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OPINION

2D • SUNDAY, MAY 16, 2010

Runoffs build stronger candidates

Salisbury Post O “The truth shall make you free” GREGORY M. ANDERSON Publisher 704-797-4201 ganderson@salisburypost.com

ELIZABETH G. COOK

CHRIS RATLIFF

Editor

Advertising Director

704-797-4244 editor@salisburypost.com

704-797-4235 cratliff@salisburypost.com

CHRIS VERNER

RON BROOKS

Editorial Page Editor

Circulation Director

704-797-4262 cverner@salisburypost.com

704-797-4221 rbrooks@salisburypost.com

THE LONG CLIMB UP

Getting people back to work n late April, Wachovia economist Mark Vitner told local business leaders that Rowan County should begin seeing the effects of a spreading economic recovery sometime this summer. Even when recovery does arrive, he said, it won’t be fast and it won’t be smooth. If that forecast sounds discouraging, try walking a year in Jeff Yastremski’s shoes. As reported today in an article by Shelley Smith, Yastremski is among Rowan County residents who are not only out of a job, they have been for a long time. In March, the official unemployment rate was 12.9 percent, equating to nearly 9,400 people in the Rowan workforce who weren’t working. In truth, the jobless rate is probably much higher, due to “discouraged workers” who’ve simply quit a fruitless search for a paycheck, and the “underemployed” who are working part-time jobs because they can’t find full-time employment. An even more sobering number: 46. According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, that was the percentage in April of all the officially counted unemployed who have been out of work longer than 27 weeks. That’s more than six months. And that figure was 27.5 percent in April 2009. With so many people still out of work — and so many of them jobless for so long — there’s nothing wrong with a little home cooking to bring more opportunities to the table. So bravo to the folks in Raleigh who created a program giving preference to North Carolina companies when it comes to awarding state purchasing contracts. The N.C. Preference program doesn’t exclude out-of-state firms from bidding on those contracts. It does, under certain conditions, give any N.C. business vying for the same contract the chance to match the lowest bid, if it was submitted by an out-ofstate firm. The Tar Heel company’s quote must be within 5 percent or $10,000 — whichever is less — of that lowest bid. Gov. Bev Perdue laid the groundwork for the program in February when she signed an executive order directing the Department of Administration to develop price-matching procedures for in-state bidders on state contracts for the purchase of goods. In a statement this week announcing the first four contracts awarded under the program, Perdue called it “critical” to support homegrown businesses that “employ our friends, our neighbors and our family members.” And it doesn’t hurt that one of the first four companies to benefit from N.C. Preference is right here in Rowan County. Desco Inc. was allowed to match a $69,149.63 bid to provide building cables and wires. That may not sound like a huge contract given all the money the state spends, but it will keep workers at Desco busy. And that’s a real step amid all the rhetoric about creating and saving North Carolina jobs. And more steps like it might provide a path for people like Yastremski — who has been out of a job for a year and a half — to walk back through an employer’s front door — not just to fill out another futile application, but to get back to work.

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Common sense

(Or uncommon wisdom, as the case may be)

“Unemployment is capitalism’s way of getting you to plant a garden.” — Orson Scott Card

SALISBURY POST

The runoff gives both candidates the opportunity to grab the spotlight in ways that were not open ... leading up to the May primary.

kay. So what if most North Carolina political experts disagree with

me? They say that a primary runoff like the upcoming one in the race for the North Carolina Democratic nomination will be detrimental to the eventual winner. They point out that the runoff between Elaine Marshall and Cal D.G. Cunningham MARTIN forces both candidates to spend money against each other while their eventual Republican opponent, Senator Richard Burr, is raising more funds to use in the fall. And, they say, the time Marshall and Cunningham fight each other could be better used to organize and prepare for the November general election. They remind us that a hardfought, bitter primary runoff can leave negative impressions about both candidates. The winner might be burdened with the unfavorable impressions created by the loser’s hard-hitting ads. Finally, they argue that these “second primaries” are a waste of everybody’s time and effort since so few voters

MARSHALL

CUNNINGHAM

show up at the polls. Good points. Here is the other side. To have any chance of winning in November, the Democrats need a jump-start of enthusiasm for their nominee. She or he will stand a better chance of getting that kind of spirit when the nominee is a clear winner over another strong candidate. It did not happen in the first primary. But it can happen in the June runoff. At the very least the winner will move into the fall election having won more than 50 percent of the vote. Right now both candidates have the burden of having more that 50 percent of the primary voters go against them. More important, perhaps, the runoff gives both candidates the opportunity to grab the spotlight in ways that were not open during the days leading up to the May primary. The field was too crowded. Without a second primary,

