North Carolina Now; Episode from 1999-05-07

It's Friday, May 7th. Tonight, getting ready for the year 2000 in North Carolina now. Good evening, everyone. I'm Marita Matrai. Thanks for tuning into this Friday edition of North Carolina now. Mother's Day is Sunday and to mark the occasion, we'll speak with an author who draws upon her experience of being a mother of seven to dispense some advice about raising children. Also on tonight's program, we'll look at how some North Carolina's and state officials are preparing for Y2K. But state officials have more immediate concerns and that is making ends meet on a state budget. For an update on the progress of our lawmakers, we turn to legislative correspondent John Basin. Thanks for joining us tonight, John. Hi, Marita. Legislators have learned that the tax revenues coming into the state aren't as high as some had hoped. And what position does that put the budget writers?

Well, it puts the budget writers in a difficult position, particularly this year because there was already a budget problem stemming from a combination of tax cuts and court decisions that have cost the general assembly and the state a lot of money recently. They do estimate how much money that they think the state will take in and they normally estimate conservatively. And the money that comes in over that estimate that they've made is called the April Surprise. And normally the April Surprise can be hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. This year, they've just found out this week that the April Surprise, that is the amount of money that they weren't sure that they would be getting but they hoped they would be getting, comes in at about 95 million dollars. That is significantly less than many had hoped. It will make it much harder to plug the whole in the budget that's there now. John, another money issue that being contended with down there was the fact that there were some municipalities that wanted to raise their revenues by increasing the local sales tax but they've basically put the clamps on that. That's right, Marita. A lot of areas across the state don't want to raise property taxes any higher. They feel like they've gone as far as they can go there and they have asked both individually and as a group that they be allowed to raise a local option sales tax.

And in order to do that, they have to get the General Assembly's permission. The Speaker of the House, Jim Black, who is in his first term as Speaker told a meeting of municipal officials this week that it's very unlikely that the House or the legislature would pass local option sales taxes this year. So those local areas are going to have to hold on for at least another year. It appears very unlikely that they'll be getting the local option sales tax go ahead from the General Assembly this session. Was any reason given as to why the General Assembly didn't favor or that Speaker Black didn't favor raising the local sales taxes? Well, I think it's very easy for politicians to make cases against raising taxes. But in terms of political reality, I think it was very difficult for the Democrats who've regained the House this session to stomach the idea that they would come back in after a number of years recently of tax cuts, which I mentioned earlier have reduced the state's income or revenue. But the Democrats would come in in their first term back in control of the House and pass tax increases, even even if it's just local options, allowing the local counties and cities to raise taxes.

I think in political terms of political reality, they didn't want to have that hung around their neck. And now several mayors from throughout the triangle and the mayor of Charlotte met with lawmakers this week to talk traffic. What was the message that these mayors were bringing to the legislators? Well, there's genuine concern, Marita, that although North Carolina is in an economic development boom overall in the state's economy really is in quite good shape, that the growth in the state has come so rapidly that people are having trouble getting from one place to another in these metropolitan areas, and it won't be long. The fear is that it won't be long if it's not here already before people can't get to their jobs or that they can't reliably get on an interstate or a highway and get to their jobs on time. It becomes a real problem. They're already working on in the research triangle park as people who drive by 40 know you're either going to get there very quickly or you're going to get there very slowly depending on whether somebody takes their eyes off the road for a second that morning or that afternoon. But these mayors and city officials are heard discussion of all sorts of ways to raise money, including a gas tax, including toll roads.

