via J. Hudson, CCTPP
“The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt
should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and
controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest
Rome becomes bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on
public assistance.”
Cicero-55BC
The recent standoff in Washington’s debt talks are symptomatic of a much deeper illness within the very core of our nation. Other signs of the sickness pervade American society: rampant drug use; the soaring rate of out-of-wedlock births combined with legitimizing the murder of thousands of unborn children; a sinking economy; large numbers of able-bodied people who do not work, but live on the government dole; an entertainment industry whose wares are salacious if not pornographic; a national judiciary that seems to have abandoned common sense; and–worst of all–a president and legislature more concerned with reelection than solutions.
Dr. Charles Stanley’s sermon and book, “Turning the Tide,” urges listeners and readers to humble themselves, repent, pray for our leaders and to seek God. Not bad advice. Think about it. If those in our Congress would put aside their pride, turn from wickedness and selfishness, pray to their Maker and look for His face and His wisdom, could their differences not be resolved?
Certainly a lack of faith in God is at the heart if it, but it all boils down to an attitude of “What’s in it for me?” A professor of mine once said he believed all the world’s problems stemmed from selfishness. Never has his homespun wisdom been more true. Our man in the White House is so concerned with his reelection that he is willing to retain entitlement programs at a level that is unsustainable in order to garner for himself those left wing votes he needs to win in 2012 and blame the opposing party for the nation’s ills. Next, the Democrats want to raise the legal limit of our national debt so they can continue to spend more money than the country has or will have in the distant future; they do not seem to understand the meaning or consequences of bankruptcy. And the Republicans may be the worst of all, individually grandstanding and openly criticizing the President and his party instead of looking for and working toward bipartisan cooperation that will get us moving forward. All this because of selfishness and pride.
Think about this: a nation of 300 million is being ruled by 545 people (Executive, Legislative and Judiciary branches combined) who ARE NOT DOING THEIR JOBS.
What is needed? I could write a laundry list that would extend into the next county, but these points are immediately germane to the current situation: (1) our nation–in particular our leaders–must return to God; (2) our government at all levels must stop ruling us and serve us; (3) our government must live within its means–NO DEBT!; (4) those who serve in government positions–at all levels–must humble themselves and regard their employer as the people, not the government; (5) our contentious two-party politics must become two-party cooperation.
I believe Galatians 6:7 says it all: “A man reaps what he sows.” As a nation, if we continue to sow selfishness, that is what we will reap. If we continue to ask, “What’s in it for me?” selfishness is what we will reap. How to heal the sickness within our land? “…if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and WILL HEAL THEIR LAND.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)
Jere Geurin
CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
JULY 5, 2011
Meeting held at Golden Corral, Morehead City, NC
Meeting called to order at 6:00pm by President BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge of Allegiance led by DIANE LANG
Invocation by EULA PARKIN
BOB CAVANAUGH welcomed Bev and Bob Stone, new attendees to our meetings.
BEAUFORT JULY 4TH PARADE
BOB reported that from the majority of comments made and attitude of the spectators, our float was very well received. He thanked KENNY and NANCY BOCK for use of the newly refinished trailer and decorations, flags, buntings, fringe, etc. Thanked all who had helped decorate and participated. Just goes to show what we can do when we all pull together. He commented on TIM BUCK, who made a great Uncle Sam, EULA PARKIN for the use of her driveway, which had made it very convenient to the parade route, and PEGGY GARNER for the signs she had made.
ROMA WADE told of the one young lady who placed her hand alongside her eyes, like blinders, when she walked by his table where he was selling our shirts. RUTH PARKER and TOM AUSTIN had commented on two people in the crowd who refused a copy of the pocket Constitution, saying they did not want any of our propaganda. Other than those, all other reception seemed to be favorable, with many thumbs up and cheers, as we rode by.
NANCY was asked ‘what supplies do we have left,’ (ie. shirts, hats, etc.) NANCY said we still have a lot of shirts, but she has not had time to inventory the sizes. We are totally out of the little flags though. She reported that we had made $410.00 on items sold. Question was raised ‘if we had had more tables set up selling the shirts, could we have made more’? Roma said possibly yes, however; we had to set up in front of a store and he had gone up and down the street trying to find a location to set up. Most said they would prefer we not set up in front of their place, due to creating dissension or possible conflict among some of their customers. Thus he had once again set up in front of his friend’s place of business where they had set up a couple of years ago.
BOB said we might need to check into what is required for our participation in the next parade, which would probably be held in Morehead on Veteran’s Day in November. Everyone agreed that the parade was a really good idea and thought we should start getting ready with a possible theme and any items we may need, but also be looking about locations to have sales tables. NANCY asked ‘what is the protocol for veterans wearing their uniforms in these parades’. Is it allowed? She thought it would be a good idea to have all the branches of service honored on our float. There was a lot of good natured joking about getting into their uniforms after all this time, so someone recommended that we get flags to fly representing each service – it would be cheaper than trying to get all those un-fitting uniforms altered to fit.
ERIC BROYLES said he had been impressed with a parade in Washington where the uniforms through the ages had been worn. They had fife and drummers which was impressive also. BOB told him he could be in charge of getting all that together if he wanted to, but he thought all those old uniforms would be a “little bit” hard to come by. BOB did say he was surprised that there were no bands in the parade Monday. DIANE LANG said she had been told it was hard to get bands together since school was out. NANCY said that was the main thing missing was the music.
BOB turned the floor over to SCOTT CARPENTER to conduct a flip chart discussion of pros and cons on the parade. SCOTT said he was a visual kind of guy and came from the old school of using charts and graphs. He preferred to put ideas on the board for discussion in depth. First of all were the costumes we had in the parade. TIM BUCK in the Uncle Sam costume was a tremendous hit. The ones in period costume up front holding the “We the People” banner and flag, were great also. NANCY said her husband felt like they were not a part of the TEA Party float, more of an entry by themselves. BOB said it appeared to him they were walking too close to the double-decker bus ahead of us. NANCY said they were told to keep up with the bus. We need some way to tie them with the rest of the group. NANCY said we might to get some of the group riding on the float to dress up in the same period costumes also. DIANE said maybe we could have a couple of TEA party members in the red shirts walking ahead of the “We the People” banner. BOB said he could see the change in wearing the period costumes for the 4th parade, but that would not apply to the parade in November for veterans’ day. The 4th was about the declaration of independence. Veteran’s day would be more about the current day’s uniforms – World War II, Korea, Viet Nam, etc. If you are still on active duty, then you can not participate in these political events. HOWARD GARNER said ‘back to the ‘We the People’ banner and its’ problem…couldn’t we just add a small section on each side with the TEA Party emblem’ or a tea pot to identify the connection. BOB said ‘the members in red shirts passing out pocket Constitutions and flags were back by the float’. ‘Maybe if they were up closer to the banner, we would not have had that problem.’ Maybe they should have been more dispersed on the sides (from ahead of the truck to the back of the float). That way it would have all been linked together. ROMA said maybe we could have two people carrying a “TEA PARTY” banner ahead of the “We the People” banner. EULA asked how many there had served in World War II, the Korean War. She was surprised to learn no one in attendance had fought in WWII. She said she had grown up then. Some joking about ages went on, until BOB reminded us that the TEA Party was not about the military. We support the military, not necessarily the wars going on, but support our men and women in uniform. He does not think we need to make some sort of military statement in every parade, that we follow the theme of the parade or reason for the parade. PEGGY GARNER said she thought if we marched in the Veteran’s Day Parade, we should use ‘Freedom is NOT Free’ as our idea for the float. BOB said “Are we going to have a ‘Freedom is Not Free’ banner?” PEGGY said we probably should.
SCOTT asked if we could get back to critiquing our float in yesterday’s parade. He again thanked KENNY BOCK for the great job he did in redoing the trailer. The blue sides and red plywood flooring was perfect. The flags were great, but did everyone understand what each of the flags were or stood for. He had heard several people asking what kind of flag was that. Some asked about the red and blue striped flag – what kind was it? Maybe if we use them again we should have a flyer or some kind of information explaining the significance of each flag. NANCY said all the flags on the float had been flown right before the Revolutionary War. SCOTT said we did not need to discuss them right now, but it should give us something to think about if we used them again. He thought we might could have used even more flags on the float; maybe at least 2 to 4 more. BOB said for the Veteran’s Day parade we could have more flags (one for each branch of the military, maybe a MIA flag, etc.) KEN LANG said for next year’s 4th of July parade, maybe we could have a “We the People” flag made up. He started to discuss the table for sales, but SCOTT requested we stay on the parade itself right now. Keep that thought and we would discuss that next after we finish up with the parade. SCOTT wanted to know if everyone who rode on the trailer was comfortable and safe with the seating. All replied yes. No problem with flags hitting us in the face or things like that. No complaints. SCOTT wanted to know if the riding of motorcycles was something BOB wanted to encourage. BOB said he had no problem with Roy or anyone else riding their motorcycles. ROY MUSSER had come up on his and asked if he could just ride behind the float, rather than on the trailer and BOB had said yes. TOM AUSTIN had said he wished he had thought about riding his and would have liked to have done so. LOU KUKULENSKI had also voiced his interest.
EULA commented on the length of the Morehead City Memorial Day parade. It’s a long parade; from the Catholic Church to the 2nd or 3rd block on Arendell.
SCOTT brought us back to the discussion on the 4th parade. He thought having our address sticker on the backs of the pocket Constitutions was a fabulous idea. Wanted to know if anyone knew how many had been handed out. It was estimated about four to five hundred from the float and about two boxes (estimated at 500) at the sales table. SCOTT also wanted to know if we wanted to pass out anything other than the Constitution and flags, like maybe a flyer with TEA Party information. KEN said he didn’t think we should pass flyers out from the float area, because they might just end up thrown down and create trash and possibly be considered political. He thought maybe we should come up with a fact sheet to pass out at the table where we sold our shirts. He had been working on something on Agenda 21 last week, but couldn’t get the data formatted like he wanted. He felt we needed to come up with fact sheets, like on Carteret County Education, NC State Legislation, 20 vetoes by the Governor, etc. Things we can put out on the table for people to take and read. BOB said he agreed to having them on our table would be OK but not appropriate for us to hand out from the float. Maybe we should have some of our business cards on the table also, giving time and place of our meetings. NANCY said perhaps we could add that information to the address labels we put on the pocket Constitutions; thereby eliminating anything that could possibly get lost or blow away. ROMA said he thought we could easily pass out a thousand or more Constitutions at a parade the size of Morehead’s. ERIC said we could save ourselves some money by contacting our representatives, and senators, who graciously give bunches of the Constitutions to their constituents free. They each send out about 500 copies. BOB said let’s get some from them, and next month ask again, saying we have handed all those out. We’ll stockpile them for the next parade.
SCOTT asked if he had heard someone talk about having music on the float? BOB said there will be bands in the Veterans’ Day parade. NANCY said the only music she heard in the Beaufort parade was a guy with a guitar singing God Bless America and another guy with a boom box on his shoulder…and maybe some music from the ‘belly dancing float’.
SCOTT questioned about the taking of photos. Did we have someone lined up to take pictures to go on our web-site. Answer was not really. Some people had phones with cameras, like TOM AUSTIN, but no one had been asked to film the event. RUTH PARKER said she had taken some, and NANCY said a friend of hers had taken some, but she hadn’t seen them yet. We need to have someone lined up for the next parade to make sure we have a record of the event. CLAYTON GILLIKIN said he would like to have a sign made up saying “Even Santa is a member of the TEA Party”. SCOTT wanted to know if we were happy with the posters we had or did we need more. PEGGY said she had only had time to make the three that were used. Two of them had been posted at the table with the shirts (The Crystal Coast TEA Party supports Fiscal Responsibility, Free Markets, Limited Government) and (The Crystal Coast TEA Party does not pledge Allegiance to any Political Party). The other poster said GOD Bless America and was held by someone riding on the float. NANCY said she would like for us to have one on each side of the truck and would have used the GOD Bless America there if we had had another. PEGGY said she would try to have them made up before the next parade. HOWARD said we need to give PEGGY time to prepare any posters we want, so to please get her whatever information you want on a sign early. Discussion of how many more posters we could use. Have the two at the sales table, one God Bless America and one more for the other side of the truck. BOB did not want to tie up the walker and riders hands with posters. They were needed to hand out flags, Constitutions and candy. PEGGY said she had only had the opportunity to make one ‘TEA PARTY TAXI’ sign, but had received a lot of comments on it.
HOWARD said we went through about a half bushel of candy. PEGGY said she and RUTH had bought about $70.00 worth and some friends of PEGGY’s had donated about 6 bags more, so we had about $100.00 worth of candy for this parade. We had enough to pass out all the way through the parade, with very little left, by pacing ourselves toward the end. If we pass out candy in Morehead we need to start stocking up now. GRACE said we usually could get a good deal after Halloween. Often the businesses will give deep discounts just to get rid of it. CLAYTON said he had gone in and told the manager if he would give him a decent price he would take all the left over candy off his hands and usually he could pick up baskets full for around $20.00 or so.
