Here in Georgia, too much Carolina in our minds
One thing I’ve noticed since moving back to Georgia is how many people here spend an inordinate amount of time fretting about North Carolina, and specifically Charlotte. They’re building high-speed rail in North Carolina. They’re building light rail in Charlotte. They’re spending more money on incentives to lure businesses. They just landed the Democratic National Convention in 2012.
(Notice how many of the supposed superiorities in our northern neighbor concern left-wing causes; you don’t hear much about North Carolina leading the way in cutting red tape or privatizing inefficient state-government functions.)
But it seems not every tarheel is sold on the “North Carolina model” we in Georgia are supposed to find so impressive. Behold this speech by one of the top Republicans in the North Carolina Senate, Bob Rucho, as transcribed by the Charlotte Observer:
Here we are in a situation where we’ve got double-digit unemployment. And the reality is that it’s probably close to 17 percent unemployment with people who are either unemployed or underemployed. And yet, last debate, where were you [Democrats]? You just said, ‘We’re going to keep spending! We’re just going to keep putting more money in the pile.’ Because of the fact that, God forbid, we stop spending and make sure that government just doesn’t run at the same level.
“I want you to take responsibility for the way you’ve all led this state in the past 10 to 12 years — because of the fact that you spent us to death. And now when we have to make some tough decisions you’re crying about $75 million, where in reality — how many billions? — $1.7 billion we put in incentives. …
“And you talk about the incentives and how great they were. Well, I’ll tell you what a good incentive is: It’s lowering your tax rates, cut your government spending to a normal level, and allowing businesses to function in the creative environment. And then you’re going to see the jobs. … The reality is, we’ve got to grow our existing businesses. …
(snip)
“Now, do you take full blame for the recession? No. But you sure aggravated it. You added a billion dollars of new taxes on top of the existing businesses. You punished the people who are working. You made it harder for the businesses to expand and grow — and maybe even survive, for that matter.
A little background: Even with things going so swimmingly in North Carolina — at least according to some people here in Georgia — the state’s voters just saw fit to turn out the majority party (the Democrats) in both chambers of the legislature. It’s the first time the state’s senate has been out of Democratic control since 1870.
And now a few facts that may help explain the political upheaval:
- During the 2009 through 2012 fiscal years, North Carolina has had bigger budget shortfalls than Georgia all four years in absolute terms, and in three of the four years as a percentage of the state’s budget. This year, their budget shortfall is projected at $3.8 billion to our $1.7 billion.
- North Carolina’s unemployment rate, at 9.8 percent, is just about the same as our 10.2 percent.
- North Carolina was cited by the Tax Foundation as having one of the nation’s 10 worst business tax climates; Georgia is in the middle of the pack at No. 25.
Look, I’m not saying North Carolinians have nothing to be proud of, or that Georgians have all the answers. But neither is the converse true. Let’s leave the great art of poor-mouthing our own team to the football coaches.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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74 comments Add your comment
Jimmy62
February 9th, 2011
11:42 am
Georgians have voted with their cars and wallets. MARTA is not perfect, but it could be utilized by far, far more people. But it’s not because the people don’t want to use it. And throwing away millions (billions?) more on another rail system not many people will use is just plain stupid. Almost as stupid as the Peachtree Street Trolley crap they are trying to pull on us. And almost as stupid as the putt-putt/arcade they put up by Turner Field, which, unsurprisingly, failed almost immediately.
atler8
February 9th, 2011
11:45 am
Real Conservative: Conversely there is much lamenting in North Carolina when a business chooses to set up shop in Georgia rather than up there. Regarding relocations, it is really a two way street & not so tilted in favor of North Carolina as you imply here.
