By David Rogers. November 14, 2011. BOONE -- North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis visited Watauga County on Monday, visiting with local government leaders for an early afternoon session at Paolucci's Restaurant before taking on all comers at a "Town Hall" style of public meeting in the early evening.

The Town Hall meeting broached a variety of subjects as an old fashioned, "wide open" public meeting.  The room at Broyhilll Conference Center was set up for some 200 people, and nearly every seat was spoken for.  The event was organized by the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce and the Student Government Association (SGA) of Appalachian State University.

Dan Meyer, President of the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce, welcomed the assemblage, then introduced Dr. Ken Peacock, Chancellor of Appalachian State, who compared descriptions of Mr. Tillis' "can-do" attitude with the "can do" attitude of the university.  "If (Mr. Tillis) wants to find an institution with that can do attitude, he is right where he needs to be," said Peacock. "We don't get enough resources," noted Peacock, lightheartedly. "He has already heard that from me," he said to a laughing crowd, while welcoming Mr. Tillis. "We want more...but we don't let that stop us.  We keep that can-do attitude..in making a difference in the lives of young people in North Carolina and here on campus."

Meyer then turned the floor over to Ms. Cameron Carswell, Director of Civic Engagement of the Appalachian State SGA. "I''ve learned that Mr. Tillis is an avid mountain biker and golfer," Ms. Carswell shared.  "So he is in the right place for that!"  She outlined the purpose of her organization in coordinating this event with other community organizations in Watauga County, specifically the Boone Chamber, then introduced Mr. Tillis.

The NC House Speaker, who represents the Town of Cornelius, NC, a Lake Norman area community south of Davidson, has served two terms (four years) in the House and last January was sworn in for his third term. "I was told that when you become Speaker you tend to become more isolated than as a rank and file member of the House. I felt that was wrong, that you should become more engaged, not less engaged. And that is one of the reasons we decided to do these Town Hall meetings...As the Speaker of the House, I need to come out and talk to people."  

Onlookers became quickly aware that this was not going to be a partisan Republican rally when Tillis explained in his opening remarks, "I want to hear from you as much constructive criticism, as much as any confirmation of things that you like about what we have done. That's how you learn. That's how you grow. That's actually how you find ways to do things differently, and that's how you are able to explain the context within which you make certain decisions."

The former accountant with Price Waterhouse indicated that such an atmosphere of communication with "the people" is especially important now, "...because we have just finished the first half of our two year term in one of the most difficult times since the Great Depression.  It has been the most difficult of financial times, with a $3 billion (North Carolina budget) deficit. High unemployment. A high level of competing priorities. A consideration for how much government can take out of the private sector to provide public assistance.  There are a lot of trade-offs, and a lot of decisions made.

"There were over 470 bills passed in just 83 legislative days," Tillis noted. "Now a lot of those were things like landmarks, or authorizing golf carts to go through city streets with town employees, but some of them represented pretty weighty stuff, like how much in the way of resources do we provide the university system versus the community college system vs. the K-12 education system vs. Medicaid support. All of these are tradeoffs."

Several people had warned against doing Town Hall meetings, the Speaker said, "...because they say you never know what is going to happen when you invite anybody and everybody. That's exactly why I am doing it," Tillis declared. "We let everybody say whatever is on their mind. All you have to do is raise your hand and ask to be recognized, and state your position or question respectfully.  If you expect a response, you'll get a respectful response back.  

"Other than that," Tillis continued, "there aren't any rules except keeping it clean. As long as we treat each other with respect, then we will continue a tradition of 17 other Town Hall meetings. Every single one of them have been civil, and every single one of them, regardless of which side of the issues you were on, you felt like you got to say what you wanted to say, and you got a response back."

Highlighting some of the achievements of the legislature during the first year, Tillis remembered, "All told, it was one of the shortest legislative sessions since about 1973. We met for 83 days, and we came back for two special sessions.  We focused primarily on the budget, but also did a number of other things, like medical malpractice reform, reforms to parts of our court system, some tax reform, and a first phase of regulatory reform, and others.  These were all very important for what we wanted to do for North Carolina going forward. That was to provide a more competitive environment, and to set us up for job creation and economic recovery."

Putting the budget priorities in perspective, the House Speaker explained to the audience, many of whom were ASU students, "We have roughly a $20 billion budget. More than half, about 55%, goes to education.  So more than $10 billion goes to K-12, community colleges and universities.  So when we have (an economic) downturn like we have, and we end up with a $3.5 billion deficit, we have to figure out a way to balance it."

