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Government

Senate Candidates Debate Jobs, Funding

By Cece Nunn, posted Sep 25, 2014
Sen. Michael Lee (R-New Hanover) speaks Thursday at the Greater Wilmington Business Journal Power Breakfast Series. Behind him: moderator Rob Kaiser (from left), Sen. Bill Rabon, candidate Ernie Ward and candidate Elizabeth Redenbaugh.
Candidates vying for state senate seats faced off Thursday morning on a variety of issues related to economic development in the Wilmington area and southeastern North Carolina.

District 8’s Sen. Bill Rabon (R-Brunswick) and his challenger, Democrat Ernie Ward, and District 9’s Sen. Michael Lee (R-New Hanover) and his challenger, Democrat Elizabeth Redenbaugh, debated ways to attract jobs to the region, transportation concerns and the loss of film incentives among other topics during a session entitled “The Fight for North Carolina,” part of the Greater Wilmington Business Journal’s Power Breakfast series.

More than 350 people, many of them members of the area’s business community, attended the event.

Luring jobs
In response to an audience member’s question about what the candidates intend to do to attract industry and permanent jobs to the community, Rabon said that the legislature has done just that with previous decisions.

“We are attracting new business,” said Rabon, a veterinarian who is a partner in three Brunswick County animal hospitals. “The day after we passed a tax reform plan, the only one passed in the United States last year by the way, … phones started ringing off the hook… We have more businesses looking now than we have had in the last decade.”

In addition to tax reform, “we got rid of almost 2,000 regulations that were redundant and depressing to the business community. They’re gone,” Rabon said.

Responding to the same question, Rabon’s challenger Ward pointed to the failure to secure two major industrial players, Continental Tire and Caterpillar, as evidence that the area has a problem when it comes to closing such deals. He said fixing the state’s education system will help because businesses want to be in communities that come with good schools.

“It seems like we’re going backwards in education, which leads directly to jobs,” said Ward, who is also a veterinarian.

In her response, Redenbaugh, an attorney and former member of the New Hanover County Board of Education, emphasized the loss of film and business incentives as something that has hindered economic development.

“This General Assembly has taken the tools out of our tool belt to be able to attract businesses to New Hanover County and to North Carolina,” she said. “They have turned their backs on incentives.”

Lee, another Wilmington attorney who replaced Sen. Thom Goolsby in August, said bringing more businesses to the area “is going to start here at home,” with discussions between state, regional and local officials on a strategy to attract the types of industry that pay the wages people need.

“We need to be working together,” Lee said.

Film failure?
Responding to questions about film incentives, the incumbents talked about why the state’s film incentives were not renewed in the last legislative session.

“You have to have metrics in business when you do a budget. You have to know what you’re going to spend. An open checkbook is not a way to run a business,” said Rabon, after explaining that he supports the film industry but does not agree that the state needs renewable incentives.  

Rabon’s alternate proposals did not get the votes needed, but he said he has hope for the future.

“We did our best. We put in a proposal to keep Under the Dome [a locally filmed TV series] alive, to keep the film industry alive in Wilmington, and I’m confident that we will do that,” Rabon said. “When I go back, we will pick up on this and we’ll run it again and we will push it until we’re successful.”

Ward took issue with Rabon’s checkbook analogy, saying filmmakers created the jobs and spent the money before getting some back.

“This is another political twist on trying to appeal to your common sense, but it’s really the exact opposite of common sense," he said. "This is not an open checkbook except for the film industry – they’re the ones writing the check.”

Moving forward on the film issue, local legislators need to come up with a plan that includes specifics, Lee said.

“We’ve got to have a cap. Is it $50 million? Is it $60 million? Is it $70 million? … Here in Wilmington, North Carolina, we need to find out what types of productions, whether a major motion picture or a television series, that we want in our community that gives us the most bang for our buck,” Lee said.

After that, he said, legislators who aren’t in this area need to be convinced that supporting the film industry supports small businesses.

Road rules
The question of how the state uses dollars earmarked for transportation resulted in some of the most intense exchanges. Redenbaugh criticized the Strategic Mobility Formula, which is a plan for how the money will be allocated statewide.

“With this funding formula, New Hanover County and the Wilmington area will only receive 2.1 percent of all transportation funding,” she said. “The lion’s share for transportation funding – it’s going to Raleigh. Roughly 50 percent of the funds will go to Raleigh; Twenty-five percent will go to Charlotte.”   

Lee said it’s important to look at the issue of transportation for a broader area, not just New Hanover County. He said federal funding is a significant factor, with a fourth of the budget coming from the federal government.

“We’ve got to make sure that we are continuing our relationship with our legislators in Washington, D.C., in addition to making sure that we do the right thing with the mobility formula, making sure it’s tweaked appropriately so we can have good roads and support our economy and the jobs that will come to our area,” Lee said.

Rabon said the mobility formula takes politics out of deciding transportation projects because it is data-driven.

“New Hanover County will get its share because politics is out. The need is in," he said.

Voters will choose between Rabon and Ward, and between Lee and Redenbaugh, on Nov. 4. Early voting takes place Oct. 23-Nov. 1.
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