Opinion Roundup: What a Medicaid work requirement would mean for N.C.

Friday, Jan. 12, 2018 -- A roundup of opinion, commentary and analysis on the possibility of a work requirement for N.C. Medicaid recipients, some differences within the legislature on judicial redistricting, geography issues that doomed the Toyota-Mazda deal and more.

RICHARD CRAVER: Want Medicaid? NC could force you to work for it (Winston-Salem Journal analysis) -- North Carolina became eligible to require Medicaid recipients to either work or participate in activities such as job training and volunteering, in order to qualify for benefits. The ruling from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services affects the federal Medicaid waiver request submitted by the McCrory administration in June 2016 and amended Nov. 20 by the Cooper administration. The ruling affects nine other states, eight of which — like North Carolina —are led by Republican-controlled legislatures. Recipients are not legally required to hold a job to be on Medicaid.

The Trump Plan to Hurt the Poor by Pretending to Help (New York Times) -- By letting states deny Medicaid to people with no job, the administration says more recipients will work.

LAURA LESLIE: House, Senate remain far apart on judicial overhaul (WRAL-TV analysis) -- Despite the fact that the congressional and legislative district maps they've drawn have been ruled unconstitutional by federal judges, Republican lawmakers appear ready to move ahead with a redraw of the state's judicial districts.

GARY ROBERTSON: Republicans uncertain on judge selection, district direction (AP news analysis) -- Members of a newly formed House and Senate committee dived back into the politically charged issues of judicial redistricting and judicial elections, with several questioning details of a proposal to eliminate head-to-head elections in place for 150 years.

MICHAEL WINES: Is Partisan Gerrymandering Legal? Why the Courts Are Divided (New York Times analysis) -- Diverging decisions this week by federal judges in North Carolina and Pennsylvania are certain to draw the Supreme Court’s interest as it mulls whether to curtail partisan gerrymandering.

LAURA LESLIE: Lawmakers seek stay on new map order (WRAL-TV analysis) -- North Carolina legislative leaders are asking the federal three-judge panel in the Common Cause v Rucho case for a stay of its order requiring new Congressional maps to be enacted by Jan 24th and appointing a special master to draw an independent version.

GARY ROBERTSON: N.C. GOP lawmakers seek congressional ruling delay (AP news analysis) -- North Carolina Republican legislators have started trying to block a federal court ruling ordering them to draw new congressional districts because the judges said the GOP went too far to protect its partisan advantage with the current boundaries.

Wasting public money (Winston-Salem Journal) -- The GOP-led state legislature is running up quite a tab in court with taxpayers footing the bill. It has spent almost $7 million defending against lawsuits attacking its redistricting efforts, News & Record reporter Taft Wireback wrote.

TYLER DUKES: Why geography doomed NC's shot at Toyota-Mazda plant (WRAL-TV analysis) -- North Carolina has lost high-profile auto plants plenty of times in the past. But in this deal, economic developers say the state's loss has more to do with location than anything else.

AMANDA LAMB: AG Stein: More training needed to continue fight against human trafficking (WRAL-TV analysis) -- North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein will announce the state's recognition of its human trafficking problem and efforts to combat it.

UNC study: Grocery prices lower at competitors near Lidl locations (Winston-Salem Journal analysis) -- If you shop a grocer located near a Lidl store, most likely you're paying far less for your groceries. According to a new study by the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School in Chapel Hill, Grocery retailers located near Lidl stores in the U.S. set their prices for key staple products up to 55 percent lower compared to markets where Lidl is not present. The independent study was led by Katrijn Gielens, associate professor of marketing at UNC Kenan-Flagler, and was commissioned by Lidl US.

LAURA LESLIE: Coal-ash activists, Dems call for more regulatory funds (WRAL-TV analysis) -- Citizen advocates joined Democratic lawmakers Thursday to call on legislative leaders to supply more funding for DEQ and DHHS and to more strictly police polluters, including Duke Energy.

Drill plan is pure politics (Fayetteville Observer) -- It didn’t take long before it was clear that the Trump administration’s decision to open most coastal waters to oil and gas exploration was more about politics than public policy. As soon as the decision was announced, governors and members of Congress from coastal states let off a howl.

KIRK ROSS: Senate Adjourns With No Vote On GenX Bill (Coastal Review analysis) -- Republicans and Democrats in the state House of Representatives want to give state regulators more money to address the GenX issue, but Senate leaders refuse to support the measure.

FERREL GUILLORY: A map that colors North Carolina pale (EdNC column) -- In terms of per pupil spending for public elementary and secondary education, North Carolina is in the bottom eight, accompanied by Tennessee, Mississippi and Oklahoma, as well as four states in the Mountain West, a new report from the National Center for Education Statistics finds. Between 2008 and 2015, according to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, per pupil spending, adjusted for inflation, declined by 12.2 percent in North Carolina. An analysis by the National Education Association indicated that North Carolina’s per pupil expenditures actually declined from 2016 to 2017. After 10 years, the state has not returned to pre-recession investment in its schools.​

ALLAN MAURER: UNC Charlotte, NorthState teaming to promote diversity in tech with mentoring program (WRAL-TV/TechWire analysis) -- UNC Charlotte aims to boost diversity in the technology industry with a new, five-year mentoring partnership with High Point-based NorthState Technology Solutions, which sells cloud, IT and data center services in the Southeast.