SCOTT asked if there were anything else we could think of to improve our float for next time. CLAYTON said ‘yes, glass enclosed and air conditioned’. It was hot out there.
SCOTT continued with the sales table pro and cons. FRED DECKER said they had passed out two boxes of Constitutions and it was estimated to have between 200 and 250 in each box, so we determined about 500 had been handed out to the crowd at the table booth. Since ROMA was in charge of the table, he said the only thing he could think of to improve it would be to have a larger table. Several volunteered a six foot table, but ROMA said that would have been too big for where they were set up in Beaufort. He said he could have passed out more small flags if they had had them. KEN said he could get a four foot table for next time if ROMA wanted.
Discussed where and how many tables we should set up in Morehead for the parade. Could possibly use as many as three tables for that parade. It was suggested we set up in the park, but BOB thinks we need to spread out, not confine ourselves to one spot. KEN said we need to find out first if we can set up tables and if so where are they allowed. Will we need some kind of permit? Is it a county law that we have to have our booth set up in front of a store front or private property? ROMA said he felt that Morehead would be like Beaufort, in that the store owners would not like to have someone they consider political setting up on their space. ROY said we are not political, but ROMA said they don’t understand that. They consider us political regardless of what we say. BOB wanted to know if we could set up on the railroad tracks. Some said we might get run over and another said the railroad would not be running during that part of the day. NANCY said she had been concerned over the attitude of some about the TEA Party being political so she had called to verify our setting up a table on Front Street. The lady she talked to wanted to know if we were non-profit, and if we were only going to set up that one day. If we decide to enter a float next year we may have to get an ‘itinerate license’, which would not cost anything, so we may need to do that in Morehead. We need to check. We still need an answer as to whether these booths need to be on private property and have permission from the owner. GRACE said she would ask about it when she made application and arrangements for us to be in the parade. She gets the information every year so she is more up on what is needed.
SCOTT wanted to know if there was anything else we needed to discuss before closing. ROMA was asked if we needed any more shirts and he said it may sound strange but he definitely needed more 3X, 2X and Extra Large. NANCY said she would have to take an inventory and see what we had left. BOB said Extra Large was considered Small in Carteret County, just look around the room. Question was raised if we wanted to change the logo on our shirts. BOB said let’s get rid of the ones we have right now and then discuss which charities we would like to sponsor. NANCY said maybe we could come up with one generic logo to cover several charities. There’s another group in Jacksonville called ‘Hope for Warriors’ that uses the same emblem as Wounded Warriors. Need to think on it. NANCY had checked in the past and there will be no increase in cost if we do change. There are several charitable organizations that need assistance. BOB wanted to know how we did on selling hats. ROMA said not too good, maybe around 5 or so. More people were interested in the shirts. Did sell a few of the stickers we had available (Don’t tread on me and Crystal Coast Tea Party Patriots).
EULA reported on the July 2 event that was to be held in France did not happen. Also reported on information she had gotten on Arab Spring. ERNIE GUTHRIE feels we need to get out the United Nations.
HOWARD reported on Norman Sanderson’s request that when the Redistricting discussion came up for a vote, he would like to have a big crowd come up to Raleigh in support. BOB reported on the rally in New Bern last Friday and the lack of support received by our politicians. The redistricting has put us in District 7, with the eastern end of our county remaining in District 3. The rational for the redistricting is to have more Republican districts. True we had a victory in the 2010 election but nationally we didn’t do so good. The only seat we picked up was Etheridge’s and we wouldn’t have gained that if he hadn’t grabbed that student and created a bad scene. Hope is that the redistricting will protect Rene Ellmers who took that seat. Mike McIntyre (D) just did win over the Republican who ran for District 7. By shifting western Carteret County into District 7, the hope is McIntyre will not be around after 2012. Several Republicans holding seats are RHINO’s and need to be looked at carefully at the next election. Remember we are for the most conservative candidate. BOB reported that ERIC had sent out several letters recently requesting information for the TEA Party. He would like ERIC to bring these requested items up before the meetings so we are informed as to what is being requested and why. We need to make group decisions since we are a bottom up not top down organization. Main thing ERIC was interested in was why there were no hearing meetings on redistribution close to us. The closest one is Wilmington. Since the census determined more people had moved to the center of the state and the population had decreased on the coast, the districts were going to have to be bigger to include more people. The Carteret County paper has a map on Sunday’s front page showing the Federal redistricting. BOB said he had not seen a map of the North Carolina redistricting. Much discussion followed on pros and cons on redistricting.
ERIC will be attending the Morehead City Council meeting next week. Will give report at the following meeting.
AGENDA 21 – STEVE BEST was asked by BOB to read and review Agenda 21 and report on a chapter at each meeting.
BOB reported on the now defunct TEA Party in Jacksonville. They had been anti-Muslim more than anything else, and did not have a mission statement with emphasis on Fiscal Responsibility, Free Markets, and Limited Government. Still have some who are asking for help and information. We are still talking about getting a group started down east but as of yet have not been successful. FRED and GRACE are still hoping to get someone interested in promoting a TEA Party there. It takes a group of people to strap that responsibility on and keep the interest going. BOB believes the reason our group remains strong is because we meet each week and it has become a habit.
BOB started a discussion on illegal immigration. Many different opinions were offered.
SUSAN RYNAS said she had moved here from California due to the influx of Mexicans who had taken over her state. She was afraid the same thing was going to happen here. A very good discussion and various ideas were offered. But most agreed that we do need to SECURE the BORDERS.
Secretary’s Note: (Wish I could elaborate on some of the opinions and ideas offered, but the meeting ran longer than usual and thus the minutes are long also. It was a very interesting conversation, especially BOB’s discussion on NAFTA. Stay informed by attending the meetings each Tuesday night at the Golden Corral.)
Meeting adjourned at 7:45 pm
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER
This is a email from someone perusing the CCTPP web site. It is a great email, and should be sent to the Carteret County Concerned Citizens for Education (C4). As the emailer suggests, C4 should support this bill so they can put their money where their mouth is. Suggest passing this on to C4
Rep. Sarah Stevens, Republican, Surry Co , N. C. has proposed a bill that would allow state residents to donate some, or all, of their state income tax refund to whatever state agency they choose. This is a brilliant move. For those willing to put more of their money into governmental efforts near and dear to their heart, such as education, and passage of this bill would provide a means to do so without taking an extra PENNY from the pockets of those who do not want, or cannot afford, to give up any more of their money. (This was copied from part of an article in the Mount Airy news paper.)
This is a brilliant idea which would allow all of these parents who have been trying to force the Carteret Co. Commissioners to fund educational needs. This would enable those individuals to put their money where their mouth is without harming the rest of us.
Please go on line to see this bill.
School Board Speech by Eric Broyles
6/28/2011
Members of the School Board, Superintendant Novey, and citizens of Carteret County. The greatest gift, other than life, we can give a child is a quality education. I have come tonight to talk on that subject. An education prepares a child for life endeavors and the future, whatever their course may be. Before starting, I would like to recognize Principals and Teachers at Harkers Island Elementary, Tiller School, White Oak Elementary, Broad Creek Middle, and Croatan High that contributed to making these schools top in their scholastic field by delivering a quality education to our children. In 2010, all of these school finished scholastically in the top 10 percentile within their respective school categories statewide. Special recognition goes to the Tiller School, one of our charter schools, which finished scholastically within the top 2 percentile in the state. These are our schools of scholastic excellence within the county. I await the reporting of our schools scholastic results for 2011.
Even though some of our schools achieved scholastic excellence in 2010, I am deeply concerned about the quality of education some of our children are receiving within Carteret County Schools. In 2010, we have 7 schools (e.g. – Atlantic Elementary, Beaufort Elementary, Smyrna Elementary, Beaufort Middle, Newport Middle, East Carteret High, and West Carteret High) performing in the 25% to 50% percentile scholastic performance range in their respective school categories. Atlantic Elementary is ranked 387, Beaufort Elementary is ranked 551, and Smyrna is ranked 427 out of 1350 North Carolina Elementary schools. Beaufort Middle is ranked 217 and Newport Middle is ranked 180 out of 617 North Carolina Middle schools. West Carteret High is ranked 153 and East Carteret High is ranked 260 out of 563 North Carolina High Schools. From 2005 to 2010, based on the ABC End-of-Grade Tests reported by N.C. Report Cards, Atlantic Elementary saw a 11% decline in overall student Reading test scores; Beaufort Elementary a 11.4% decline in Reading test scores; Smyrna Elementary a 9.5% decline in Reading test scores and a 6.8% decline in Math Scores; Beaufort Middle a 6.6% decline in Reading test scores; Newport Middle a 12.9% decline in Reading and a 1.9% decline in Math scores; East Carteret High saw a 1.9% decline in English 1 scores, a 9.7% decline in Algebra 1 scores, and a 7.4% decline in Physical Science scores; and West Carteret High saw a 1.5% decline in English 1 scores, and a 9.7% decline in Algebra 1 scores. During the same time period, Carteret County School District saw a 9% decline in overall Reading scores but a 16.3% increase in Math scores for both elementary and middle schools. The area of scholastic achievement that should concern us all is the gradual decline of Reading test scores being seen across the board in most schools. If our children cannot read or write then how will they be able to perform and compete in a highly competitive and technological society? In the near future, I will be asking our County Board of Commissioners to establish an independent board of non-school employed citizens whose sole purpose is to conduction independent literacy testing every 4 years at the 4th and 8th grade level to make sure the students within our county are receiving adequate training in reading and writing skills. We do not want a reoccurrence of what happened in Detroit where 44% of the tested citizens were found to be functionally illiterate.
Presently, 8,578 students attend Carteret County Schools. The student to teacher ratio for Carteret County Schools is 12.08 to 1, which happens to be one of the higher school system students to teacher ratios within the state and nation. This ratio is based on 710 full time teachers, which is an increase over the previous year . This ratio does not factor in the 178 assistant teachers that are available to support the full time teachers. If it did, the ratio would be closer to 9.6 to 1. Currently, Carteret County ranks number 12 out of 115 school districts in the amount it expends for each student’s education. In other words, Carteret County taxpayers are paying approximately $700 more per student versus the average amount spend by other counties in North Carolina to make sure its students receive a high quality education. This would lead one to naturally draw a conclusion that the majority of our schools and school district should be performing in the top 10 to 15 percentile in the state, considering the financial resources and teacher manpower the taxpayers have committed to the education of our children. Even though some schools are performing at a high level of excellence as stated above, almost half the school district is not. It is unacceptable to the taxpayers and the parents of the students attending these seven schools, which are performing in the 25% to 50% percentile range. This leads one to believe that it is not the number of teachers employed by a school system that leads to scholastic achievement and excellence, but the quality of its teachers and the training dispensed by them. Maybe it is time to hirer and pay more for Quality teachers and be less concerned with the number of teachers we employ.
During the last school board hearing, I asked that the overall ABC End-of-Course scores and student to teacher ratio be posted by teacher on the School System Website. Each teacher and school principal performance should be accountable to the taxpayers and parents of school children. Furthermore, based on the need for an increase in scholastic performance within the seven schools mentioned above, I respectfully request that the Superintendant and School Board conduct a full performance review and audit of those 7 schools and make the necessary personnel adjustments and etc. to assure these schools and their students can also achieve the same level of scholastic excellence like the Tiller School, Whiteoak Elementary, Broad Creek Middle, and Croatan High. It is time to raise the bar! The taxpayers and parents of school children demand more, and our students deserve much more than some of them have received. It is time to give all of our children a quality education! GOD bless our children, our educators, and all citizens from wherever they hail from!
| Time |
Friday, July 1 · 6:00pm – 9:00pm
|
|---|---|
|
|
|
| Location |
Union Point Park, Front Street, on the Waterfront, Downtown New Bern, NC
|
|
|
|
| Created By | |
|
|
|
| More Info |
Area citizens and taxpayers will be kicking off their Independence Day Weekend with Coastal Carolina Taxapayers Association (CCTA) at our Freedom Rally, on Friday evening, July 1st at Union Point Park in Downtown New Bern (Front Street) on the water during an open mike rally from 6:00-9:00pm.
This will be an opportunity to celebrate our freedom of speech and speak our minds! Attendees will be able to sign up to speak on the direction of our country important issues and concerns, and our government! Remarks will be limited to four minutes. We are inviting all elected officials to join us in this celebration and to take advantage of the opportunity to attend and visist, and to hear what the voters and taxpayers have to say! Invocation by Pastor Jonathan Leake, Praise Assembly Worship Center, New Bern Refreshments by Cooper’s Snowballs! |
After one of the most efficient and productive legislative sessions in modern history, the North Carolina Senate adjourned early Saturday morning.We passed hundreds of bills in 87 legislative days, including many long-overdue reforms that will put North Carolina on a new, more responsible path to better economic growth, prosperity, and educational reform.And we adjourned quicker than any legislature since 1973.We refused to accept the status quo, despite fierce resistance to change and overblown rhetoric from the political left. We fought for the responsible change North Carolinians have long needed and deserved. We simply did what we said we would do, and we did it more openly and efficiently than our predecessors.
