Rep. Tim Moffitt

If you’re a city, why bother?

Why bother building airports or water systems or tennis courts or roads or, well, anything?

"It’s a legitimate question, now that the Republican representatives Tim Moffitt, Nathan Ramsey and Chuck McGrady — may I call them “The Three Spigoteers?” — have filed the bill that would turn over Asheville’s water system to the Metropolitan Sewerage District.

That’s with no compensation for land the city bought and owns for reservoirs, or the system itself — water treatment plant, pipes, infrastructure, you name it..."

Read more of the column from the Citizen-Times in Asheville:
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013303310048
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-submitted at request of Ellen Lyle, an activist in Asheville, who can be contacted by email at ellendlyle@gmail.com

NC Legislators & Governor: We Oppose the Forced Taking of Municipal Water Systems! Sign up for the fight here.

Cross-posted from Scrutiny Hooligans:

It began well over a year ago when the representative from NC’s 116th district filed a bill that would forcibly merge the City of Asheville’s public water utility with the Metropolitan Sewerage District. He didn’t bother to tell Asheville’s elected officials about it, even though they were in his office the day before. Quickly backpedaling, the representative reformatted the seizure into a “Study Committee” process. The “Study Committee” went through the motions, ignored the opposition, and came up with a recommendation that mirrored the original seizure bill. The bill itself was filed this past Thursday, HB488. It is an outright taking, offering no compensation for loss of the asset.

During the post-September 11 panic, the radical right-wing pundits like Mark Steyn peddled fears that Muslims with their high birthrate might overrun western civilization and forcibly convert America to Islam. Now that they've gained the upper hand in the North Carolina General Assembly (NCGA), radical right legislators (and their oligarch backers) are determined to forcibly convert state property and services purchased with public money into private profit. (Remember Russia?) For a quick buck, carpetbagging worshipers of the Golden Calf are flexing their muscles in Raleigh to demolish what North Carolinians built over the last half century.

For all their contempt for “the 47 percent” and “makers and takers” framing, Michael Lind explains that rent-seeking monopolists in the private sector are the real parasites:

In today’s rentier-friendly conservative ideology, somebody who makes payday loans at usurious interest rates, gouges businesses with high insurance rates, or gets paid tolls from a privatized toll road is as much a “maker” and an “entrepreneur” and a “capitalist” as someone who puts together a team of inventors, engineers, workers and investors to apply 3-D printing to printing replacement body parts. All money-making enterprises are supposed to be equally productive and socially useful, for no other reason than they make somebody rich.

Asheville Citizen-Times supports home rule for North Carolina municipalities.

Mayor Terry Bellamy says she sometimes questions whether a few state legislators shouldn’t just go ahead and run for her job.

It’s safe to assume one of those would be Rep. Tim Moffitt.

"Of course, Moffitt can’t run for mayor. He doesn’t live in Asheville.

And that sums up Asheville’s dilemma. People who do not live in the city are usurping the power of the people elected by the residents of Asheville to govern them..."

Read more: http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013303160003

A dozen North Carolina cities and towns within the last few weeks have passed, considered or scheduled votes to approve the nonpartisan NC League of Municipalities resolution against "forced taking" of municipal infrastructure by the state.

NC Legislators & Governor: We Oppose the Forced Taking of Municipal Water Systems!

By Kathie Kline (Contact)

To be delivered to: The North Carolina State House, The North Carolina State Senate, and Governor Beverly Perdue

Last night, Asheville City Council passed a unanimous resolution opposing Raleigh's looming legislative seizure of the local water system.

The resolution says council “remains convinced that local solution arrived at by an open, collaborative process is preferable to a legislative directed disposition of municipal assets.”

“The forced taking of … local government infrastructure sets a dangerous precedent in the state of North Carolina, a precedent that will have a chilling effect on any local government investing in needed infrastructure in the future,” it reads.

For more on the water drama, read Raleigh's water rustlers, or, isn't It a Shane?

It has come to my attention that Buncombe County’s range war has gone largely unnoticed outside the region. Well, better saddle up, partners. Your town is next. For those who don’t have time for deep reading, here’s the story in a nutshell. It's a complicated story I don't fully grasp myself, so excuse the editorializing and lack of complete detail, but you need to know:

Raleigh is acting like rich, cattle barons.
They want our water rights.
They offer pennies on the dollar.
If we refuse, their henchmen take it by force.

There does seem to be a direct connection between Pope, ALEC, and Rep. Tim Moffitt:

Divided loyalties, or another early skirmish in the water wars?

“The State does have the authority, but that doesn’t mean they should use it,” said Jane Whilden, Moffitt’s opponent in Buncombe County District 116. “Mr. Moffitt has worked closely with Henderson County and Raleigh politicians to poach our community assets and, in the case of the local water system, put it at risk for privatization. I think city water ratepayers should have the right to voice their opinion about this important issue.”

If this were an isolated incident, I'd say Moffitt was merely engaging in hyperbole to get what he wants. But taken in context with other Republican behavior of our current General Assembly, even an implied threat should be taken seriously: