Gov. Perdue pulls a surprise

Bev Perdue did what's hard to do these days: She shocked the political establishment. Perdue announced Thursday that she would not run for re-election as governor, and that took both Democrats and Republicans by surprise. They had expected her to run, and many, if not most, had expected her to lose.

Perdue said she decided to devote her time to improving education, her pet policy priority throughout her years in the Governor's Mansion. But she also must have decided that she was likely to lose and didn't want to go out a loser. Who could blame her.

Bev's surprise opens doors for plenty of Democrats. Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton has already thrown his hat in the ring. Richard Moore, former state treasurer who lost to Perdue in the primary four years ago, might be interested. Erskine Bowles, who lost two bids to be U.S. senator and settled for a much better job as president of the UNC system, has been touted as a potential candidate. Others have taken themselves out of consideration. Attorney General Roy Cooper says he likes the job he has. Four-term Gov. Jim Hunt, who was as intense as ever when I saw him this week, says he's not interested.

Pat McCrory, the former Charlotte mayor who lost a hard-fought battle with Perdue in 2008 and has been running for the same office ever since, might be tempted to send a thank-you note to Perdue. Running against nobody or against a gaggle of little-known Democratic hopefuls, should prove even easier than running against Perdue. He was far ahead of her in the polls.

President Barak Obama offered conciliatory remarks about Perdue's decision. He undoubtedly knows that without his get-out-the-vote effort in '08 and the surge in African-American voting on his behalf, McCrory would have whipped Perdue. Perdue owes Obama, and her getting off the Democratic ticket might do Obama a favor. Perdue was not increasing Democratic turnout with her below 50 percent favorability rating, so if Democrats can come up with a more popular candidate, it might help Obama hold North Carolina in the fall. He'd like to hope so, anyway.

Perdue's problem has been that, although she is the state's first woman governor, she is not much of an innovator. She has been a traditional, old-time Democratic politician. She harped on education, and she embraced most traditional Democratic causes. But can you think of a single original, innovative idea she has put forward?She has been a foot soldier for the party, and she kept marching until it became her turn to head the ticket. It was her misfortune to face a new Republican legislature that didn't much care for her priorities. Perdue's proposal earlier this month for a sales tax increase — just for the chil'ren, you understand — hit the ground with a thud and didn't bounce at all. If Perdue intended to hang her re-election on that proposal, it was smart of her to bail out.

After the veto override, teachers keep jobs

Governor Perdue vetoed the Republican legislature's budget, saying the budget made too many cuts in education funding. The legislature, along mostly partisan lines (with five Democrats in the House siding with the majority), voted to override the veto.

Then a strange thing happened: School superintendents in Wilson, Raleigh and Charlotte announced that they would have enough funding from the sharply constrained state budget to retain all current teaching positions. No layoffs for teachers. Despite dire warnings that the Republican-written budget would result in massive teacher layoffs and a resultant decline in educational quality throughout the state, it looks like most school systems will survive with their teaching positions intact. Some support positions, even some "central office" positions, will be eliminated; after all, even Perdue's budget contained severe cuts in education funding. But massive layoffs of teachers statewide? It doesn't look like that will happen.

That's not to say that there aren't severe -- and questionable -- cuts in state funding. Mental health services will suffer. Prisons will be without peacekeeping chaplains. Many teacher aide positions will disappear (although there will be money to reduce class size in kindergarten and first grade -- a tradeoff whose wisdom I question). In what seems to me might be the worst for the long-term health of public schools, legislators decided to eliminate the Teaching Fellows scholarship program. For 25 years, this innovative program has provided four-year scholarships to students willing to teach in public schools for a minimum of four years. Teaching Fellows targeted academically superior students and provided enrichment opportunities in an effort to improve the quality of the state's teachers, and it is teacher quality, more than any other factor, that improves student performance. (Full disclosure: My younger daughter was a Teaching Fellow and was an exceptionally good math teacher in three different school systems, more than fulfilling her obligation to the state, before resigning to raise her children.) If the Republicans running the General Assembly are going to reduce class size, thereby increasing the number of teachers, they'll need a Teaching Fellows program to attract students into the ranks of teaching.

For legislators (and others) who want to know what's wrong with public education, I recommend this article from The Atlantic. Although many of the problems cited are confined to New York City Schools and other heavily unionized systems, the interests of the entrenched bureaucracy and the "us first" attitude of the teacher unions (the North Carolina Association of Educators is an affiliate of the National Education Association) also apply to North Carolina.

Perdue can help herself by vetoing budget

Republicans rode into town determined to make big changes. After more than a century in the legislative minority (except for a brief period in the 1990s when they controlled the House), Republicans held substantial majorities in both the House and Senate. They promised big — no tax increases, a budget passed long before July 1, improved schools, a better business climate.