Whacks Eloquent
February 9th, 2011
11:48 am
Having family in the Charlotte area, I hear the same gripes from them that we have here. The light rail system is not that great and only has 1 branch, hardly sufficient to say they are ahead of us in transit. If anything I’d say Atlanta’s commuter coach system is better than many light rail systems in the country. Heck, if you find that growth trends change, all you have to do is modify the bus routes, no need to pull up or lay new track…
Robert,
Sonny Perdue is not related to Beverly Perdue. What are you talking about?
jd
February 9th, 2011
11:50 am
Kyle — you left out the part of the speech that tried to paint NC as a disaster of biblical proportions for over 100 years — yet that state has, along with Ga, led the South in education and economic development during that time…
NC snagged the pharma industries Ga was pursuing prior to Perdue. NC has a better education system because they stick to a plan and have not changed every 4 years. NC met part of their budget deficit with a tax increase of a $1B and yet their unemployment rate remains below Ga’s… Overall, the NC economy is still moving forward —
If you tell a lie often enough — people do believe it is true. NC has nothing to be ashamed about what was accomplished by the prior Democratic regime — and shame on that Republican for being so arrogant as to think he is smarter than a 100 years of citizens before him.
HDB
February 9th, 2011
12:22 pm
Thulsa Doom
February 9th, 2011
11:14 am
If you look at the diversificaton of the North Carolina university system and compare it to Georgia……there should be NO queston as to whom has the more diversified university system!!
Georgia: 21 Public State Universities, 32 Public Two-Year Colleges
NC: 16 Public State Universities, 60 Public Two-Year Colleges
Georgia- 53; NC- 76………
http://www.collegesanduniversitiesinusa.com/North_Carolina.html
joe
February 9th, 2011
12:23 pm
As soon as NC voted for BO, there southern membership card should have been revoked at the door. I have several friends who live near Charlotte, and they were seriously thinking about moving here, due to all the high taxes and spending…until the Nov elections when most of the state Dems were voted out…now, they plan to stick it out with hopes the GOP can turn that state back to red.
Kyle Wingfield
February 9th, 2011
12:40 pm
HDB: I don’t think those figures really speak to diversification…but to the degree that they do…wouldn’t you guess a great deal of the difference speaks to the fact that N.C.’s population is more spread out than Georgia’s is, rather than some failure in the system?
See for instance these maps: http://www.city-data.com/city/Georgia.html
and http://www.city-data.com/city/North-Carolina.html
Given the concentration of our state’s population in metro Atlanta, it’s probably more sensible to have fewer institutions.
tar and feathers party
February 9th, 2011
12:58 pm
NORTH CAROLINA STOLE OUR MAJOR BANKS, ALL OF THEM…..FIRST UNION AND ALL THE OTHERS. IT MADE ME SO HAPPY WHEN WHACKYBANK, OR WACHOVIA, FAILED!
HDB
February 9th, 2011
1:12 pm
Kyle Wingfield
February 9th, 2011
12:40 pm
Not disagreeing about the population density….but the North Carolina system of community colleges just doesn’t focus on degree programs…but also has a vocational aspect that Georgia doesn’t. The preponderance of North Carolina’s public 2-yr institutions have vocational/technical capabilities…which makes a graduate job-READY; Georgia, by comparison, doesn’t have such a focus!! Carolina’s diversification also assists in having a lower unemployment rate (albeit by a small percentage!)
THAT’S what Georgia needs to do more of!!
Jimnalph
February 9th, 2011
1:45 pm
Don’t know where you heard all those alleged comments. But note:
-GA (Atl) had the national political convention (I forget which one) years ago
-Rail will not be very effective in GA, at least Atl, due to the way the city is laid out and how it has grown and due to political infighting. See Marta as an example.
- the one thing NC has more of than GA is state patrol officers. They have a gazillion of them. Ever driven into NC along I-85 right before holiday wknd and seen all of them ready to pounce?
So, I’ll still stick with GA, altho I do like to visit relatives in NC on occasion.
Jimnalph
February 9th, 2011
1:47 pm
Oh, I forgot, NC got the Nascar hall of fame. Darn them.
Kyle Wingfield
February 9th, 2011
2:13 pm
HDB: Georgia also has a Technical College System with more than two dozen campuses: http://www.tcsg.edu/college_campuses.php
AmVet
February 9th, 2011
2:22 pm
Is it any wonder that Atlanta, the very paragon of hyper-parochialism, has a relatively toxic relationship with her metropolitan neighbors? And to be sure, this is a two way street. (Ask someone in Birmingham, Nashville or Charlotte what they think of Atlanta.)
Feelings of paranoid underappreciation are rampant here.
To wit, after the 1996 Olympic Games many of the locals thought they were rudely dissed by the USOC chairman.