But they know that if something's not done soon that the cities, the triangle Charlotte are going to be in trouble on traffic. And Leo Dottrey is going to have a lot more time on his hands to run his gubernatorial campaign. He is. He'll still be a member of the general assembly, but he will no longer be minority leader of the house sometime next month. A representative Dottrey will give up the minority leader position in order to focus his attention more on running for governor. One of his opponents for the Republican nomination, Chuck Neely, actually resigned from the House to focus more attention on his campaign. Dottrey will stay in the general assembly, but he will no longer be minority leader after the budget is agreed on hopefully sometime in June. Well, it looks like things are going to start heating up in the governor's race. John, thanks so much for the information tonight. Thank you very much. And we want to remind our viewers to join you tonight at 10 p.m. for legislative weekend review. Thanks. And with a little less than seven months until the end of the year, state agencies are scrambling to get all state computer systems ready for the year 2000.

But they're not the only ones taking steps to prevent a year 2000 related problems. Tonight, Shannon Vickery takes us to Charlotte to see how some North Carolinians are preparing for Y2K. For some time now, this has been the scene each Saturday morning. People pulling their cars up to this loading dock at the end of a small brick building in southwest Charlotte. And they make sure that this is. For three hours each Saturday, people from all over North Carolina come here to buy bags and buckets of wheat, rice, corn, and many other natural food items. Much of which will go directly from here into storage. It will be used in case of an emergency come January 1st, 2000. Well, we have wheat for bread. We have corn for corn bread.

We have dehydrated foods. We have water. We have lamps. We have, I put it in a garden so we can can. There's not much we haven't done as far as preparing. Here's what we have. Montana Hardwhite Golden Spring Wheat. Kelly Limer started this unique business five years ago. Called Finest of Wheat, the business grew out of Limer's desire to find better wheat for her own baking. And I kept hearing about Montana Spring Wheat, Montana Golden Wheat, and nobody could find it and nobody could get it. And I said, I'm going to find it. Not only did she find the wheat, but she discovered many other people were seeking the same thing. And I did no advertising. It's strictly worth of now for four years. And the business just slowly grew and built itself up. And then last summer the phones began to ring off the hook, probably in July. And the people said, we want to stop food for Y2K. Can you help us?

And I said, Y2, what? Limer quickly learned more than she wanted to know about the computer glitch which causes some computer systems to incorrectly process the date 2000. And she also discovered that her own skills with ordering grains and beans and bulk could help others. All I know is I feel in my heart that having some food put back is a good idea. Maybe having a little bit of water put back is a good idea. Across town and a grocery liquidation warehouse, Carol Mueller has started her own Y2K store. So we started researching Y2K about two years ago, I guess. And about a year ago, a little over a year ago, we ordered some food for our own preparedness, and we couldn't get it. Fueled by the frustration of trying to pull emergency supplies together from many different sources, Mueller decided to bring everything together in one place. We have everything from bulk grains, storage containers to put them in. We have the wood burning cook stove, we have generators, the store even carries radios that work with just a little help from their owners.

And what you do with this one is you just crank it, have to turn it around this way, you crank it 60 times for one minute. And then when it plays, it automatically runs without any batteries. And you just turn it on over here. You really don't know what's going to happen. And so we're just making sure we've got some foodstuffs and we've got a good supply of wood. So we want to stay warm and not starve. But despite the fears some North Carolinians may have about the year 2000, state officials say most computer systems will be ready to handle the transition. With application systems, the computer programs that support the different business functions across state government, we're standing at 80% ready. They will work with the year 2008 and June we expect them to be at 95% ready. In the area of embedded microchip systems and here we're talking about our facilities, traffic lights, medical equipment.

The agencies have gone out and they're doing extensive inventories, checking with manufacturers to determine the year 2000 compliance levels for a number of different products. We were certainly very nervous early on and it was due to the unknown. But the more that we've gotten into this, the more manageable the problem actually is and we're finding a lower incidence of problems and we originally estimated. But despite these assurances, many people still seek out ways to prepare for why 2K. It's a shaky time. You're changing the millennium, you're going into the next century. It's always rough anyway. But these are people that are really feeling strongly that we've prepared. I think what bothers me the most is when you see other people laughing at you and that's fine if they want to laugh. But it's hard when they say that's no problem. I'll just show up at your door because you've prepared and that's kind of hard when you've got a whole bunch of people saying that to you because they're just living their life day by day and not preparing. But even if you don't want to invest in something as large as a wood burning stove, state officials say there are many simpler things you can do.

