In the attached video, the Bishop shows up - he’s always too late. After a couple of years of reading stuff from the John Locke Foundation (JLF), I’ve noticed that they normally offer their criticisms after a decision is made - but are absent during the process.
While it’s not useful to the process - it comes in handy from a political perspective.
Here’s the reception that the Spotlight Report got from Commissioner Bob Carruth to the JLF’s Legislative Director:
You are a little late. This agreement has been worked out with Kannapolis, and is proceeding.
I am troubled at the interference that your organization in our local issue here in Cabarrus County, where we have been working on this TIF issue for the past two years, to include a detailed discussion about the options available to us. The Cabarrus Board of Commissioners, which consists of a professional, certified risk manager, the owner of one of the largest car dealerships in the area, a CEO of a local commercial contractor, and an attorney, all reviewed the COPs vs. TIF options, and determined that although short term the cost savings may have been seen, the risk to the general task base was not acceptable, since we are not issuing any debt (Kannapolis is).
The sole vote against this came from a retired preacher, who has recently been convicted of six counts of aiding and abetting prostitution.
If you or Mr. Coletti are so concerned about Cabarrus County politics, then I suggest you relocate here, and run for office on this issue.
Why was he so strident? Well, the North Carolina Research Campus (NCRC) hasn’t just come up in the past couple of weeks.
I ran a search an the first mention of the Research Campus on this blog was October 2005 on this post. This has been a long and involved process. It’s one thing to be involved with the process during the comment period - it’s something totally different to be making comments at the end.
The Spotlight report didn’t come out before the vote on COPS vs. TIF, it did not come out before the projects had been settled out, it did not come out before the final vote by the County Board of Commissioners. No, it came out after all of that; but before a ceremonial signing of the agreement and a hearing before the NC Local Government Commission. Those were something like steps 98 and 99 in a 100 step process.
The bandwagon during the process was mighty light. In a contentious primary, Coy Privette was one of the strongest supporters of using TIF for the NCRC. Here’s his statement from April 2006:
My response to the North Carolina Research Center is exciting. Kannapolis can become comparable to the Triangle Research Park, and we know what that has meant to the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area. Former Governor and Industrialist Luther Hodges had that vision. Now, Billionaire David Murdock has a similar vision for our area.
North Carolina voters approved Increment Bond Financing in the 2004 election. These bonds will make it possible for the infrastructure to be provided. It appears that this project will be the first time that this voter approved financing will be used in North Carolina. I was delighted to be a part of the committee to promote the passage of these bonds, and it was a distinct honor to make the motion that Cabarrus County endorsed the passage of this form of financing. Kannapolis has become the topic of conversation throughout the state as we will be launching a way to replace our dependency upon textiles, furniture, and tobacco as the foundation of our economic structure.
It is projected that the NC Research Center will provide some 5,000 jobs with a potential of reaching 30,000 in related enterprises. With this kind of economic development, we will rise to the challenge of providing the educational facilities, public safety, health, and other environmental concerns.With the quality of growth that the Center will provide, it will make it possible to keep a low property tax rate that has a definite impact on our senior citizens and working families.
Yours for a brighter future,
Coy C. Privette
County Commissioner
A short 15 months later, he’s on the front page of the Carolina Journal (the JLF’s main publication) railing against TIF; but for Cabarrus Voters - it was too late.
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11 responses so far ↓
1 Aaron // Dec 20, 2007 at 7:04 pm
Excellent Summary! Two thumbs up and what not.
I too have noticed JLF’s tendancy to show up a little late. But Geeze, putting Coy on the cover to berate the thing he supported just a year prior. That’s a case of not checking the facts…
2 Bob Carruth // Dec 20, 2007 at 10:06 pm
This whole thing is indicative of what we see over and over again, and it is starting to chap my lips, torque my cork, or whatever phrase you want to use.
