Cumberland County Growth, Teacher Raises, and Data Centers Explained

Peter Pappas: Well, everyone, good evening and welcome to the Carolina Cabinet. I'm your host, Peter Pappas, in studio with the lovely Laura Mussler Hello, hello. Hello, hello, hello. So, ⁓ we haven't been on the air in a couple of weeks. We gotta you know, had to take a little bit of a break, as people know that ⁓ my dad passed on ⁓ May seventeenth. So interesting couple of weeks to say the least. But ⁓ I do have to thank a lot of people that have come out and ⁓ I mean I think the Facebook post I had that was like four hundred People have commented and then the restaurant people have ⁓ customers have asked how I am, you know, people that went into the restaurant and all, and I've kind of been avoiding going 'cause It's gonna be all day of that. It's tough and it's ⁓ but But you gotta get it out of the way. It's gonna happen one way or another. It is, it is. It's like pulling a band aid off. You gotta go just And you'd rather go through it mostly now than be like out of the blue, somebody be like, Hey, and catch you off garden. ⁓ it's okay. Yesterday on my drive to Myrtle Beach, I ⁓ I had the first random ugly cry. Mm-hmm. You know, ⁓ I accidentally let Spotify play a bunch of old Greek music that my dad used to listen to. And ⁓ yeah, it was Niagara Falls. I will tell you that being around your family the little bit that I was listening to the people from Greece, I'm like, ⁓ they they sound so mafioso. Well. They were speaking Italian and then they're using their hand and they're like, ⁓ no, the guy and I was like I did I did plant the seed when I said consiliary. I felt like it was a like in a scene in the Godfather or something. It definitely it does it could appear that way. I will give you that. Yeah. ⁓ They're like, ⁓ how you do? I was like Well, where do you think the Italians got it from? I mean it's just ⁓ there's a guy named Yannis Pappas is his name. So that's actually my brother's name, Yanni Pappas but there's a comedian Giannis Pappas and he does a caricature called Mr. Panos and very Greek Greek, you know, he's got the big chains and he's kind of grease ball hair and he says a thing. I didn't see anybody with greasy hair. He he says Italian peoples are just little brown Greek peoples. I did, but that's what it felt like. It w I like family was there and they were like Well, so I had ⁓ a cousin and a nephew from Greece that flew in. Unfortunately they were here they had planned to be in because she lost her brother in law up in Burlington. So the people from my dad's area, they settled Fayetteville, Burlington, Greenville, South Carolina, and Charlotte, a lot of And ⁓ so my cousin was coming back for that. And then my dad died, I think, a day or two after the gentleman in Burlington. So she just added to her trip and You know, she stayed and it was it was nice having the the cousins over, you know. And I mean, I haven't been to Greece since nineteen ninety three. Okay. Well, if you decide to take a trip and you need like somebody to hold your bags, yeah, I'm in. I got you. I got you. Well, I don't know. My mom might my mom might surprise me again like she did last year and say, Hey, me and your sister were going to Greece. I'm like, ⁓ Yeah. But I it's okay. I got to stay and take care of that. Yeah, but you and and your significant other, ⁓ do we can we say her name on air? Sh ⁓ she ⁓ yeah, her name is Dee Okay. If you and Dee go, I will be your ⁓ You'll be the ⁓ you'll be the Au pair. That's a I will be the Au You can handle the kids and ⁓ yeah, we get to have a good time. Yeah. We'll all have a good time. Absolutely. Kids go to bed at eight, so plenty of time. That's fine. ⁓ so I'm in bed early anyway, so it's okay. Yes, you are. But you're not a boring person. Not early, but you're not a boring person. Not at all. So ⁓ at least I like to think I'm not. I guess everybody thinks they're not boring. Yeah. Well so ⁓ besides supporting me and my family in the last week or so, what else have you been up to? F I have a full time job of finding a full time job. Okay, okay I have applied for everything, even things that I'm not even remotely qualified for at this point, but I have literally spent eight hours a day for the last w two weeks on the computer applying for jobs. Don't they say fake it till you make it? I mean, you never know. I'll do whatever. I'm calling in favors. If you know somebody, if you're on the air and you see somebody and you know somebody that's hiring an administrative assistant, ⁓ Something, anything. I'm desperate. I'll sweep your floors. Mm-hmm. Yes, you will. And she's pretty good mob too. I do. I'll do whatever takes. You're very versatile. I'll give you that. Yeah. And I do whatever needs to be done. It doesn't ma it's not in my job description. I've never heard that before. I will say, like, sometimes I'm like, No, let the guy get that and you're like, No, you just run and clean up the office and take tra I'm like, just let the guy do it and you you just won't sit still. Because