Senate Votes to Eliminate Cap on Public Charter Schools
North Carolina parents soon will have more choice and control over their children’s education following final Senate passage of legislation eliminating the 100-school cap on public charter schools. There are only 99 public charter schools in North Carolina – not enough to meet the needs of about 20,000 students on a waiting list.The Senate unanimously passed the conference report on SB 8. It is a simplified version of the original charter school bill, which passed the Senate with bipartisan support earlier this year.
SB 8: No Cap on Number of Charter Schools
Medical malpractice reform bill passes with bipartisan support
The North Carolina Senate passed a bipartisan compromise that reforms the state’s medical malpractice laws, a move that will help attract new jobs and high quality medical personnel and make health care more affordable and accessible for all North Carolinians.
Like the original version of Senate Bill 33, the conference report sets a $500,000 cap on the amount juries can award for pain and suffering and other “noneconomic damages.” But the new cap does not apply if a defendant’s act of gross negligence, fraud, intentional failure, malice, or reckless disregard for the rights of others results in someone’s death, disfigurement, permanent injury, or loss of a body part.
Patients still can recover all medical costs and lost income.
The bill protects doctors and medical personnel from frivolous lawsuits that force them to perform unnecessary procedures and tests. Every North Carolinian pays for that defensive medicine through higher insurance costs and taxpayer-funded medical programs for the poor.
SB 33: Medical Liability Reform
This is the first time North Carolina’s annexation laws have been reformed in more than 50 years. The long-overdue, comprehensive annexation reform the legislature passed will keep municipalities from forcibly annexing private property and saddling residents with the high costs of hooking up to municipal services. Residents often pay thousands of dollars to connect to water and sewer lines – against their will. The people who are targets of annexation will now have a vote in the matter. This has been a major issue in New Hanover County.
HB 845: Annexation Reform Act of 2011
We kept our promise to the voters not to raise their taxes. We enacted tax reforms that will jump start the economy by helping the private sector create thousands of new jobs. The state budget eliminates a nearly $1 billion “temporary” sales tax hike that Gov. Perdue and legislative Democrats raised in the peak of the economic recession and promised would end this year. The budget also eliminates Democrats’ “temporary” income tax surcharge and enacts a $50,000 income exemption for private businesses – the job-creating engines of North Carolina’s wounded economy. These tax savings return more than $1 billion to the pockets of North Carolina citizens and businesses, where it will create as many as 15,000 jobs in the short term and thousands more in the future, economists say. Yes, it’s a new day in North Carolina. The days of endless tax and spend are over. The working taxpayer is now respected, not abused.
HB 200: Appropriations Act of 2011
Democrats say they want abortion to be safe, legal and rare. While we don’t support abortion, we understand it is legal, and have passed legislation that makes it safer and, likely, rarer by requiring doctors to educate women considering abortions. Click on the video above and you can here my statements on the Senate floor in regrads to this legislation.
HB 854: Abortion- Women’s Right to Know Act
Senate Approves Bill Requiring Photo ID to Vote
The North Carolina Senate passed a hugely popular, common-sense bill that requires North Carolinians to show a photo ID when they vote. Some liberal Democrat activists are up in arms over this, which makes you wonder what they might have up their sleeve for the 2012 elections. This law is overwhelmingly supported by the people of North Carolina.
HB 351: Restore Confidence in Government
Both the Senate and the House have acted to protect the Second Amendment rights of North Carolinians. A bill on the governor’s desk would further protect property owners who use a weapon in self-defense, and expand the number of places citizens with a concealed carry permit can carry firearms.
HB 650: Amend Various Gun Laws/Castle Doctrine
The General Assembly fought to protect North Carolinians from President Obama’s overreaching federal health care law. The legislature passed a bill early in the session that gave North Carolinians the right to opt out of the law, the same right the Obama administration extended to some favored corporations, big unions, and Washington insiders. The governor said she would let the bill become law but, after meeting with Obama, she vetoed it. Unfortunately for North Carolina, Perdue has become a major promoter of the Obama political agenda.
Burdensome Regulations Eliminated
The General Assembly passed sweeping changes to the state’s regulatory environment that will simplify outdated rules and regulations. More than 15,000 new or amended regulations have hit the books over the past decade. Many are complex, confusing, and unnecessary rules that are imposed by unelected bureaucrats and cause uncertainty for the state’s businesses. The bill that passed the House and Senate prohibits new state regulations that are more restrictive than federal rules, and requires the state to review and eliminate burdensome regulations annually.
1) 179 bills already law
2) 114 bills on the Governor’s desk
3) 109 bills being delivered to the Governor Monday
4) 6 bills vetoed by the Governor (see page 2)
StarNews: Castle Hayne incorporation leaps final legislative hurdle, off to ballot
StarNews: New commission to study reform of property insurance rates
WRAL: Lawmakers send abortion restrictions to Perdue
WWAY: ONLY ON 3: Goolsby calls veto override ‘wonderful day’ in NC
We will reconvene in July for a speacial one-week redistricting session. Until then I will be in New Hanover County. My office in Raleigh is still open if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.
CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
JUNE 14, 2011
Meeting held at Golden Corral, Morehead City, NC
Meeting called to order at 6:03 pm by President BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge of Allegiance led by BOB CAVANAUGH
Invocation by RUTH PARKER
Number of attendees – 21
BOB announced that the meeting tonight would be short since he, KEN LANG, and TIM BUCK have to leave early to attend a GOP meeting.
KEN reported that he was continuing to look for a meeting place in the western end of the county for establishing another TEA Party group. All the restaurants say they will be glad to accommodate the group during the off season, but were unable to do so during the summer. He checked back with the Cape Carteret Community Center and was again told that the large meeting room was $30.00 per hour, but they had a smaller room that holds about 20 people that we can get for $10.00 per hour. A neighbor of Ken’s that works with the Little Bank has volunteered to pay for 6 months of meetings (l hour twice a month). If we get a good turnout he may commit to further. However, before then we may be able to meet at a local restaurant, probably Debbie’s ‘Rucker John’. KEN asked that if you have any ideas for spreading the word about organizing a Western TEA party, please email him. Suggestions made were the Swansboro Tidal News, News Times ‘Community Happenings’ (our meetings here at the Golden Corral are posted there), and maybe a radio Public Service Announcement. HOWARD GARNER is concerned that if we reduce our meetings to twice a month, it will affect our attendance. He thought we should continue meeting every week here and maybe the Western Group meet on a different night, so some of us can attend those meetings also. KEN said he would look into another night.
KEN said he had received some data from Lee Haywood from Greensboro, who attended our May 31st meeting. He reported that Lee’s group had printed up handouts detailing school data and had sent him copies. Their school superintendent makes a quarter of a million dollars a year, but can’t even teach a class. He has hired his buddies and has created a bureaucracy with average salaries of $176,000.00. Teachers went up 12% and Administration 24%. KEN would like for us to make up similar handouts and pass them out (either at the July 4th parade or maybe at the local grocery stores).
KEN reported that the C4 had presented a petition to the County Commissioners at the last Commissioners’ meeting. Ken said he had read the petition and he would have signed that petition also. It was totally in line with our beliefs of level funding, but that was not what they actually asked for. They want an increase, not level. BOB said we need to be more organized and on the ball before next year’s budget. Need a volunteer of our group to get in there and dig and find out what is going on, before it is too late.
BOB asked PEGGY GARNER if she had found out anymore about the July 4th parade. PEGGY reported that the parade would be on Monday the 4th. Parade starts at 11:00am. We need to get there early either to find a parking place on a side street or meet at the court house and all pile into as few cars as possible to the parade lineup, which starts at Gordon Street (other side of the post office). I understand that the antique cars go first and we are #5 in the parade lineup. We are allowed to pass out the Declaration pamphlets, candy, etc., if we wish. ROMA WADE said he could get us a spot along the parade route where we can set up a table and sell our shirts, hats, etc. PEGGY had asked if the parade had a theme this year and was told yes, “Days of Old”, which covers a lot of territory. PEGGY had an Oriental Trading Catalog that has candy wrapped in patriotic papers. She said she and HOWARD would be glad to pay for part of the candies. NANCY BOCK, Treasurer, said she thought we should go ahead and order what we thought we might need. We can always pick up more locally. (like wrapped mints). PEGGY said she needs to know how long our float (trailer) will be so she can let Mrs. Barnes know how much room to leave for our space. They number and mark the float lineup with chalk. LOU KUKULEWSKI said he had a 16 foot trailer but it doesn’t have any sides and is low. FRED DECKER said Pat Joyce has a trailer that he lets the GOP use and he thought he could get that one for us to use. He would see about getting sides (like they use for the GOP) made up and put on the trailer for displaying signs and flags. Discussed where to put the trailer so it will be available to work on. HOWARD offered the use of our back yard. There may be some prefab needed but mostly the work putting the float together would be done on Sunday the 3rd.
BOB asked if anyone had watched the GOP debate and who they thought won. Most agreed on Michelle Bachman. Did think the questions that were asked were down right dumb and stupid. Several thought Herman Caine did a good job answering, but was not asked enough questions. Actually most thought that the next administration should be comprised of all those who participated in the debate. They all appear to be conservative and care about our county. We might be able to get our country back on track with them in control.
Discussed the vote on the budget and Gov. Perdue’s veto. All agreed that we hope the five Democrats that voted with the Republicans, will hang in there and help override the veto.
Meeting adjourned
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary
There was no CCTPP Meeting on June 7th. The CCTPP members attended the Carteret County Board of Education meeting on June 7th in lieu of the regularly scheduled CCTPP meeting.
The General Assembly is trying to finish the legislative session by the end of this week. There are many bills making their way to the floor of the House or Senate for a vote but we want to draw your attention to just a few. Your urgent help is needed to pass these bills!
· Over the weekend, Governor Perdue put her very partisan veto stamp on a responsible,
bi-partisan, no-tax-increase budget. This budget was passed with the help of Republicans, Democrats and an Unaffiliated member of the legislature. Now, your help is needed—please contact your State Senator and State House Representative and ask them to vote to OVERRIDE the Governor’s veto of the budget. Click here to ask your Legislators to vote FOR an Override.
· Ask your Senator to support House Bill 845, a bill that would finally give property owners a true voice as to whether they want to be annexed by a city. Revenue-seeking cities would be penalized for not providing promised services to those annexed against their will. It also provides a mechanism for citizens to object to and stop a forced annexation in its tracks for a period of time. Click here to ask your Senator to vote YES on H845.
· Ask your Senator to support House Bill 542, Tort Reform for Citizens and Businesses. A state’s legal climate can be a major inducement or a major deterrent to business investment, growth, and job creation. It is one factor among several key ones that businesses consider when making decisions about where to expand existing operations or to locate new facilities. House Bill 542 makes important, balanced changes to NC’s civil liability system to provide fairness, predictability, and encourage job creation. Click here to ask your Senator to vote YES on H542.
If you would like to experience the legislature during a very exciting time, you may want to come to Raleigh this week.
On Tuesday, June 14th at 1 PM, Annexation Reform will be discussed in the Senate Finance Committee, Room 544 of the Legislative Office Building. We hope to see a crowd! Give us a call at 919.839.1011 if there is anything we can do for you while in Raleigh. Legislature Directions and Parking
Sincerely,
Dallas Woodhouse
North Carolina State Director
Americans for Prosperity
Arizona governor vs. Phoenix Suns owner - I'd say she makes a pretty good case with her analogy!! The owner of the Phoenix Suns basketball team, Robert Sarver, came out strongly opposing AZ's new immigration laws. Arizona's Governor, Jan Brewer, released the following statement in response to Sarver's criticism of the new law: "What if the owners of the Suns discovered that hordes of people were sneaking into games without paying? What if they had a good idea who the gate-crashers are, but the ushers and security personnel were not allowed to ask these folks to produce their ticket stubs, thus non-paying attendees couldn't be ejected. Furthermore, what if Suns' ownership was expected to provide those who sneaked in with complimentary eats and drink? And what if, on those days when a gate-crasher became ill or injured, the Suns had to provide free medical care and shelter?" - Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer Reference
The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on Tuesday, June 14th on repeal of the disastrous ethanol subsidies that are driving up the price of food and fuel. Unfortunately, some usually free-market senators have not yet committed to support repeal.
Ethanol currently receives triple protection: with a $6 billion per year tax subsidy, an import tariff and a usage mandate. Senators Coburn and DeMint have combined to offer two amendments that will end all three of these bad policies. The DeMint amendment would also repeal the death tax, an unfair double tax that is one of the most anti-growth features of our tax code.