the nominee would be stuck with only the very hazy impressions generated so far. The extra weeks between the primary and the runoff give both candidates more time on the political center stage to refine and drive home a message and build name recognition and credibility with the public. The free publicity and public contact during the next few weeks can be positive factors in the fall election—and worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. In the summer months before a November campaign, it is almost impossible to develop the mood of immediacy that a candidate needs to prepare for the fall by expanding the organization, by recruiting new supporters, assigning tasks, and building teams across the state. A primary runoff can put a candidate’s statewide organization to work at a time when it would otherwise be waiting and resting. The contest forces

the candidate and his or her organization to push those organizational efforts. Practice makes politicians better speakers, better interviewees, and better fundraisers. As they are required to explain, and as they learn to listen on the campaign trail, they improve as candidates. If you think of politicians as “actors,” the runoff is a valuable dress rehearsal for the fall campaign. It requires the candidate to go over his or her message and practice the lines and the moves, getting better prepared to meet the critical audience that will grade the performance in the fall. Do you want an example? Maybe you remember the 1990 senate primary contest between Harvey Gantt and Mike Easley. Gantt led Easley in the first primary, but did not quite reach the 40 percent threshold. The runoff gave both candidates more exposure and credibility, giving Gantt and his campaign a jumpstart that helped him mount a very strong effort against Senator Helms. How about you? Do you agree with the experts — or with me? • • • D.G. Martin is the author of “Interstate Eateries,” a guide to family owned homecooking restaurants near North Carolina’s interstate highways www.interstateeateries.com.

Mook’s Place/Mark Brincefield

School system’s capital funds stretched thin Lottery money never makes it to schools’ budget n my last two articles, I discussed the school system’s operating budget and mentioned the capital outlay budget, which is completely separate from the operating budget and cannot be used for paying teachers or any other classroom expenditure. The JUDY capital outlay budget is reGRISSOM stricted for facilities, equipment, and maintenance. The local capital outlay revenue is generated from the sales tax in Rowan County that totaled $4,420,000 for the current school year. A portion of the sales tax funds must go to Kannapolis City Schools since part of their school system is in Rowan County. This year the Kannapolis City Schools received $97,847 from the sales tax, which left $4,322,153 for the Rowan-Salisbury Schools. For the past two years, these funds have been dwin-

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dling based on the sales tax collections, which are decreasing because of the poor economic climate. When the school bonds were passed in 1992, an agreement was made between the school board and the county commissioners that the school system would use part of its capital outlay budget each year to help pay back the principle on the bond debt. For this budget year, the portion paid back to the county for the 1993 debt was $2,315,000 and will be $2,270,000 for the 2010-2011 budget year. This agreement will result in payments from the capital outlay budget until 2016. The county also withheld $200,000 in reserve of the sales tax funds in the event that revenues do not come in as expected. The $1,807,153 remaining in the 2009-2010 local capital outlay budget was then separated into three categories: • Category 1: Purchasing land, building construction and building improvements. Some examples of expenditures would be security camera, mobile classrooms or moving mobile classrooms, door replacements, boiler replacements, restroom renovations, fencing, telephone system wiring, paving improvements, carpets and carpet removal, and roof replacements. • Category 2: Matching

funds for school designated projects, furniture and equipment • Category 3: Vehicles, such as activity buses and maintenance vehicles. The state provides funding for the replacement of yellow buses that transport our students to and from school. New buses to accommodate growth must initially be purchased with local funds. The school system has two additional sources of capital funding: Public School Building Capital Fund and Lottery Funds. The Public School Capital Fund comes from the state and is used for larger projects and can be used for technology equipment or construction needs. A local match is required to access these funds if they are used for construction needs. In the past, this fund provided our school system with up to $1 million a year, but last year these funds were diverted to the state general fund by an action of the governor to deal with the state shortfall. The law allows lottery funds to be accessed for capital outlay; however, the Rowan County Board of Commissioners designated the lottery funds as payment on the 2002 bond rather than raising taxes. The school system has received no lottery funds for

capital improvements since the beginning of the lottery. Each year the county commissioners have received the lottery funds designated for our school system. The school system is presently using almost 73 percent of the capital outlay sources of funds for bond debt, which does not leave much for on-going needs. The needs in the school system are already at $22,500,000. Whenever staff, parents, or students have concerns about a particular problem at their school, it is often difficult for them to understand why the school system does not immediately “fix” the problem. Without a full understanding of the limited funds, restrictions on the funds received, and the need to continually prioritize the needs, sometimes it appears that we are not interested in a particular project. That is never the case! As a school system, we want to do everything possible to provide a safe climate and to provide equity at all schools for all of our students and staff. We will continue to partner with the county in finding ways to meet our needs in an effective, efficient manner. • • • Dr. Judy Grissom is superintendent of the Rowan-Salisbury School System.


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