With the recent spread of the swine flu in North Carolina, affecting hundreds and claiming the life of at least one individual in the state, the media is again reminding citizens of the deadly Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 that killed millions. Not unsurprisingly, however, they’ve been mostly silent about another Spanish flu that’s about to hit – the job destruction that may strike like a wave when the United States copies Spain’s green jobs model.
According to Barack Obama’s Blueprint for Change, if the government spends $150 billion on clean energy over a decade, five million new green jobs will be created. White House economists insist that the $58 billion in energy programs in the stimulus package will create over 450,000 jobs.
The scandal surrounding former First Lady Mary Easley’s employment at NC State University is taking more twists and turns than a typical road in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains.
The latest developments in the case involve the resignation of NC State University’s chancellor, James Oblinger, who later appeared before the grand jury, and the university trustees’ vote to eliminate Mary Easley’s job (as recently as May 21, Marvin Schiller, Easley's lawyer, stated that she would not resign). The former First Lady had signed a five-year, $850,000 contract with NC State in 2008. NC State officials are defending the trustees’ move as a response to state government’s current budget crisis.
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In January, while the state was hurtling into a bottomless pit of red ink, the North Carolina Commerce Department’s Film Office erected a 1000-pound director’s rocking chair at the Salt Lake City Airport to attract the attention of movie producers jetting in for the Sundance Film Festival. Charged with recruiting movie and TV production to the state, state Film Office Director Aaron Syrett explained, “The rocking film director’s chair is a visual reminder to the film industry how easy it is to film in North Carolina.”
But movie moguls are feted with more than a comfortable chair from North Carolina taxpayers. While the average small businessman or woman pays full freight, the Sundance Gang gets special tax breaks.
... MOREAt the very same time that the North Carolina House of Representatives was debating, and ultimately approving, a $780 million tax increase for the state’s citizens to cover an unprecedented shortfall in revenues, Governor Beverly Perdue was handing out $1 million in taxpayer cash to the non-profit Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA) office in Charlotte, and Mecklenburg County announced that they were poised to fork over even more.
It’s all in the name of “job creation,” of course, and while the group isn’t native to North Carolina, the fact that the governor selected it for state taxpayer subsidies while North Carolina’s government services are so strapped that leaders are considering enacting the largest tax increase in history makes the organization worthy of a closer look.
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