Three weeks before the end of the fiscal year, the budget is finally on Gov. Bev Perdue's desk, and the best thing Perdue might do is veto it. Perdue has complained that the budget shortchanges education, and the chairman of the state Board of Education has vehemently complained about the budget, which, among other things, eliminates teacher aides after kindergarten and phases out the Teaching Fellows scholarship program. With five Democrats voting for the budget, Republican leaders have a veto-proof majority in the House. Nevertheless, Perdue has nothing to lose in vetoing the budget. She can make her point more effectively than she has in all the speeches and press conferences while challenging Republicans to stand behind their actions. Perdue's criticism of Republican budget cuts has resulted in an uptick in her popularity ratings, although she still has a long way to go to get re-elected. Pat McCrory, who is running hard to be the Republican gubernatorial nominee again, has to hope that Perdue will quietly let the budget pass.

Legislative Republicans have done more than pass a budget that undoes much of the educational strategy and tactics of the past 20 years. They have unashamedly aligned themselves with business interests to the detriment of the public in bill after bill. The broadband bill, pushed hard by the giant national corporations that have virtual monopolies in most areas, forbids new municipalities from getting into the broadband business, as Wilson and a few other cities have done. Although titled with other words, the bill is really a monopoly protection bill. Most North Carolinians will not have the option that Wilson residents have, to choose a cheaper, faster cable TV and Internet provider. Republicans pushed a bill that would prohibit Raleigh and other cities from ensuring that rental housing is safe and habitable. Republicans even tried to prohibit the Department of Transportation from forbidding left turns on some highways because some business people complained that the left turns, though dangerous, were good for business. They even tied the extension of unemployment benefits to budget cuts, making out-of-work North Carolinians pawns in a game of political chicken.

Republicans may be able to proclaim that they have won majorities and passed a new kind of budget, but Democrat Perdue can only help herself by vetoing the Republicans' budget. By 2012, as voters realize how cozy Republican legislators are with big corporations and how little they care about the plight of individual voters, the GOP gloating might be over.

School marm Perdue issues a warning

Well, Bev, you really got 'em skeered now. Yessiree. Those state troopers who have been taking out their testosterone on young women, both motorists and Highway Patrol secretaries, using their state phones to send titillating text messages, drinkin' and drivin' (no doubt just for research) and cozying up to politicians in hopes of a plum promotion are on notice now.

Yessir, one more violation, and you'll ... you'll frown at 'em and tell 'em that was a no-no! "No, no, no! You can't take your pants off while on duty." "No, no, no! You can't get caught drivin' drunk. Perception is reality, and if you are perceived to be drunk, well you just might be drunk, and then I'll have to call a press conference and tell the whole state that I'm disappointed in you, and you wouldn't like that, would you?"

I'm sure what really skeeers 'em is having to sign this new ethics pledge. Why men who fool around with other men's wives and beat their dogs and pull political strings and wiggle out of drunk driving arrests fear nothing more than having to sign an ethics pledge. I'll bet they're all quaking in their spit-shined boots. And all this talk about "zero tolerance"? They've gotta be sweating that one. After all, they've seen what "zero tolerance" means in Raleigh; it's the rough equivalent of "you better not get caught, but if you do you better have a good excuse."

You've really shown what you're made of, Bev. We know you wanted to be the Education Governor, just like Jim and Terry and those guys, but they didn't get to be E.G.'s by talking to subordinates like they were second-graders and then giving them a second-grade punishment. Are you gonna make Col. Randy Glover write 100 times "I must not blame the news media when my troopers get caught with their pants down"? The only thing missing at Wednesday's news conference was a 12-inch wooden ruler for slapping someone's hand. Make a note for the next news conference, OK?

We all remember that campaign commercial you ran in 2008, the one with all the cute (and ethnically diverse) school children leading cheers for Bev Perdue ("She's got a Ph.D.!"). But we really didn't think you'd try to run the state as if it were a second-grade classroom. Even a second-grade teacher should be able to recognize when the kids on Safety Patrol are arrogant and misbehaving and need to be replaced. Did you skip that class in grad school, or do you think the Safety Patrol guys are just too cute to be fired?

Bev, instead of portraying an irked school marm, you should take a lesson from another North Carolinian, who never became governor (he would have been a great one) but was a great education administrator (despite not having a Ph.D.) Bill Friday, president emeritus of the UNC system, turns 90 on Tuesday. When he had to reprimand subordinates at the university (thanks to N&O columnist Jim Jenkins for this tidbit), he would remind them, "Remember, you and I work for the people of North Carolina. All of them." I'll bet that's a better ethics pledge than the one you're asking troopers to sign, Bev.

Patrol problems indict Perdue, too

The News & Observer's latest expose on the state Highway Patrol adds to the impression of an agency run amok in cronyism, misconduct, hypocrisy, favoritism and self-protection. It's also an indictment of Gov. Bev Perdue and her management style.

Her Republican opponent in the 2008 election tried to pin a label of cronyism and scratch-my-back politics on Perdue, but the Democratic sweep led by President Obama that year carried Perdue to victory. As today's N&O article shows, Perdue has a history of seeking out proteges and providing special treatment for them. Her appointment of Highway Patrol Commander Randy Glover follows that pattern. The N&O quotes Patrol insiders saying that Glover got his position not by his own merit and achievements but by his friendship with Perdue. If that accusation is true, it wouldn't be the first time it has happened. The Highway Patrol has a long history of intervention by the chief executive. It also has had a history of sexual shenanigans, and those incidents seem to be multiplying. They are at least catching the attention of the news media more frequently. Glover himself was involved in an illicit affair earlier in his career, but he was not forced out as some troopers have been recently for lesser offenses. The N&O has documented a number of recent cases of troopers being involved in illicit sex acts or affairs, sometimes while on duty. The most recent was the case of Patrol spokesman Everett Clendenin, whose text messages on a state-owned mobile phone and directed to a married Patrol secretary bordered on raunchy.