it needs to be done. So who cares who's I know, but I'm like, ⁓ I'm providing jobs, let the guy do it. Yeah, that's true. So we have been away, like I said, ⁓ a lot of but you know, things have not stopped. ⁓ I mean we have ⁓ we're catching up on the biggest stories that developed while we were away. ⁓ let's talk about what they mean for North Carolina and Cumberland County. ⁓ let's but let's jump into a national topic. Okay, the big ones first. Immigration. Yes. So it continues to dominate Washington. ⁓ It's no longer like whether enforcement's gonna increase, it's how much we're gonna spend to keep this thing going. And Congress, of course, has to debate a significant increase in the spending. Well, if they have to spend more to s enforce the laws that are already on the books, then they should. Yeah. ⁓ provided that the money's going you know, to the proper usage. Yeah, right. Absolutely. ⁓ you know, spending alone is not going to solve the problem. So You know, civil liberties and Well, but it's not a little number, Lord. I mean, look, they're considering seventy to seventy two billion in additional immigration funding. That's a that's over a lot of guacamole. That's l over several years. That's not like next year. No, it's not next year. No, it's like over the next several years. That's a lot of new SUVs. But that's but that spread over ICE and border patrol detention recruitment. We did some homework today. Did we did? I'm kinda happy about that. I actually did some good homework too. Yeah, you did. But yeah. So seventy two billion over several years. Do you know how many? Like four or five years, you think? It says several. Several, yeah. I don't know what several is, but several issues. I can't take several to the bank. Several is three or more. A few is three. Is it so? A couple's two, a few is three. Okay, so then four or more. Okay, let's say four. Okay. So four over seventy billion over four. ⁓ Senate proposal, ⁓ released in May, more than thirty eight billion for ICE. And twenty six billion for customs and border protection. And additional for White House. To it's a little weird that it's twenty six billion for custom and border because wouldn't that be already heightened and increased because of nine eleven way back when? I mean, you would think we would have be out all over that. So but just a thought. But Wh where is Homeland Security? Where are the airport guys in this? I'm is that C V P? ⁓ that's ⁓ Homeland Security. No, that's T S A. TSA. TSA, that's their own T. Isn't that under no TSA isn't that under Homeland Security? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's why. ⁓ so prolonged Department of Homeland Security funding battle. That's awesome. I love the fact that they're talking about pulling all the ⁓ border and immigration people from the people that are sanctuary cities. So that if you come into one of those like New York Newark, Newark. Newark, yeah. If you fly into there, there will be no border or agents or whatever. So that means you can't leave the airport. I think that's hilarious. ⁓ you mean like if you come from an international flight, ⁓ huh, there won't be anybody manning this the f immigration Yeah, you'll have to fly to another airport that is doing it in order to come into the otherwise you're stuck inside the internet. It's like we wanna hold people accountable when they come into our country. And we also wanna hold those a cities accountable that wanna be sanctuary. You wanna be sanctuary then you know, we're gonna put their people and you're gonna protest us and throw things at us. We're gonna go to cities that want us there. Well, and that's one theme that came up, and I hate to go back to my dad again, but it's like he wanted us to assimilate. Right. Very much so. You know, he was ⁓ I I said in his eulogy, you know, he said, think like ⁓ think like an American, work like a Greek, right? That's but be an American. You know, and that's why my middle name is Bill and not Vash. He even says it in the Bible. Yeah. T to when when you come to be a stranger to ⁓ So stranger in a strange land. That's exactly right. So well, it looks like we're ⁓ part of the immigration issue we're gonna get rid of, or we're still in question, ⁓ to end the temporary protected status of hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants. Now three hundred and fifty thousand Haitians and six thousand Syrians. Okay. They were trying to end the protected status of those folks. I think didn't they overstay a lot of their That's what I my understanding, I don't I'm not really up to date on this, but I would say ⁓ a lot of them, the huge majority overstayed their welcome. Not their welcome. Of course they were welcome. But they were given permission to be here for a period of time and they didn't do what they were supposed to do in order to stay. Right. As far as like going and reporting in and right keeping it updated. So their stuff expired, so you gotta go. If if you wanted to be here so bad and you needed the sanctuary, then you would do what you