Tillis explained that North Carolina has a constitutional mandate to balance the budget, where expenses don't exceed revenues. "We cannot go into deficit spending. Some states can, but we are not one of them. So the tradeoff we have to make is how much more can we impose tax increases on individuals to offset the deficit, and how much do just have to live within our means (by reducing spending). Those are the decisions we had to make during this legislative session." 

Those attending were invited to speak about any subject, and they did. The first questioner noted that education was hit pretty hard in the budget cuts, and wondered what other programs were hit just as hard. "To balance the budget, we had to cut spending about 12% from the last budget," Tillis replied. "It required a little over a billion dollars in cuts. Education averaged a little under 12%.  Health and human services, Medicaid and other related programs represent about 25% of the budget, and it took about a 12% cut as well, but some of the savings were achieved through efficiency measures. General government, Department of Environment and Natural Resources. A lot of people don't understand that the legislature has little control over transportation expenditures.  In 1989, the legislature passed a bill that's called the equity formula, and implemented a gas tax, which funds the majority of road projects in North Carolina.  Those are actually done off the budget. If you were to add those, we would be closer to $30-$40 billion in a total budget.  But the lion's share of the (absolute dollar amounts of) cuts came through education and health and human services purely the represent something like 80% of the budget."

Predictably, a few questions arose about the proposed amendment that will be voted on by popular referendum in the May primary, that defines marriage as an institution between a man and a woman. "It is one of the most difficult issues that I have had to deal with," admitted Tillis. "Since I have been in office, there have probably been 70 or 80 people that have co-sponsored a bill, and the question simply hasn't been heard.  My difficulty with this issue has to do with the scope of the role of government and the extent to which government imposes its will on people's personal lives. There are members (representatives) who feel very passionately about it.  The question about this being achieved with the constitution I am not sure I agree with... I am more of a limited government conservative...I don't believe that it necessarily impedes someone's rights, except to the extent that someone's rights should be (extended) to a class that it has not traditionally been afforded... Marriage is not a constitutional right. Anyone, whether they be gay, lesbian, or transgender will still be afforded the same rights guaranteed under the Constitution, before or after the amendement.

"From a policy standpoint," Tillis continued, "I was confronted with the reality that there were a significant number of people who wanted to have this bill heard, so that's why I made the decision to let it be heard.  It is a debate that has gone on for years and at some point I felt the best thing was to put it up for a vote by the people...I'll honor the will of the people either way. Now is the time for people to talk about it in their communities (and organizations), but then we can move on from there. If I felt that the basic rights guaranteed by the Constitution were being impeded, then I wouldn't have taken it up. I do understand the sensitivity and the emotions around the issue, which again is why I had trouble with it (the amendment) personally.  But at the end of the day I voted for it to go to a vote of the people."

Other issues involved the rights of residents living in ETJ (extra-territorial jurisdictions), annexation rules and regulations, cutbacks in the prison system, campaign finance, including independent expenditures ("IE's"), sectarian prayer in government or public meetings, lobbyists and special interests groups, the teaching fellows program, taxes, environmental concerns and others.

Blowing Rock News interviewed a few of the attendees afterwards.  One elderly woman said, "I just think it is wrong for this Republican legislature to use the Constitution to define what is or isn't marriage.  When you use a majority-driven decision-making process, the rights of minorities are often going to get trampled on.  Today, most Americans, including in the South, accept racial prejudice as wrong.  But if it had been put up for a vote by referendum in the South of the 1960s, African Americans would more than likely still be subjected to extreme racial prejudice.  It took courageous legislators, not a vote of the people, to adopt a civil rights law that ensures the rights of all Americans.  I have to wonder if this popular vote isn't just a cop out by our legislators." 

A young man who identified himself only as an ASU student said, "I was surprised by Mr. Tillis' sense of humor and articulation.  Whether or not you agree with his point of view, you have to respect him for how well informed and prepared he was, and for putting himself out there to take on such a variety of issues.  I am only 20 years old, so I am new to actually having a stake in the political wrangling.  My parents are lifelong Democrats, and I have been leaning that way, but partisan politics aside, the way that the legislature has gotten things done in the past year, working out solution to some difficult problems by getting representatives of affected constituent interests to sit down together, that's impressive.  Generally, I like the Republican inclination towards a limited role for government.  It does not have to solve all of my problems.  I have to take some responsibility for creating my own life circumstances and not depend on government to solve all my problems."

According to event organizers, Monday evening's Town Hall session went about 30 minutes over schedule.  After the meeting was formally adjourned, Tillis, NC Representative Jonathan Jordan, NC State Senator Dan Soucek, and NC Representative Edgar Starnes (Caldwell) remained a significant period of time afterwards, answering questions.

 

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