The CBO has concluded that taxpayers are on the hook for $1.78 for every gallon of ethanol that replaces a gallon of gasoline, while even the EPA has concluded that ethanol subsidies have increased corn prices at least 8 percent. Even many green groups now oppose ethanol subsidies because they do nothing to improve the environment.
Yours truly,
Phil Kerpen
Vice President, Policy
Americans for Prosperity
Governor Perdue Vetos Our Fact-Based Budget
On Sunday afternoon, Governor Perdue vetoed the fact-based budget that passed both chambers of the North Carolina General Assembly with overwhelming bipartisan majorities. Governor Perdue decided to focus on her own re-election campaign instead of the people of North Carolina.
Speaker Thom Tillis (R-Mecklanburg) said the following regarding Governor Perdue’s budget veto:
“We’re disappointed in the Governor’s veto today. Gov. Perdue has had access to this budget for almost two weeks, and she should have made this decision days ago to help provide certainty to counties and school boards across the state. She has shown no leadership on this issue and no willingness to work with the legislature, choosing instead to veto a budget that protects education and creates jobs. We look forward to overriding the Governor’s last-minute veto very soon.”
Our fact-based budget creates more jobs and protects public education, while her own proposal does not. The Governor’s political grandstanding and taxpayer funded PR tour is geared to energizing her liberal base given her dismal polling numbers. Unfortunately, Governor Perdue is playing political games instead exhibiting the leadership North Carolina deserves.
Here are the facts about the budget the governor chose to veto:
Our $19.3 billion plan is more than $1 billion less than last year’s bloated budget. We are right-sizing state government, making it smaller and more productive.
Education is the cornerstone of a strong economy, and our plan focuses spending in the classroom, not on non-essential and redundant administrative positions. North Carolina cannot continue throwing money at a broken system that produces graduation rates that rank 43rd in the nation.
Our proposal of $4,800 per student is only $200 less than the governor’s plan of $5,000 per student. Gov. Perdue claims we are “dismantling” education; the numbers prove otherwise.
At the end of the day, the Governor vetoed our fact-based budget for one simple reason. We honored our pledge to let her $1,000,000,000 tax increase expire and she is fighting tooth and nail to break her promise with the citizens of North Carolina. North Carolina deserves better than the political gamesmanship demonstrated by Governor Perdue, that is why five members of her own party supported the budget. Regardless, Republicans and moderate Democrats agree that our fact-based budget will move North Carolina forward and end the tax-and-spend status quo endorsed by Governor Perdue and her liberal allies.
A detailed review of the costs associated with HB 351, the Voter Photo ID bill, shows that the costs associated with implementing this bill were grossly inflated. The cost estimate of $3.2 Million noted in the Legislative Fiscal Note for this bill used dubious criteria to determine how many id cards would likely have to be issued and double counted the the costs associated with the issuance of the cards. The report was issued on March 22, 2011 and signed by the head of the Fiscal Research Division, Marilyn Chism. On March 30th, Ms. Chism, a Democrat, was forced to resign her position. No reason was given for her forced resignation.
Following are my observations and comments on this LFN. For reference, download the 11 page LFN here.
This report estimates that 14.5% of North Carolina voters, or 885,000 of them, might need to be issued a free voter photo id card. Now if you’re thinking that 14.5% seems like a high percentage, you’d be right. The report was clearly designed to be misleading. The real figure is closer to1% or 61,000 voters. Where does the 1% come from? Why, from the report itself, buried in the footnote on page 5:
With the USA already in a mountain of debt, President Obama this week pledged financial support to bail out Greece. So why is the President borrowing money from China so US taxpayers can pay the Chinese interest in order to give money to Greece who have shown the can’t manage their money any better that President Obama manages ours?
Daniel Hannan, British MP, said on Fox and Friends today (June 9, 2011) that “in five years, the interest the US is paying on money we borrowed from them will fully pay for the Chinese defense budget.” Unbelievable!
From the Gateway Pundit:
Protesters from a communist-backed union protest near the Greek Parliament seen in the background during an anti-austerity protest in Athens, that several thousands people took part in on Friday, June 3, 2011. Greece is poised to receive the next installment of its bailout facility, and will likely get further rescue loans to prevent it from defaulting on its massive debts, European officials said Friday. The banner reads ‘general strike.’ (AP/Petros Giannakouris)
After tripling the US deficit and with unemployment at 9.1% President Obama pledged US financial support to bail out Greece yesterday.
CNBC reported:
President Barack Obama on Tuesday urged European countries and bondholders to prevent a “disastrous” default by Greece and pledged U.S. support to help tackle the country’s debt crisis.
See video on YouTube.
Orlando, Florida (CNN) – Starting on July 1 in Florida, anyone who applies for welfare must first pass a drug test.
Some welfare recipients say it’s a good idea, for the most part.
“I’m for it because I know people who misuse the funds,” said unemployed Kennley Grant outside a central Florida welfare office where he is applying for government assistance.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed the Republican-sponsored bill into law last week, adding Florida to a list of states trying to drug-test welfare recipients.
Michigan passed a similar law that the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals found unconstitutional in 2003 since it violated the U.S. Fourth Amendment, which protects citizens against unreasonable search. The court said the law would set a dangerous precedent by allowing the government to conduct drug searches for the safety of the public without prior suspicion.
Like Kennley Grant, most people CNN asked outside the office of the Florida Department of Children and Family agreed with the state’s new law.
“I think it’s good,” said Lissie Bryant, who has an adult son who gets benefits. “There are so many people walking around here that are getting welfare that really don’t deserve it and they’re taking the money and buying drugs.”
Several mothers who would not give their names disagreed with the law. Two women used expletives to describe their displeasure with it.
ACLU of Florida, which opposes the law, says it is not surprised welfare recipients agree with drug testing.
“You do what you have to do get the help,” said Berek Newton with the ACLU.
Scott recently told CNN’s TJ Holmes, “I want to make sure our taxpayers are not subsidizing drug addiction.
“Studies show people who are on welfare are higher users of drugs than people not on welfare,” he said.
On CNN’s request, the governor’s office supplied several studies that showed drug use was higher among welfare recipients.
One document from a public policy brief on substance abuse had statistics from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health: A self-reported survey in 2007 found 20% of women ages 18-49 on welfare reported using illicit drugs compared to 10.3% of women of the same ages not on welfare.
The ACLU of Florida disagrees and cites a 2001 Florida pilot study that looked at drug use among welfare recipients.
Newton said the study was stopped after only a year because it failed. The study found drug use among welfare recipients was equal or less than the general public’s drug use, Newton said.
The ACLU said the study found the drug testing program would cost more to run than the state could possibly save by eliminating drug users on welfare.
Florida’s ACLU executive director Howard Simon said, “”Once again, this governor has demonstrated his dismissal of both the law and the right of Floridians to personal privacy by signing into law a bill that treats those who have lost their jobs like suspected criminals.”
The ACLU has filed suit against the state for requiring all state workers to take a drug and is considering suing the state for drug testing welfare applicants.
Five Florida state Democratic legislatures joined to voice their outrage at the governor for insulting families who have fallen on hard times thanks to the bad economy and for what they called an unconstitutional law.
Welfare recipients who supported the drug test strongly disagreed that welfare applicants should have to pay out of pocket for the test.
The law says those who pass the drug test would be refunded the test cost but those who fail or test positive for drugs would be out the drug tests cost – $10 to $70.
“You can’t have a struggling family pay for something they can’t afford already – they’re asking for your assistance,” Kennley Grant said. He believes the state should pay for the drug test.
James S., who receives benefits and asked that his last name not be used, said, “I would ask the state or the governor to reconsider.” Not everyone can afford it, he said.
Bryant, however, said,” If they got to pay for it out of their own pocket and they really need it, then they will do the right thing.”
The ACLU says that’s irrelevant, it’s illegal.
Newton said, “It’s like the government sending you a bill to violate your rights.”
Washington (CNN) – Freshman Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul stood firm today on his position against raising the debt ceiling. In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room,” the libertarian-leaning senator said he would only consider voting “yes” if the bill came with a balanced budget amendment.
“If (Democrats) want to spend the money, they need to be honest with the American people and say ‘We’ve got to borrow $2 trillion because that’s what we want to spend,’ ” Paul said. “I don’t want to spend that much money.”
But Paul said he’s not concerned about the potential consequences of keeping the federal debt ceiling at its current limit.
“Our interest payment is about $20 billion a month,” he said. “Our tax revenue is about $200 billion a month, so we’re bringing in (nearly) $200 billion. We’ve got plenty of money to pay our interest.”
Paul said the country could also bring down the debt by bringing back its troops overseas. With growing unrest in Syria tempting the international community to intervene, he warned against any further involvements.
“We’re already involved in three wars, including the latest war in Libya, where we had no congressional vote,” Paul said. “That’s not what our founding fathers wanted.”
Turning to the 2012 GOP field, Paul said his father, Ron Paul, a Republican presidential candidate, has a better chance this time around than his previous White House bid.
“In 2007-2008, most people didn’t know his name,” the senator said, adding that he now believes 70 to 80% of Americans recognize the candidate. “He attracts a lot of people who are disgruntled with both parties, and so I think that would be his main advantage over the entire Republican field.”
Four Big Lies
(Part 4 of 4)
“The Debt Ceiling is too Difficult for Average People to Comprehend”
This is part 4 of a 4 part series. Click here to read part 1.
Click here to read part 2. Click here to read part 3.
This is the fourth and final installment in a series of articles detailing the 4 big lies that will be used by those in favor of raising the debt ceiling.
Big Lie Number Four
“The intricate financial details of running the entire United States Government are so complicated that the average American just isn’t capable of understanding how it works. It involves thousands upon thousands of byzantine and interwoven variables that are so delicately balanced they can be easily disrupted by one false move, setting off a cataclysmic chain reaction of economic disasters that will cripple the world’s monetary system. Handcuffing congress by not allowing us to raise the debt ceiling just shows how simplistic, unsophisticated, ill informed, and child-like you Tea Party Patriots are. Those of us in congress are far better equipped to make these kinds of decisions. So just go back to your daily lives and let us run the country.“
When you’re standing face-to-face with a member of congress and they tell you how great they are at running the economy, it’s difficult not to laugh so hard that you temporarily lose consciousness. But many of them manage to say it with a straight face. It’s almost as if they honestly think they know what they’re doing.
To a Congressman, the thought of taking budgetary advice from average Americans who balance checkbooks, run businesses, live within the limits of their financial means, and stop spending before they run out of money is outrageous and insulting.
They are the rulers after all.
Who are we to question them?
But deep within the subconscious mind of every Congressman is the truth. They are horribly insecure because they are in way over their heads, they have very little idea what they’re doing, and they are scared to death that someone (especially their other buddies in congress) will discover that they secretly don’t understand the convoluted logic. So they all pretend.
It’s time to snap them out of it.
Ockham’s Razor is an old, widely used axiom that says when you have two competing ideas
the simplest idea is usually the best.
This is especially true when there’s no evidence to support the more complicated idea.
Let’s look at how Ockham’s Razor applies to the debt ceiling issue.
IDEA 1 (from congress):
It’s so complicated that we can’t explain it to you, but trust us we should raise the debt ceiling.
IDEA 2 (from Americans):
It’s incredibly simple. There’s no more money.
So do not raise the debt ceiling.
Congress has a really, really, really bad track record when it comes to managing money. There are no examples of real life situations in which congress was prudent, frugal, and efficient. There’s also no proof that congress learns from past mistakes and doesn’t repeat them. Their complicated solutions haven’t worked, ever. But they keep trying them.
There simply is no evidence to prove that congress is qualified to make unsupervised decisions about how to handle our money.
On the other hand, there is plenty of evidence that millions of Americans (the ones congressmen think are unsophisticated) successfully operate households and businesses every day and have done so for over 200 years using a very simple financial principle.
When you run out of money,
stop buying stuff.
Ockham’s Razor
Idea 1 = complicated + no proof
Idea 2 = simple + lots of proof
Idea 2 Wins!!
Congress, you’re out of money.
Stop buying stuff.
And don’t raise the debt ceiling.
PERIOD.
First it was Romneycare, now it’s global warming. Can this guy do anything right?
Radio talk show host Rush Linbaugh has a message for presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney: Say goodbye to the 2012 Republican nomination. Last Friday, Romney spoke at a town hall event in New Hampshire, telling the audience that he believes human beings have an impact on global warming:
These School Board Members are up for reelection in 2012. We need to research their positions in terms of our Tea Party principles of Fiscal Responsibility, Constitutionally Limited Government, and Free Markets that promote U.S. products, businesses, and labor.
