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Friedman, Haire square off in House race
By Lynn Hotaling
One way or another, the person representing District 119 in the N.C. House of Representatives will continue to be from Jackson County.
That’s because the two candidates seeking the Democratic nomination – Avram Friedman and incumbent Phil Haire – are both from Sylva as is Dodie Allen, the only Republican in the race.
To find out where the candidates stand with regard to issues important to local voters, The Herald sent the same questions to Haire and Friedman, whose answers appear below. Allen is not included in this survey because she has no opposition in the May 6 primary.
Avram Friedman
Friedman, 58, is executive director of the Canary Coalition, a grassroots group he founded to advocate for clean air. He attended Hunger College in New York for two years and studied political science and earned an associate applied science degree in alternative energy technology from Southwestern Technical College (now Southwestern Community College). He’s lived in Jackson County for the past 25 years.
Friedman has won awards for his environmental activism. He was named the 2007 Air Conservationist of the year and given the Governor’s Conservation Achievement Award by the N.C. Wildlife Federation. In 2006, he was appointed to a statewide Democratic Party study commission on the environment, and he served on the board of the Jackson County Community Health Link from 2005 until 2007. He introduced the Clean Smokestacks Act to the General Assembly in 2001. Friedman has also served as vice president of the Webster Enterprises board, chairman of the Tuckasegee Community Alliance and chairman of the Jackson County Solid Waste Task Force.
He has sought elected office twice before, running for Jackson County commissioner in 1988 and for governor of North Carolina in 1986. In addition, Friedman successfully initiated the campaign for a statewide referendum against the location of a federal high-level nuclear waste repository in Western North Carolina.
Phil Haire
Haire is an attorney who earned both his bachelor’s degree in history and his law degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has lived in Jackson County for almost 41 years.
A longtime attorney for Sylva’s town board, Haire was a captain in the U.S. Air Force before coming to Sylva. He has served on the UNC Board of Governors, Western Carolina University’s Board of Trustees and the N.C. Bar Association board, where he has been chairman of the senior lawyer’s division and chairman of the N.C. Conference of District Bar Presidents.
He was first elected to the N.C. House in 1998 and has been named to the National Conference of State Legislators. While in the House, he has been vice chairman of the standing committee on law and public safety. He is presently co-chairman of the Appropriations Committee, vice chairman of the Judiciary III Committee and a member of the Environment and Natural Resources Committee.
Questions, with both candidates’ responses listed in alphabetical order below each, follow:
With the drought ongoing throughout the state, what are some of the things you think the Legislature can do to urge water conservation so that our area isn’t faced with shortages like have been seen in the Triangle and elsewhere?
Friedman: Similar to my energy conservation proposals, I believe economic incentive is the way to drive water conservation. Inverting municipal water rate-structures would provide meaningful economic incentive for industrial, commercial, agricultural and residential water consumers to invest in strong water conservation measures, such as low-flow faucets, shower heads, toilets, drip-irrigation systems, catch-water and gray water systems. Using inverted rates, wasteful use of municipal water would result in a higher cost per gallon in a given month. Therefore conservation is rewarded, and wastefulness is penalized. A per capita threshold should be determined for households beyond which the higher rate kicks in. Similar thresholds can be determined for each individual business and industry, depending on need.
Water and energy use are intimately related, as conventional coal and nuclear power generation are responsible for 80 percent of fresh water withdrawals, for cooling purposes, in North Carolina. Millions of gallons of fresh water are evaporated each day for each power plant. So, by reducing energy consumption and using renewable energy sources to replace conventional polluting sources, we can also dramatically reduce water consumption.
It also takes energy to use water. Water is electrically pumped from deep wells in many households in Jackson County. In some cases municipal supply and wastewater have to be pumped as well. When we use hot water, we’re using even more energy. More energy use means more water use for cooling power plants. Saving water and saving energy go hand-in-hand with multiple benefits for everyone. Public policy should reflect this.
Haire: Each county is unique, and specific controls would have to be enacted locally except those areas where many towns and counties would be drawing from large reservoirs. The mountains are different from the Piedmont in that our traditional water fall is greater, and much of our water is drawn from wells. But, we should all practice conservation, whether it be water, electricity, or protecting our air.
Since the state requires local property values to be determined by recent land sales, is there something you think can be done in the General Assembly to help long-time residents who are seeing their land values skyrocket, especially in counties with a large number of second homes?
Friedman: The General Assembly has the power to amend the “Machine Act” that, among other things, defines the relationship between state government and county officials. Under current provisions of the Machine Act, in North Carolina, unlike in many other states, county officials can do little else than administer state law on the local level. They don’t have the power to create property tax rates that differentiate between local residents and second-home owners. I believe this is a deficiency in state law that should be addressed. There are many ways the North Carolina state government needs to be modernized to accommodate a changing economy and a growing population. Part of this modernization should include granting greater autonomy to county and municipal governments to grapple with each locality’s unique economic, land-use and environmental issues.
The issue of rising property values and taxes is serious. Senior citizens, local, year-round residents and low-income property owners are feeling crunched by property tax increases caused by rapid, unbridled development and the second-home boom in Jackson County. County commissioners should have the power to differentiate the property tax rates of year-round residents, senior citizens with fixed incomes and other low-income property owners from second-home owner tax rates. If elected, I would investigate ways to amend the Machine Act and sponsor legislation that would address this issue.