need to do to stay here. I would. Well look at Jim. I mean he you know, he pursued his status and everything and he r he really worked hard at that. I have another friend who is married to somebody who's here on a green card and their green card during COVID expired, which I understand. But they were still filing and they had all the paperwork and it was expired so he was all not allowed to work for a period of time. Now he's gonna get his green card because he stayed on top of everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well it's a job. I mean, just like your job is getting a job. It's right. If you're a a visitor to our country, your job is to assimilate. That's get in lane. That's exactly right. So I don't know, look whether we support what the administration is doing or not, I think it's pretty straightforward. ⁓ Congress wants to screw around with the money. I mean, that's just what they do. Right. ⁓ the Supreme Court has this big deal with the ⁓ ending the protected status, which I get a little bit concerned with doing stuff like that. ⁓ because we are still the light of you bring us your tired, you're poor, and if somebody is under protective status, I'm Like if we return them to their homeland, what's gonna happen to them? I'm a little concerned with that, but I do want them to do their stuff. I was gonna say you have to accept responsibility for that. If something bad is going to happen to you, wouldn't you be doing everything that you could so you didn't have to be returned? I mean, because it's not a debate whether immigration is a major issue or not. The debate is whether the policies will actually solve the problem and whether taxpayers want to pay for it. Well, and I do believe, I think without even ⁓ running a metric. This is the most pronounced and heaviest immigration enforcement that we I've seen in my lifetime. I it str spread across. But I mean Obama was called the ⁓ chief deporter in I mean he deported more people than Trump has. What was he just cool about it? Or people didn't care? Because nobody ru no I don't remember the protest and the AOCs of the world going to the fake fence. Because the Republicans have jobs. Except for this one. Pretty much, yeah. And don't have time to protest. Yeah. I'm but ⁓ the Democrats have traditionally had a fantastic fundraising machine with the billionaires and trillionaires that fund these people to protest. And if you notice a lot of the protests, you can see some of the same people at different protests. ⁓ they're paid pro they're paid actors. Absolutely. When I protest, I'm protesting because I care. Right. I I nobody's cutting me a paycheck. You just wanted a day off in a long bus ride that was fraught with danger. Wasn't that the DC trip? Then you have like three different buses on the way back. Yes, we yes, we did. But I mean I went up there because I believed. Yeah, because you believe in the cause. Right. Yeah. I get that. Well, ⁓ we saw it here locally in the fable No Kings protest. ⁓ They they they succeeded. They got here and there was a group of people that they're like, We gotta go, we gotta go. And I'm like, Where are y'all headed? And ⁓ we gotta get to I think Greenville was they were going from here to like ECU to protest. I just wanna say congratulations on their protest. They won. There's no kings. Yeah, they yeah, they yeah, they got exactly what they wanted. So we were discussing this at breakfast on Sunday morning because we moved our family breakfast to ⁓ to Sunday, back to Sunday. And ⁓ my granddaughter's mom. I don't know how to do this. It would have been a sister in law or a daughter in law, my bad. Well she but she wasn't. Well ⁓ had a another child and she his name is King. Could you imagine King at a no king's throat? Okay. I actually had there was a kid I employed a long time ago, his name was original, and his brother's name was Everlasting. No. I've had crazy w I've had crazy names. Like, hey, that was their legal name. But I how awkward would that be? My name is King. We're at the No Kings bronze. No King, no, get out of here, King. That's exactly right. I thought that was funny. Anyway. But yeah, while Washington is fighting over immigration, Raleigh has finally started making progress on the budget that affects all of us and our North Carolina family. well, you know, the most important thing we need to understand is that this wasn't a fight over whether we have the money. I mean, we're running a huge surplus right now. ⁓ but we're not gonna say that's because the Republicans are in charge. We're just gonna it's a big surplus. Well, we were in debt when the Democrats were in just you know all right, that's fine. It's a Republican deal. ⁓ we're better just better with money. ⁓ but now we're running a surplus. The fight is over what to do with that money. ⁓ do you spend it on teacher pay and government services, or do you continue reducing taxes and let taxpayers keep more of their own money? Well After years of deadlock, legislators leaders have finally said that they found common