Archive for Tim Moffitt
Paradise Lost and Unfounded
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Among the standard-issue slurs hurled by the right is that liberals engage in social engineering. That is, liberals want o use government to impose an impractical, unrealistic and costly utopian vision of society on down-to earth, sensible conservatives.
But in North Carolina, it’s conservatives pursuing a libertarian utopia doing the engineering. And since libertarians couldn’t get North Carolina to vote for a government that would do it, they had to buy one. Enter Art Pope, Gov. Pat McCrory’s new budget director.
Pope is, for all intents and purposes, North Carolina’s third, lesser known, Koch brother. In fact, he’s attended the Koch Brothers’ planning summits and considers himself their close ally.
In 2010, Pope’s organizations spent $2.2 million on 22 state legislature races, and won 18 of them. In fact, outside groups backed by Pope accounted for 75 percent of independent spending in those races. In 2012, Pope and his affiliated groups again spent more than $2 million on the election, leading to a Republican supermajority in the General Assembly, and putting McCrory in the governor’s mansion.
If it feels as if you’re no longer in Kansas, maybe it’s because you’re in Art Pope’s North Carolina. Welcome to Oz. (Mind the flying monkeys.)
New Highs and Lows in NC Legislative Saga
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MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry was in Raleigh, NC this week covering the largest Moral Monday protest to date against the GOP-led legislature’s radical rightward tilt. State NAACP president Reverend William Barber leads the protests that grew to well over 1,000 last week, with 150 arrests for civil disobedience.
Perry: We have a series of bills including voter I.D. requirements and doing away with same-day voter registration and a bill that would penalize parents of college students who vote where they attend school. A bill whose numerical name, SB666, is not lost on Reverend Barber.
Barber adds that North Carolina has joined the 15 states that have rejected Medicaid expansion under Obamacare — a group Paul Krugman’s Friday column labeled “The Spite Club”:
Barber: In the first two weeks of the session, they denied 500,000 people Medicaid. Not 500,000 black people. Not 500,000 white people. 500,000 poor people and disabled children in a state that has 1.6 million poor people and 600,000 of them are children.
There’s A Word For This
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Since gaining power, the general approach from these gentlemen has been: “Submit. Give us what we want and it will go easier for you. If you resist, we’re going to hurt you.”
There’s a different word for that.
Their mothers must be so proud.
That Ain’t Right – Intimidation Edition
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If we don’t drop our valid lawsuit to stop the forced merger of water and sewer systems, legislators threaten to withhold a Parks Authority and go after our elections process. Threatening the cornerstone of our democracy to get their way is wrong. We approached the Parks Authority in good faith, and now it’s being held hostage. I’m willing to work with anyone, but I won’t bow to bullies. It’s just not right.
Vice Mayor Esther Manheimer says the city is being “told to settle the lawsuit or else” face more unwanted legislation.
One June 3, Rep. Tim Moffitt emailed Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy, asking if the city would reach a settlement by the end of that day. “As we are approaching the end of the long session, is it the intent of the City to continue with the legal action against the State and MSD?” Moffitt writes. “Representative [Nathan] Ramsey has been attempting to seek resolution and it seems to no avail. I would like to know by COB tomorrow if a resolution is possible and if not, I need to know that as well.”
In the next paragraph, he brings up changing the city’s election system and delaying this year’s elections so that district elections could take place in 2015 (such a move could keep Bellamy and three Council members in office for another year)
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The emails do not explicitly say that the state delegation will hold up the parks authority or force district elections if the water lawsuit doesn’t go away, but Manheimer says, “Who knows what the hell is really going on, but what appears to be happening is that we’re being told to settle the water lawsuit or else. … Those appear to be the options on the table.”She explains that in conversations, Ramsey has denied that the recreation authority bill is tied to a water settlement, but “then he’ll proceed to give me a 30-minute lecture about while we should settle the water lawsuit.”
That Ain’t Right – 5% Edition
Posted by: | CommentsSo much for the argument that forcibly merging water with sewer would result in cost savings. It won’t.
AC-T:
A bill that repeals a 2009 law that allows the city to use some water revenues to make street and sidewalk improvements when it builds or repairs water facilities received final approval from the state Senate Tuesday.
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Passage of the bill could remove some of the impetus for a separate transfer of the water system to the Metropolitan Sewerage District, which is now tied up in the courts.Ending the allocation allowed by the 2009 law yielded the savings consultants to MSD said would result when the water and sewer systems are consolidated. The bill passed Tuesday ends the transfer whether consolidation ever occurs.
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City officials opposed the repeal, saying the General Assembly had approved the law because it recognized that other restrictions it imposes on the city water system create a hardship for the city.
#AVLH2O Goes To Court
Posted by: | Comments“This course of action is the only rational response to an irresponsible effort,” Council member Gordon Smith told Xpress after the vote. “Just the debt and bond issues will take months and months to sort out, not to mention that the authority that we’re supposed to give the water system to doesn’t exist yet. They’ve crafted a bill that’s impossible to execute.”
