Yikes

What are they thinking down in Raleigh?

The state Senate on Tuesday passed and sent to the House a far-reaching measure to put longer trucks, wider boats and some heavier farm commodity trucks on North Carolina roads.

Trucking and business interests have pushed for the Senate proposal to let 53-foot tractor-trailers use all primary highways -- replacing a 48-foot limit on most roads.

Hey, this is probably not a bad idea for the interstates and 4 & 6 lane divided highways. But all primary highways? Here's the N&O breakdown on the changes involved:

NOW: 48 feet is the length limit on most roads. Tractor-trailers 53 feet long are allowed on about 5,600 miles -- mostly interstates and other major U.S. highways -- and on connecting roads for three miles in each direction. Local governments can ban the long trucks on major highways that pass through towns.

PROPOSED: 53-footers would be allowed on more than 20,000 miles of primary highways -- all interstates and highways labeled "U.S." or "N.C." -- and on connecting roads for 3 miles in each direction. This covers about 90 percent of the state's road network, according to the state Department of Transportation.

Well, as long as individual cities and town will be able to decide whether or not the roads in their town are suitable for this kind of traffic, no big deal, right? After all, Alston Ave. and Avondale Dr. are NC 55 through much of Durham, and at about 22 feet wide through much of their residential areas, the city transportation department might be persuaded to tell those trucks to find another route between I-85 and NC 147. (East End Connector, anyone?)

But wait.

Local governments and the DOT would lose their power to bar long trucks. DOT officials could propose banning 53-foot trucks from certain highways where studies "clearly show" they do not belong -- but legislators would make the decision.

why is it that every time i turn around, some idiots down in the State Legislature are telling North Carolina cities and towns what they can and cannot do to regulate the quality of life within their own city limits? It's getting to be time to start thinking about changing the parts of the state charter that require municipalities to get permission from Raleigh every time they want to make a decision about what life in their own towns should look like.

Continue reading Yikes

You know how to lobby, don't you Stevie?

You just extend your index finger and dial. Here's the deal, as posted by Screwy Hoolie at Blue NC:

In 2001, North Carolina undertook a massive reform of its mental health system. The network of publicly funded providers had grown bureaucratic, bloated and stagnant. While individual practitioners continued, in most cases, to provide excellent care, the system was buckling under its own weight and lacked innovation.

The mental health system reform was intended to improve services and cut costs by introducing competition. In this regard the plan was a success, hundreds of private providers sprung up across the state to provide psychiatry, counseling, psychological services, case management, day treatment, job training, and community based services to mentally ill children and adults.

The problem, of course, is that despite being dead last in the nation in spending on mental health, state legislators wanted to cut more deeply, more lethally. They changed the definitions of the services they reimbursed. They slashed the rates at which doctors and therapists were paid, driving many away from providing services to impoverished children and families.

. . .

The state decided to kill mental health services once and for all on the day before Good Friday. Mere hours before the state would commence a 4-day holiday, word came from the Division of Medical Assistance that reimbursement rates for Community Support services would be cut by a third, from $60/hour to $40/hour.

Community Support services, a new service definition created by the state les than a year ago, allow clients to receive needed help in life skills (balancing a checkbook, etc.), accessing resources like child care, or practicing behavioral skills vital to living independently. Without these services, many clients will end up unemployed, expelled, or institutionalized.

The state, unwilling to try systems that have worked in other states, is going to kill the last few private providers by forcing them into this choice: Hire only low-wage workers who will provide sub-par services, or lose money and go out of business.

Contact info for the members of House Committee on Mental Health Reform can be found here. The contact list for the corresponding Senate Committee is here.

Details on the state's actions are available here and here.

I've been trying to find a dollar figure for how much the state hopes to save by this action, but there doesn't seem to be one published. It would be interesting to see how it compares to the $260 million tax break given to Google to provide a couple of hundred jobs in Lenoir County.

UPDATE: See this post at Blue NC for a rundown on the issues to raise with legislators, and a sample letter to send.

UPDATE 2: From Blue NC at 11:40 am

(W)e shouldn't call the legislature. That the problems stem from secretary Odom and Governor Easley.

The recent cut was not through the budget process. It was directly from the Secretary's office.

Here's the numbers: 919-733-4534 for Secretary Odom. Don't let them give you another number. You'll be put on hold forever.

Here's the Governor's number: 919-733-4240.

Apparently, they're trying to destroy the system so that some company can come in and "fix" it. It's been done in several states. We need make sure Easley and Odom know we're on to them.

So there you have it. Two phone calls to make. It probably wouldn't hurt if your legislators hear from you on this either. They can put pressure on the Governor and the Secretary at least as effectively as we can.

Continue reading You know how to lobby, don't you Stevie?

NC 20th Senate ballot results

I'm posting a breakdown of the balloting here and on Blue NC.

For those of you who can't wait until then, Floyd McKissick is the new state Senator from the 20th district.

Floyd was elected on the 4th ballot, with 44 of the 83 votes cast.

More details to follow.

UPDATED:

We have a new state Senator.

After 4 ballots, Durham County Democratic Party chair Floyd McKissick, Jr., was elected to fill the remaining term of the late Senator Jeanne Lucas.

There were 91 eligible electors. 86 votes were cast on the first ballot, and 83 on each of the subsequent ballots. 44 votes were needed to win on the first ballot, 43 on each of the subsequent ballots, using the "50% + 1 of cast ballots" rules.

After the first ballot, the tally was

McKissick - 38
Black - 24
Cole-McFadden - 17
Johnson - 5
Burnette - 1
Pollard - 1

Due to a quirk in the balloting rules, with two candidates tied for the fewest number of votes, neither was eliminated for the second ballot.

