Candidates for the North Carolina General Assembly from the House of Representatives District 20, and Senate Districts 8 and 9 responded to a barrage of questions during a candidates’ forum organized by WECT Wednesday, Oct. 8.
District 20: Representative Rick Catlin, R-New Hanover v. Betsy Jordan
On the issue if the current state budget is positive or negative for public school teachers.
Betsy Jordan said the recently passed state budget for fiscal year 2014-15 had a negative effect on public school teachers and called it irresponsible because it pushed away many veteran teachers when higher raises were given to newer teachers.
“My mother was a public school teacher and she used to worry about kids having a roof over their heads and food in their tummies but now we are worried about the teachers,” Jordan said.
Representative Rick Catlin said the steps made to increasing education funding in the budget were a step in the right direction but that the state could do better in funding education and raising teacher pay.
On their priority for a second Cape Fear River crossing and it being a toll road.
Catlin said he strongly supports an additional bridge and that making the bridge a toll road would be the optimal way to expedite funding of the project and help pay for it.
Jordan said she was in favor of another crossing but not if it was a toll road because she would not be in favor of the privatization that could come with a toll road.
“Toll roads are not the way to go because it opens the door for private companies and I am not in favor of taking state highways and privatizing them,” she said.
On their faith in the state’s ability to oversee coal ash cleanup by Duke Energy.
 Catlin said the NCGA is working on the oversight regulations and during the last weekend of short session he worked all weekend to protect groundwater around the low risk coal plant sites. With his background in engineering Catlin said he was asked by the coal ash commissions to visit the sites of concern to explain the issues with coal ash regulation.
Jordan said she did not know if the state would be able to effectively regulate it.
With Duke Energy estimating the cost of the coal ash cleanup to be $10 million, both candidates said Duke Energy and its shareholders should be the ones to pay for the cleanup.
On their support of the film tax credit program and business incentives.
 Catlin said he voted for Representative Ted Davis Jr.’s amendement that would have extended the sunset of the film incentives but it failed to pass the senate.
“The opportunity to continue to find a long term solutions is there,” Catlin said.
Jordan said the film incentive program was a system that was not broken and she would have liked to seen it continue and also use it as a model for incentives for other industries like agribusiness.
On the way the NCGA handled opening the door for hydraulic fracking off the N.C. coast.
Catlin said the NCGA did not act responsibly in its passage of the bill allowing for fracking off the N.C. coast. After finding out about the bill on a Friday, Catlin said he worked all weekend to include amendments providing transparency in the fracking process and voted against the bill because there was not enough time to fix it in his mind.
Jordan also said the NCGA acted irresponsibly in the passage of the bill and said she took issue with fracking because of land rights issues and because it does not encourage energy companies like Duke to develop clean energy sources like solar or wind.
District 9: Senator Michael Lee, R-New Hanover v. Elizabeth Redenbaugh
 On the estimate that the state has spent $1 million for outside legal counsel defending the constitutionality of laws passed by the NCGA.
Senator Michael Lee advocated seeking outside legal counsel depending on if the case warranted input from an attorney specializing in a specific area.
“As elected officials we need to make sure we fulfill that oath to uphold the constitution of North Carolina,” Lee said.
Elizabeth Redenbaugh said she would prefer not to have to the spend tax payers’ money that way.
“However, if our general assembly continues to pass laws considered unconstitutional that is sadly something we will have to keep doing,” Redenbaugh said.
On their priority for a second Cape Fear River crossing and it being a toll road.
Redenbaugh said she would be in favor of a second crossing but that she would be concerned with the privatization of the bridge if it were a toll road. Looking at the larger picture, Redenbaugh said southeastern North Carolina should be concerned about Governor Pat McCrory’s new transportation formula, which only allocates 2.1 percent of the state’s transportation funding to the area.
Lee, however, contended the new transportation formula takes politics out of the distribution of transportation funding with a data-driven allocation program. Lee said he would support a tolled second crossing but that the area should work to find the best ways to utilize it minimal funding.
On their faith in the state’s ability to oversee coal ash cleanup by Duke Energy.
Lee touted North Carolina as the leader in regulating the disposal of coal ash and said the state was on the way to securing clean water across the state. As for who should pay for the estimated $10 million cleanup of Duke’s coal ash, Lee said it should be up to the N.C. Utilities Commission.
Redenbaugh said she has concerns about whether or not the state could effectively oversee the coal ash cleanup, claiming the NGCA dragged its feet on the issue.
“Duke Energy gives a lot of contributions to a lot of politicians in North Carolina,” Redenbaugh said. “Duke Energy and its shareholders should bear the burden.”
On the way the NCGA handled opening the door for hydraulic fracking off the N.C. coast.
Lee said that if it could be done safely and within the law then fracking should be allowed.
Redenbaugh said the NCGA did not act responsibly in passing the bill allowing the exploration of fracking possibilities off the N.C. coast.
“I will never will sacrifice the public health on the altar of corporate profits,” she said.
On if the state should expand its Medicaid program.
Redenbaugh said she favors Medicaid expansion and stated North Carolina would have the fifth highest death rate of any state in the country without expansion of Medicaid. “We should never have put partisan politics over the health of individuals,” Redenbaugh said.
Lee said he did not believe an expansion of Medicaid is wise for the state currently because Medicaid costs are not easily derived and therefore provides uncertainty in the state budget.
“Until we can figure out budget predictability we are going to have real problems managing a program with a blank check,” Lee said.
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