Most people only want to get involved when they are angry about something. Conservatism unfortunately has devolved into something other than reasoned, thoughtful discourse DURING the debate on an issue, and waits until the end to criticize the solution and see how much they can divide the community in doing so, because that gives them power.
I have a secret for you - this shows NO leadership. Good conservatives every day are in the arena of ideas, working to gain a solution that reflects their ideals, through discourse, collaboration and compromise. That’s how this country was founded, that’s how the most successful constitution in the history of the world came into being. These are the people that unfortunately land up being the target of the JLF spin machine.
Unfortunately, the JLF, which for the most part is controlled by Art Pope’s millions, doesn’t have to face the voters, doesn’t have to lay awake at night thinking through a problem, all they have to do is spread a bunch of bovine digestive by-product around the state, and call it ice cream, while deceiving good conservative people.
Unfortunatly, we have had to deal with our share here locally as well. Cabarrus County conservatives, it’s time we started thinking for ourselves.
3 Thierry Wernaers // Dec 20, 2007 at 10:31 pm
Bob,
I’m going to have to ask you to stop talking like that. You’re going to force me to actually like a guy that calls himself a conservative. It’s really bad for my “street cred” and I’m sure it’s bad for yours as well.
4 Aaron // Dec 21, 2007 at 6:20 am
“Most people only want to get involved when they are angry about something. Conservatism unfortunately has devolved into something other than reasoned, thoughtful discourse DURING the debate on an issue, and waits until the end to criticize the solution and see how much they can divide the community in doing so, because that gives them power.”
That’s the best description of the Jail Litigants and anti speedway folks I’ve ever heard!
5 Joseph Coletti // Dec 21, 2007 at 9:08 am
I used the Kannapolis and Parton TIFs as examples in my policy paper because they were the furthest along. It is intended as a primer on debt for state and local policymakers and voters to understand the effects of debt, so the criticism of it coming out “too late” misses the point.
Since you brought it up thought, the paper was out before the Local Government Commission voted, so it wasn’t after everything was settled, nor was it the only thing put out by JLF on the Research Campus. Paul Chesser wrote about the TIF in July John Hood wrote about Fletcher Hartsell’s bill to expand TIF authority in March. Jeff Taylor wrote about the TIF often at the Meck Deck. Jeff and I spoke with reporters often to get questions asked or provide commentary. I spoke with Cabarrus County Manager and Chad Adams of the Center for Local Innovation debated by email Kannapolis City Manager Mike Legg.
I have also long criticized the project’s place in the state budget, which has cost taxpayers $33.3 million in the current and preceding fiscal years, with annual costs of $15.8 million in future years.
6 Justin Thibault // Dec 21, 2007 at 9:12 am
Aaron -
If you want to see this type of reaction just across the line - check out the Meck Deck. According to Jeff Taylor and his Amen Chorus - anything anyone else ever does is wrong; but there’s never a correct alternative.
7 Chad Adams // Dec 21, 2007 at 12:15 pm
Actually, I’ve been writing about the problems with TIFs since prior to their approval in NC (the 49th state to go down this road). Clearly, there are problems with the way in which the LGC, which approved both Parton and Cabarrus, assesses risk. And the situation with TIFs in numerous other states call into question the appropriateness of using and then becoming addicted to using them.
Short fact, the debt involved in the NCRC is part of the availabl debt a given city or county has to be used on school or law enforcement. The faulty assumption here is that this project could not have been done without TIFs as your first post clearly shows as they are such a small portion of the total project which Forbes 204th richest man could have done. Then again, Detroit chose to lay off police rather than default on their TIF obligations.
8 Aaron // Dec 21, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Justin, I’m a regular reader of all of the JLF blogs. I agree with them on most things but the TIF for the NCRC is one of those half hearted agreements. I’ve said before that I take issue with building parking decks and private roads on the NCRC grounds but millions more goes to improve roads, water and sewer service that will be exclusively a public good. The “Randys house of whoopin and hollarin’” was a different story entirely. And I think it’s good for the folks at the JLF to keep people abreast of the many stupid things governments can do with TIF if folks don’t pay attention.
