thing drives me absolutely nuts.
 
But Republicans are pro-business, right?
 
I think the current NC GOP thinks they are pro-business, but the problem is they are pro-business-as-it-existed-in-1970. They seem to think that low taxes and a cheap, uneducated workforce is going to somehow enable North Carolina to compete with China for low-skill factory labor. We have just shown that we can't even compete with South Carolina.
 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/15/supreme-court-abortion-law_n_7585250.html

Supreme Court Won't Revive North Carolina Abortion Law

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from North Carolina to revive a requirement that abortion providers show and describe an ultrasound to a pregnant woman before she has an abortion.

The justices left in place an appeals court decision that said the 2011 North Carolina law was "ideological in intent" and violated doctors' free-speech rights.

The North Carolina law would have required abortion providers to display and describe the ultrasound even if the woman refused to look and listen — a mandate that the court found particularly troublesome.

North Carolina is among 23 states, mostly in the South and the Midwest, which passed laws dealing with the administration of ultrasounds by abortion providers, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research institute that supports abortion-rights.

Justice Antonin Scalia voted to hear the appeal.
 
Deacon923 said:
I think the current NC GOP thinks they are pro-business, but the problem is they are pro-business-as-it-existed-in-1970. They seem to think that low taxes and a cheap, uneducated workforce is going to somehow enable North Carolina to compete with China for low-skill factory labor. We have just shown that we can't even compete with South Carolina.
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To their credit, the NC GOP is working hard to make sure NC is as uneducated and low skilled as SC.

How is RTP doing nowadays?
 
PhDeac said:
To their credit, the NC GOP is working hard to make sure NC is as uneducated and low skilled as SC.

How is RTP doing nowadays?
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RTP is doing what RTP does. This area is mostly on autopilot.

Though the RTP area reliably votes Dem, so I assume the legislature will at some point begin trying to destroy it, beginning with a public execution of Jim Goodnight.
 
Areas around the fringe of the RTP are growing like crazy right now. RTP's problem is there's no place to fucking eat except the on campus cafeteria, if you have one. They're planning to redevelop a big site on NC Hwy 54 and put in a mixed use development with offices, restaurants, entertainment, and apartments, that will eventually be served by commuter rail at some point this century.
 
It's my impression that RTP's biggest problem is that the corporate world has moved beyond the type of office building that mostly exists at RTP, and that modern knowledge workers expect more amenities and a more urban environment than RTP can offer. That matters when you're competing with Google and Apple etc. for workers. I don't think RTP relies on the GA for much, if any, funding.
 
Deacon923 said:
It's my impression that RTP's biggest problem is that the corporate world has moved beyond the type of office building that mostly exists at RTP, and that modern knowledge workers expect more amenities and a more urban environment than RTP can offer. That matters when you're competing with Google and Apple etc. for workers. I don't think RTP relies on the GA for much, if any, funding.
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There's probably some truth in that, but I don't think it's a big problem at the moment. There's no shortage of people trying to find jobs in the area. Although Google is rumored to be opening an office in downtown Raleigh as the evolution of that area continues (Red Hat, of course, also moved their headquarters to downtown Raleigh). It'll be interesting to see how that dynamic plays out over the next decade between RTP, Raleigh, and Durham.
 
Maybe so for typical professional office, but if your company is building a research facility with a campus setting, the RTP is still where you would build, not in a downtown setting.

For instance Bayer Crop Science is expanding in the area and putting in a $30 million greenhouse.
 
BiffTannen said:
For instance Bayer Crop Science is expanding in the area and putting in a $30 million greenhouse.
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tumblr_lylmesbWpp1qkb424o1_500.gif
 
WFFaithful said:
Senate Budget Proposal
http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2015/0...assistants-rewards-less-experienced-teachers/
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Teachers in the early grades are mandated to do 1 on 1 assessments with every single kid multiple times a year because, accountability. My daughter just finished first grade (no assistant) and was assessed dozens of times. Multiply that by the 22 kids in her (overcrowded) classroom and add in the one CRAZY behaviorally messed up kid who had to be constantly managed (he was so bad that sometime in March they brought in a person to be his one on one personal minder. Insane). During all those state-mandated assessments, who was teaching the kids and keeping order in the classroom? Generally, parent volunteers, or no one.

Many schools don't have engaged parents who are wealthy enough so that one parent doesn't work during the day and can hang around in a first grade classroom. Without teacher assistants, what do teachers do in those schools?
 
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