The biggest issue
Published May 12, 2017
By Tom Campbell
by Tom Campbell, Producer and Moderator, NC SPIN, May 11, 2017.
What’s the biggest issue facing North Carolina today? That was the question posed at a recent lunch with Leslie Boney, the newly named Director of the Institute for Emerging Issues. Boney wants to ensure that future Emerging Issues Forums focus on our state’s most relevant issues.
Pocketbook issues typically take first place in statewide surveys, but current economic growth, moderate inflation, new job creations and pay increases in existing jobs might eliminate them among our top two or three issues. While the HB2 patch didn’t totally resolve that controversy, it certainly took it off page one and removed enough of the concerns of businesses and sports promoters so it is no longer the months-long top of mind topic.
One could insist that transportation, infrastructure improvement, discrimination, immigration and justice issues are highly important, but without question the two most compelling issues facing North Carolina have to be education and healthcare, both so complicated as to almost not know how or where to begin resolving them.
We have previously said public education is the most important function of state and local government and, while there is much good taking place in public education today, there is unquestionably also concern. Too many pre-school children are unprepared to begin the formal education process and too many fail to get the basic foundations of reading, English skills and math needed to succeed as they progress through grade levels. Reforms are necessary in providing the sound basic education mandated by our state constitution and needed by today’s workplace. Certainly there are differences of opinion in some education issues, but clearly partisan or proprietary interests need to be set aside to achieve better education outcomes.
Healthcare is also a many-faceted, complicated issue, made the more uncertain by the current debates taking place in Washington. We have a public-private health system that neither promotes competition nor better health outcomes. Nobody is satisfied, most especially providers, insurers, drug companies or patients, the latter group seemingly with the least voice. A large segment has insurance provided by government, either through Medicaid, Medicare or government-provided health insurance for active and retired employees. Too many have no insurance. Those with either private employer-provided or who purchase individual policies face escalating insurance premiums, increasing deductibles and confusing language trying to ascertain what is and isn’t covered. Some providers estimate they could lower the costs of doctor and hospital visits by as much as 40 percent by eliminating the costs associated with processing insurance claims. We cannot continue to spend 18 percent of our gross domestic production on healthcare, but solutions we’ve heard to date seem to only nibble around the edges of the problems.
If education and healthcare are the top two issues we suggest that leadership might rank third. Perhaps it is the romantic remembrance of times past but it does not appear today’s leaders in business, government, nonprofits and the private sector are willing to delve into complicated issues, seek compromise and put the overall interests of our state above their own in finding solutions.
What would you say are the biggest issues facing North Carolina? In order to address them we must first identify, then rank them in order of importance. Your input is important and welcomed for a better North Carolina. Send them to tomcamp@carolinabroadcasting.com.
May 12, 2017 at 8:24 pm
Keith brown says:
There has been a lot of talk about public notices in North Carolina with N.C. Senator Trudy Wade trying to get legislation passed to revamp public notice laws to 2015 standards not 1949 standards. There was a time where the only form to advertise public notices was in the local paper but now with the invention of the computer, smart phones and internet it is time to think differently.
Let's take some small steps in this process and the obvious is to get some wording taken out of the North Carolina General Statute. Here is what is written in the North Carolina General Statute 1-597
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Whenever a notice or any other paper, document or legal advertisement of any kind or description shall be authorized or required by any of the laws of the State of North Carolina, heretofore or hereafter enacted, or by any order or judgment of any court of this State to be published or advertised in a newspaper, such publication, advertisement or notice shall be of no force and effect unless it shall be published in a newspaper with a general circulation to actual paid subscribers which newspaper at the time of such publication, advertisement or notice, shall have been admitted to the United States mails in the Periodicals class in the county or political subdivision where such publication, advertisement or notice is required to be published, and which shall have been regularly and continuously issued in the county in which the publication, advertisement or notice is authorized or required to be published, at least one day in each calendar week for at least 25 of the 26 consecutive weeks immediately preceding the date of the first publication of such advertisement, publication or notice
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Now as we see from this legislation that dates back to the 1940's it makes public notices have to be done in "Paid Subscribers" . Paid subscribers are papers like the Greensboro News and Record,Carolina Peacemaker, High Point Enterprise and Jamestown News in Guilford County.
We have a plethora of weekly papers that can provide public notices in Guilford County and they charge NOTHING to pick up a weekly paper but are locked out of the process because of this law that states it has to be a paid paper. Yes Weekly, Triad City Beat, Rhino Times and Northwest Observer are a few of the weekly papers in Guilford County that do a good job of informing us on local politics and should be able to provide public notices in this county. A great example of the absurdity of this law is the Northwest Observer which covers cities like Oak Ridge, Summerfield and Stokesdale and provides their papers for FREE at no cost to the consumer . The cities I referenced have to go through the Greensboro News and Record to provide their public notices, when in reality it would be to the benefit of the citizens in Northwest part of Guilford County to get their public notices through the weekly Observer than News and Record because more citizens are getting home drop off of the weekly than subscribers to the News and Record in this part of county. State Representative John Blust tried to make his point on this but went on deaf ears to the state representatives who are scared to piss off the local newspapers to get negative press on them and to keep their monopoly on public notices because of outdated state law.
My suggestion as you can see in the above state law 1-597 is a small step but needs to be done in a county like Guilford who has weekly papers who can provide this information. We need to get a bill passed either local bill or statewide to take out "PAID SUBSCRIBERS" from the state law so that weekly papers can have a chance at providing this information to the citizens of Guilford County.
This is a small step to take out 2 words in a law but am sure the lobbyist and their state cheerleaders will fight this till the end. We will see what happens but hopefully we can get some traction with weekly newspapers all over the state and get a bill passed to take out "PAID SUBSCRIBERS" from NGS 1-597