Vice Chair: Al Hill
688 Roberts Road, Newport, NC 28570
Phone: 223-5234
Email: al.hill@carteretk12.org
Years on board: 5; District 2; Term expires: 2012
Occupation: Owner of Cedar Creek Resort, LLC of Newport; Retired Line Superintendent with Carteret-Craven Electric Cooperative
Education: Graduate of West Carteret High School; Attended Craven Community College
Current Board Areas of Oversight: Plant Operations, Transportation, Buildings and Grounds, Architect Selection, New Construction
Other involvements: Chairman of Newport Board of Adjustment (23 years), West Carteret High School Band Boosters and Athletic Boosters; Member and Past Master Newport Masonic Lodge 706; member American Legion Post 46 Morehead City; Newport Board of Adjustment (19 years); Glad Tidings Church; Newport Elementary School Parent Advisory Council (2 years); Soccer coach for Newport Middle School 2002-2003; Soccer coach Seashore Soccer League (14 years), Cancer Relay for Life participant
David Carr
1611 Sanderling Drive, Morehead City, NC 28557
Phone: 240-2649
Email: sdavidcarr@gmail.com
Years on board: 5; District 4; Term expires: 2012
Occupation: Vice President, North Carolina Employee Benefits Division, BB&T Insurance Services, Inc.
Education: Bachelor’s degree in economics and bachelor’s degree in business management from North Carolina State University
Current Board Areas of Oversight: Political Liaison, Budget and Finance, Policy Review
Other involvements: Member First Presbyterian Church, Morehead City; former Chairman of School Advisory Council, Morehead City Primary School; member of Lookout Rotary Club; Board of Directors of Morehead City Little League
Shelley Sylivant
2202 Cambridge Downs Dr., Morehead City, NC 28557
Phone: 342-6676
Email: shelley.sylivant@carteretk12.org
Years on board: first year; District 3; Term expires 2012
Occupation: Department of Navy Project Engineer
Education: Bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Purdue University; master’s degree in business administration from Liberty University
Current Board Areas of Oversight: Technology, Policy Review, New Construction, Architect Selection
Other involvements: Former Carteret County high school math teacher; volunteer tutor; member of multiple civic organizations; member of Glad Tidings Church
My name is Eric Broyles of Morehead City. I am the Vice Chairman of the Crystal Coast Tea Party Patriots. I appreciate you allowing me to speak tonight. The greatest gift a parent, community, or nation can give a child is a quality education. A quality education not only prepares an individual for the future, but is an investment into the future success of a society or nation. There are several elements that determine an individual’s quality of learning and education, which are:
· Nutritional meal
· Quality Teacher
· Parental support and coaching
· Lesson plan and learning materials
· Educational setting
I am sure there are many more elements that can be added to the list, but the first two are the most important. A hungry child does not learn and a bad teacher does not educate. Now onto the main purpose of this speech, which address school system accountability and reporting of information to parents and taxpayers.
Over the past several months, we have heard a lot of discussion from both sides of the aisle about classroom sizes and how it impacts the quality of education our children receive. Yet when you visit Carteret County School Boards website, it becomes a challenging adventure for any citizen to obtain information on class sizes and scholastic performance at the classroom/teacher level. I do not know why the information is not openly and readily disclosed, but parents and taxpayers alike have a right to know the overall scholastic performance of a class and its teacher. Individual student testing and performance information should never be released in accordance with current regulation or privacy laws.
As a taxpayer and parent, I am asking that our School Board and superintendent publish the classroom size statistics and overall scholastic scores of teachers in an easily accessible and readable format yearly on its website. This will create a level of accountability at the public and tax payer level. We do not want another Detroit, where 47% of the population is estimated to be functionally illiterate. Openness and full disclosure has always been the best policy. As many speakers pointed out the other night at the Commissioner’s meeting, we owe this to our children and their future prosperity.
Commissioners & Fellow Citizens,
My name is Eric Broyles of Morehead City, North Carolina.
On a previous occasion, I spoke about the negative impact that raising taxes or fees at this time would have on senior citizens and the unemployed, who are on fixed or limited incomes. They represent approximately 30% of the county. Both citizen groups have seen food, basic commodities, and gas prices spiraling up over 100% in the past several years. Based on school board statistics, 41.4% or 3,561of our school students are on free or reduced meals because their parent(s) cannot afford to provide lunch for them.
Currently, there is a lot of propaganda out there about the poor quality of education our students will receive if we increase class sizes. Many studies like the “Brooking Institute Brown Center Study on Class Size” and “A Lesson in Smaller Class Sizes” by Nina Rees clearly imply a small increase in class size would have a negligible impact on the quality of education a student receives. Most studies point to the fact that the quality of the teacher is the most important element in how well a child learns. To take it one step further, Dr. Matthew Chingos, who obtained his PH.D. from Harvard University, states “Investing less in Class Size Reductions would free up resources that could be used to recruit and retain highly effective teachers”. I think history has already deflated the claims of those advocating class size as the chief determining factor in the quality of education an individual receives considering the technological, scientific, and medical advances of my father’s and my generation, whose average class size was 25 or more students. The same generation many of you are in.
Today, we have a group of citizens advocating the full funding of the school budget, which will eventually result in tax increases. They want to raise taxes on the financially hard pressed citizens who are on fixed or limited incomes. Some of these citizens cannot even afford to provide their own child a simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich for their school lunch. I cannot see the benefit in raising taxes to save 100 teachers jobs, while 1/3 of our community is struggling just to buy food, medicines, utilities, and afford housing.
During difficult economic times, government like citizens and businesses, must tighten their belts and reduce spending. To do otherwise, would be unwise, reckless, and fiscally irresponsible. I am in full support of the budget currently proposed by the Commissioners because it best protects the interest of all citizens.
From Tea Party Patriots
Four Big Lies
(Part 3 of 4)
“Hey Kid, I’ll Give You a Great Deal on These Magic Beans!”
This is part 3 of a 4 part series. Click here to read part 1. Click here to read part 2. Also look for part 4 coming soon.
Just about every member of congress (republican and democrat) plans to eventually vote in favor of raising the debt ceiling. Their problem is they know you don’t want them to. So they just have to get you to fall for a few little lies and give them the thumbs-up to blow trillions of dollars you don’t have. Only the lies aren’t so little. They’re big. And we’re not the gullible, inattentive voters they’re used to.
This is the third installment of a four part series discussing the Four Big Lies that will be used (in various forms) to convince you that it’s OK to raise the debt ceiling for the federal government.
Big Lie Number Three
Members of the republican “leadership” will tell you this lie.
“Raising the debt ceiling is inevitable; and the democrats want it so badly they’re willing to give us some really great deals in order to get it. We can take advantage of it and get some cool stuff in exchange for our votes. It’ll be great!”
Frighteningly, many of the republicans in congress trust the promises made to them by their fellow members. They haven’t learned that there always turns out to be a loophole, or an “unforeseen” circumstance, or just an outright betrayal that ends up benefiting socialism and thwarting conservatism.
When is the last time anyone can remember the republicans making a “deal” with the democrats that didn’t result in the American people getting shafted?
To some it appears that the democrats repeatedly lure the republicans in with promises of bipartisanship and goodwill. Then when they’ve gotten everything they want, the democrats whack the republicans over the head with a two by four and break their deal, leaving the republicans bewildered and Americans saying, “we told you so.”
To others it appears that both republicans and democrats have neither the desire, the intelligence, nor the will-power to solve the problems with our government. They simply want to stay in office and enjoy life in the ruling class.
In either case, here’s the message we want republicans and democrats to hear from the voters in their districts:
You Raising the Debt Ceiling
EQUALS
Me Voting for Your Opponent in the Primary and in the General Election
Raising the debt ceiling is not good for America, no matter what deal you think you’re getting in exchange for it.
If you want a balanced budget amendment,
pass a balanced budget amendment
AND DON’T raise the debt ceiling.
If you want big spending cuts,
pass big spending cuts
AND DON’T raise the debt ceiling.
If you want the Capitol cafeteria to sell pizza on Friday, just ask the chef
AND DON’T raise the debt ceiling.
Do you see the simple beauty
of this pattern?
The point is, find another way to get the “deals” that you want without selling your vote on the debt ceiling.
PERIOD.
Our team at Tea Party Patriots is working hard every day, and night, and weekend to fight socialism and promote the values of fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government, and free markets.
The liberals and the enemies of freedom are fighting just as hard to shut us down.
Don’t let socialism win.
Fight it! This is urgent!
Donate to Tea Party Patriots.
If you missed them:
Click here to read Big Lie Number One.
Click here to read Big Lie Number Two.
Please share this message with your friends by forwarding this email, or by using the little Facebook link at the very top of this email.
You can also visit our Facebook page
Find us on Facebook
and join the conversation.
CLICK HERE to DONATE ONLINE
or
Mail Your Donation to:
TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
P.O. BOX 220183
CHANTILLY, VA 20153-0183
Your Tea Party Patriots National Coordinator Team,
Debbie Dooley, Jenny Beth Martin, Mark Meckler, Sally Oljar, Diana Reimer, and Dawn Wildman
TPP Support email: support@teapartypatriots.org
TPP Support phone number: 404-593-0877
Jenny Beth Martin (jennybethm@gmail.com, Twitter @jennybethm, Facebook)
Dawn Wildman (dmwlaw1@cox.net)
Mark Meckler (mark@teapartypatriots.org)
Debbie Dooley (debbie0040@yahoo.com)
Tea Party Patriots, Inc. operates as a social welfare organization organized under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions to Tea Party Patriots, Inc. are not deductible as charitable contributions for income tax purposes.
1025 Rose Creek Dr, 620-322, Woodstock, GA 30189
From Tea Party Patriots
Four Big Lies
(Part 2 of 4)
“Financial Armageddon”
This is part 2 of a 4 part series. Click here to read part 1. Also look for parts 3 and 4 coming soon.
We’re talking about the Four Big Lies that Republicans, Democrats, Congressmen, Senators, Reporters, and the President will tell you over the next few weeks as they try to convince you to let them raise the debt ceiling. In this issue we address the second lie.
Big Lie Number Two
“There’s no way to cut enough spending. So we must raise the debt ceiling. If we don’t raise it America will not be able to pay back its creditors and the rest of the world will never trust us with money again. It will be a disaster!!!”
Fact
The problem is not that congress can’t cut spending. The problem is that congress
doesn’t want to cut spending.
There’s a big difference.
The United States Government is addicted to spending money. It is a gluttonous, greedy, vulgar addiction that makes drug addicts look stable by comparison.
If you lock a heroin addict in a nice room, provide him with everything he needs to live, but give him no more heroin, what happens? He panics. He will become totally irrational, scream, cry, beg, plead, bargain, lie, steal, and (given the chance) maybe even kill to get more drugs. It would be difficult to watch him go through the painful process of breaking the addiction. But if you care about his future, you know that you cannot trust the words that are coming out of his mouth. It’s the addiction talking. You stand strong and cut off his supply until the addiction is broken.
It’s time to lock the government in a nice room. We will care for it and give it everything it needs to live. And because we love America, we’re going to stand strong and force it to break the addiction.
The truth is that the spending can be cut quickly and in a large enough amount to avoid blowing past the debt ceiling.
At the end of President Clinton’s term in office (just 10 years ago) the government was operating with a budget surplus. Some debate the specifics; but no one can debate that spending was far lower than it is now, and the economy was much better than it is now.
During President Bush’s term in office federal spending climbed and climbed. Government grew faster and bigger than it should ever be allowed to do.
President Obama has had the credit card for only 28 months. And in that time the government has grown more than it did under all previous Presidents added together!
Common sense dictates that if it can be pumped up that quickly, it can be cut back quickly too.
Many of the things that will have to be reduced are popular government programs that politicians fear cutting. But we cannot continue to survive as a country if we fail to properly manage massive government programs because they’re considered “sacred cows”.
The “sacred cows” have run off into the wild and are going to starve to death if we don’t bring them back into the barn.
We’ve also got a few diseased “mad cows” (like Obamacare) that just need to be put down in order to save the herd.
Mr. President, Senate, & Congress;
We are not going to let you
raise the debt ceiling.
So stop asking.
Now move on and deal with the spending problems.
PERIOD.
Help us get this message to a larger audience. Share it with your friends. And support us with a donation to fund advertising and grassroots training.
Click here to read Big Lie Number One.
Thank you!
CLICK HERE to DONATE ONLINE
or
Mail Your Donation to:
TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
P.O. BOX 220183
CHANTILLY, VA 20153-0183
Your Tea Party Patriots National Coordinator Team,
Debbie Dooley, Jenny Beth Martin, Mark Meckler, Sally Oljar, Diana Reimer, and Dawn Wildman
TPP Support email: support@teapartypatriots.org
TPP Support phone number: 404-593-0877
Jenny Beth Martin (jennybethm@gmail.com, Twitter @jennybethm, Facebook)
Dawn Wildman (dmwlaw1@cox.net)
Mark Meckler (mark@teapartypatriots.org)
Debbie Dooley (debbie0040@yahoo.com)
Tea Party Patriots, Inc. operates as a social welfare organization organized under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions to Tea Party Patriots, Inc. are not deductible as charitable contributions for income tax purposes.