Second ballot results:

McKissick - 38
Black - 28
Cole-McFadden - 12
Johnson - 2
Pollard - 2
Burnette - 1

Brenda Burnette was eliminated after the 2nd ballot.

Third ballot results:

McKissick - 41
Black - 37
Cole-McFadden - 3
Johnson - 1
Pollard - 1

The same quirk mentioned above applied in this round as well. However, both educator/activist Le Harve Johnson and ciy councilmember Cora Cole-McFadden withdrew their names from the ballot.

4th ballot results:

McKissick - 44
Black - 38
Pollard - 1

I think these results represent a clear victory for the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People (hereinafter referred to as the Committee.) They were the only one of the 3 main PACs in Durham to endorse a candidate, and Floyd was their man. Committee chair Dr. LaVonia Allison and Bertha Breeze, elder sister of the late Sen. Lucas worked the crowd through the evening to shore up support for Floyd, and i don't think it was much of a surprise as he picked up the votes he needed as candidates were eliminated following the second and third rounds.

There's no doubt that Floyd brings some baggage with him to his new position. Emails circulating throughout the campaign referred to his past legal troubles and several conflict of interest charges that have been previously aired. There was also a strong sentiment among some electors that the seat which had been filled by a woman should remain filled a woman.

In the end, however, none of the other candidates had a resume quite so impressive, campaigned quite so hard and well, and built quite as solid a base of support as Floyd.

Congratulations to Floyd McKissick. May he grow into his new responsibilities and represent us well in Raleigh.

Congratulations as well to all of the candidates, and heartfelt thanks to all of the electors who treated this responsibility so seriously. This was a proud moment in my life.

And once again, i'd like to repeat what my fellow elector Harris Johnson wrote:

I am reminding my fellow democrats that we should not burn bridges, and that the enemy is the republican party and George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and the Atty. General.

. . .

Again, lets be positive and stick together, we have a fight in front of us, if we are to save this nation. As we build on our strengths let us move forward together, not divided or fragmented regardless [of] who wins Monday evening.

Continue reading NC 20th Senate ballot results

NC Senate 20th district - update

I've spoken over the past week directly with about half of the candidates to replace the late Sen. Jeanne Lucas, and with supporters of every candidate. It's been an educational process for me, and i'm about 75% certain who i'm going to vote for.

Which is, i guess, a good thing, since the first ballot will likely be cast about 9 hours from now.

Overall, the public process has been positive. All of the emails i've read on official Democratic mailing lists have extolled the virtues of the various candidates, explaining why he or she would be the best to send to Raleigh. There's been a small number of negative emails that have circulated to various subgroups of the public lists. I'm not sure how the recipients of these were chosen. Most of the senders seem unfamiliar with the use of the "BCC" field, so trying to piece together how the list was generated by the addresses mailed to could be a day project for Encyclopedia Brown, if he's so inclined.

For myself, i'll pass.

I also want to say that the negative messages, especially when passed among such a small group of people, strike me as petty. I'll have more to say about this, including some details, after the balloting. For now, i'll just state that they were not persuasive, and leave it at that.

I've sought out the opinion of a number of folks i respect, both in and out of the Party, and gotten much good advice.

The meeting tonight will start out by attempting to establish the rules of the ballot. Apparently the party's plan of organization leaves some gray area for special meetings like this. A key area of discussion will be the number of votes required to win the election (50% + 1 of eligible votes, or 50% + 1 of actual ballots?). Another will be whether all candidates remain on the ballot until they withdraw, or whether the last place finisher in each round will be automatically dropped from the ballot.

These are the kinds of details which cause eyes to glaze over around the globe, so i'm hopeful we can come to agreement on them quickly, and proceed to the important part of the meeting.

I did specifically want to mention a conversation i had with Brenda Pollard, 1st vice-chair of the county party, and a candidate for this seat. I had been quoted in several local papers as saying that i thought Ms. Pollard was not yet ready to serve in the state Senate, and that i could not support her candidacy. She called my asking for my support anyway, and despite the potential for awkwardness, our conversation was quite civilized. Ms. Pollard is a graceful human being who is a sincere asset to our party, even if my position on her candidacy is unchanged.

I'll have more to say tomorrow about this process, including congratulations to the eventual winner, and an analysis of what the balloting means to Durham politics. I'm going to quote from an email which circulated late last week in closing:

In review of several recent elections we seemed to attack fellow democrats in support of or opposition to one or another candidate which is the right of each individual and it is the constitutional right of all citizens. I hear comments about "ethics" and questionable behavior, please let us focus on the real enemy and come together in an effort to unify our party, county and Nation.

With the corruption in Washington let's talk about ethics or the lack of ethics in the Republican party, and the immoral majority. It's long over due that we stop beating up on each other or giving the appearance of such.

I am reminding my fellow democrats that we should not burn bridges, and that the enemy is the republican party and George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and the Atty. General.

. . .

Again, lets be positive and stick together, we have a fight in front of us, if we are to save this nation. As we build on our strengths let us move forward together, not divided or fragmented regardless [of] who wins Monday evening. And, let's do it with honor, and integrity.

Harris Johnson
Chair, Precinct 40

crossposted at BlueNC.

Continue reading NC Senate 20th district - update

NC Senate 20th district

Following up on my earlier post, i had a chance to speak again with Floyd McKissick, chair of the Durham County Democratic Party and a candidate for the nomination to replace the late Sen. Jeanne Lucas.

We talked about a number of things, but most important to me was following up on the impression i had from Saturday's forum regarding the degree of opposition that he would bring to an amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as "between a man and a woman."

Floyd said to me that he would "adamantly" oppose such an attempt to amend the state constitution, which i was glad to hear.

I still don't know who i'm voting for on Monday, however.

Continue reading NC Senate 20th district