Opinion Roundup: N.C. elected officials respond on health care, tax reform

Monday, Jan. 8, 2018 -- A roundup of opinion, commentary and analysis on a pair of responses from N.C. elected officials to recent CBC editorials, a rally urging lawmakers to fund the class size mandate, a set of arguments against expanding offshore drilling and more.

RICHARD BURR: "Obamacare hasn't worked on the scale it was promised" (Capitol Broadcasting column) -- Obamacare hasn't worked on the scale it was promised and there's no amount of spin that can change that fact.

SEN. THOM TILLIS & REP. RICHARD HUDSON: Tax reforms are the change North Carolinians deserve (Capitol Broadcasting column) -- We passed the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act to lower taxes across the board, eliminate special-interest loopholes, nearly double the standard deduction, increase paychecks, make it easier for small businesses to grow and create jobs, and level the playing field for American businesses trying to make ends meet in a global economy that gets more competitive by the day.

MARK BARRETT: Lawsuits could change rules in N.C. politics, balance of power in Raleigh (Asheville Citizen-Times analysis) -- A lawsuit could alter the rules of the game in elections in North Carolina and across the country, dramatically curbing the ability of state legislators to draw political boundaries every 10 years to favor their political party. A separate case may result in new district lines for several legislative races in central and eastern North Carolina. This would increase the odds that Democrats either take control of the state General Assembly or at least win enough seats to end Republicans' ability to pass laws without Gov. Roy Cooper's approval. Or, judges could uphold actions of the Republican majority in the General Assembly in either or both cases.

TAFT WIREBACK: N.C.'s redistricting cases cost taxpayers $5.6 million and counting (Greensboro News & Record analysis) – N.C. taxpayers have spent almost $5.6 million to pay for the legislature’s defense against a continuing series of lawsuits attacking it’s redistricting efforts. That tab, the official tally through Dec. 18, is sure to climb as lawsuits filed since the GOP-led body’s 2011 redistricting for both state and federal offices continue. Several days before Christmas, attorneys who filed one of the original lawsuits against the General Assembly’s congressional redistricting efforts in 2011 were awarded nearly $1.4 million in legal fees from state coffers for their successful claims of racial gerrymandering, apparently bringing the state’s running tally for the cost of redistricting lawsuits to about $7 million.

GINGER LIVINGSTON: Study outlines problems, improvements needed for elections (Greenville Daily Reflector) -- More training for poll workers and better equipment are two improvements an advocacy group said will ensure voters can cast their ballot with confidence in this year’s primary and general elections. Democracy North Carolina, a voter advocacy group, identified these recommendations and others in its report “From the Voter’s View: Lessons from the 2016 Election.”

More steps needed to improve voting (Greensboro News & Record) -- President Donald Trump finally gave up on his voter fraud commission, which he appointed last year to prove his dubious claim that millions of illegal votes were cast against him in 2016.

CELIA RIVENBARK: Surely, I’ll make ‘Most Hated’ list (Wilmington Star-News column) -- As I sit here on pins and needles -- PINS AND NEEDLES Y’ALL! -- awaiting the release of Donald Trump’s nominations for the “most dishonest and corrupt news media awards” he just invented in his big orange noggin, I imagine this is how Meryl Streep feels every year.

Our economic tide is rising (Fayetteville Observer) -- Economic forecasters are seeing blue skies ahead for North Carolina’s economy. And that outlook doesn’t even include the possibility of our getting the Toyota-Mazda assembly plant we’re said to be a finalist for, or Amazon’s second headquarters, for which some analysts say the Triangle should also be a finalist. If either or both of those things occur, we’re really in financial heaven.

BARRY TEATER: 2017 a banner year for North Carolina’s life science ecosystem, from IPOs to startups, deals and more (WRAL-TV/TechWire) -- North Carolina’s life science sector registered another run of robust growth in 2017, ending the year with more than 700 companies employing over 63,000 people. Here’s a recap.

JOHN RAILEY: Man who killed at 16 tries to steer teens from his path (Winston-Salem Journal column) -- When he was 16, sporadically attending 9th grade classes in Charlotte, Javier C. Alexander fatally shot a 27-year-old man over drug sales, and, a few months later, fatally shot a fellow 16-year-old because he thought he was after him. That was in 1990.

Lower this rate (Winston-Salem Journal) -- The increase in Winston-Salem’s homicide rate, to 25 in 2017, as the Journal’s John Hinton reported last week, is unacceptable. This continues a grim trend — there were 24 homicides in 2016 and 17 in 2015. That’s a black eye for our city.

An important step in 1898 recognition (Wilmington Star-News) -- The state of North Carolina is now formally calling the events here of 1898 a “coup.” That’s accurate. An armed band -- too-well organized to be called a “mob” -- forced the elected, biracial city government to resign, replacing the Republicans and Populists with white supremacist Democrats. The action was carried out without benefit of a popular vote. If that one part of the 1898 overthrow was not actually at gunpoint, it came pretty close.

ANNE BLYTHE: ‘We’re not going away.’ Rally urges lawmakers to fund K-3 class-size reductions (Durham Herald-Sun) -- In North Carolina’s capital city, several hundred people gathered in subfreezing temperatures on Saturday afternoon to warm up their arguments against a lower class-size mandate set to take effect this year without additional state funds for new classrooms and teachers.

KRIS NORDSTROM: Legislator sends inaccuracy-riddled email to Charlotte school parents (N.C. Policy Watch) -- Rep. Scott Stone sent a email concerning education issues to parents with students in Charlotte’s Polo Ridge Elementary School that includes several glaring inaccuracies. The email purports to separate “facts” from “fiction” – yet nearly every one of the statements in the email is demonstrably wrong.

No to drilling (Winston-Salem Journal) -- The Trump administration’s plan revealed Thursday to permit drilling in most U.S. continental shelf waters is a threat to North Carolina’s well being in terms of tourism and our environment, which are intertwined. We join Gov. Roy Cooper and other government officials in opposing such a plan.

A dangerous and needless drilling expansion (Fayetteville Observer) -- We saw this coming, but it’s still a little surprising. President Trump campaigned on a promise to expand oil and gas exploration and to make the country even less dependent on world energy markets. He routinely ignored the evidence that we’re already as energy-independent as we need to be.

Carolina coastline no place for oil rigs (Rocky Mount Telegram) -- The Trump administration’s announcement last week of a five-year plan to open up areas of the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans to offshore drilling has been pointedly and correctly met with a wave of bipartisan condemnation.

GenX legislation falls far short of what we need (Fayetteville Observer) -- First the good news: A state legislative committee has given unanimous, bipartisan approval to legislation that directly addresses the presence of the chemical GenX and related compounds in the Cape Fear River and in hundreds of wells on property around the Chemours plant on the Cumberland-Bladen county line.

TIM WHITE: How to fight nature-deficit disorder (Fayetteville Observer column) -- It happens every year around this time. I realize I’m much too housebound. I do what humans and animals instinctively do in the winter — I rest. No need to mow those no-longer-green acres. No need to clean the pool — it’s closed up until spring. The last garden picking is done.​

BRENDAN MARKS: Referee who shunned UNC’s Joel Berry now considering retirement due to incident (Charlotte Observer analysis) -- Referee Ted Valentine, who turned his back on UNC point guard Joel Berry during a Wednesday game, now says he is considering retiring because of the incident.