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10/23/02

Popular incumbents face off in 50th

By Don Hendershot
The race for the 50th Senate district in North Carolina is about as unusual a contest as one could imagine — two incumbents are vying for one seat. That’s the world of redistricting, though, which ended up putting two popular and well-known senators in a race against each other to represent the far western portion of the state.

Republican Sen. Bob Carpenter of Franklin has served seven terms and is a retired vice president at First Union National Bank. Democratic Sen. Dan Robinson is a two-term incumbent who is a retired professor and football coach from Western Carolina University.

Local governments suffered because of state deficits. What caused the deficits and what can be done to avoid them in the future? How do state reimbursements and the local 1/2 cent sales tax option fit into the equation?

Carpenter: The deficit is the government’s fault. The Democrats appropriated more money than they had to spend. The governor’s solution was to hold reimbursements. I think its atrocious that the governor extracted that money without proper authority. It is high handed to take that money and force counties to raise taxes. The state is obligated by law to pay those reimbursements.

The remedy is for the state to live within its means. You can’t tax yourself out of a hole.

Robinson: The way Medicaid breaks down is federal governmnet pays 55 percent; state pays 40 percent and county pays 5 percent. This year the state paid $609 million. The state, like the counties, has its back to the wall. Additional help will have to come from the federal government and the generation of more jobs. The loss of jobs in the state is a big factor in Medicaid costs.


Is there anything the state can do to help counties meet rising Medicaid costs?

Carpenter: Medicaid is a runaway freight train. Fifty-one percent of pregnant women in the state are eligible for Medicaid. It shouldn’t be that unbalanced. There are people who receive it who shouldn’t be on the list. We need reform, like the welfare reform. Everybody can’t be on Medicaid.

Robinson: Lots of things combined to create the deficit. As late as 1999 the state had $600 million in its “rainy day” fund. Then natural disasters like Hurricane Floyd, which cost the state over a billion dollars. Then came a downturn in the national economy. There are 44 states in the same, or worse, budgetary condition as North Carolina. It’s a real concern that there’s not enough attention being paid nationally to what needs to be done to turn the economy around.

The local sales tax was offered in lieu of any reimbursements. The reimbursements were actually gifts from from the state to make up for repealed taxes, like the intangibles tax. There are gaurantees in place to insure that counties and municipalities receive all the revenue from the sales tax.


How do you feel about the clean smokestacks act and is more needed to guarantee clean air for WNC?

Carpenter: The Clean Smokestack Act is a good bill and I voted for it. It helps us clean the air but it doesn’t solve the problem. We need to stress federal legislation to control out of state pollution like auto emissions and the TVA.

Robinson: The Clean Smokestacks Act will help clean up coal fired plants in the state. Physically it will have a minimal effect on the skies of Western North Carolina but we had to clean up our plants before we could take any further action. Now that we have a policy in place to remove more than 70 percent of the pollutants from our air, we have the moral and legal grounds to see to it that we are not subjected to pollutants from out of state.


Do you support the current incentives for economic development and how would you encourage economic growth in WNC?

Carpenter: The North Carolina corporate income tax rate is 6.9 percent. South Carolina is 5 percent. That is quite a difference when you’re talking millions of dollars. The House incentive package had a schedule that would start new industries off at a zero tax rate and gradually increase to 6.9 percent over 10 years. The Senate took that out and replaced it with a policy that gives $10 million a year to the governor, for five years, to be used at his discretion to attract industry.

That is sheer folly, plus the plan does nothing for existing industry.

Robinson: Because of incentives from other states, we are forced to compete. I’m not entirely comfortable that it’s the best way to go, but to get industry and jobs to locate in the state, we don’t have much choice. Your darned if you do and darned if you don’t.


Do you believe the state has a stake in protecting the Needmore Tract in Macon and Swain counties?

Carpenter: A lot of people here are concerned. I believe the counties, Duke Power and The Nature Conservancy can come up with an equitable solution. I don’t believe it really involves the state. The last thing I would want to see is that property being roped off from the public.

I think the road through there definitely needs to be improved and I hope the county governments are up front with the public and there are no hidden deals.

Robinson: Yes. I think the state should be willing to play a major role — to go to the wall — to help this area do what is desired by the local governments and the citizens.