Perdue had vowed to clean up the Highway Patrol, but by appointing a crony with disputable credentials, she has continued the long tradition of keeping the Highway Patrol outside the normal standards of ethics, conduct and promotion by merit. If she is serious about cleaning up the Patrol, she'll correct her own appointment error and appoint an outside, bipartisan commission to examine the organization, training, discipline, supervision and political involvement of Patrol employees.

Easley consequences: criminal and political

The state Board of Elections found plenty of wrongdoing in the Easley for Governor campaign and voted Friday to turn the matter over to state prosecutors. The board also imposed a fine on the Easley campaign committee, which is reportedly dormant and might never have to pay the fine. In a week of hearings, board members heard about unreported airline flights, donations routed through the state Democratic Party to avoid contribution limits and reporting requirements, freebies for the governor and work done to private property paid for by campaign donations. They also heard the two-term former governor assert his innocence and rebut the sworn testimony of a close associate.

The Easley matter is far from over. The board appears to have uncovered enough evidence to justify felony charges. Federal prosecutors are also reportedly looking into Easley's activities, including his wife's hiring and extraordinary pay raise at N.C. State University. Two questions remain:

1. Is there enough evidence to convict Easley or others in state or federal court?

2. What will be the political fallout from this mess?

In 2008, Democrats got a pass on the shenanigans of party leaders and elected officials. Although former Speaker of the House Jim Black was in federal prison for trading illegal campaign contributions for legislative action and lesser officials were imprisoned or fined, voters elected another Democrat as governor and gave Democrats an unstoppable majority in both chambers of the General Assembly. The turnout for Barack Obama, the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state since Jimmy Carter did it in 1976, helped ensure the Democrats' success, but Obama will not be on the ballot next year.

If Republicans can produce viable candidates who will offer an alternative to the usual insider favoritism and flouting of laws and regulations that has been exposed by the Board of Elections hearings, Republicans can make substantial gains in 2010. Gov. Bev Perdue has seen her approval ratings plummet, and Democrats won't have Obama to lead the ticket next year. Republicans will have a real chance next year, but the party has a record of blowing opportunities. Internal fighting and demands for ideological purity have crippled Republicans in the past. Let's see if they can take advantage of the golden opportunity Easley and other Democrats have provided them.

Good veto kills legislative secrecy bill

Congratulations to Gov. Bev Perdue for vetoing a bill that would make documents related to legislative actions confidential. Perdue's first veto was a good one, if only for symbolic reasons. Legislative leaders have not decided whether they will convene a special session to try to override the veto of the bill, which passed unanimously.

North Carolina has generally good public records laws. The preamble to these laws states that all governmental records of any format belong to the people of North Carolina. The law makes some exceptions, such as medical and student records, but the principle of open records is a sound one. Transparency and access to records discourage governmental favoritism and fraud. State laws require local government meeting minutes, memos, correspondence, e-mail, deeds, judgments, complaints, directives and so forth to be accessible to anyone who requests them.

But the legislators who passed these laws also exempted themselves from most public records and open meetings laws. Unlike city councils or county commissions, for example, legislative committees can close their meetings to the public whenever they feel the urge. The bill Perdue vetoed would have closed access to legislative working papers, including written requests from constituents, inquiries by legislators and legislative proposals addressed to representatives. Perdue is absolutely right that "These are the people's documents."

Perhaps the most egregious part of the bill was the provision that would make releasing the documents legislators want to hide a criminal offense. Under current law, there are no criminal penalties for violating the public records or open meetings laws, so this would be a significant change. Executive branch employees could be charged criminally for releasing those documents, but legislative employees would face only civil complaints.

In the wake of all the political scandals involving Jim Black, Frank Ballance, Mike Easley and others, transparency should be a priority issue in statewide campaigns. If Democrats want to avoid it and Republicans' hearts aren't in it, voters should demand that candidates take a stand: Are you for governmental transparency or are secret documents and back-room deals the way to get things done?

Education spending doesn't all go to classrooms

Gov. Bev Perdue has thrown a monkey wrench into state budget deliberations. Perdue announced that she could not support a plan by Democratic legislators to raise taxes by around a billion dollars to close a hole in the current year's budget. Many insiders saw Perdue's statement as disingenuous, considering that her own budget advisers had been involved in the legislators' negotiations.

Another part of Perdue's self-righteous announcement caught my eye. The governor said she would insist that current per-pupil spending on public schools not decline, even one cent. Education is too important ... our children are our future ... yada, yada, yada. Here's the fallacy in that high-principled-sounding defense of education: Per pupil spending includes all of the state's spending on public education, including redundant assistant superintendents for left-brain learners, directors of crayon accounting and under-secretaries of snack machines. Per-pupil spending is a convenient measure of investment in education, but all of that spending doesn't go to the classroom or benefit students. Suppose, for example, the Department of Public Instruction raised all administrative salaries by 100 percent and cut teaching positions by 20 percent. Per-pupil spending might remain the same, but the quality of instruction and the benefit to students would drop precipitously.

