NC 28 debate: Katie Dorsett and Bruce Davis

Katie Dorsett of Greensboro, who is serving her third term as state senator for District 28, appeared at a candidate’s forum sponsored by Concerned Citizens of Northeast Greensboro at the Greensboro Historical Museum on May 1 with challenger Bruce Davis, a Guilford County commissioner from High Point. Both candidates are Democrats, and the winner of the May 6 primary will take the seat because no Republican candidate has filed. The district encompasses most of High Point, much of east Greensboro, all of Jamestown and Pleasant Garden, and a large swath of southern Guilford County.

The candidates discussed their views of the Street Gang Prevention Act, a bill that would enhance sentences for criminal defendants identified as gang members. The legislation, which enjoys the backing of a coalition of North Carolina mayors, including Greensboro’s Keith Holliday, stalled last year in the Senate Appropriations Committee, of which Dorsett is a member.

Dorsett: “I certainly know that we’ve done a lot of discussion on gangs. I would say that some of our communities have been further along than we have. High Point was one of the first ones to have their own area in the police department to look specifically at gangs. Senator Malcolm Graham had a bill that was looking for approximately $20 billion. That got stalled. Representative Mickey Michaux had one in the house. I do say that we do have some money though. We appropriated a little more than $4 million to the Governor’s Crime Commission for grants for different communities, so it has not gone unnoticed. I know that the activity and the awareness on gang prevention has been heightened in the last several months. But we have to understand, too, that when we get into a matter of priorities, it’s a matter of how we can get the most for our money.”

Davis: “I really need the bill in front of me. I really need to know the components of the bill. And I think our legislators and all of us as community citizens need to understand about gangs. We need to understand the history of gangs, and how they have always been a part of our community. Gangs are not a new thing to our community, but we have to understand where they come from and how they have evolved, and what they are right now, so that we can, first of all, not stereotype, and not just go after everybody with — every kid who puts a mark in his eyebrow, or every kid who wears baggy trousers, because now we become profilers, and so I would have to study that bill. There’s no way I can sit here and tell you that yes, I would support it, or no, I would not, without studying the issue and also having different forums throughout our community, so that everybody understands what gangs are about, where they evolved from, and what it is about gangs. We don’t want to have a fear factor in our gangs without knowing where they come from or the issue of gangs. Certainly there’s an education component that needs to go in there. I’m not aware of all the particulars in that bill. Would love to have the opportunity to have that discussion.”

Gov. Mike Easley said of the Job Maintenance and Capital Development Fund last fall: “Never in the history of the state has anyone given a company up to $40 million and allowed them to lay off hundreds of workers.” Dorsett voted for the legislation. The candidates discussed their respective positions on corporate incentives.

Dorsett: “Well, I’ll tell you, that’s a little bit misleading, because we did come back and the governor did sign that subsequent bill, and it was pretty much the same language. So he might have vetoed it in one sense, and then he went back, and there was some refinement, and we still passed that. In terms of incentives, I wish we didn’t have incentives, to be honest. I think that it is something that we could do without and be competitive in other ways. Having said that, when I was secretary of administration [under Gov. Jim Hunt], we competed trying to get Mercedes, and we lost that to Alabama. Alabama gave away the store, and it took them a long time to recoup some of that. Our package was not the same, but we recognized that there was a limit as to what we could do, and so we cut it off. I was secretary when we were trying to get the BMW plant, and we tried to put together a package. We again gave away all we thought we could do, and yet it went to South Carolina.

“I’m saying that to say that there has to be some way of being competitive, and incentives right now appears to be the only way we can do that. I did hear part of the discussion as we talk about Skybus…. There’s some producing that has to take place. We don’t just give this money up front. So Skybus didn’t get all that money up front. They have to be able to show that they will hire a certain number of people. And there are certain things that are part of the contractual agreement. And I think you saw in the paper that most of that money that was supposed to go to Skybus — it was an unfortunate circumstance — will be recovered or has never been given. I do not believe that we can afford not to have incentives.

“And we talked tonight about how we can increase the revenue. The only way to decrease the taxes is to increase the revenue. We can do that by bringing businesses into our communities. We bring businesses into our communities by being competitive so they don’t go to Virginia or they don’t go to South Carolina or they don’t go to Alabama. So we have to do some of that. And until the federal government or somebody at another level is able to intercede on behalf of all of us, I think we will forever be finding ways to compete to bring industry so that we can increase the revenue so we can keep our taxes low. So I don’t like them, but I think we have no choice but to have them.”

Davis: “I have supported those incentives because we have lost so many jobs in Guilford County. However, I have taken another look at those incentives and feel that just as was stated, once those incentives are put in place and then we start losing those jobs that we thought we were going to get, then there’s certainly a problem there. I would certainly like to see the counties taken out of the corporate incentive business. It is a necessary evil because that’s what they are doing right now. That’s what other states have to do. But right now, at the county level, it causes our counties to compete against one another. And so you find that FedEx may go to Forsyth County, or [if] we up the ante they’ll come to Guilford County. Well, truth be told, those workers will travel wherever….

“With that being said, it will probably be good to do away with them from a state level, but, again, understand that they’re a necessary evil. We could take those same funds that we give to large corporations and offer incentives to small mom-and-pop businesses, those small businesses that are really out there struggling because about 54 percent of America’s income comes through the small businesses. They are taxed at the same rate as the large corporations, depending on the property that they have or what have you. So I think that those incentives could be used in a better way, by supporting start-up businesses that maybe promote a greener economy. I’m a small business. And you start out a small business with credit-card debt. And you're continuously trying to chase those debts, and you never get a strong hold on what’s happening. But with my small business I put food on the table for 18 families. If I had those incentives I would be able to do much better for those families right here in our community. And if we were able to take those incentives and put them into start-up businesses, small mom-and-pop businesses, that’s where the money should go.”

The candidates discussed their support for restoring the protest petition in Greensboro. The protest petition provides that if a certain percentage of adjacent property owners protest a proposed rezoning the city council is required to muster a 75-percent super-majority to approve the request. Greensboro lost the protest petition in 1971 by of an act of the General Assembly, and it remains the only city in the state that does not have this provision.

Dorsett: “I’ve heard a lot and had public hearings over in Greensboro and High Point, and they’ve been to Raleigh as well. And I have agreed to sponsor that legislation in the Senate to permit Greensboro the same as everybody else…. I don’t know a lot — I remember looking back in history when it started, and I don’t know the basis of which it started, but I do think it’s unfair for all other communities and cities in our state to abide by one law and Greensboro have exemption, when there’s, in my opinion, no real justification for it.”

Davis: “I would support it. I have no real problem with that. I would have to agree with the Honorable Katie Dorsett. We need to have consistency.”