1025 Rose Creek Dr, 620-322, Woodstock, GA 30189
From Tea Party Patriots
Four Big Lies
(Part 1 of 4)
“Obama Inherited this Mess”
At this very moment members of congress are trying to decide what pieces of America’s future they will trade away as part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling. We’ve had the chance to talk with many of them. And even most of those who claim to be on the side of fiscal responsibility are giddy with excitement that they can trade their vote on this debt ceiling “crisis” in exchange for a handful of magic beans offered by the liberals.
Our answer is simple.
It is not acceptable to use the future of America as a bargaining chip.
Do not raise the debt ceiling.
PERIOD.
In the coming weeks, you will be told 4 lies (at a minimum) by those who want to raise the debt ceiling. The lies will be packaged and presented in many different ways, but in general they will all boil down to these 4 (remember them and don’t be fooled):
Big Lie 1
“The current financial crisis was inherited.”
Big Lie 2
“There’s no way to cut enough spending. So we must raise the debt ceiling.”
Big Lie 3
“We can haggle for some really great deals now that we have them over a barrel.”
Big Lie 4
“You just don’t understand all of the complicated details. Let us handle it.
We’re smart.”
In this four part series we will address each lie individually. Look for parts 2, 3, and 4 over the next 3 days. (CLICK HERE to DONATE and help fight the lies.)
Big Lie Number One:
“Bush created all of these problems. We are trying to solve them but it’s much worse than we thought and it will take years for our solutions to have an impact.”
There are numerous facts available to disprove this. But two of the biggest and best are:
Fact 1
President Obama increased spending and the size of government more than all previous presidents (from George Washington through George Bush)
COMBINED.
President Obama created that problem and he should own it.
Fact 2
The number one, most important job of the House of Representatives every year is to create a federal budget. Under Nancy Pelosi (while Obama was in office) the House did not create a federal budget. They didn’t even try. They did, however, write endless blank checks for Obama to use on his wild spending spree.
The liberal congress created that problem and they should own it.
We are hitting the debt ceiling because they went nuts with the country’s credit card for the past 28 months. It’s not someone else’s fault. The problem was created quickly and it can be solved quickly by cutting spending and cutting up the credit card. Raising the debt ceiling will only make it worse. PURE AND SIMPLE. Don’t buy it when they tell you it’s more complicated than that.
Preaching to the choir doesn’t help us solve the problem. In order to have a real impact we need to get this message to a bigger audience.
Tea Party Patriots Plans to Blitz the Media with our Message.
By putting Tea Party Patriots in front of cameras, behind microphones, in advertisements, and in print all over the country we spread the word to millions who will be inspired to act and make their opinion heard in the halls of congress.
We also bring together hundreds of local Tea Party Leaders every Monday night by conference call, and every few months at regional meetings. These local grassroots leaders decide what issues we’re going to tackle, craft our strategies for success, and go back to their local groups to put boots on the ground.
In the past two years we’ve proven that we can very effectively rally millions to our cause when we need them.
And we need them now.
You might be surprised to learn how much money it costs to sustain an effort like this. Liberal groups like MoveOn.org have annual budgets exceeding $31,000,000 (thirty one million dollars) at their disposal. Being conservatives, ours is considerably less.
But our accomplishments on a small budget speak for themselves.
We’re proud of our track record of good stewardship, hard work, and big results.
Your donations to Tea Party Patriots always go a long, long way to promote and preserve fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government, and free markets in America.
Make a donation now to support hammering home another Tea Party victory and save our country!
Thank you!
CLICK HERE to DONATE ONLINE
or
Mail Your Donation to:
TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
P.O. BOX 220183
CHANTILLY, VA 20153-0183
Your Tea Party Patriots National Coordinator Team,
Debbie Dooley, Jenny Beth Martin, Mark Meckler, Sally Oljar, Diana Reimer, and Dawn Wildman
TPP Support email: support@teapartypatriots.org
TPP Support phone number: 404-593-0877
Jenny Beth Martin (jennybethm@gmail.com, Twitter @jennybethm, Facebook)
Dawn Wildman (dmwlaw1@cox.net)
Mark Meckler (mark@teapartypatriots.org)
Debbie Dooley (debbie0040@yahoo.com)
Tea Party Patriots, Inc. operates as a social welfare organization organized under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions to Tea Party Patriots, Inc. are not deductible as charitable contributions for income tax purposes.
1025 Rose Creek Dr, 620-322, Woodstock, GA 30189
Greeting,
The NCGOP convention ended today on a high note with a very motivated and energized executive committee sent forth by our Chairman to “GO OUT AND WIN”.
The convention got off to a very slow start on Friday but soon found its legs and took off running Friday night with a rousing speech from Congressman Allen West. Saturday’s attendance swelled to 1161 delegates with 90 counties in attendance. Counties from the east, Brunswick, New Hanover and Onslow had high attendance numbers along with several larger counties, Wake, Mecklenburg and Forsyth. Carteret County had 24 delegates in attendance and I wish to thank all of them for attending.
On Saturday House Speaker Thom Tillis and President Pro Tempore Phil Berger reported on the budget and other legislative goals of the session. Congressmen Mick Mulvaney and Andrew Breitbart were the guest speakers at lunch.
Supreme Court Justice Paul Newby led off the afternoon session. Justice Newby is the only Supreme Court Justice on the ballot in 2012. Prior the Democratic Legislatures change from partisan to non-partisan races the Republicans held a 5-2 majority on the Supreme Court. Republicans currently hold a 4 to 3 majority on the Court with Justice Newby seat being the swing seat this year. The matching funds period will commence on September 1, 2011 for judicial races. So mark your calendars for September and plan to make a contribution to Justice Newby’s campaign. On a related note Senator Phil Berger earlier informed the convention that a bill to reverse the non-partisan judicial races to partisan races will be debated in committee this week.
Pat McCrory addressed the convention to a standing ovation and listed 10 reasons why Bev Perdue should not be reelected Governor. He also explained that the Democrats need to win at least one southern state in 2012 to retain the Presidency. President Obama and the Democratic Party have put North Carolina in play by selecting Charlotte as the site of their national Convention. They will pour people and money into the state to win. He reminded the convention that it will take three M’s to win, Money, Manpower and Motivation.
The Convention then took a serious turn when it came to elections of party officers. Current Party Chairman Robin Hayes was challenged by Marcus Kindley for the post of State Party Chairman. After nominations, seconding and finally campaign speeches from the candidates Chair Hayes was reelected by unanimous consent.
In one of the most contentious events of the convention Wayne King challenged current State Party Vice-Chairman Tim Johnson. Votes were awarded on a portion method of total delegates granted to each county. The winner was in doubt until the end when Wake County cast its votes. Vice-Chairman Tim Johnson led with the most votes’ cast by delegates present throughout the election; but lost to Wayne King on the total votes awarded.
Saturday ended with two final highlights. The first was a standing ovation to a resolution honoring former State Party Chairman Frank Rouse. The second was the evening banquet honoring former chairman Tom Fetzer. US Congressman Tim Scott was also a guest speaker at the banquet.
Sunday the convention ended on a VERY high note as the Executive Committees meeting was held. Chairman Hayes and Billy Miller, the convention chairman, worked through the agenda effortless while energizing and sometimes amusing the committee with their wit. Chairman Hayes informed the committee that the plan for the upcoming election was simple, WIN, retain the State House and Senate, and defeat Governor Perdue and President Obama. To accomplish this task we need to do the following:
1. Raise Money
2. Hire the right people
3. Formulate a grass roots effort
Following former chairman Tom Fetzer’s winning effort in the last election we need to develop a statewide plan. In the past counties focused on local races, in order to hold our current gains and win the governorship and presidency he asks us to assist the state party in raising funds and forming a grass roots organization.
The following officers were submitted by Chairman Hayes and approved by the Executive Committee:
Secretary – Martha Jenkins
Treasurer – Ken Dickson
General Counsel – John Branch
Asst. Secretary – Tommy Adams
Asst. Treasure – Steve Long
Asst. Council – Paul Farley
David Williams submitted his name for General Counsel but withdrew before the vote was taken. The final order of business was the appointment of Terry Hutchens as Finance Chairman. The Executive Committee then adjourned.
As the convention has come to an end the campaign has just begun. I know each of you will do your part in the upcoming election.
Greg Lewis
Carteret County Party Chairman
CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
MAY 31, 2011
Meeting held at Golden Corral, Morehead City, NC
Meeting called to order at 6:13pm by President BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge of Allegiance led by ERNIE GUTHRIE
Invocation by DEBBIE RUCKER
Number of Attendees – 27
BOB recognized new attendees Charlie and Libbie Wilton, friends of RON and BELVA MANNING.
DIANE LANG gave an update on ROMA WADE’s surgery. He had an aneurism in his leg but came through the surgery fine. KEN LANG said Roma had asked him to email everyone that he had had the surgery, and the bad news was he was going to make it; but Ken decided not to send out that news. KEN and DIANE, both said he was driving Edith crazy. Someone in the audience asked “What’s new?”
BOB reported that the reason RUTH PARKER was not in attendance tonight was she had bent over to pick up a fork someone in the restaurant had dropped and threw her back out. He asked Debbie to say a prayer for RUTH.
BOB said “Next Monday, we are trying to get as many TEA Party troops to descend upon the County Commissioners meeting at 6:00 pm at the Court House. The reason being the budget is going to be discussed and comments solicited from the attendees to talk about what they think is important and we know that C4 group, (pretty much a teacher’s lobby) asking to increase funding) while we will be there in support of tax payers, supporting the County Commissioners recommendation that we leave the budget like last year’s budget.
BOB wanted to know if anyone had had the opportunity to look over the copy of the portion of
the county budget that PEGGY GARNER had passed out last week. Read small section on the school budget. Hi-lites were:
Education operating, and capital outlay expenditures account for $21,608,000.00 or 24.04% of the County’s total budget. The school’s operating expenditures remain at the FY 2011 funding level of $19,340,000.00. Capital outlay is $1,254,245.00, a 30.26% decrease from FY 2011 adopted capital. Adopted FY 2011 capital is used as the benchmark for comparison because any previous year unspent capital funds are re-appropriated annually. Therefore, amended capital funding comparisons are distorted and misleading.
The Community College’s operating expenses remain at the FY 2011 funding level of $2,043,000.00. Its capital budget is $225,000.00. In accordance with the FY 2008 joint agreement established by the Community College and the Board of Commissioners; the Board of Commissioners borrowed $1.7 million to fund large Community College projects, as a result, the two Boards agreed to a seven year commitment of $225,000.00 per year capital funding.
The estimated daily membership for county schools in fiscal year 2012 is 8,441 students, as compared to 8,273 last year. The recommended budget funds current expense per student is $2,291.00 compared to $2,312.00 in FY 2011. Debt service for the schools is reflected in the debt service department, which totals $8,078,742.00. The Community College total debt is $909,100.00.
BOB then read a letter from Dr. Daniel A. Novey, Superintendent and Catherine H. Neagle, Board Chairman justifying their request for additional funding above what the Commissioners have come up with. Excerpts follow:
This Operating Budget request represents the very heart of what makes Carteret County Schools special – our staff. Recognized as one of the very best school systems in the state, Carteret County Schools provides our children a superb education because of the commitment of the citizens to provide funds for quality teachers and programs. Reducing the operating funds for our schools means essential personnel will no longer be able to support our children in their education.
Over the last few years, the Carteret County Board of Education and the Superintendent have worked diligently to reduce the expenses of running the school system. However, there is a point at which reduced budgets no longer reflect improved efficiency but begin to erode the capacity of the organization to fulfill its obligations to the citizens of the county. The proposed cuts of state funding to education for 2011-12 will result in the need to shift more responsibility to the local level, if the quality of education in our county is to remain a reason for people to move and establish their homes and businesses here.
The state’s proposed budget will require local funds to cover all workmen’s compensation claims previously covered by the state. The cost of that change includes a $350,000.00 cash reserve and an increase in insurance costs of over $564,000.00 per year. Additionally, the reductions of state funding will also require local funds to be expended to pay the unemployment claims and the annual health insurance premium for any staff members laid off as a result of any reduction in force (RIF). Those costs for Carteret County Schools are anticipated to exceed $1,258,000.00 in 2011-12.
Our 2011-12 Operating Budget request of $22,165,624.00 plus the $590,000.00 charter school pass-through funding is focused on maintaining a very lean but effective staff while meeting the routine obligations incumbent on a system of our size. The increase in local funding over previous years will be essential to meet the changing needs of a restructured method of funding education in North Carolina.
