CLOSE GUN LOOPHOLES, DON'T OPEN MORE AND MAKE THINGS MORE DANGEROUS: Who are we to believe? North Carolina Republican legislators, who have a legacy of enacting laws that courts have declared racially biased and now say they’re looking to rid the state of a vestige of the racist Jim Crow era by repealing the state’s statutes requiring county sheriffs to issue pistol permits after background checks from applicants. Or … Organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) – North Carolinians who know and lived Jim Crow first-hand – or the Duke University Center for Firearms Law, who say “statements that North Carolina’s permit law was purely racist or solely intended to disarm Black citizens don’t hold up to close historical scrutiny and often do a disservice to the quality of debate and discussion surrounding modern legislative proposals like the current push to repeal the law.” While other parts of Senate Bill 41 have laudable objectives – such as a campaign to distribute gun safety locks and stress the importance of safe and secure storage of firearms – the case can’t be made for the main objectives of the bill. They are shameless in their blatant and obvious hypocrisy, using this Jim Crow argument. But even worse than that is their callous disregard for the lives of innocents that would be sacrificed on the altar of the NRA-fueled drive to put more guns in the hands of those who would misuse them. It's a win/win for the gun lobby, because an increase in shootings will sell even more guns, as the fear ratchets up. Any Dem who votes to override Governor Cooper's Veto will have blood on their hands, and a well-supported Primary challenger.
https://www.wral.com/editorial-close-gun-loopholes-don-t-open-more-and-make-things-more-dangerous/20...

GOVERNOR COOPER OFFERS THE NC LEGISLATURE A PRESCRIPTION IT MUST FULFILL: “A responsibility to learn from adversity and make things better,” he said as he opened his State of the State Address Monday evening in the House Chamber of the State Legislative Building which is celebrating its 60th year of occupancy. Cooper harkened to another milestone of that time – the establishment of the Research Triangle Park – demonstrating “the foresight and resolve to invest in new ideas that have revolutionized our state impacting the generations that followed.” The style and presentation were in keeping with the way Cooper’s governed – pressing for cooperation, conciliation and investment in the future while eschewing confrontation, partisan cheap shots and unproductive lamentations on a false past. Along with his concern over the 25 years of procrastination in meeting the needs of North Carolina’s school children, Cooper rightly called on legislators to end the decade-long refusal to expand Medicaid and do it now -- without their planned delay. “Every month we wait to expand, not only cost lives, but costs our state more than $521 million a month in federal healthcare dollars,” he said, adding the warning that “if we don’t expand soon, we forfeit an additional $1.8 billion.” That is bad management that hurts the state budget no differently than failure to expand Medicaid has hurt more than 600,000 North Carolinians who haven’t been able to access the health care they need. Avoiding any direct confrontation or bullying finger-pointing, Cooper did take note of the kinds of legislation that, in the first weeks of the legislative session, has taken top priority. Cooper noted that when he took office six years ago, one of the first acts was to do away with the ill-conceived and costly so-called “bathroom bill” that resulted in cancelled economic development projects and moved or cancelled billions of dollars in convention, athletic championship and tourism business. “I challenge the General Assembly to keep us off the frontlines of those culture wars that hurt people and cost us jobs so we can continue our successful bipartisan work.” And I challenge Democratic members of the General Assembly to stand behind the Governor when he decides to oppose certain potential laws. Hold the line, or our Democracy will be further eroded.
https://www.wral.com/editorial-cooper-offers-n-c-legislature-a-prescription-it-must-fulfill/20750469/

BEFORE MORE TAX-CUTTING, LEGISLATURE MUST FUND UNMET OBLIGATIONS: Are we “collecting more money than we’re needing?” No, not even close. There are vast needs the legislature is obligated to provide that are going, and have gone, unmet. It is the duty and obligation our state Constitution requires of all branches of state government to meet: Providing a quality public education to all the state’s children and making sure those kids can get to school; Assuring that all citizens are healthy and safe; Making sure that higher education “as far as practicable” is “free of expense.” For whom is taxation a “burden,” as Berger terms it? Not the state’s businesses. The corporate income tax rate has dropped from 6.9% in 2011 to 2.5% this year. A decade ago the money from corporate income and franchise taxes was 10% of state tax revenues. Today it’s down to 8%. At the same time collection of sales and use taxes – the most unfair form of taxation since those with the least ability to pay must spend a greater share of their income on those taxes – has increased from 28% of revenues to 32% of total tax revenues. It is past time that North Carolina met it’s obligation to school children by providing the resources to give all access to a quality education – as the state Constitution promises and the courts have ordered. The truth is, their perpetual tax-cutting serves two main purposes: the erosion of public agencies and services, and their political campaigns that thrive on irresponsible voters. That second thing may be hard for many reading this to swallow, but it's the only logical conclusion to draw from the GOP's continued success at the polls.
https://www.wral.com/editorial-before-more-tax-cutting-legislature-must-fund-unmet-obligations/20743...

UNC TRUSTEES' NEW "SCHOOL" IS AFFIRMATIVE ACTION FOR THE PRIVILEGED: In a recent column, no doubt drafted with at least the aid of a public relations firm hired at $50,000 of public expense, he contended that research showed “more than half of Carolina’s conservative students and one in five centrist students censor themselves in political discussions.” What Boliek didn’t say is the research he is referencing includes the views of just 2.5% of UNC-CH’s undergraduates. And even of the 506 who did offer up survey responses, a mere 15% (80) identified themselves as conservatives while 14% (70) said they were moderates. It is unwise at best to make assumptions based on less than half a percent of the undergraduate student body. What Boliek didn’t mention from the survey was that it found “faculty generally do not push political agendas in class.” The survey goes even further. “We find little evidence that faculty create a highly politicized atmosphere in UNC System classrooms.” The findings for the UNC-CH campus were similar to those found on the other seven campuses surveyed. Why doesn’t he give that finding similar weight? The obvious (and more damning) takeaway from this survey is: the more students learn, the less likely they are to espouse conservative viewpoints. And that is not surprising at all, considering how conservatives at least tolerated if not championed a serial liar and con-man for the last six years. But they would rather blame (nonexistent) indoctrination than look in a mirror for the culprit.
https://www.wral.com/editorial-unc-trustees-new-school-is-affirmative-action-for-the-privileged/2072...