He added his thoughts on why legislators filed the bill, which was sponsored by Rep. Tim Moffitt and supported by Reps. Nathan Ramsey and Chuck McGrady: “It’s just a case of vendetta politics.”
Read the whole Resolution authorizing legal steps forward.
Area Republican Leader Stands Up For #AVLH2O
Posted by: | CommentsA former Asheville city councilman and Republican congressional candidate who’s chastised his party before for not sticking to its principles, Mumpower now says he’s flat out leaving to become an independent, if and when control of the city’s water department is transferred to the Metropolitan Sewerage District.
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“This is not anything more than stealing Asheville’s water system,” Mumpower said. “I don’t care what people say or how complicated they try to make it, it’s just theft through our legislature, and that’s wrong. And this was a way to fight back.”
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But here’s what’s even more perplexing to Mumpower: How come no other Republicans are complaining, when the move seems so obviously counter to GOP philosophy?“Nobody in the party infrastructure has said, ‘Hey, you guys are in direct opposition to what we’re supposed to be about: small government, government closest to the people,’” Mumpower said. “You’re just using traditional power politics, and you haven’t been in office that long.”
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I doubt a lot of Republicans have warm, familial feelings for Mumpower, who’s been a burr under the saddle for years.But they at least ought to think about the point he’s trying to make.
Gone Pirating
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Argh, mateys! Be ye looking for more prime public goods to pillage and plunder? Widows and orphans t’rob and leave a-wailin’, and no quarter given?
Well, me hearties, Oklahoma City is the place for ye this week. The pirate horde from ALEC can show ye the way to the motherload. Savvy…?
WRAL reports:
As House lawmakers debated whether to halve the number of North Carolina children eligible for free pre-kindergarten, several key members were missing from the chamber.House Speaker Thom Tillis, Rep. Tim Moffitt, R-Buncombe, and Rep. Jason Saine, R-Lincoln, left early Thursday to attend the ALEC Spring Task Force meeting in Oklahoma City, scheduled for Thursday and Friday.
Aye, the liquid gold is on its way to Piker Pat, so Timmeh and the lads have gone ashore in search of more booty.
But what? Ye left Bootlick Bill behind to strip the King Tim’s Revenge to the bilges while yer ashore? Tis a foul wind a blowin’ in Blackbeard’s lair.
Busy, Busy, Busy
Posted by: | CommentsThe Independent of Raleigh reports that Rep. Tim Moffitt has been busy, busy, busy:
Loaded lawmakers: An email came over the transom from the office of Rep. Tim Moffitt, R-Buncombe, announcing he and and Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, are hosting a Concealed Carry course for interested legislators and staff later this month…
Moffitt and his past House Select Committee on Public-Private Partnerships (P3) co-chair, public infrastructure privatizer, and traveling companion (Turkey), Bill Brawley of Mecklenburg (and ALEC), is also a sponsor of another bill, along with a couple of other legislators.
Speaking of meddling, HB 773 would dismantle Durham’s Proactive Rental Inspection Program (PRIP). And you guessed it, the bill isn’t sponsored by anyone from Durham: Republicans Tim Moffitt (see nipples, handguns and the takeover of the Asheville water system), Bill Brawley of Mecklenburg (he’s also a commercial real estate broker), Jon Hardister of Guilford and Bill Brisson of Bladen.
PRIP requires inspections of rental units with at least three housing code violations and, according to the Independent, “helps keeps tabs on slumlords, protects renters and allows responsible landlords to maintain their property values.”
Can’t have that.
What will that scamp do for the people of western Buncombe County next?
[h/t theotherbarry]
Making Small Government Pay Big
Posted by: | CommentsBuncombe County’s own Rep. Tim Moffitt isn’t waiting to cash in in his position as a public servant. No need to leave the legislature for that lucrative lobbying gig just yet. The News & Observer reports that Moffitt has already found a way to monetize his position of public trust. His new venture shows how the clever entrepreneur can make small government pay big while drawing a public paycheck:
“InTouchNC LLC is offering polished websites, newsletters and Twitter and Facebook accounts to state lawmakers. The cost of the service ranges from $250 to $1,000 a month, based on the amount of personalized information requested by the legislator, Moffitt said in an interview with the Insider. And the service – a way for legislators to keep their constituents back home ‘in touch’ with their General Assembly work – apparently is selling like hotcakes. As of Monday, websites from InTouchNC were live online for 38 House Republicans – nearly half of party’s House members. ‘We’re excited about it,’ Moffitt said. ‘It’s a very professional way for members here to communicate with folks back home.’ No senators or Democrats had signed up as of this week.”
Moffitt purchased domain names for “all 120 House districts and 50 Senate districts.” Just think, there are 49 other states in the union, plus the U.S. Congress waiting to be served the way North Carolina is being served.