Of the $3,298,374.00 increase requested over the previous year’s budget, $2,574,921.00 (or 78%) represents expenses pushed upon the Carteret County School system by the state government. The remainder of the increase reflects the increased prices for essential services. No new programs are included and cuts to existing programs have been made where possible.
The current economical challenges and those of the coming year should not be cause for undoing all the gains that have been made in the last 5 years. Your support of this request will mean the difference in the future of our school system.
Upon completion of reading this letter, BOB said essentially he is requesting about 3.3 million dollar increase above what the County Commissioners are proposing.
HOWARD GARNER stated “Based upon a conversation he had with Rep. Pat McElraft a few weeks ago, a lot of what Novey has mentioned in his letter of being pushed down to the counties is not going to happen. BOB said he remembered Pat saying that, but if we are going to go before the board, we need to be sure we have our facts; so we need to follow up on this and find out where it currently stands. HOWARD said maybe someone in the group should check with her this weekend and find out the status. HOWARD said they will try to tell you there is no fluff in the school system, but when he went to school (sometime after 1492) agriculture was one of the biggest income producers in the county and the school system had only one Vocational/Ag teacher. Today, according to an email he had received from Tabby Nance, there are seven and farming today is basically non-existent, except for the Open Grounds, but their personnel is trained in Italy, not here in the county schools. He is currently waiting for additional information about Vo/Ag teachers in the Middle Schools. He understands there have been and possibly there still are some teaching there. BOB requested this be brought up Tuesday at the Board of Education meeting. He hoped to have several of our members in attendance at that meeting also. TOM wanted to know if anyone has incorporated the cost of fuel into this budget. That is going to become a major factor. Is any part of that 3+ million increase including the increased fuel costs. ERIC said he understood that 3+ million increase was created by the Obama stimulus plan. BOB said according to what he just read 2+ million of that 3+ million was for funding being pushed down by the state to the county. The remainder is for essential services.
FRED DECKER commented that these are the same people who are trying to push back start of school to around the 10th of August. Evidently they are not aware that the school gets the majority of room tax money. Starting school earlier will shorten the amount of time people vacation here and pay that room tax. Shortening the vacation time will decrease the amount of money going into the school system. KEN said it appeared that there were a lot of good questions needing answers and he thought we needed to prepare for both the County Commissioners and Board of Education meetings. The County Commissioners meeting is on Monday with the Board of Education on Tuesday. Right now there are two budgets at the state level, one Gov. Perdue’s and the legislature’s the other. Quite a bit different. Even though over the past few weeks they have been trying to negotiate and come up with a compromised budget. Also has heard that the Governor has been threatening to veto the Legislature budget but others say that is less likely. The Governor’s budget did push a lot of the costs down to the counties, and that is where you have been hearing about the liability insurance costs, costs of buses, fuel costs and a lot of other things coming to the county that the state has typically paid for. The Legislature budget however; their goal was not to push any costs onto the counties; would try to maintain state funding and not cause the counties to spend any more funds than necessary. So what Novey is saying about all these funds being pushed down to the county is referring to Perdue’s budget, not the Legislature budget. He is playing off a dooms day scenario. BOB thinks this is a good thing to mention at the meeting by whoever speaks for the TEA Party. KEN talked about an email he had received from a couple of TEA party members ( a newsletter from Governor Perdue). Gov. Perdue was here in the county this past week and during her presentation here she continued her dooms day scenario about teachers being fired, teachers aids being let go, etc. If you read the paper you may as well close the schools and everybody go home. It sounded terrible. He sent this newsletter off to Jean Preston and Pat McElraft and said, OK the Governor’s out there getting all this press on TV, News & Observer, radio, etc,; so he was wondering what the Republicans were going to do. Either set the record straight or tell us if what she is saying is true or not. Didn’t hear back from Jean but did hear from Pat. Pat emailed him that the Governor is telling falsehoods. She said the State Legislature’s budget did not lay off one single teacher. Now saying that, there are some nuances in there. Some teachers are paid by the state and some of the money comes from the county, so it is all not cut and dried. KEN says he believes it is purposefully that way to confuse us. As long as we are confused, it is kind of hard to fight, and he thinks that is why they are doing what they are doing. As far as teachers are concerned, for state funded positions, Pat says there are no cuts. There will be cuts in other areas, like teachers aids. Lots of gamesmanship going on, depending on who you are listening to. ERIC said a lot of the problems goes back to the stimulus money. KEN said yes, but the stimulus money is gone. We can argue until the cows come home about whetherthe stimulus money spending was good or bad or helped or hindered. Like some of that money went to pay for new teachers (knowing the money was only for a short amount of time) and once it was gone there was no way we could continue paying for those new teachers. The only reason he could see was when the money was gone the school board could come back and say we need more money or we are going to have to lay off teachers. BOB wanted to know if the stimulus money we got went to hiring new teachers. ERIC said he had been unable to get a straight answer on that. He is still trying to get an answer from Tabby Nance. We do need clear answers. That is why it is so hard not only for us but also the C4 group to fight for or against an issue, because the school keeps things so fuzzy. It is really hard to get a firm answer. We want real answers while the C4 group wants the budget as proposed by the County Board of Education. Apparently they do not question what is in the budget. They just take for granted whatever the Board of Education wants is it.
The last meeting before the budget is voted on is the Commissioners meeting on June 6. Meeting starts at 6:00pm, so KEN suggested we get there early, so we not only can get a seat but also a parking space. He imagines that C4 will have a big turnout for the meeting so that small room will probably fill up early. BOB said he had heard they (C4) were trying to get upwards of 500 people to show up. KEN said the C4 group had a petition and were hoping to get 20,000 signatures, but would be happy with 10,000. Basically they are asking for the Commissioners to fund at the level the school board requested. One of the Commissioners had told KEN that the Commissioners were hoping to keep this year’s budget at the last year’s budget level. The county is required by law to pass a budget by the end of June. However, since the state had not passed their budget yet, it will impact on the county budget when one is adopted. The county may have to go back and make some adjustments. However, they will vote according to schedule, because it has to go to the state, so KEN thinks they are leaning toward the Legislative budget as their guide. BOB said he thinks that since the state has not finalized their budget, that the logical thing for the county to do is stay with last year’s budget. If they budget all these extra requests and the state budget turns out to be the legislative one, then the schools will end up with all this extra money to just spend, spend, spend.
HOWARD said Rep Brubaker has said he hopes to save the teachers assistants, but he has not heard where that stands at the present time. KEN said the assistants are important because many of them are used as bus drivers, and when you lose an assistant you could also be losing a bus driver which impacts that whole program.
KEN said in listening to BOB read Dr. Novey’s letter, he noticed the same ole, same ole, ideas came up. The need for quality schools for our children is as American as motherhood and apple pie. We all want them. But many of the C4 group think that the schools are what entices doctors, businessmen, lawyers, and professionals to come to this county. KEN said he didn’t realize that that was a purpose or objective of the schools. They always say that. One lady at a Commissioners meeting said they needed schools to get doctors to come here. They needed them to take care of the old folks. They really believe one of the purposes is to attract business and professions to our county. He thought schools were for teaching students. For the Commissioners to be able to provide everything the school supporters want; they have to find a way to find the funding and the only way is to increase taxes. Carteret County is a retirement area – look around the room. Most of us are seniors from the looks of all that gray hair. Most are on fixed incomes and many do not have the income to pay increased taxes. That kind of explanation does not have wide county appeal, only to a small group of people; but they always use that in their talks. They (Dr. Novey and his group) also say local governments need to increase funding to maintain the quality level of education. Local governments, in order to do that, the only source they have is to raise taxes, sales tax, room tax, property tax, tax tax, whatever it happens to be, that is the only way they can accomplish that goal.
PAT NALITZ asked if that 100 teachers they keep talking about being laid off was a phantom number, a number that they just throw out there. I know they use that to get the people aroused. She said she knew people that had received those pink slips. Is that what they do and then they get hired back next year. But is this really for real? KEN said he thought they do it simply to get more money. The only evidence he could point to is the email he got from Pat McElraft saying they (the Legislature) are not going to cut any positions; that they are going to maintain the level keeping the positions that we have; then he thinks the school system talking about laying people off is to generate sympathy for the teachers; a political ploy. KEN said Dr. Novey had told us here when he spoke that they were not actually laying off teachers; that they were doing it just through attrition, that when somebody left that they were not refilling the job, but now it sounds like they are actually thinking about laying people off. That had been Novey’s explanation, but if she knew of some that had actually received their pink slips that that did not jibe with his comments. PAT said the lady she talked to said seven teachers had received a pink slip at her school. KEN said he thought that was political. C4 had a teacher’s appreciation day held here a few weeks ago and they had a lot of teachers from around the county attending. He didn’t know how those teachers got off to go to the rally, whether they had taken a personal day or what. PAT asked was this during the day. KEN said yes, it was during a week day. They billed it as a “Teachers Appreciation Day”, so maybe it was an excused day. From what he read in the paper, there were hundreds of teachers there at this rally. The theme of the rally was ‘They are going to cut all our jobs out’. ‘Course that gets the teachers all motivated to go out and start sending emails to the commissioners. He overheard one of the commissioners ask what was C4 doing; his email box was staying full. He was being inundated with emails. KEN said that is why he had never encouraged us to send massive amounts of email to the commissioners. He did not think it was encouraging good relationships with the commissioners; he felt one on one was more effective. Tell them in person that we can’t just keep throwing money down the rat hole. If more of us would take different areas, (like Howard mentioning the seven Ag teachers) it would be more to our benefit. He told about a pamphlet he had gotten that listed all the classes; for example it listed 5 levels of algebra classes. (Honors algebra, AP algebra (accelerated something), just plain algebra….no this is not algebra 2, just algebra. Throw Algebra 2 in and you can double this number of classes. This is all different levels depending on where you are going after graduation. As he understands it, the students are required to take Algebra 2 (which also has all these different levels). Now if you have a kid that just wants to graduate high school and go out and pound nails for a living, KEN wants to know, why it is mandatory that he has to take Algebra 2? Maybe we should just be teaching him how to balance a checkbook. His question to the C4 crew is ‘why aren’t you guys questioning the curriculum’, maybe we don’t need all this stuff. Not everyone is bound for college. Back when some of us went to school they had the trade classes. They no longer have them. For example, kids could learn to work on cars and even today car dealers are looking for mechanics. Brown from Onslow is one of those car dealers, and he is a big advocate in the Legislature about teaching a trade in school, because he can no longer get the help he needs in his business. C4 is trying to tell every kid they have to go to college in order to get a job. KEN’s question is why these kids are taking all these required courses in high school and then when they get to college they have to take remedial classes. C4 is demanding lower class sizes in high school, but when they go off to college they get dumped into classes of 100 or more students. That makes no sense. PAT said that many of them still can’t make it in college so many end up in community colleges. This is just some stuff to chew on, but those are some of the kind of things we need to be asking the county to look into. ERIC said they are saying if we lay off 100 or even just 1 teacher, the quality of education is impacted, which is hog wash. ROY MUSSER said you can pay as much as you want to for education but it does not necessarily mean the quality increases also. More discussion on teacher/student ratio, etc; (art teachers, handicapped student teachers; those who do not have full classrooms are included in the mix.) and the average number of students per teacher is 12. Would be interesting if they broke out the actual number of teaching teachers which he felt would give a more accurate ratio, but they don’t. Feel they are doing themselves a disservice by not providing the information. If you have one teacher over here teaching 34 students and another teacher only teaching 3 or 4 students, and we are paying both the same, then I want that second teacher doing something else. I’m going to find another job for her; because that is the way those averages work out. PAT asked what about the special needs teachers. They have the small classes. Are they included in this average? KEN said that is something we are going to have to ask. ERIC said C4 and that group are going around saying if we increase class sizes, it will have a great negative impact on education. OK, so if half of our economy went away, we still could only have what we can afford. So if we have to increase class sizes, it will impact 40% of our people, and I’m talking about the 19% of Senior citizens over the age of 65, that are reduced or limited incomes, the almost 10% who are unemployed. That doesn’t factor in the reality those that are working reduced work hours, working part time; those don’t work into the equation. And there are those who have just given up totally. Other concern he has is 42% of our students are getting federal assistance with free lunches, either full or partial meals. That right there tells you that 42% of their parents can not afford it. So how can they afford again tax increases? So the question is “do we want to lay off 100 teachers” or do we want to impact 2,000 citizens. That’s what it is all about to fund the 3.5 million increase in the school budget. We all know what is happening at the gas pumps, and in the grocery stores. My point is ‘we can not raise taxes’. We can not afford it.
