Rural North Carolina left in the dust, changes needed

By Charles Broadwell, Publisher, Fayetteville Observer, July 21, 2013.

I don't know all the good, the so-so and the outright waste that the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center is responsible for over the years.

But I know it's time for a change. I knew that after reading a damning series last month by The News & Observer of Raleigh that raised questions about the center's claims about job creation in our struggling rural communities.

I don't know Billy Ray Hall, the center's longtime director who retired Thursday, a day after the state auditor flagged the center for its financial oversight and questioned Hall's $221,000 salary and $241,000 severance fund.

Now that, if you will, is a long way from Mount Olive.

That's where Billy Ray Hall is from. When you talk to him, he is affable, engaging, passionate about helping out rural areas.

I interviewed Hall back in the late 1980s, when I was working for the Goldsboro News-Argus, the hometown daily of Mount Olive. It was a front-page story then for a local son to be chosen to lead this new Rural Center for the state.

Now, so many years later and so much money down the drain, what are we left with? First, rural North Carolina still needs help. I hope the General Assembly and the McCrory administration, which have moved swiftly in response to the revelations about the Rural Center, will bear that in mind.

You can chalk this up, if you will, as a victory for reform-minded Republicans. That's because the Rural Center has been cozy though not exclusive with Democratic power brokers.

But, someday down the road, we need to get past the partisan scorecards. Leaders have to step up for the greater good, answering the far-off question: Is there a statesman in the House? (Or even the Senate?)

Power has shifted. Big changes are afoot. Some are no doubt needed. Some, I worry, may be terribly destructive.

We're a better state when more people are engaged in our government, and not just through Monday protests in Raleigh. Weigh the pros and cons: taxes, jobs, environment, education, progress.

And don't forget the folks who live far from the bright lights, big cities. They're the ones the Rural Center was supposed to help in the first place.