The point they say is to be prepared, not just for why 2K but for any emergency. Our advice to them is to prepare for a snow storm because we are talking about the middle of winter. We're talking about a very extensive hurricane season so it would probably be prudent to do that regardless of year 2000 but certainly don't look to prepare beyond that. There we go. And down here. Yeah, she should have two. There should be at least four bags. But if these past few months are any indication, both limer and Mueller can expect business to be strong, at least for the next few months. And if you would like more information on how the state is preparing for why 2K, you can check out the state's why 2K website. That address is year2000.state.nc.us. Well, still ahead. A mother of seven shares her wisdom on parenthood.

But first, Mitchell Lewis is out today. So Barclay Todd is sitting in at the news desk. Welcome Barclay. Thanks, Marina. Good evening, everyone. Topping our news, our jury has found Marine Captain Richard Ashby guilty of obstruction of justice. Ashby was the pilot of a Marine jet that sliced a ski gondola cable in Italy last February. Twenty people were killed when the gondola crashed. Ashby was acquitted of manslaughter charges but today was found guilty of obstruction of justice for helping destroy the video tape that was filmed during the flight. The Marine Corps captain could face up to ten years in prison or discharge from the Marines. Abel supported by some North Carolina health workers is facing stiff opposition from law enforcement officials and politicians. For the second time in three years, a representative of New Hanover County has introduced legislation that established a needle exchange program to be run by the state health director. The program would provide clean needles to drug users in an effort to cut down on the spread of HIV. The bill would allow pilot programs in New Hanover, Bunkham and Durham counties. Opponent of the bills will leave the program could convey an acceptance of drug use.

If the furniture industry representatives get their way, furniture makers could soon be exempt from state air quality laws. The proposed exemption would include any North Carolina furniture plant admitting more than 50 times of hazardous air pollutants and would take effect July 1st, 2000. State air quality officials say the furniture industry would save almost $1 million if the proposal is passed. A mining company is coming up in fire from a North Carolina environmental group. The Pamela Cotara River Foundation is threatening a lawsuit to keep PCS false state company from operating a wetland along the Pamela Co river. The Army Corps of Engineer gave the company permission to mine the area in 1997. The Environmental Foundation claims the Corps violated the Clean Water Act by doing so. The group plans to seek a court order to get the Corps to enforce environmental laws and stop mining the wetlands. State officials are working with an environmentalist to determine whether a national barrier to bulkheads is effective in controlling shoreline erosion.

Along the intra-culture waterway at Long Beach, officials are experimenting with barriers used by some other states to create marshland and fish habitat. They are building a ridge with small granite borders in the shallow water, then planting the area behind it with wetland vegetation. Bulkheads which are barriers made of wood, vinyl and other hard materials are currently the most common way to protect North Carolina shorelines from erosion. And now for a look at tomorrow's weather. Temperatures across the state will range from the low 70s to mid 80s. Skies in most areas will be partly cloudy with a slight chance of rain throughout the state. And now in business news, indecision over electric deregulation is being blamed for dropping the body rating for two municipal power agencies. The North Carolina Municipal Power Agency No. 1 and the Eastern Municipal Power Agency have both been downgraded by Moody's Investors Service. State Tejora Hall and Bull says the overriding issue is the state's failure to provide any definitive strategy on how North Carolina is approaching deregulation. A member of a Senate deregulation study commission called the change in the bond rating a non-event.