ground in both teacher pay raises and tax cuts, which are the two biz b biggest obstacles. Well, to me, tax cut is ⁓ it puts money in your pocket. I think we were talking about property taxes earlier. It puts money in your pocket that you can then now go and buy something else which will generate sales tax and generate wages and everything else, and it keeps the economy growing. That's exactly instead of burying it in the government. I listened to an entire thing with dot Ron DeSantis and I actually did the when I heard that really made sense. He was talking about they're doing they're trying to do away with property taxes. He said you should not have to lease your private home from the government. You should be able to own your home. So they're making it a two hundred and fifty thousand dollar exception ho homestead. So then the rich people, the real rich people will still pay. And if you have investment properties or Airbnbs, you'll still pay property taxes. But where you're living in your home, you should not have to rent it from the government. And he's saying, and of course, everybody is on there going, Well, you know, you're taking money from the taxpayer. He says, Who can spend my dollar better than me? Mm-hmm. I can. And the the wrong way of thinking is I'm going we the government needs to spend your money more. So we need to take more of your money because everything is getting more expensive. And but what happens is the well is going to run dry. Mm-hmm. People are going to stop, they're going to move away. That's kind of the ⁓ the rule of socialism. It's all fun and game, so you run out of somebody else's money. That's exactly right. But this way you're getting your own money, you're spending it. Again, you're getting more tax revenue. It actually grows your economy. I mean, look at I I I will say that based on his track record, he's doing an outstanding job in Florida. Well I But again, I I do say that with a little bit of an asterisk. Well, 'cause because that is a huge ⁓ tourist place. So a lot of people spend a lot of money in Florida. Well, ⁓ tourism aside, I mean, I think ⁓ also industry brings money, you know, they've lowered their ne their ⁓ income tax to zero. Haven't they? No income tax in terms of no none at all. And so I mean corporations will take notice of that. And the more that they move there for industry they employ, they pay health insurance. I mean it it has a really good effect. Now North Carolina though, we have not had a full budget since twenty twenty three. ⁓ They spent over a year disagreeing to teacher pay. I mean my problem with teacher pay is always, and I think we had we had Tom Hatch here a couple of weeks ago, and is how do we measure performance of a teacher? And not only do we start them higher so we don't lose them to North ⁓ So South Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, but how do we fix the compression of the teachers that have been there? So you're talking about a lot of money to recruit the new ones, but then also we gotta pay the existing ones so that the existing one isn't making say fifty grand a year and the new one starts at forty eight when it took her like five or ten years to get there. but ⁓ they have reached a framework between Destin Hall and Speaker or and ⁓ Phil Berger. They have reached an agreement. He's on his way out. He is on his way out. So I guess he had to do something. The sheriff ⁓ took ⁓ the sheriff beat him. Sam Page. Yep wasn't that sure was So teacher raises, they want eight percent for for new ⁓ for teachers all over, but now I did the math on new new teachers. They want seventeen percent increase on what they want to start new teachers at. To put them I think that would put ⁓ the highest among all of our neighbors. Really? For starting teachers though. Okay. Well, I did a little research. Okay. So teacher pay. Mm-hmm. North Carolina is roughly What did it did it say? T twenty percent. Nineteen to twenty percent below the national average. So if it costs a hundred dollars to live average, we are at like eighty. Yep. Okay, so that's what it costs to live here. Okay. No no no no no no no. No average pay ⁓ that that was the teacher pay is twenty percent less than the national average. Yeah, I'm saying but cost of living here in North Carolina is only three percent less than the national average. So we're getting paid eighty and it costs ninety seven. Yes. I think. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. So our p teachers not only are not getting an increase big enough to sustain a livable wage, but they're significantly less. So even if you do get the pa pay raise, you're still going to be Well, with my ⁓ basic broken math, I just justified seventeen percent for new teacher pay. You did. But what about the old teachers? Exactly. And that's what they call compression. And it's again, we have local examples of that. ⁓ the sheriff's department. went through and reviewed their salaries ⁓ for progr for compression. I know City of Fayeville did with the police. ⁓ and I also know that the police I think they got rid of a few positions to get to being fully staffed up. I can promise you that there are positions throughout all of North Carolina's state government or whatever that are extra positions ⁓ that probably could be done away with. Not the ones that I'm applying for, but they leave them in the budget so they get the budget. They don't eliminate the positions because then they would be able to ask for less money the following year. So they leave those positions empty. But see, that's something to me, if your position has been v vacant for two years or more, it goes out of your budget automatically. In my personal opinion, if I were a friend of David Bullock's, I would tell him that. You would do an audit and say, If the position has been empty for two years or more, then you do no longer get the money. Shout out to ⁓ to auditor Bullock. ⁓ he started his own podcast, I saw. Uhhuh. ⁓ And I'm getting his newsletters too. We're definitely gonna have to have him back in here, but ⁓ he's doing an excellent job. Very visible very auditor's job. And it and I think people are starting to understand it's not punitive. When he goes in, he's looking out for the taxpayers and how our resources are spent. Mm-hmm. And ⁓ He's finding a lot of stuff. He's finding a lot of stuff, and a lot of stuff that you really gotta scratch your head. Like we have Town of Hope Mills ⁓ we had Town manager, ⁓ Chancer McLaughlin. he basically gave so the report said that he gave raises without proper documentation and unfortunately And higher than they were a higher rate. Yeah, more percentage and whatever else. But they also so here's a greater problem. Their HR system was both on paper files and electronic. It's not unified. There's not one single point of truth, is what these software people say now. ⁓ so it's hard it's hard to find what was happening. But then when he was asked when he was queried, his response was I didn't need your it because technically he didn't need the oversight because he was the town manager, he has the authority. But a proper response would have been I didn't realize. It would have been great to ⁓ in the future I will. And honestly, I was surpring knowing Mr. McLaughlin and having met him before, I was surprised at the but I think I'm gonna write that off to I think people have just been. chomping at his rear end. Yeah, I believe. I think it's just because the the Levitlov ⁓ vitriol and and like constant attacking of the board and Hope Mills ⁓ and of the citizens. I mean the the board has clapped back at some of the people. I think there was the allegation of that binder full of Hope Mills chatter screenshots and all that. ⁓ but at any rate ⁓ Auditor Bullock's doing a hell of a job and ⁓ I'd like to have him back on. So let's talk about ⁓ the budget again some more. What do we have? I mean, what does that mean for us in Cumberland County? I don't know. What does that mean? I mean well so well our teachers are gonna make more money. That's a good but also our county commission did fully fund the schools which increased the supplement that so state teach teachers are paid by the state a certain amount and then the counties they're in pay a supplement to increase their pay. So we were able to I w I think give them like I thought a lot of the money went to like the buildings and stuff. So yes. The capital that's one thing to bring up. There was ⁓ an issue with the Spring Lake school that just closed, I think Lillian Black. And it was in watch out Fayetteville. Everybody was losing their mind because the school was gonna sell it to the county for one dollar. Okay. And everybody's losing their damn minds. And I I went in there, I said, guys, ⁓ the county bought it. built it and the school system used it for 30 years. And now the school system's not using it. So they have to sell it. They have to get it off their books. They're transferring it back to the county for a reasonable consideration of one dollar. So now the county can do whatever they want with it. They can make it a community center. They can bulldoze it and sell it on the private market and generate revenue for the county. Hmm. But see, I also the schools don't pay property taxes. So imagine that whole campus now is gonna now be redeveloped into something commercial or something that generates property tax. That's how we can pay for more schools. Yeah. So I just thought it was funny. People are losing their mind. I'll buy it for a dollar. It's like it's not a dollar, bro. It's a dollar because the the the county pay already paid the taxpayer. No, the county didn't pay for anything. The taxpayers already paid for it, just saying because Well, bottom line with the state budget, you know Everybody that listens to the cabinet here, you're influenced by the budget. You probably pay into it, your paycheck, whatever. ⁓ the single most important state level story that's ha been developing in the last few year few weeks ⁓ that we weren't around. ⁓ but ⁓ safe to say we're we're on ⁓ So another issue driving much of