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What Art Pope wants

Submitted by James on Thu, 12/30/2010 - 12:44pm

It's almost the end of the year, and Mr. Pope hasn't yet registered here at BlueNC, hasn't bothered to answer all the questions we've been asking. I guess that's the high price of having an unelected fat cat calling the shots behind the magic curtain. Still, Rob Christensen today has angled in on some answers Under the Dome. Feel free to drop by and ask your own questions.

Here are mine:

  • Any word on what he wants to do with teh gayz?
  • Does he want all Wake County kindergarteners to go to jump school at Fort Benning?
  • How about the OLF?
  • Now that he owns the legislature, how much money will he spend in 2012 to buy the N.C. Supreme Court?
  • Will he re-run Bob Orr?
  • Is Herr Pope still pouting about losing his campaign for LG? Will he challenge that liberal Queen-citier for governor, or does he prefer being the man behind the curtain?

By all accounts, Mr. C., has a direct line to the Show and perhaps he can be coaxed into using some of his hard-earned trust to get some hard-to-find answers.

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Comments

The Pope agenda isn't entirely bogus

Submitted by James on Thu, 12/30/2010 - 12:51pm.

He does make a couple of valid points.

We're on the wrong track with regard to economic incentives, though we should not abandon the practice entirely. Also, we should kill the lottery.

Beyond that, though, he's full of free-market crap, subscribing fully to the Grover Norquist school of thought, attempting to drown government and public education in his gold-plated bathtub.

It's kind of policy wonkish,

Submitted by scharrison on Thu, 12/30/2010 - 1:48pm.

but I dropped in my two cents:

Setting aside whether I agree or disagree with some of these recommendations, the net result of implementing them won't help the General Assembly overcome the budget deficit. And it might just make it worse.

Getting rid of the Lottery alone represents hundreds of millions annually taken from the education budget, and adding more charter schools will also add to the taxpayers' burden. And considering we've got thousands of teachers out of work from previous budget cuts, "expanding the pool of qualified teachers" makes about as much sense as trying to put out a fire by throwing buckets of gasoline on it.

While there is savings in cutting corporate incentives and public financing, they also want to cut taxes more, so that's pretty much a wash.

Frankly, this just demonstrates that these well-paid think-tankers don't have a clue about the nuts and bolts of actually managing state government, but they know how to capitalize on hot-button issues.