Credit Union officials are urging state lawmakers to stop predatory lending practices in North Carolina. The group is lobbying for a bill that bans balloon payments at the end of a loan's term. Access of loan fees and frequent refinancing. The main target of the legislation is mortgage finance companies. The urge people who are hard credit risk to refinance their credit card debt through home equity loans. An estimated 50,000 North Carolina families have had equity stripped from their homes because of such loans. The Employment Security Commission has started inviting employers to post job openings directly online to the agency's website. With a new service, job seekers can contact a potential employer directly or go to an ESC office for a screening and referral. In 1998, ESC received around 330,000 job openings from employers and helped almost 190,000 people find jobs. ESC online can be reached at www.esc.state.nc.us And now for a look at what happened on Wall Street today.

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . started to work down at ourselves, you know, got some ideas for the cover design, and finally came up with something we thought we liked. So it has really been Emily Sister in Columbus, Georgia, has had some experience in publishing Chetlopress called Wildwood Press, and she helped us some with it, so. Well, let's talk about some of the advice that's dispensed in the book. Now you believe in being a permissive parent. Why is that? Well, for one, I do believe in being a permissive parent. I always used to laugh and say, you never say no, unless they're going to physically harm themselves or somebody else, or unless they're going to do something unethical or immoral. I think the less you say no, the better off you are with children.

For one thing, and I think I really, truly wanted my children to grow up, to be independent thinkers. I wanted them to be able to run their own life, you know, I really did. I remember a friend of mine once saying when I was complaining about something, one of the teenagers in Dunjie said, now you wanted them to be independent thinkers, now here they are. You include in the book some tips for parenting, and one of the tips that really struck me, and I want to read it verbatim, is decide what's most important to you about the family and build your life around that, elaborate on that for us? Well, I was born Alabama. My grandmother was one of 18 children. I come from a large extended family, and family was really all we had, you know, we told stories and went to reunions and did picnics, and I think the most important thing about family is to be with each other and take care of each other and love each other and

tend to each other. And I really wanted the children to do that. So many of the things we did were things that we could all do together. We did a lot of camping and a lot of traveling in an old Volkswagen bus, and the children did a lot of sports, and I think those are far more important than other things that children can do. And I also, Marita thought that they needed lots of experience, they took many, many lessons. Music lessons, art lessons, boy scouts, you know, and so I guess those experience and being together were the things that I thought were important, and that's pretty much the way our life was. At the same time I was doing that, I was going to school. I had gone back to graduate school, and so I had to sort of merge my graduate school with taking care of the children, and sometimes that was demanding, but. So learning to build a balance that was also important for you?

It is. My profession of teaching was a wonderful, has been a wonderful profession, it's been good to all of us because we had summers when we could do things together and I could go school. Let me ask you about another tip that I think is really great. If you can't teach your children to iron, let them teach you how to dance. Well, this happened one day in the kitchen, my two daughters were there, and the youngest one was ironing a cotton shirt, a heavy cotton shirt without sprinkling it or anything. And I said, Martha, you can't iron that cotton like that, and I looked at Mary, and I looked at Martha, and I said, you all can't sew, you can't knit, you can't cook, you can't iron, you can't do anything. And Mary was standing by the sink, and she snapped her fingers, and she said, but Mama, we can dance. And I said, well, if you can't teach them to do those other things, it's good you can teach them to dance. Well, it is really great advice and just a wonderfully charming book, and I thank you for taking the time to drive out here from Winston-Salem and share it with our viewers.

We enjoyed it, we loved coming over here. Thank you. Get a good life is available in paperback from Wildwood Press, if you would like more information, you can call 1-888-922-5254. And that brings to a close North Carolina now for the week, thanks for having been a part of it. Looking ahead to next week, we'll bring you the latest in the Charlotte School Desegregation Court case, plus John Arnold, we'll look at Governor Hunts' proposal to phase out hog waste lagoons and replace them with a more environmentally friendly means of dealing

with the hog waste. Following our guests next week, Gubernatorial candidate Richard Venrout will be here on Friday. Have a wonderful weekend and to all the moms out there, happy Mother's Day, good night and goodbye!