Haire: The legal standard for property appraisal is the fair market value as to what a willing seller is willing to accept, and what a willing buyer is willing to offer. This standard is uniform across the state under existing law. Land values and tax rates are connected. The county determines the amount of money it requires to meet the needs of the people of the county, and then sets the tax rate to produce the income necessary to meet the county’s needs. To attempt to legislate one appraised value for residents and another value for those with second homes would be discriminatory and, therefore, unconstitutional. I did support a change in the law in the 2007 session that increases the household exemption of elder citizens in the poverty range who are age 65 or older to $25,000, and also I supported help for low-income working taxpayers by creating an Earned Income Tax Credit.
Do you think current state statutes give counties enough leeway in determining what developers have vested rights?
Friedman: The term “vested” refers to “investment.” The term investment has always implied risk. If you invest in the stock market, you make money if your stock goes up, but you lose money if it goes down.
Corporate developers are making very risky investments when they enter into communities unknown to them, planning large developments without performing a comprehensive environmental assessment, without taking the time to learn about the heritage of the community, without learning how their plans will impact the people in the local community and without assessing the opposition they’ll encounter. Local governments, state governments – or the federal government for that matter – should not be in the business of changing the rules for large corporations who make risky investments.
That being said, in 1990 the General Assembly adopted N.C.G.S. 160A-385.1 which gives a “vested right” to approved “site specific development plans” following a public hearing. 160A-385.1 also requires the local government to define its own criteria for what constitutes a site specific development plan.
Chapter 5 of the Unified Development Ordinance allows (not requires) local officials to grant vested rights to developments that have an approved site specific development plan. A vested right, once established, protects that plan from newly passed regulations that might affect the allowable type or intensity of use shown on the approved site specific development plan.
In light of these provisions, I think the county probably does have the leeway to, for instance, deny vested rights to the Legasus development on Moody Ridge (Cullowhee Mountain).
Haire: Although I am not familiar with all the state statutes, the regulation of development is a local issue governed by the counties. There are issues of health, safety, and water quality and erosion which are subject to state oversight.
Name another issue that’s important to you. Why?
Friedman: Phil Haire supports Duke Energy’s plan to build a mammoth new coal-burning power plant at Cliffside. When he voted for Senate Bill 3 in the last session, easing the way for construction of new coal plants, he voted to plan for the past. I will vote to plan for the future.
The way to plan for the future is by understanding that we have to meet energy demand while improving air quality, preserving natural resources, averting climate change and providing for a sustainable economy. We can achieve this by providing strong economic incentive for investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy development. We need to invert the utility rate-structure, remove legal obstacles to wind and solar development, simplify net-metering, promote co-generation of electricity using existing industrial heat-sources and provide dis-incentives for peak-hour power usage.
Planning for the past involves business-as-usual energy policy in which more and more wasteful energy use is promoted as we generate more and more power from the same polluting sources that have resulted in health, economic and environmental crises in North Carolina and the world: more coal-burning, more childhood asthma, more emphysema, more acid rain, mercury toxicity, autism, learning disabilities, greenhouse gases. It’s not necessary. Duke Energy is investing $2.4 billion of our (ratepayer) money in Cliffside, condemning us to another 50-60 years of coal-burning. That money should be spent on programs to reduce energy consumption and to develop North Carolina’s abundant renewable energy resources of wind, solar, geothermal, tidal and ocean waves.
Haire: There are several issues which are important to me. These include, to mention a few – education, mental health funding and reform, roads and infrastructure. The big issue is whether the state will have enough funds to meet the current financial requirements prior to addressing additional needs. At present, because of our conservative budgeting, North Carolina is one of a handful of states that is not facing a budget deficit. How we are financially for the coming year will not be known until the first part of May when income tax and third quarter withholding receipts are received and tallied.
Why do you feel you are the best person to represent House District 119?
Friedman: As the executive director of the Canary Coalition I have helped to build a major grassroots movement in North Carolina from the ground up. Under my leadership the Canary Coalition has become a respected, broad-based educational and advocacy organization that has influenced government policy in a positive way, benefiting all people who depend on clean air for the health of their families. I am determined to work for a strong, sustainable economy and a clean, healthy environment, which I believe go hand in hand.
I am not tied to corporate interests of any kind and will not accept campaign contributions from these interests, because I believe elected officials have a responsibility to represent only the public interest.
As an elected representative I will be able to accomplish even more than as a private citizen. In the General Assembly my voice will be passionate and strong, backed by the strength of popular support and an agenda that is urgent, involving economic, health, environmental, educational and social issues. For more in-depth discussion of my positions and proposals on important issues I would urge people who are reading this to visit my campaign Web page at http://www.friedmanfornchouse.com or write to me at avram.friedman@yahoo.com.
Haire: First, I can only express my heartfelt thanks to the people of Jackson County for your wholehearted support of me during my five terms of service in the N.C. House of Representatives, and of my family both professionally and personally prior to my terms of service. During my House tenure, I have remained accessible, tried to keep you informed through newspaper articles and appearances at public meetings, and I will continue my record of past service into the future. As one mountaineer to another, I will continue working for Western North Carolina.
(Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part series exploring the views of those seeking local elected office. Next week’s Herald will feature a question-and-answer forum with candidates for county commissioner.)
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