Corruption and Cronyism is Alive and Well in NC

Mike Easley, Corruptocrat

This morning’s Charlotte Observer has a major piece on the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. It is some very interesting and enlightening reading. But, this goes way beyond the SBI. Corruption and cronyism run rampant through the whole North Carolina state government. In my opinion, this is because the state has been under one party rule (Democrat) for the entire 22 years I have lived in NC, and probably much longer.


They say Chicago is a culture of corruption, but you don’t have to look past Raleigh to see that corruption and cronyism is alive and well in North Carolina. We have seen a few Republican governors, but from the Attorney General on down, the state has been controlled by Democrats. Democrats have controlled who gets new highways, who is appointed to state regulatory agencies, and most important they have controlled redistricting for state and federal legislatures that have created districts that favor Democrats. For example, you have the 12th Congressional District that was added after the 2000 census that was engineered to favor a Democrat. Also, Lake Norman is split and added to two predominately Charlotte districts so LKN residents see their Senators repeatedly vote against their interests.

Here is an example. Since 1993, only two people have been Attorney General, Roy Cooper and Mike Easley. And, Mike Easley is currently being investigated for corruption. If you Google “NC SBI Corruption” for an image, you get a picture of Mike Easley.

As far as SBI Directors, except for the one who died every one of them who served for the last 20 years are still in the NC government at high levels. Greg McLeod, the one appointed last month was a lobbyist for Roy Cooper. Shouldn’t the Director of the state’s highest law enforcement agency have a law enforcement background? Robin Pendergraft, the one who ran the agency for the past nine years was not fired, just reassigned to Deputy Attorney General for Medicaid Fraud. Brian Beatty is now a commissioner of the NC Industrial Commission. Jim Coman is a Senior Deputy Attorney General. This looks like employment for life, they just shuffle their friends in and out of jobs in the state government.

The cure for this corruption is a total colon cleanse. We need to vote out the Democrats in charge so we can get rid of the corruption and cronyism. We need a new deal in allocating highway funds. We need to have at least one house of the legislature to be in Republican hands so the Democrats don’t have a free hand to direct money and projects to the home districts of their cronies. We need to have redistricting that makes sense and is fair.

Former Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory Speaks to the Subcontractors

Pat McCrory address the ASAC and PHCC

Former Charlotte Mayor, Pat McCrory spoke to a joint meeting of the American Subcontractors Association of the Carolinas Charlotte Chapter and the Charlotte and Gastonia chapters of the Plumbing, Heating and Cooling Contractors Association. The meeting was held on Tuesday August 17th at Byron’s Southend. Over 80 members and guests were in attendance.


The mayor’s topic was change and resurgence in Charlotte. There are many things that encourage him about the future of Charlotte and the likelihood that Charlotte will experience a resurgence ahead of the country in general. Some of the reasons are as follows:

The banks in Charlotte are hiring. Even though Charlotte lost the headquarters of Wachovia, Wells Fargo and Bank of America are increasing jobs in Charlotte due to the lower cost of living as compared to New York and San Francisco.

The availability of educated and trained employees and Charlotte’s infrastructure are fueling the opening of new businesses and relocations to Charlotte.

Charlotte’s airport with over 500 direct flights daily to locations coast-to-coast make Charlotte desirable for corporate and division offices.

Charlotte’s dynamic city center, South End district and the light rail to connect them makes Charlotte attractive to young urban dwellers. Getting people to transfer to Charlotte is generally not a problem

The cloud on the horizon is government spending and taxes at the state and local levels. Charlotte and North Carolina are no longer low tax areas. Also, the number of government employees has continued to increase. Even though Charlotte has curbed the rate of wage increases and now makes city employees participate in the cost of healthcare, this is not true at the county and state levels which have continued to give 7-8 percent increases and pay 100% of healthcare costs. These generous benefits are far more than are available in the private sector and since government employees are able to retire after 30 years at 80% of pay, this will be unsustainable in the near future as these increases and benefits continue to grow at twice the rate of the private sector.

Mr. McCrory issued a call to arms for business men and entrepreneurs, who typically work years at low salaries and benefits to get their businesses going, to show up at city and county budget meetings to make their voices heard. The city fathers hear a drumbeat every day from city and county workers about how hard they work and how little they are paid. Most on the city council and county boards have never had to meet a payroll and have no idea how hard the private sector has to work to pay for the government salaries and spending.

Mr. McCrory concluded to a standing ovation.

A Lexus Lane to Nowhere

I recently read that the NC Department of Transportation has applied for a $30 million stimulus grant to convert the HOV lanes on I-77 to HOT lanes. A HOT lane is a High Occupancy TOLL lane. It means you can pay your way into the” fast” lane. In places that have this type of lane, it is mockingly known as the Lexus Lane.

The grant would pay for the electronic signs and sensors necessary to make the change. The toll would change during the day, going from a nominal charge most of the day to $2-3 dollars during peak periods. Sensors would sense traffic flow and increase the toll when traffic increases, say, after a Panthers game. Drivers would be required to have a transponder chip to utilize the lane so you can be billed for your trip.

I question the sanity of this proposal. I make the trip to and from Charlotte every day. I cannot reason why I, or anyone else for that matter, would pay a couple dollars to travel at the same speed as the free lanes only to run headlong into the bottleneck that occurs a mile or so after the HOT lane ends. Or, in the morning, after I have driven in stop and go traffic from Exit 25 to about mile marker 22, the traffic frees up before you get to the HOT lane and is unobstructed until you get to Charlotte.

I have another idea. On a couple of trips to Virginia, Northern Virginia and the Tidewater area, I have seen the way Virginia is handling this problem. If this were Virginia, they would beef up the shoulder and add an additional lane that could be used during peak times. This could easily be done from Exit 23 going north to Exit 28 and From Exit 28 going south all the way to the four lane section of the highway. Since the lanes would necessarily be narrowed, they would have to reduce the speed limit to 55 or 60, but that would be a big improvement over the 20 to 30 MPH that you drive a peak times on this stretch of highway.

If the purpose of a stimulus grant is to increase jobs, I contend that paving highways produces more jobs than putting up some signs, laying down sensors and creating an agency to collect tolls. They say that highway construction jobs are not “green” jobs. I say they are. To eliminate traffic bottlenecks and keep traffic moving can reduce traffic pollution far more than a Lexus Lane to nowhere.