this budget conversation, ⁓ it's t was teacher pay. And we're gonna drill into just that, and that's the defining education issue of twenty twenty six. So What do you got? I lot that the you dug you dug more into this one. Well I felt like. Well, I I actually brought it up in the last segment, but yes, kinda sort of. But ⁓ just the fact that it's not whether teachers deserve more money. Mm-hmm. It's whether the proposal is enough to recruit new t new teachers and keep experiencing ⁓ keep the experienced teachers in the classroom and improve at The thing is we've got to improve our educational outcomes. I was actually looking at educational outcomes because they were talking about having more money for opportunity scholarships. Mm-hmm. And did you know that educationally, children on the opportunity scholarship, they actually test lower than people in sch ⁓ public schools? However, yes. was surprised at that. I surprised at that. However, the graduation rate is higher. Mm-hmm. And the continuing ed like college and things like that rate is extremely higher. So while they may not test as well, but and and I have theory as to why they don't test as well. Why that? Because private s I mean public schools teach you what's on the test. Right. That well, that's their main focus throughout the I mean, even Mr. Hatch said he his eyes rolled a little bit when we said standardized testing. Right. But the People that are on opportunity scholarships are learning s a wide girth of things and not necessarily what's on the test. Right. If I drill you two plus two is four, two plus two is four, two plus two is you're gonna know when you get to the test two plus two is four. If I treat teach you a wide thing of X you know, ⁓ y they're busy teaching the actual skills and how to study versus the public schools pushing kids through. That's my hypothesis. I don't know if it's true. I think that's plausible. there The problem with and this was I even blamed our own party for the No Child Left Behind deal back in two thousand and one or whenever it came out. We were looking for a benchmark for teachers. We were just grasping for like how can we make this and it it was well intentioned and horribly executed. but I believe that that the ⁓ private schools but the thing is and about that surplus that we're gonna have in the budget. ⁓ you mentioned the number to me. It was gonna be several hundred No, it's gonna be A bil over a billion dollars. In two years. The problem is we have the unfunded mandate of Medicaid. The federal government is stopping funding certain things. So we are gonna have to pay that bill. Okay, but let's So in my watching of all of this stuff and all of these things, they're stopping this Medicaid, they're stopping this. Nobody's I don't see anybody on the news saying my benefits were cut off. What I'm finding that they're cutting has been the fraud. Mm-hmm. So maybe it's possible that it's not going to affect the individu. Just possible. Maybe. It's not going to affect the indiv affect the individuals as much as everybody seems to think that it is, because they're doing away with the hospice cares where there's ten of them in a one mile radius. And it's just a little strange. Well, and that's amazing how much we can probably save by just and that's another sorry to Name drop again, State Auditor, but one of his podcasts they talked about the technology he's using. Now, when we spoke to him, we know that he's not using the same IT that the state uses, and he's using commercially available stuff, and but it's used for forensic purposes, the AI and stuff that he's using. So he's probably gonna be have a role in administering how we pay for the Medicaid, the unfunded mandate. I would think they're gonna involve him and say, look, you need to scrape these lists and see who's legit, who's not, who's suspect of fraud. And you know, I think there's an affordable way to go forward. I don't think we need to spend all of the surplus. But and I think it should be capped at X amount of dollars how much the state but the budgets let's say the the this the budget is one billion dollars. I don't know what our state budget is, but let's pretend it's one billion. I know it's more, but whatever. But pretend it's one billion. I think that we should only have a surplus in not to exceed fifteen percent of that. Or it's kind of like ⁓ your your mortgage. You know, that they have that ⁓ you know ⁓ what's it called? Where you where you pay for the ⁓ in taxes. Escrow escrow. Your escrow is can only be a per certain percentage of how much the bills are. Okay. I think that that should 'cause nobody can spend my money like I can. Right. So you want a refund. No. Or we get a tax break. Right. One year, no taxes. That'd be nice. You're never gonna convince a whole legislature full of money grubbing ⁓ politicians. They need they ⁓ everything they know to say is more, more, more. ⁓ I will point out that Governor Stein did propose a higher ⁓ teacher raise at eleven percent and the Republicans did come back with eight