I know - a lot of what you see on this site “Uncle Jesse” wouldn’t approve of or participate in and after posting on the passing of George Carlin you might find it odd to see a small tribute to him here. That being said you don’t always have to fall rank and file with someone’s politics to respect them. Both sides of the coin are often represented by extremes. In politics those extremes help guide the course to where the majority of us live - the middle. Sitting here in the political crossroads I honor a long standing public servant from the great state of North Carolina.

We were told that the bond packages wouldn’t increase taxes? Ummm… they lied.

Half of the proposed 5-cent property tax increase would go toward paying debt service on several big-ticket items: the $88.6 million parks bond that was passed last fall, the $226 million public safety center planned for downtown and a new $223.5 million remote operations center.

That’s a 15% tax increase. Congrats. Guess what else?

Allen’s proposal also calls for a 15 percent increase in the water and sewer rate, which would amount to a $4.86 monthly increase for an average household that uses about 6,000 gallons a month, and a $5 increase in the vehicle decal fee to support new public transportation services.

Read all about it here. Enjoy.

Raleigh probably will follow Durham’s lead and raise water rates this year — in part, ironically, because conservation is working — city officials said Tuesday. - article

Hmmmm… so we claim we are “selling less water” and that “conservation works” and despite the drought being over we still get to do what we wanted in the first place - raise the price of water. Why do I get the feeling that this was the point in pushing the so called drought as an extreme emergency in the first place?

The item to the left here was handed to me when I walked in to vote today. I politely asked “Is this my cheat sheet?” and was promptly told - “Yes.” I’m not sure why exactly but this bothers me just a little bit. I took the sheet, folded it, and put it in my pocket only to read it after I had voted. It is a list of who I should vote for according to the RWCA M-PAC - not really a cheat sheet as I had asked but not far off. I am surprised and at least a little disturbed that a PAC or Political Action Committee (name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect or defeat government officials or to promote or defeat legislation) can do this legally.

The group responsible has information and history on the back of their document and a website. My question is - if it is legal - why was only one group or PAC distributing these items. If it is illegal why are they allowed to do it?

I know if we start talking politics we won’t all agree but I think there is one thing we can agree on - no matter how you vote get out and vote. You don’t have to be on the winning side - you don’t have to vote how I’ll vote but you do need to exercise your right to do so.

I don’t want to know who you voted for but I am interested in who you think will win. Post in the comments who you think will win the respective party’s Governor nomination. I am going with Beverly Perdue and Pat McCrory. What do you think?