The Council of Independent Business Owners heard an unusually critical legislative update during a July 15 breakfast meeting at Chick-fil-A restaurant in North Asheville.

Also presented was a review of Asheville’s proposed $74 million bond issuance as well as details on additions to the new Buncombe County budget

About 60 people attended the hour-long session that started with an update on recent action at the state General Assembly, provided by state Rep. John Ager and state Sen. Terry Van Duyn, both of whom are local Democrats. Ager lives in Fairview and Van Duyn in Asheville.

Speaking first, Ager said that “perhaps the most important thing were bills that weren’t passed — namely the Asheville CIty Council district bill. It could make a great mini-series....”

After detailing other bills that he was glad failed to pass and some he wished had passed, Ager said, “We, of course, did pass the budget. I voted for the budget. It’s an adequate budget. There is a 4.7 percent teacher pay raise. Last year they were given a $750 bonus. For a lot of the teachers, the pay raise is about the same as the bonus.”

The new budget includes funding for Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College and “a half-million dollars in Henderson County for the Muddy Sneakers group for outdoor learning for our elementary schools,” he noted.

Ager also said there is money in the budget for scholarships “to send (selected) students to our private schools.” He added, “A million dollars was added to our clean water trust fund, raising is to $22.4 million. I’m pleased about that.”

However, Ager admitted, “There’s a fair amount of pork-barrel spending (in the budget) — guess that’s no surprise....

“I want to tell you one bit of good news I ran across. We have a Super Fund site in my district near Warren Wilson College. It’s Chemtronics…. The cleanup of that property is going very well. They’re going to be able to treat these chemicals with biomediation. That means putting cooking oil into the soil, changing it into something (safe). … I think that is a real success story.”

Next, Van Duynn began by praising Ager’s summary of General Assembly activity, but then asserted, “I’m going to take a slightly different tack because a lot of you here don’t know me. As you can hear from my voice, I’m not from around here. I grew up in Chicago and was in the hot dog business. My Dad later had a restaurant. I saw the color drain from his face” at different times, as a result of the stresses of running a small business.

“I decided at a young age that I didn’t want to be self-employed.” Indeed, Van Duyn noted that she later worked for a large firm. (She was a systems analyst.)

“So I ‘get’ how business-owners feeling they need to be able to control how they do business — and the tension with government. That tension gets mitigated with trust, if we work together. So I congratulate you on having this organization that informs your members and brings you together with elected officials.”

In a slap at the Republican-controlled General Assembly, Van Duyn asserted, “I believe  (that) in Raleigh we’re seriously out-of-balance right now. It (the session) was considerably less collaborative than anything I’d seen before. Everything happens behind closed-doors and it happens quickly.”

Van Duyn then cited the passage of HB2 (House Bill 2, also known as “the bathroom bill”), which she termed “a major example of such damage to North Carolina” from a financial and reputation standpoint.

She noted examples of loss of jobs from HB2’s passage, wherein businesses said they did not want to locate in a state that discriminates against the LBGTQ community. “My point is that we’re not working together.”

In another slam, she cited “closed-door operations in Raleigh” Van Duyn added, “An excellent example, as John mentioned, we’re going to spend $40 million a year to subsidize tuition at three universities. That might be a great idea... We haven’t discussed what our objectives are or how we’re going to measure this.”

Ultimately, she said, “I think we’re broken right now” as a General Assembly. 

On a more conciliatory note, Van Duyn added, “You and I might disagree on a lot of issues. But I have to remember that your views are just as valuable as mine... We need to work together. John did a pretty good job of highlighting what’s happening. Teachers will get a raise – but not all teachers. We’re still not even close on fixing education in North Carolina. We’re not investing in our infrastructure — not just education but roads, access to high-speed Internet” and other presssing needs.

During a question-and-answer period that followed, a man challenged Van Duyn’s contentions. “The state is not broken,” he said. “We’ve got a AAA credit rating” and the economy is growing. He also ripped “what’s going on in Illinois.”

“ My opinion is a bit extreme because I serve in the Senate,” Van Duyn replied. “It’s not quite as extreme in the House. At least 40 percent of North Carolina did not have a voice in the budget negotiations.”

She then asserted, “I absolutely would not defend what’s going on in Illinois.”

Ager added, “The Asheville districting vote didn’t fail because it was a bad idea — it failed because of the process” that was used was out of line with legislative rules.

Another man asked the two legislators to comment on state Attorney General Roy Cooper’s argument to vote against HB2’s passage.

“Roy Cooper didn’t talk to the Democrats in the Senate,” Van Duyn said.

“Nor to those in the House,” Ager noted.

Van Duyn then interjected, “The lack of progress had to do with the leadership in the Senate and in the House. We never got to see a bill.”

Next, Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer asked CIBO members to vote for the $74 million bond that will go before voters in November. She outlined the city’s case for needing it to be passed, noting that it would benefit transportation, affordable housing and parks and recreation.

On a separate matter, Brownie Newman, vice chairman of the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, said the new county budget was approved with no tax increase, while adding  $1.6 million in teacher pay supplements “for this year and the same for the following year,” along with supplements for other school personnel.

Also added was spending of $1.3 million for the new Enka Elementary School and almost $200,000 for the Nesbitt Discovery Academy, he said.