BOB said he agrees with all that has been said but Novey has said this increase they are requesting is to take care of all those items being passed down by the state, and from what he understands, this may or may not happen. So bringing up the student/teacher ratio is just a straw man exercise. He found another letter from Novey in the county budget. As we may recall this budget is in two parts, ‘the operating budget’ and the ‘capital budget’. The second letter is about the ‘capital budget request’. “This budget request specifically prioritizes needs into two categories. Those items identified as Priority 1 immediate needs category are considered ‘mission critical for 2011-12. The other needs in the remaining category are those which must be dealt with in the short-term but the immediacy of the need has not yet reached a mission critical status – although it may on any day. Regardless of the category, let there be no misunderstanding that all of the items requested are needed within the 2011-12 budget year. He goes on to identify various critical needs of the schools and states the Capital Budget Request for 2011-12 is $3,104,535.00, which is about a 1.5 million dollars increase, (which is to cover air conditioning, quality air control, painting and maintenance. KEN said he understood from Novey’s talk to us, that this was already paid for. Novey was asked specifically by the commissioners about this and Novey told them all those costs were already taken care of. So now he’s asking for more money for items he has previously said were already taken care of.
He is asking for 3.1 million for the capital budget and l ¼ million for operating budget above and beyond the commissioners proposed budget. In other words he wants about 5 million dollars above what has been proposed.
BOB asked who was going to speak at the county commissioners meeting next week. ERIC said he had already been working on what he wanted to say. BOB asked KEN if he planned to speak and KEN said he might, hadn’t made up his mind yet. So remember next Monday, 6:00 pm the County Commissioners Meeting, second floor of the Court House. Be there, be RED. Get there early, rather it be the C4 people standing out in the hall way and us with seats in the room. Good time to get there – 5:00 pm. Thinks there will be a bigger turnout this week.
HOWARD said he had a question….When a teacher retires, stays out a while, and then is brought back under contract. If they don’t have the money, then how are they doing that? Couldn’t they hire a new teacher for less than they are paying this teacher with 35 or 40 years of service? KEN said he had heard of them laying off a teacher with lots of years of experience and hiring two inexperienced teachers to take their place. Now we are paying all the side bennies for two instead of one. Looks like the schools need to learn about operating a business. HOWARD said he felt we needed a business executive for superintendent instead of an ex- school teacher.
KEN asked to change the subject and talk about the 2012 election. It is not that far away. We need to start discussing presidential, congressional, and senate candidates. BOB asked “who we prefer right now”. Various candidates were mentioned, Cain, Romney, Bachman, Ryan, Gingrich. Gingrich received the most boos and unfavorable comments. ROY MUSSER said ‘anybody but who is already in there’. TOM HARMON said he was opposed to Gingrich, Karl Rove and those who think they are the elite. They put down anyone supported by the TEA Party. We don’t need Democrats to talk them down, Krauthammer and the Ruling Class are doing a great job on their own. They are marginalizing us, apparently afraid of our influence and input. DEBBIE said she is so tired of the Dems pushing the race issue; that maybe if Cain did run it might put it to rest. Cain is a very smart business man, strong conservative, and has a lot of pluses she likes about him. She does not like Obama because he is a black man, but the liberals want to put that in the forefront of this upcoming election that conservatives are racists. Maybe if we support a strong conservative black man and strong white woman, we can stop some of this rhetoric. TOM H. said he was listening to CSPAN when Cain announced his candidacy and all the black people who called in called him a clown, an uncle tom, a GOP talking head. It appears they are going to play the opposite race card. It’s going to get ugly. The Republicans have got to have someone who can take it and throw it right back at them. If we get someone like McCain in the last election, who tried to play Mr. Rogers, we are going to lose again. KEN, that’s the problem, all these that the conservative elites are proposing are exactly that. BOB asked if anyone caught Hannity’s interview with Santorum, last week. He said he was impressed. DEBBIE said we still have a lot of good people coming in and she feels it is too early to get hung up on any one candidate until we can look at them all. BOB asked what we thought of Sarah Palin. Most liked her, but were not sure she could win. KEN said the other candidates need to be watching her. She is getting more press, than all the other candidates put together. All the reporters are talking about how she will not give them her agenda, and it is driving them nuts. If all the other candidates stopped playing to the media, then the media would be mentioning their name in every report. They need to stop playing the old school politics and watch Sarah. She is getting a lot of attention (cause the media doesn’t like her ) and it is not costing her a dime in campaign funds. BOB asked who would disappoint us the most… and the consensus was ‘Mitt Romney’. He failed most of our tests when he would not say he had made a mistake with his Romneycare in Mass. When he said it worked for Mass but probably not work for the country. That’s when he threw most of us under the bus. He also supports ethanol subsidy also, which is bad for this country. Huntsman also supports the ethanol subsidy, cap and trade guy, and is for everything the liberal Democrats are for. We need to watch carefully, these are the guys that the ruling class are trying to convince us are what we need. These guys are losers and if we go with them, then WE are going to lose. We need someone with backbone, don’t be saying one thing one day, and then coming back the next to say we misunderstood what he said. We get enough of that with Obama. BOB said another thing we need to remember…we can get a great president, but if we give him/her a lousy congress and senate, we are no better off. We got a lot of true conservatives this past election and now we need to be looking to put more in office. TOM H. said he really liked Alan West from Florida and hoped that he might consider running, if not now, maybe later. He doesn’t back down from anybody. BOB…any Ron Paul fans here? Only one spoke up. Good ideas, but too old and not a great communicator. A good example of how the TEA Party is misunderstood…STEVE BEST said he was at WalMart with his TEA Party shirt on and a guy came up and told him he wouldn’t join the TEA Party because they were all supporting Ron Paul and he couldn’t stand Ron Paul. This has been encouraged by the Media, and the masses are listening. ERNIE said he liked Ron Paul, because he was a good Constitutionalist. The things he said at the last election have proven true. KEN said yes, he is a smart guy, but not a winner. He might make a good Secretary of the Treasury. DEBBIE said yes, he may be brilliant, but we hear every day about how brilliant Obama is…the most brilliant president ever!!! If the TEA Party holds on to its roots and convictions, we are going to look for the most conservative people running. That is the only thing that can turn Washington around. BOB wanted to know what we are going to do in Carteret County to fire up the voters and get them out. TOM H. said we did a pretty good job last November, but we just have to get out there early and push. Our voter recommendation thing we did was a big success from all the good comments we received. We didn’t have enough participation at the polls last November, so we need to begin planning on who will work this year and get our ducks in a row. We have about 33 precincts and need one or two members at each. Last November we only had about 12 or 15 covered. Those that did work the polls were richly rewarded by all the nice compliments we received…they were glad the TEA Party was there…and appreciated our input on the judges. It was suggested that we might want to let the voters know who the TEA Party is backing in the presidential and other races also. We could put their names on the front and let the voters know where we stand. BOB said we have to be careful. We can use the word ‘recommend’ but not ‘we are for’. Recommend all the TEA Parties be sure to back the same candidates and not fracture our powerful input. Last year because we had so many candidates in the primary, and such a short period of time that we decided to place our emphasis on the November election. Are we going to get involved in the primary season this time. If so we need a whole lot more people involved in interviewing want-a-be’s. The TEA Party has to show the Republican party how strong we are and how much influence we have with the voters. Right now the GOP is leaning toward moderates and we are going to lose, if we don’t let them know we are here and are not to be ignored. It seems that all the TEA Parties need to be going out and picking the most conservative candidates. They don’t have to, right now, all pick the same one, but we need to be getting things lined up to make our final decision, by having several candidates to put our emphasis on vetting so we can come up with and back the most strong and effective candidate. BOB said we have to be careful with the national TEA Parties, because he thinks it is illegal to announce the backing of a particular candidate. KEN said we need to do something, because the Crystal Coast TEA Party is not going to make it on the National News. We have to have more involved than just us. BOB said he got a lot of flack from the North Carolina TEA Parties because we were supporting certain candidates with our recommendation cards. He thinks part of the TEA Party problem is that some of the groups have been co-opted. Some have their own agendas, whereas we have continued with our grass roots organization. Would hate to see us stuck with a “John McCain” candidate again this time around. BOB, the unfortunate reality of politics is money is the milk of success. Palumbo has been spending his time working over Jones’ contributors, trying to bring them over to his campaign/switch sides as well as his own contributors. You have to have the money to win. We, the Crystal Coast TEA Party is going to have to make a decision in the very near future “are we
going to support Jones or Palumbo in the primary”.
WAYNE WILLIS asked since we are supposed to go to the County Commissioners Meeting next Monday night and the Board of Education Meeting on Tuesday, when are we going to have our next meeting. BOB said guess we’ll have to get together at the Board of Education meeting on Tuesday. Asked where that meeting was going to be held. When you go into Beaufort go past the Court House stop light and turn left at the next light. When you get to the stop light at the old Beaufort school, make a right. The Board of Education will be held in the building on the left across from Safrit’s. The old administration building.
WAYNE said he would have to rescheduled the meeting he had set up to discuss the board game for our next meeting then. He needs the guy working on the computer portion to talk with us since WAYNE does not understand all the ins and outs of the computer portion of the game. He has something he wants to show us. He said the game had one bug in it, but this guy had a whole can of Flit between his ears to take care of the problem.
FRED said Adele Collins was not going to run for Board of Education at the next election so we need to be looking for someone to run in her place. Might also want to be looking for someone to run against Al Hill.
A gentleman arrived to our meeting late, and BOB asked him to introduce himself. He said his name is Lee Haywood from Gilford County (Greensboro). He represents the conservatives from Gilford. He said he had spoken with KEN LANG about our meetings. He said we had brought back memories of their meetings in Gilford. School Board expecially. They are in the same fight we are down here, as far as getting information. It’s a big slush fund, moving money around, and they have 76, 000 students, claim 10,000 teachers but they can only account for 3600, with a budge of 680 million dollars. It was interesting to him to hear us talking about the same things they discussed. Hosted a meeting of their group and 9 of the commissioners, picked out 70 million in cuts, but the chairman did not show up for the meeting. They are still stirring up things so encouraged us to not give up hope. He heard us talking about contract employees. They bring them in on a grant for two years and then end up being permanent, so they start all over. You have to watch out for that as well. HOWARD said he thought they were all using the same song book. Mr. Haywood said Oh, yeah, they all get together and meet underground before they talk to us. ERIC asked how many teachers were they talking about firing. Mr. Haywood said they were talking somewhere around 200. Their Superintendent makes a quarter of a million dollars a year. He is a lawyer. He is not able to teach. It would be against the law for him to go into a class room and teach. When he came on in 2008 during happier times, he created 39 districts, with 39 administrators for between 4 ½ to 5 million dollars. Nine of the top 25 officials work for the Greenville School Board. Empire building and they are protecting it with their life, believe me. He supports charter schools. Wanted to know if anyone there was going to the convention in Wilmington this coming weekend. Said to go on line. There is a group called caution out of Charlotte. They already have 22 TEA Party groups meeting in a suite at 9:00. They are trying to get a bigger room, because it mushroomed on us. Right now it is in Suite 612 at the Hilton. KEN said this is kind of a spin off of the GOP state convention. Go to NCGOP.com web site for additional information.
Thanked KEN for inviting him and enjoyed meeting with us.
BOB introduced two other late comers ‘Susie Haupt and Paul Hee. Susie is from Marshallburg and Paul is from Beaufort. Susie said they were the only conservative
Republicans that they knew. Everyone around them is liberal dems. HOWARD said, but at lease now you can admit you’re Republican. There was a time when you didn’t hardly dare to whisper it. Paul wanted to know if we had a secretary who was keeping up with this meeting. BOB told him we do and pointed to PEGGY. BOB asked them to please sign our sign-in sheet. BOB explained that every Monday night he is on a web site where the various TEA Parties get together and discuss things. They also have various speakers, etc. Mr. Hee said he had been listening to us discuss the candidates, but he felt that the platform was also very important.
BOB said part of this would be taking place this weekend at the GOP State Convention where they would be voting on their platform. Then all that will be forwarded up to national where it will be incorporated and added to the national platform. BOB said several of our members are going…we are infiltrating the GOP. DEBBIE explained that we were not vetting candidates tonight, but what we do real often, discuss among ourselves various ideas. We are not trying to convince other people here how they should lean, but just voicing our opinions. This is the first time we have brought up at a meeting on how we are leaning, sort of like taking our temperature. No way we would be choosing a candidate right now, since not everyone has announced yet.
ERNIE GUTHRIE said why can we just list the candidates and rate them according to our beliefs. That way we are not actually saying we support a certain candidate. KEN said this is the way he was thinking also. It looks like it might be a little overpowering with so many candidates but if different members took a candidate and followed him/her and reported to the group, we could keep it from becoming a burden. We have a place on the web site where you can check up on various candidates, but this is just on the national level, not local, or state.
BOB adjourned the meeting at 8:05pm.
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary.
NOTE: I hope you can find the time to read all of these minutes. Not only did we have a very long and vocal meeting, but I had purchased a voice recorder and recorded the whole meeting. Therefore, I ended up with more information than with just my notes. I found what went on was very informative and wanted to share it with you. I’ll be shorter next time. Peggy