Perdue ran on a platform touting her graduate degree and experience in education, but this latest attempt to shore up her political base is transparently phony and won't stand up to the simplest analysis. It also won't do much to improve her statewide approval ratings, which have fallen as drastically as housing prices in south Florida.

Same old solution is back: Raise taxes

North Carolina legislators, already three weeks into the new fiscal year without a budget, have a new plan for raising almost all taxes on everybody in an effort to close the state's budget deficit. A deal reported today involves an increase in sales taxes, a surcharge on everybody's income taxes and new "sin taxes" on tobacco and alcohol.

The deal requires legislators to go against the conventional wisdom that raising taxes during a recession is politically crazy and economically detrimental. While the federal government is passing out stimulus money to get people to spend and businesses to invest, North Carolina will take money out of the economy in order to avoid cuts in the state budget.

The proposal to raise the state sales tax rate by one cent or 0.75 cent is particularly offensive. Earlier in the session, legislators had talked about reforming sales taxes to bring services under the sales tax umbrella. Why should you pay a sales tax on a lawn mower but not on a lawn service? Sales taxes are regressive, taking a larger share of less-affluent taxpayers' income than of more-affluent taxpayers' income. Exempting services, which the wealthy are more likely to use (think of cleaning services, lawn services, legal fees, brokerage services, etc.), than are the poor. The earlier proposal was to include services and reduce the overall rate.

It's not as if the state didn't already have a formidable sales tax rate. The current 6.75 percent combined state/local sales tax rate would rise to 7.5 or 7.75 percent. Even states without a state income tax have lower sales tax rates. Florida's sales tax is 6 percent, and Tennessee's is 7 percent, but those state manage to get by without an income tax. Virginia has a 5 percent sales tax, and South Carolina's is 6 percent.

The proposal before legislators would also add a surcharge to state income taxes of 2 percent, but that would only be for two years — a temporary tax. Followers of state politics know that a promise of a "temporary" tax is as credible as "Of course, I'll respect you in the morning." We're still paying "temporary" taxes from 2001.

"Sin taxes" would also be raised, but the amount is undetermined. Once again, North Carolina's taxes on beer and wine are higher than most neighboring states, and its once-negligible cigarette tax now seems to grow each year.

All of this lends credence to Republicans' perennial complaints that North Carolina has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. The GOP, however, has been so inept at making its point and so shackled by internal bickering and ideological whackos that voters have shunned their candidates. Gov. Bev Perdue's declining approval rating may be an indication that voters are having second thoughts. If these taxes go through, and if the state's recession (unemployment is already above the national rate) lingers, Democrats will have some 'splainin' to do in 2010.

Ruling puts superintendent in charge, sort of

Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson won a court case Friday, prevailing in a lawsuit against Gov. Bev Perdue and her appointed state Board of Education chairman, William Harrison. Superior Court Judge Robert Hobgood ruled that the state constitution intended that the elected superintendent should be in charge of education, that Atkinson, elected last year to a second term, should be in charge of the Department of Public Instruction.

Perdue, and Mike Easley before her, had put her own director in charge of Public Instruction, saying she wanted to make responsibilities and accountability clear. Atkinson sued to settle the issue, and Judge Hobgood ruled that, accountability or not, the state constitution cannot be canceled at a governor's whim. Attorney General Roy Cooper has indicated he will appeal the ruling, and Atkinson and Harrison said they would work on their relationship.

Regardless of how the appeal turns out, don't expect a lot of changes in public education. The constitution may put the elected superintendent in charge of Public Instruction, but it also charges the superintendent with carrying out the decisions of the Board of Education. There's the irony: The elected superintendent, a constitutional officer, is required to carry out the wishes of a board of political appointees. So who's in charge, really? Not the elected constitutional officer.

The real solution to this problem is to shorten the state ballot by appointing rather than electing public officials who do not make public policy, including the superintendent of public instruction, the secretary of state, the commissioner of agriculture and others. Only 14 states elect their chief educational officer. Thirty-six states have clearer lines of accountability and responsibility.

The governor cannot redact parts of the state constitution, but a courageous governor could lead a campaign to amend the constitution to make the superintendent of public instruction appointed, thereby clearing up any ambiguity about accountability without violating the constitution.

Save us from a boost in the sales tax

Give Gov. Bev Perdue credit, as the News & Observer gave her this morning, for opening up the doors and file drawers of state government to more public scrutiny. But when it comes to budgeting, Perdue seems to be still trying to make the numbers add up.

Earlier this week, Perdue announced support for a one-cent increase in the state sales tax, raising the rate on retail sales to 7.75 percent. If that weren't enough of a surprise, Perdue also proposed raising the state income tax rate for high-income taxpayers, increasing the tax on wine and beer, and expanding the sales tax, to some services, including cosmetic surgery and limousines. Earlier in this legislative session, there was talk of a sales tax reform that would expand the tax to common services, such as lawn care, and reducing the overall rate, perhaps to around 5 or 6 percent.