percent. So I'm kinda disappointed in the Republicans for that. Yeah. I'm sure there were reasons. I'd like to know the reasoning behind. I would like to know the reasoning too. Maybe we can have I don't think that's Representative Wheatley on here. Yeah. I think so I think we could. ⁓ or Senator McGuinness, isn't he on the the money committee appropriations? He thought he was. I think he might be. Let's see if we can get him to call in maybe ⁓ next Monday ⁓ night. Insta because I know they're busy, they're session. They are they are knee deep in this thing. ⁓ so one thing about those school vouchers, I just want to say this, you know. I actually heard Governor Stein say this on another I I mentioned this before in another ⁓ episode of ours, but there was another podcast he was on and he said that we're spending money like we're a poor state. Now, I don't believe we need to be a spendthrift and just spin the hell out of everything, but when it comes to opportunity scholarships, do we not think that the budget is large enough to fund the schools the way they need to be funded and to provide the opportunity scholarships to get kids now? out of underperforming schools because that's what it's meant for. If you have the potential to go to a private school, get the hell out of that low performing school. And that's what they started off as. They've been around for more than 30 years. I just want to mention that they it is possible to do both without necessarily taking from the public school system. I don't believe that to be a a one to one apples to apples comparison of what's happening there. I agree. So In Cumberland County, let's see. We are the number one recipient of opportunity scholarships in the state. Really? In this county. Yes, we are. Now, one argument I believe was made was that the private schools have increased their prices since the scholarships kicked in. Yeah. But that is also free enterprise. So, you know. More people competing for your school. That's right. And why are they competing for the school schools are better? Because you don't turn out North Carolina public schools. a good product. That's right. If you had a best product. And now that's part of that Leandro thing about everybody being equal. Now that that is kind of off off the table, maybe we'll see some schools start to really be able to compete because I think they were constrained by that arbitrary, what was it? Fair, sound education, the most ambiguous language ever to come out of a court. so I think every North Carolinian we all support good teachers and strong schools, but We definitely see a different way ⁓ of how to get there. ⁓ of course I'm I like to say I like to think I'm right and that most people are wrong, but you know we should probably have some parents on here or call in or whatever that have are products of the ⁓ opportunity scholarship. Some that are are are less fortunate because that's what it's for. Mm-hmm. I mean, how much do you have to earn? I I've heard the argument too. First of all, depending on your income, you get less. Second of all, if you have siblings The second and third sibling get less than the first guy. So it's not an arbitrary like everybody gets five grand or everybody gets it's it's tiered and it's already accounted for naturally the income of the parent. But when it comes to the income of the parent, okay, they're high earners. Okay, they probably pay more taxes in thanks to I was gonna say. So why can't they have control over where their child was educated, especially if they had the bad fortune of moving into a horrible school district? Why would I, as a person that earns a lot of money, want to come to a school district that's a tier tier a tier one tier one school? No, probably wouldn't. But if I have an opportunity scholarship that as a as a wealthy individual and I can put help offset the cost of putting my kids in a really good school. Yeah. I mean you're gonna do the best for your children. That's right. Nobody looks out for your children like you. not let your child be lost in the machine of public schools with their underperformance. Now they are I I feel like we're gonna see some improvement with the public schools now that Leandro's off the table. ⁓ because they're gonna be a while. Well it's gonna it's kind of like a flywheel. They're gonna have to push it slowly a little bit, but once they get it going, I think and again ⁓ Mr. Hatch suggested, you know, he had a thing about the middle school, you know, how we lose the students in the middle, ⁓ that he had specific professional training for those teachers to retain those students. And I I think that the more people we have like that in involved, I think the better. ⁓ I think we will see an improvement. I have a positive feeling about what it is. I you know I well if you think so then it from your lips to God's ears. There you go. Well yeah. We'll see what happens. Yeah. Whatever. Okay. So education is not the only issue families are talking about housing costs. Property taxes, they dominate kitchen table