What Lies Beneath?
Rural Roads:
Fiction:
Pat McCrory won’t pave roads in rural areas.
Fact:
According to the News & Observer, “the claim that McCrory questioned whether rural roads should be paved is a stretch. In 2000, at a meeting of North Carolina mayors, McCrory said that the state’s policy of building paved roads to every community encourages sprawl, according to an Associated Press account.” The N&O article continued, “Is it accurate? Not entirely. The ad makes a leap in claiming that McCrory questions whether rural roads should be paved. It’s true that he has lobbied for more road funding for metropolitan areas, particularly Charlotte.”
The truth is that Pat McCrory wants to remove the politics from transportation decisions and put an end to the “old-style” politics of pitting one region against another. McCrory has pledged as Governor to transform DOT and to develop a 25-50 year transportation plan that takes into account the needs and expected future needs of the entire state.
Garbage:
Fiction:
Pat McCrory wants to let New York and New Jersey dump their garbage in North Carolina. Newspapers say we would become the garbage capital of the East Coast. It’s no surprise McCrory’s gotten thousands of dollars from landfill owners. Pat McCrory: Don’t let him dump on us.”
Fact:
Perdue’s ad refers to the Solid Waste Management Act of 2007. Favored by environmentalists, the bill was designed to restrict new landfills in the state.
McCrory cited the measure as an example of a bill he would have vetoed as governor. He opposed the bill because it put new taxes on municipalities. An early version would have cost cities and towns in NC $25 million in new taxes, and was also opposed by the N.C. League of Municipalities.
Perdue’s ad is absolutely false. Even liberal environmental activist Bill Holman, was quoted in the News & Observer as saying the ad was an “exaggeration.”
Pat McCrory wants to Divide NC: He’s not on our side.
Fiction:
Pat McCrory repeatedly has made divisive comments that pit different regions of the state against each other. It has no place in our state politics or in the governor’s office.
Fact:
After promising she would run a positive campaign, Beverly Perdue is running a dishonest negative campaign based on half-truths and outright lies. She comes to Charlotte and says it is “her second home” and promises to help get more road money for Charlotte, saying, “your leaders shouldn’t have to come to Raleigh and play ‘mother may I,’ to get road money.” Then she leaves Charlotte, and attacks Charlotte in an effort to divide the state and pit one region against another. Pat gives the same speech in every part of the state. He is going to put an end to this old-style divisive politics of the status quo. He is running to represent every part of North Carolina. He says on the stump that “we need to realize all regions of NC have to work together because our competition for jobs is not each other, it is other parts of the country.”
Highway Trust Fund:
Fiction:
Pat McCrory himself proposed raiding the highway trust fund.
Fact:
In 1989, Beverly Perdue was an original co-sponsor of the legislation that set up the highway trust fund. She wrote the legislation so that $170 million was “raided” from the trust fund each year to go into the general fund. As Senate budget writer, Perdue wrote budgets that “raided” even more money from the trust fund.
President Bush
Fiction:
Perdue is running a television ad that claims Pat McCrory is a copy of President Bush.
Fact:
President Bush is not on the ballot this year. Beverly Perdue is desperate to bring down Pat’s strong poll numbers so she has reverted to this tired old attack that every Democrat candidate in the country is trying. The truth is, Pat McCrory has been elected Mayor 7 times by huge margins in a Democrat city. He is recognized as an independent thinker, a conservationist and a leader who built light rail in Charlotte. He has been endorsed by the Asheville Citizen-Times, the Durham Herald-Sun, the Winston-Salem Journal, the Greensboro News and Record, the High Point Enterprise, the Charlotte Observer and the Wilson Daily Times. These editorial boards have almost all endorsed Obama and Hagan and would not have endorsed McCrory if he really was a George Bush clone.
Pat McCrory Will Raise Taxes:
Fiction:
Pat McCrory’s proposals could raise all of our taxes. (He wants to repeal the lottery and he wants private school vouchers, together taking over a billion taxpayer dollars from our public schools).
McCrory supported raising sales tax in Mecklenburg County: made it highest sales tax rate in the state.
Fact:
Perdue has promised free community college tuition for every North Carolinian, she has promised 25-year retirement for all law enforcement in the state, she proposes increases in entitlement spending, and a myriad of other new programs. McCrory has said he will not repeal the lottery and does not support across the board vouchers.
On the sales tax, the voters of Mecklenburg County voted 70 percent in favor of the half cent sales tax increase that McCrory supported. It should be noted that McCrory has fought to keep the city property tax low in Charlotte. The only increase in city property tax in the past 10 years happened only after the Democrat majority on the city council over-rode McCrory’s veto.
Crime and Public Safety:
Fiction:
Ad: “Mayor Pat McCrory… vetoed a pay raise for police and firefighters, even as crime increased. And the Charlotte Observer said, ‘McCrory failed to address deep seated problems by not adequately funding police and fire resources.’”
Fact:
Pat McCrory did not veto a pay increase for policemen and firefighters, he vetoed a city budget because it included a large property tax increase. The veto had everything to do with an unnecessary tax increase and nothing to do with pay increases for policemen and firemen.
During Pat’s term as mayor the city has more than doubled the police budget and increased the force by 21 percent. The city’s police have done their job by decreasing homicides 15 percent and decreasing violent crime by 7.2 percent to the lowest rate since 1980.