Raising the sales tax is the wrong strategy. If Perdue's one-cent increase is adopted, North Carolina's tax will approach the sales tax levels of states without an income tax, which rely on sales taxes for most of their revenue. The state would be far wiser to expand the sales tax and reduce the rate. Perdue's selective and timid expansion to limousines and cosmetic surgery is hardly an effective tax policy. If the sales tax were applied to all services, including advertising, accounting fees, legal fees, lawn care, car maintenance, home repairs, etc., the rate could be significantly reduced while still collecting the same amount of money.

And North Carolina, despite this downturn, should be collecting plenty of money. The state does face a budget deficit, which might be as large as $4 billion or maybe as little as $1.5 billion, depending on how you count it. Perdue and legislative leaders aren't counting the $1 billion-plus in federal stimulus money the state expects to receive. This deficit is partly the result of spending commitments legislators made in the past few years. Last year, you might remember, legislators decided to borrow money for a variety of construction projects, which leaders said would boost the economy and inoculate North Carolina against a looming downturn. That worked well, didn't it?

Legislators should start their budgeting by putting an immediate stop to all borrowing and halting construction projects, including the new dental school at ECU and the expansion of the dental school at UNC. Better to wait longer for a dental appointment than to spend money you don't have. After halting capital projects, legislators should look for efficiencies and should eliminate programs that are no longer necessary or are ineffective. Only then should taxes be addressed. Legislators should look at ways of making taxes fairer and more effective, not simply looking for ways to increase revenue. North Carolina's taxes on wine and beer, for example, are already among the highest in the region. Expanding the sales tax to services and lowering the rate would benefit most consumers and put state revenues on a sounder basis.

But raising the sales tax by another penny? Perdue is on the wrong track.

Class sizes turn into state budget battle

The state Senate is challenging Gov. Beverly Perdue, the N.C. Association of Educators and conventional wisdom with  its budget bill. While closing a $3 billion hole in the state budget, Perdue increased state spending on education, and she pointedly said the state shouldn't save money by increasing class size. The Senate said "not so fast."

Increasing class size by just two students, to 20 children in kindergarten through third grade and to 22 students in fourth through 12th grade would save the state $320 million. Senate Democrats (in the same party as Perdue) decided that was a good way to save $320 million. The state has been reducing class size for more than a decade. Smaller classes were a favorite promise of Govs. Mike Easley and Jim Hunt. It seems reasonable that smaller classes would mean better learning because teachers could give each child more attention, but research shows that reducing class size has little impact on student achievement. The primary beneficiaries of smaller class sizes are teachers. Smaller classes require more teachers to teach them, so it's no surprise that the NCAE, which derives member income from teachers, strongly supports smaller classes. And NCAE has been a major supporter of Perdue.

Local school systems, on the other hand, have borne the burden of implementing reduced class sizes. The state provided additional funding for teachers but not additional funding for classrooms. So local school boards had to find the money to add onto schools, which might shift from 50 classrooms of 22 students each to 55 classrooms of 20 students each. Where are you going to put those extra classes? In a closet? In a corner of the gym? Or in a costly mobile unit?

If the Senate's plan to temporarily increase class sizes goes through, school superintendents won't be particularly relieved. They've already expanded facilities to accommodate the added classrooms as smaller class sizes were mandated over the past decade. The state will save on the salaries of  an estimated 6,200 teachers, but it's the local principals who'll have to tell teachers they're being laid off.

More money won't buy better education

Gov. Bev Perdue's call for more spending on education at a time when the state budget looks like a $3 billion hole in the ground is either inspired or crazy. I'm guessing crazy.

Perdue, like Jim Hunt and Mike Easley before her, wants to be the "education governor." She at least came up through education and has a degree in the subject, unlike her predecessors. But that background might be more of a handicap than an asset. Perdue is viewing educational improvement as synonymous with more spending on education. To improve education, to her thinking, means spending more for education.

Unfortunately, that strategy isn't always a solution. If lavish per-student spending were all that was needed for educational quality, District of Columbia schools would be the best in the country. Instead, they're arguably the worst. Just ask the Obamas, who are sending their girls to private school, just like the Bushes and the Clintons before them. If more money solved education problems, charter schools would all be failing. They operate on less money than public schools. Some fail, but some do quite well, and many have won the enthusiastic support of parents.

Spending more on public schools will not guarantee improvements in North Carolina's embarrassing dropout rates and test scores. Reducing spending on education by the same or a similar amount as other state departments won't necessarily make dropout rates and test scores worse. Perdue knows this, even if she won't admit it. She is promoting appearances, not substance, in proclaiming education spending will increase even in tough times.

The new governor has won generally favorable reviews on her performance thus far, and she deserves credit for saying North Carolina puts too much emphasis on school testing. But promising to raise school spending when there's no money to spend is wasted rhetoric. Legislative leaders are likely to, at best, keep education funding stable and, perhaps, curtail some ineffective spending on education.

Whatever they do, they should correct the misrepresentation that higher spending means better education. It doesn't.