Atlanta has a very rich and varied history and tradition. She is arguably the very crucible of Civil Rights.
That her splendor is so wasted by ineffective, corrupted governance and being held hostage by the Corporate Titans of Malfeasance and Criminal Negligence is a crying shame…
HDB
February 9th, 2011
2:29 pm
Kyle Wingfield
February 9th, 2011
2:13 pm
Note the difference: 24 vs 60……with a similar population size!! Each institution has different vo-tech skillsets for a more diversified labor force……
Self_Made
February 9th, 2011
2:39 pm
MARTA is failing because the suburbanites we share the region with have been conditioned to absolutely hate Atlanta and actually believe the “mass transit is socialist” BS that seems to be flying around everywhere. Seems now that folks want to move the metropolitan center to “Milton County”, the gleaming new OZ that will shock and awe us.
As for Charlotte…it’s still and up and comer when compared to Atlanta, but so far, it’s played the game very well.
RLorelei
February 9th, 2011
3:49 pm
Of course NC is better. You can buy alcohol on Sundays!
Charlatan in Charlotte
February 9th, 2011
5:13 pm
Kyle,
North Carolina thanks you and the citizens of Georgia for your continued idiocy. There is no measure by which Georgia is in North Carolina’s planetary orbit. The research dollars pumped into UNC-Chapel Hill eclipse those invested in the entire state of GA – including the Emory/CDC campus. With three economically-diverse metropolitan areas and tourist meccas like the Outer Banks and the easter gateway to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park, North Carolina’s economy is poised for a much faster recovery than Georgia’s , especially when one considers the relative education levels of the populations of each state.
Furthermore, while S Atlanta, Columbus and cities downstream of Atlanta choke upon human waste in their drinking water, while the entire northern arc of Atlanta wonders if they’ll even HAVE drinking water in 10 years, infrastructure projects in which North Carolina has invested will pay tremendous dividends over the next decade.
Y’all keep race-baiting and playing lapdog to the retarded wing of the retardican party. Please…..It’s great for business in North Carolina!!!
Kyle Wingfield
February 9th, 2011
6:23 pm
@Charlatan, a fitting name if there ever was one on this blog:
This line — “The research dollars pumped into UNC-Chapel Hill eclipse those invested in the entire state of GA – including the Emory/CDC campus.” — doesn’t pass the laugh test, much less the evidentiary one. Nor does N.C. have a larger tourism industry than Georgia. Georgia ranks higher in median household income and in the percentage of residents with at least a bachelor’s degree. We’re virtually tied in the rankings for poverty rate and violent crime rate.
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2011/ranks/rank21.html
As I wrote in the OP, I’m not bashing N.C.; I have family and plenty of friends there. I just don’t think Georgians ought to be shaking in our boots about competing with y’all.
barking frog
February 9th, 2011
7:09 pm
Atlanta needs a Native American tribe, too bad they ran
them out.
Ralph
February 9th, 2011
7:28 pm
Please do not use the CDC/Emory route. As someone in the science field it is frustrating that the only options to work is the CDC/Emory. Both are private and neither one PAY (well maybe the CDC, but not Emory). RTP has tons of options unlike Atlanta.
The Millionaire Matchmaker
February 9th, 2011
8:16 pm
Kyle is a sweet guy with a lot of great qualities… who happens to look like a dawg dump.
NC to GA back to NC
February 10th, 2011
8:08 am
Having moved here from NC to GA for a new job, Atlanta’s problems have become magnified tenfold compared to when I just used to visit on occasion. The racial tension is VERY high here, and makes any tension in Charlotte seem tame by comparison (as evidence, people are only bringing up two incidents in Charlotte from the past year, while stuff like this has characterized Atlanta for several years now. Charlotte simply lacks that sort of history). And let’s not talk about the traffic! While Atlanta has its positives for sure (higher ed, airport, etc.) and Charlotte is far from utopia, right now I think Charlotte is in a better position relative to its size than Atlanta. While we may never see the day that Charlotte overtakes Atlanta in size or prestige/importance, I think it’s shaping up to be a qualitatively better city. A good bit of this has to do with the fact that NC invests in its major metropolitan areas, while in GA, governors and other political figures can get elected based on how much vitriol they spew towards Atlanta.
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