Hey I guess here lately I’m just taking the notion that you gotta take the bad with the good…
And we all know my position on widening the roads and finishing GW Lyles. “Hurry the heck up and get started all ready.”
I can’t say, however that I was shocked with Mayor Padgett’s statements concerning light rail.
Using Meck counties boondoggle as a measuring stick, folks like us will have to be very vocal as they structure the taxes to prevent the same thing happening here.
9 Justin Thibault // Dec 22, 2007 at 11:28 pm
Joseph -
Isn’t it curious that all opposition to the NCRC project came AFTER the 2006 election? Nobody had any issues with the project then. It was only after the elections (but before the full set of facts came out) that Coy Privette changed his tune and suddenly we start hearing from the JLF and people like Bob Orr
Where was the JLF during the election? Why weren’t we discussing COPS during the election?
I think that the answer is that this project was so popular that the JLF didn’t want to endanger the candidacy of a political ally.
10 Justin Thibault // Dec 23, 2007 at 12:00 am
Chad -
That’s false and misleading; and you should be ashamed to call yourself an authority on these matters.
A TIF would have the least impact on the City and County’s debt rating as opposed to Certificates of Participation (COPS) and General Obligation Bonds (GO)
As I’ve explained in an earlier post, COPS would require the County to offer up collateral. Basically, the government would have to offer up buildings it already owns as security. A GO bond would require a referendum.
In both the COPS and GO bond case, the County would be on the hook if the project failed. In the TIF situation, if the project didn’t perform as well as expected: the bond investors would be exposed to more risk than the taxpayers.
I believe we’d have an NCRC without the bonds - it just wouldn’t be the same. It would be smaller and wouldn’t have the same impact.
While I think that an NCRC without any public financing component would fit into your favorite 18th Century political thinking - it wouldn’t meet the practical needs of this community.
Wow, do you just have a pond full of red herrings there in Raleigh?
Is Michigan’s TIF law the same as ours? If you ever bothered to take a look at the part of the NC Constitution that covers TIFs, you’d realize that not one dime of tax dollars being collected before the TIF agreement could be used to pay for the TIF.
I cruised on by the Center of Local Innovation. What I found interesting is that while you countered the ideas being made by those in the trenches - you rarely came out in front with a solution of your own.
Take our situation here in Cabarrus County. In 2003, we suffered the greatest single loss of jobs in state history and the loss of a major taxpayer. Our local leaders and officials could have used some “innovation” in the four short years following that; but since opening your doors in 2004 there hasn’t been one mention of the word “Kannapolis” and only one of “Cabarrus”. The one time that you all comment on what’s going on - it’s to argue over minutiae in funding a project most communities would kill for.
I fail to see the “innovation” in that. Then again, the Center for Local Innovation sounds much better than the Center for Feckless Criticism.
11 Justin Thibault // Dec 23, 2007 at 12:26 am
Aaron -
As am I.
And that’s where I have an issue; because of what you say here:
For all of the issues that Mecklenburg County has had with their light rail, I still think that it’s the job of our government to keep an open mind to such a project. The Speedway area has a unique traffic situation; and also sits in the middle of a lot of land that’s currently undeveloped - but will be developed shortly.
I can’t say that light rail would be a bad idea nor could I say it would be a good one. That’s not the kind of decision you make from ideology; but the JLF lets of those of us on the right do just that.
Ideology is a very important factor is public policy. For example, I believe that the members of the BOC made more headway with Bruton Smith because they are Republicans and believe in property rights. Ideology is not the only factor - there’s also practical matters; and at the local level - those make a huge difference.
We need to listen to as many informed voices as possible; but we don’t need to let a couple of people who have journalism and poly sci degrees in a non-profit think tank give us what they deem to be the purest “free-market” solution.