Perdue aims for ambitious government reforms

The News & Observer reports today that Gov. Bev Perdue is thinking of performing a radical remake of state government, in the mold of Gov. O. Max Gardner. During his 1929-1933 reign, Gardner changed the face of state government forever, taking advantage of the urgency of the dire economic situation to have the state take responsibility for roads and schools, along with other reorganization of state government.

Gardner employed the urgency of economic collapse, the bankruptcy of dozens of local governments, the closings of scores of banks and his own political skills to implement a series of recommendations by the Brookings Institution, which he hired to study state government. Gardner's reforms gave us the state-paid teachers, state-paved roads and state sales tax we've known all our lives. Perdue recognizes that the anticipated $3 billion budget shortfall, the crisis in mental health care and the heavily politicized Department of Transportation align the stars for her in much the same way the crises of his era opened the reform door for Gardner.

State government cries out for reform, but it will take great political skill and grassroots support to bring about significant change. Powerful interests entrenched over 75 years will not dissolve easily. But real reforms could save the state precious tax dollars and make the state more efficient.

Highway costs have ballooned far beyond the rate of inflation, and it is obvious that some road-construction decisions are compelled by politics, not by transportation needs. Perdue's decision to take road-building decisions out of the hands of the politically appointed state Board of Transportation (though it still must be approved by legislators) is a first step in the right direction. Construction decisions must be made more wisely and professionally, and costs must be better controlled. The department has long been viewed as a political cesspool where cronies can go on to their earthly reward; the nepotism and cronyism must be cleaned up.

Although Gardner took the first step toward consolidating the university system (joining what is now UNC-CH, N.C. State and UNC-G) and Bob Scott, who died Friday, completed the consolidation of all state-supported schools under one umbrella, there still is plenty of political influence in higher education. Witness the planned new dental school at ECU at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars over the long run and the recently announced push by UNC-G for a second state-supported pharmacy school. Alumni and other supporters push programs for the aggrandizement of their alma maters without regard to the benefits, or lack thereof, for taxpayers.

Duplicative state programs and responsibilities have survived other reform efforts. The state has the SBI, the Highway Patrol and state ALE, all involved in enforcing laws, but no consolidation has been successful. When a commission recommended folding Crime Control and Public Safety into existing departments, the proposal lost to political empire-building. No programs better illustrate the state's duplication of efforts for political reasons than Gov. Jim Hunt's Smart Start and Gov. Mike Easley's More at Four, separate programs both aimed at preparing children for school.

Despite recommendations by the Brookings study more than 75 years ago, North Carolina still elects far too many state officials. The commissioner of labor, commissioner of insurance, state treasurer, superintendent of public instruction, attorney general and secretary of state should all be appointed by the governor, just as the president appoints his Cabinet. And the state has too many departments, each protecting its own turf and running up expenses, as previous studies have shown. Reforming these anachronisms might be the most difficult reform of all. Voters who can't name a single candidate on the ballot below the governor insist that they don't want their vote taken away. Judicial elections (I doubt that 1 percent of voters can name more than two statewide judicial candidates on any given election day) should be replaced with an appointment and referendum system as has been repeatedly proposed in the past.

Reform of state taxes will have a natural urgency in an economic crisis, and this year might see some movement on this issue. Studies have frequently shown that the state retail sales tax implemented in the 1930s has lost its relevancy to a modern economy, which is far more service-driven. Most services are not taxed. But newspapers, which don't want their ads taxed, and professional organizations, which don't want their legal fees or accounting fees taxed, have prevented significant reform.

Meanwhile, the state gives away millions of dollars to lure industry to the state. These giveaways are funded by individual taxpayers and by corporations who then must compete with the subsidized industries. It's an unfair and ultimately futile exercise. The state would be wiser to reduce corporate taxes for everyone, treating newly recruited industries and established ones the same.

If Perdue succeeds against the odds to implement fundamental reforms that bring reduced costs and less efficiency, she will have earned her place in history. She has a long, hard row to hoe before she reaches that pinnacle.

Cold air matches the cold economy

Winter has truly arrived. Shortly after sunrise today, the thermometer on my porch says it's 18 degrees. Weather Underground reports it's 16 at the Rocky Mount-Wilson Airport. Either way, that's cold, especially for eastern North Carolina.

It was cold enough Thursday, so cold that I chose to forgo my usual walking of the dog. She might like the cold, but I don't. If I'd had more time, I might have let her talk me into it, and I might have done just a little yard work, but between the lack of time and the cold, I chose to stay inside as much as possible.

Tonight's lows are forecast to be in the single digits — a truly rare phenomenon in this part of North Carolina. Only once in my life can I remember temperatures falling below zero here, and that was sometime in the mid-1980s, better than 20 years ago. It shouldn't go that low this time, and temperatures are supposed to rise next week, but today's cold is a reminder that global warming hasn't canceled winter altogether.

Despite the harsh cold, or perhaps because of it, there is no snow in the forecast. Eastern North Carolina hasn't had a good snow since Dec. 26, 2004. We're overdue. Wilson did experience some snow back in November, but it was just a brief flurry that didn't stick.

