By JOHN NORTH
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North Carolina Lt. Gov. Dan Forest cited what he said were some of the major accomplishments of recent General Assembly action in Raleigh during a March 3 luncheon meeting of the Council of Independent Business Owners.
The lieutenant governor stressed that many in the audience might be surprised by hearing the facts from him, noting that they are contrary to what he termed the prevailing negative reports,
Forest’s talk and a question-and-answer session — lasting about 15 minutes each — drew about 100 people to Asheville’s Crest Center & Pavilion.
CIBO President Rod Hudgins recognized elected guests, including state Sen. Tom Apodaca, R-Hendersonville; state Rep. Nathan Ramsey, R-Fairview; Buncombe County Commissioner Joe Belcher, Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer, and Asheville City Council members Jan Davis and Gwen Wisler.
When someone pointed out that he had omitted recognizing Terry Bellamy, who recently stepped down as Asheville’s mayor, Hudgins, apologizing profusely for the oversight, gave her a warm welcome and praised her for her accomplishments.
Forest was introduced by Apodaca, who peppered his remarks with his prototypical dry wit.
Apodaca triggered the event’s loudest laughter, when he began by quipping, “It’s good to be here today. Everybody thought (Rep.) Tim Moffitt (R-Arden) was going to be here today, but he’s not... Maybe that’s why we’ve got this crowd. “
In perhaps a playful reference to CIBO’s initial oversight in its introducing, Apodaca prompted more laughter when he joked, “Former Mayor Terry Bellamy — it’s good to see you today, especially since your’e not mayor anymore.”
Apodaca appeared to relish the opportunity to introduce Forest, whom he noted is a friend, as well as to needle the keynote speaker, albeit in a jovial fashion.
“Dan is truly a good man,” Apodaca said with a grin. “Dan like Nathan (Ramsey) married way above himself... They have a wonderful family.
“Dan is an architect by trade. I think he’s retired now. He doesn’t look old enough to be retired. Dan’s mother is former congressman Sue Meyer (check spelling) of Charlotte.
“So I’m not going to say anymore nice things about Dan — I’m about tired of him,” Apodaca concluded, as the crowd again burst out in laughter and then applauded Forest as he approached the lectern.
Smiling, Forest said that Apodaca “is the quickest wit I know. Thank you.” The lieutenant governor also thanked Bellamy “for being here” and her accomplishments first as a member of City Council — and then as Asheville’s mayor.
Forest said his address will “tell you what’s going on in Raleigh, as well provide his “insight to what’s going on in Raleigh.”
He added, “It’s a very partisan world and there’s lot of misinformation out there... We’ve got political instability” in the nation as an entity, and that carries into state government affairs, Forest said “If you have too many extremes, then your country’s in peril.”
Contrary to the partisan misinformation, Forest said the divide among legislators (from the two political parties) in Raleigh is not nearly as stark as reported. Indeed, he asserted, “I’d say 98 percent of the bills in Raleigh are bipartisan — with 98-0 or 96-2 votes — and that’s good news” for the constituents.
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Most of you are small businesspeople... You really don’t read about it in the newspapers or see it on the TV... He said the state motto, ‘Esse quam videri’ (‘To be, rather than to seem,’” is applicable, given the misinformation about the legislature.
“It’s a great state. We have a lot of good things going for North Carolina” with the current legislature and Gov. Pat McCrory’s leadership. “But for many years, many things were getting swept under the rug” by state leaders.
(Forest’s reference was to recent elections that brought in a Republican governor and GOP-dominated legislature. Previously, Democrat-controlled legislatures had held sway on state affairs for more than a century.)
“When we (the McCrory administration) took charge about a couple years ago, we looked at those things swept under the rug” and realized that “you have to have a solid infrastructure” to make any major achievements.
Forest said the General Assembly “cut taxes by $3 billion and got the budget balanced with $3 billion” by trimming spending.
“We cut personal and corporate income taxes and eliminated the death tax — that’s $1.5 billion right there,” he said. “That’s good to do for North Carolina’s future....
“We live in a world of ‘big data,’ but we have a state (government) that’s in disarray from a technology standpoint because we have 300 different (software) systems” in operation. “We had to figure out a way to get the systems talking to each other” — and that has been accomplished, he said, thanks to the efforts by the McCrory administration and the legislature.
As an example of change for the better, Forest said, “One thing we did was change the transportation model. It used to be, you had to know someone to get a road built. Now, tax dollars are spent for what’s best for North Carolina.
“I could go through agency after agency,” with state leaders “turning over rocks and discovering things. The amount of fraud and abuse that going on in DHHS (the state Department of Health and Human Services) is astounding. There’s a billion and a half dollars in debt in (state) Medicaid — that’s broken and we need to fix it — we’ve discovered since we took over... Once it’s on the books, the state has to take care of it.”
After a pause, Forest noted, “These are the kind of things we’re discovering” and must be dealt with “to go forward.”
