Lawmakers feather developer's nest, but at what cost?

Editorial by Fayetteville Observer, reprinted in Wilson Daily Times, January 25, 2018.

This looks like one of the worst kinds of legislative give-and-take: Give state funding to a family business of a former state legislator who’s a titan of the hog-farming industry and a generous political donor, but then take it from state agencies that, among other things, are supposed to be watchdogs who regulate factory farming, and especially the wastes generated by those agricultural operations.

That’s the story told by a News & Observer reporter this week, documenting the $830,000 earmark that solved a big problem for an upscale golfing community in Duplin County.

The 1,600-acre River Landing community was developed by Wendell Murphy and his family. Murphy revolutionized the hog industry and made the factory farm a way of life in parts of rural North Carolina. At one time, his company was the largest hog producer in the country. He also served in the General Assembly and helped push through legislation favorable to the creation and sustainability of the industry.

Murphy is retired from the family business and lawmaking now, but he’s been a generous political donor over the years. That includes donations to a current state representative from Duplin County, Republican Jimmy Dixon of Warsaw.

Since 2011, according to the N&O story, Murphy, his family and his employees have donated $42,750 to Dixon.

So when Dixon heard that River Landing was having problems with the local sewer system — several sewage spills and a limited capacity that could keep the Murphy family from expanding the hotel in its golf development — Dixon contacted local leaders to offer state assistance.

No one from the town had contacted the lawmaker, and he said the Murphy family didn’t seek his assistance either. But three weeks later, there was an $830,000 earmark in the state budget that would fund sewer upgrades.

Meanwhile, a succession of state budgets drawn up by the General Assembly’s Republican majority have steadily eroded state regulators’ power and staffing. The state Department of Environmental Management has nowhere enough inspectors to keep up with North Carolina’s extensive network of factory hog and poultry farms. And regulatory codes were written to make it easier for the farms to do business — and not necessarily to protect the health and safety of the farms’ neighbors.

Despite the agency’s requests for help in monitoring, measuring and controlling GenX pollution in the Cape Fear River Basin, lawmakers haven’t appropriated a penny for additional DEQ staffing or equipment. The House did agree to more than $2 million in emergency funding for the agency, but the measure died on the doorstep of the state Senate.

But there was no apparent problem finding $830,000 to help the Murphy family’s development expand. The earmark sailed into law.

We have no fundamental problem with earmarks. Local lawmakers should be able to recommend and push for funds for the local projects that they know will benefit their own communities. Road construction, school buildings, park acquisitions, museums and other public facilities, even municipal sewer installations — there are long lists of projects that are an appropriate use of taxpayer funding, things that improve the quality of life in our communities.

But we’re not at all sure that such prompt, generous funding is appropriate in service to wealthy developers, especially when it doesn’t quite pass the sniff test, given the political donations involved.

And it’s especially unfortunate when the General Assembly loads more than $70 million in earmarks into the budget but is refusing to help state agencies combat a bona fide public health and safety emergency in and around the Cape Fear River — or anywhere else in the state, for that matter.

That sends a pretty ugly message.

http://www.wilsontimes.com/stories/lawmakers-feather-developers-nest-but-at-what-public-cost,111786