The cold weather serves as a metaphor for the cold economy. Congress is debating spending unimaginable amounts of money in hopes of creating millions of jobs, but, speaking for 2.6 million newly unemployed Americans, I say, "Show us the jobs!" The fiscal crisis has prompted Gov. Bev Perdue to order a hiring freeze by the state. That's not good news for job seekers in this state.

Even if Washington's Keynesian spending plans succeed, which is not a certainty, the taxpayers will have to come up with the money to repay these eye-popping sums. Between last year's $750 billion bailout package, which has had almost no tangible benefits for the economy, and the $825 billion stimulus package Congress is now debating, the federal debt will increase around $1.5 trillion. That's a burden even a growing economy will be hard-pressed to shoulder.

It was reported this week that Bank of America, which wants even more government money, has decided to keep the Merrill Lynch name and bull logo as it takes over the brokerage firm. But it may be a long time before average Americans are ever again "bullish on America."

Only one governor at a time, please

The  News & Observer is reporting this morning that former gubernatorial candidate and state Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr is challenging actions taken by former Gov. Mike Easley after Jan. 1. Orr, who heads the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law, is a constitutional specialist and one of the brightest guys to ever seek the governor's office (OK, so brilliance was not what the voters wanted). He says the governor's term ends on Dec. 31 following a gubernatorial election. Although Gov. Bev Perdue was not inaugurated until Jan. 10, she was, in fact, the governor as of Jan. 1, 2009.

If Orr is right, the actions Easley took between Jan. 1 and Jan. 9 are invalid. During that time, he appointed a couple of Superior Court judges, voted with the Council of State to sell bonds and finally came to his senses on state e-mails, reversing policy and ordering state employees to retain copies of e-mails. Perdue is already reviewing the e-mail policy, but the big issues might be the judicial appointments, one of which went to a close political ally.

It will be interesting to see how Orr's lawsuit progresses. Thus far, Orr has not had a good track record in persuading the state Supreme Court, on which he served with distinction, that his verbatim, clear-intent interpretation of the Constitution on such matters as business incentives and the lottery is correct.

Even if Easley was the legitimate governor until the inauguration, it's clear that his successor is off to a good start in her term. Perdue has taken quick action to open up state records and processes and to tackle the state's looming fiscal crisis. She will still face a test when her open government efforts clash with legislative leaders of her own party, which is probably inevitable. However, give her credit for a good first week. I have been skeptical about Perdue's ability to bring about change in Raleigh, but she's started off on the right track, and that's encouraging.

Regardless of gender, governor has big task

Much has been made of the fact that North Carolina's newly inaugurated governor is a woman. Certainly, it is a historic moment, but I'm not sure it will mean major changes in the way state government operates.

Gov. Bev Perdue is a woman. She is also a Democrat who has toiled in the vineyard of the Democratic power structure in the legislature. As a member of the state House and state Senate and during two terms as lieutenant governor, Perdue has paid her dues. But she has also toed the line to promote her party's agenda. She was a protege of Sen. Marc Basnight, who, as president pro tem of the Senate, is arguably the most powerful person in the state. Nothing happens in the Senate without Basnight's approval, and nothing gets through the Senate if Basnight opposes it.

Perdue's campaign consisted of little more than platitudes about making North Carolina the best that it can be. She showed little spark in her debates against Republican nominee Pat McCrory. Former Gov. Jim Hunt has opined that Perdue will be a better governor than she was a campaigner. Let's hope so. Her work is cut out for her.

The international financial crisis' victims include state government. Already, outgoing Gov. Mike Easley has ordered state agencies to reduce spending. More spending cuts are almost certain. Perdue, to her credit, has admitted that her proposal to make community college tuition free will have to be postponed. Other cost-saving measures will be needed to avoid a tax increase, which might further damage the state's economy.

The state's mental health system, its transportation department, and its probation and parole system are all in a shambles. Public education is faltering as far too many students drop out and far too many fail to pass standardized tests. Governmental ethics are endangered following the prosecution of several high-ranking government officials, including the former speaker of the N.C. House and the state commissioner of agriculture.

For Perdue to succeed against these crises, she will need more than an allegiance to party hierarchy and ideology. Creative ideas will be needed. Some sacred cows might have to be skewered. Her success will depend on her willingness to put public interest above partisan interests. She might even have to take on Basnight and other power brokers. All of this has nothing to do with being female or male.

Mikey thinks newspaper is picking on him

Gov. Mike Easley thinks the News & Observer has been picking on him. But unlike the scrawny kid on the school playground, little Mikey can't go running to the teacher to whine. He's the guy who's in charge. So what does he do? He complains to another newspaper.

Easley complained in an interview with the Greensboro News & Record that the N&O reporters  weren't being fair. They had uncovered millions of dollars in waste in the state's mental health reforms. Easley said he was against the reforms in the first place, although there was no evidence in the record to support that contention. Then he fired the public information officer who had provided public records to the N&O. The N&O uncovered corruption in the Department of Transportation. Governor Mike ignored the controversy. The N&O reported on his wife's two trips to Europe at taxpayer expense and her appointment to a six-figure job at N.C. State University. He said the trips to Europe were all business, and she was the best-qualified person for the State job. Furthermore, the criticism of his wife was just sexual discrimination. Yeah, sure. The N&O documented dozens of murders by suspects out on probation and the inability of the state to find thousands of probationers. Easley said the N&O was picking on his Correction secretary just months before his retirement, and, furthermore, there were more probationer murders under the Hunt administration. Well that certainly makes it OK.