The truth is that Lt. Governor Perdue introduced legislation that placed a cap on prisons and wrote budgets that cut funding for the state criminal justice system. She is responsible for the “revolving door” criminal justice system that puts criminals back on the street after the police arrest them. On June 25 The Charlotte Observer editorial also stated, “Local governments can’t do much about overwhelmed, underfunded state courts that feed the problem. Charlotte-Mecklenburg is already spending millions to shore up courts here.”
Ryan Teague Beckwith, a reporter with the News & Observer said about the ad, “…overall it paints a misleading picture. While the crime rate increased in 2006, it has been down overall during McCrory’s tenure. The pay raises for the mayor were in a different year than the pay raises for firefighters. And there are reasons to be skeptical of the comparison between Charlotte and New York and L.A.”
Pay Raises
Fiction:
Mayor McCrory supported a pay raise for himself and other politicians.
Fact:
The Charlotte Observer (6/10/08)never mentions Mayor McCrory or his stand on pay raises for Council members. It states that most Republicans voted against the pay raises and mostly Democrat members passed the proposal. The newspaper list of votes for the pay increase does not include a vote by Mayor McCrory. There is also no mention in the official minutes of the meeting of statements made by the mayor. The only time in Pat’s career he had a chance to vote on a pay increase he voted against it.
{Of interest: While the lieutenant governor was a member of the Senate, she voted a half dozen times to increase her own salary and even voted to increase her own retirement by 40 percent. As lieutenant governor she has accepted seven more pay increases. }
Illegal Immigrants:
Fiction:
Pat McCrory doubted that NASCAR Hall of Fame could be completed within budget without undocumented workers. He acknowledged that undocumented workers helped with Bobcats Arena.
Fact:
Pat McCrory was concerned about undocumented workers being hired to work on the NASCAR hall of fame, so he made sure language was added to the contract that said contractors had to make sure no undocumented workers were used on the project.
Health Care:
Fiction:
Pat McCrory is against health insurance for children. He opposes making insurance companies cover basic services and would allow insurance companies to sell health plans that don’t meet minimum standards currently in place.
Fact:
Pat McCrory supports health insurance for children, but not Perdue’s plan that would expand children’s health program to adults and illegal immigrants. Perdue says she’s been the “#1 healthcare leader in the state for the past eight years” but in the past eight years the number of NC children without insurance as increased significantly.
McCrory does not support eliminating mandates, but supports offering a choice of health care plans that enable the consumer to choose less coverage at lower cost.
Stem Cell Research
Fiction:
Pat McCrory is against all forms of stem cell research.
Fact:
Pat McCrory supports stem cell research—the type of research that scientists say is the safest and most effective and avoids destroying human life.
“I support adult and amniotic stem cell research,” said McCrory. “My mother had Alzheimer’s and I watched her struggle with the disease for ten years. That’s why I support stem cell research at places like Wake Forest University. These scientists offer us hope that one day, families won’t have to suffer as my family has.”
Real Danger
Fiction:
Pat McCrory is a real danger to the middle class.
Fact:
Pat has been elected 7 times by the middle class and has improved the quality of life for the people in Charlotte to the point that it has just been named the best city in America to in which to live.
Perdue herself is a millionaire, who has loaned millions to her campaign. If Pat really were a “real danger,” then why did the Asheville Citizen-Times, the Durham Herald-Sun, the Winston-Salem Journal, the Greensboro News and Record, the High Point Enterprise, the Charlotte Observer and the Wilson Daily Times endorse McCrory?
Minimum wage:
Fiction:
Perdue Ad: “Pat McCrory opposes raising the minimum wage for North Carolina workers.” — Asheville Citizen-Times article, 5/4/08
Fact:
Actual Citizen-Times quote: “McCrory said he probably would oppose an increase on the grounds that it could eliminate jobs.”
NFIB Questionnaire (Small business anti minimum wage organization), 7/16/08: Do you favor increasing the minimum wage? McCrory checked the yes box and added, “Any onetime minimum wage increase should be coupled with a tax cut to small business to help offset additional costs. I would also back an alternative such as adjusting minimum wage to the cost of living.”
McCrory supports increasing the minimum wage under conditions that blunt the impact on small business and therefore protect jobs.
Private School Vouchers:
Fiction:
Pat McCrory said he “absolutely” supports vouchers. His voucher scheme would cut $900 million from education.
Fact:
Pat McCrory is a product of North Carolina public schools and will work to strengthen public education as Governor. He believes a 30 percent drop out rate is unacceptable. Beverly Perdue has sat on the state board of education for eight years and done nothing. To solve this problem, McCrory believes we need to have all options on the table, including limited use of opportunity scholarships for special needs students and for “at risk” students trapped in failing schools. He does not support across the board vouchers and never has. Perdue backs up her ridiculous $900 million claim by saying McCrory supports a voucher equal to the full amount the state spends per child, although no voucher program has ever done so, and multiplies that full amount by the number of students currently in private school.
Free Community College
Fiction:
Pat McCrory opposes free community college tuition for high school graduates.
Fact:
Charlotte Observer quote: McCrory said, “Nothing is free. The teachers aren’t going to work for free. The buildings aren’t free. The textbooks aren’t free. I’m going to tell the truth. What I’m going to do is put together an education program that tries to get people jobs.”
The context of the charge is a record by Perdue who wrote a budget with a 34 percent tuition increase for community colleges. (H168, 1999) On other occasions, she voted to increase tuition by 15 percent (H1340, 1992), 30 percent (H83, 1991) and 16.6 percent (S1426, 1990). Perdue has never voted to reduce community college tuition and has voted to increase tuition every time it came before the Senate. McCrory opposes free community college tuition for all high school graduates. Perdue has supported huge community college tuition increases.
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