Seeing Easley's petulance and absentee management over the past couple of years, it's a wonder that he ever made it to the top in state politics. He parlayed a successful career as a district attorney to a couple of terms as state attorney general, then he handily won the governorship. Since then, he's made little secret of the fact that he's put state government on autopilot while he built furniture in the basement, participated in publicity events and made frequent trips to Southport.

I did an extensive interview with Easley when he was attorney general and found him amiable, funny and knowledgeable, and I've talked to him a couple of times since then. He comes across as a nice guy — friendly, affable and genuinely witty. He does dead-on impersonations. But his style is far removed from the focused, persistent determination of his predecessor, Jim Hunt. Hunt was renown throughout his four gubernatorial terms (and afterward) as a hands-on manager who regularly made late-night and early-morning phone calls to lobby for a particular issue or light a fire under a slow-moving legislator. Easley gives the impression that he not only wouldn't do that but couldn't be bothered to worry about it.

Easley's recent complaints about media coverage go beyond his laid-back, hands-off style. Now he's making excuses, and not very good ones at that. Easley's old enough to know that blaming the messenger is not an effective strategy, and his petulant whining just makes him look worse.

Easley has only a few days left in his term. Unfortunately, his elected successor, Bev Perdue, has shown a tendency to make excuses and ignore facts, just like Easley. Perdue appears ready to rely on her sweet charm the way Easley relied on his affable wit to disarm critics. Being personable is always helpful to a politician, but it's not a long-term strategy.

Citizens pay for incompetence in probation

The News & Observer has been running a series on the sorry and dangerous state of the state's probation and parole system. The series is an indictment of an essential state department that is obviously inefficient, ill-managed and downright incompetent. As a result, the N&O series contends, hundreds of North Carolinians have been murdered or assaulted by criminals lost in the entrails of the probation system.

The series spotlights a department that has simply rolled along beneath the radar of public scrutiny, managed by political appointees who offer nothing but ignorance and excuses for the crimes committed as a direct result of the department's incompetence. What sets this department apart from other state departments is that incompetence and political appointments in this department result in tragedies. In other departments, the same levels of politics, deal-making and incompetence only result in wasted taxpayer dollars. I'm still waiting for a governor to blow the lid off the Department of Transportation and stop wasting billions in taxpayer money while the state's roads deteriorate. I'm not expecting it to happen under Gov.-elect Bev Perdue's watch.

For all the damning details in the N&O series, I found it bloated, repetitive and over-written. In at least a thousand fewer words, I suspect the N&O could have laid out its indictment against Probation and Parole with a point-by-point recitation of all the abuses and incompetence its reporters had uncovered and all the tragedies that had resulted. If this were a summation by a prosecutor, I'm afraid a few jury members might have fallen asleep.

And that's a shame. It's a critical issue for the state, and a good piece of reporting by one of the few remaining papers doing serious investigative work. But tighter writing and stronger editing could have given the series even greater impact.

Republicans fall short in key state races

North Carolina Democrats owe Barack Obama. There's little doubt that Obama's well-oiled political machine brought out Democratic voters who helped put state candidates over the top. At this hour, North Carolina's electoral votes are undecided as Obama clings to a 12,000 vote lead out of 4.2 million votes cast. Fifty-thousand provisional ballots remain to be counted.

Regardless of whether Obama puts North Carolina into the Democratic tally for the first time since 1976, his campaign has had a profound influence on state elections. Democrat Bev Perdue won a fairly narrow victory in the governor's race after Republican Pat McCrory ran out of steam late in the race. Democrat Kay Hagan trounced Sen. Elizabeth Dole. Democrat Larry Kissell finally knocked off Congressman Robin Hayes. Down the ticket, Obama might have had an even greater influence in lower-profile races such as state auditor (Beth Wood knocked off incumbent Les Merritt) and commissioner of insurance (Democrat Wayne Goodwin won the vacant seat).

Besides Obama's influence, Republicans this year just couldn't shake off the albatross of George W. Bush. The unpopular president had poisoned the well for all Republicans. The GOP also failed to effectively make corruption, secretiveness, unresponsiveness and fiscal excesses under the Democrats' administration a campaign issue. Despite the imprisonment of at least four powerful Democrats on corruption-related charges, North Carolina voters chose another Democratic insider to be governor and increased the Democrats' majority in the legislature. There seems to be no political consequences to bribery and insider dealings. Having ousted the Republican state auditor, Democrats have even fewer impediments to their wheeling and dealing with state money.

Despite Bev Perdue's promises in her victory speech, don't expect any real reforms in the wasteful and politically motivated state Transportation Board, in the secretive way budgets are written or in the state job preferences given to insiders such as the governor's wife. Barack Obama's campaign theme was "change," but don't expect much change, if any, in the way state government goes about its business.