conversations. They sure do. They sure do. Look, we like growth. It's one of the problems that we wanna have. Now, ⁓ the alternative is decline in our communities. We don't want to have a declining community, we want to grow. ⁓ the challenge is making sure the roads, the schools, utilities and public safety can keep up with the people moving here. ⁓ well that's I think it's more than a matter of just hiring more police. I mean, you have to have a different kind of police chief. You have to have a different kind of city manager or city account town manager, whatever. The other thing is though, ⁓ and this is one I'll notate from say Hope Mills, which is seems to be the fastest growing little town in Cumberland County. You know, ever there's a lot of people that are mad about the traffic and the this and it used to be country and idyllic and all this other stuff. Well, people are putting their money there. They want to move with you. Right. So Either buy a house 15 miles out in the middle of nowhere and establish a new foothold, or just accept that these people they want to live with you. They're making your community more affluent by the more people that come there. Well, that's the way I feel I most people don't object to growth. Yeah. They object to getting the bill after years of growth without enough planning. We ⁓ we keep getting bills that are increasing because nobody is saying, Hey, this is how we're going to grow, this is where the money they just keep adding to our bills. Well, like Michael Scott said, more money, more problems. Different problems. Well, but again, like I said, you you can't have the same town manager with fifty thousand people or with a hundred thousand people that you had with fifty thousand. It's a different ch skill set, I would believe. So as you grow I don't know, I've never been a town manager. Well, man, here's your And maybe maybe no, I'm not qualified for that. Hey, I'll throw my hat at the I think you'd be less hated if you became a lawyer. ⁓ but I will say that maybe at you're growing and your skill set is growing with your town if it grows at an even rate. You would think, but ⁓ I've had discussions with former electors. So you're saying when your town grows, we fire the town manager. Anyway, it's probably a three to five, maybe seven years. ⁓ Before they naturally they have their own careers to look out for too, that they're looking for another opportunity or whatever else. And I'm not saying that I want somebody to pick up and grow with us, but if you look at the industry, I mean there's a whole cottage industry about can't you get a master's in public administration? Probably. There's a whole bunch of them. And I think you can get a PhD in it. You can get it piled higher and deeper as much as you want to go. but you know. It it's a profession and I think the people that are doing it are professionals and I just believe that you kinda wanna right size your talent f that you want the right tool for the job. Right. now somebody that's been with us for ten, twelve years, they're gonna know the town inside and out. Right. Which is good and it's probably not good to Yeah, they c so w I will say that when you get to know something really well, you start overlooking things. Mm-hmm. Like when you walk into your I'm sure you do this, you walk into your restaurants every day, you don't see that ⁓ there's a crack over there. Mm-hmm. But somebody walks in. ⁓ look at this guy's got cracks everywhere. Mm-hmm. So yeah, you do. My pet peeve is like a dirty phone or a dirty POS because they just touch it every day and they don't notice the accumulation. But if I go in there like on a weekly, it's like, ⁓ god. I do that with my ATMs. I'm like, ⁓ my God, I don't want to touch these. So I bring the the third party perspective. Right. To be like, ⁓ that needs to be maintained. So ⁓ property taxes. I say we do without. For your for your primary dwelling. I like I like that DeSantis is now they're coming out with more details on how they would exempt. Because the first thing I heard ⁓ well I'm sorry the first thing that's screaming in my mind when I hear they don't want to pay property taxes anymore is how the hell are you going to fund police, fire, and EMS? And then also, who is going to defraud this system? Okay. So think about this though. What if the county just decides to if they Adjust their valuations. Say you have $250,000 exempt, your house is $400,000 now, you still pay $150. What if they just start pricing everything at $500,000 on up? That would be pretty disingenuous. It would. That's true. I didn't think about all the corrupt people that we have in our offices. Yeah. Well, and I don't think it's any one. I just ⁓ no, they're they're all together corrupt. So look, when I when I'm w working with the restaurants, if I ever put in a new system or new item or whatever else, the first thing I started with was how is it going to shake through the cracks? How's it going to be stolen or abused or whatever else? Then I work backwards to the control. Okay. So that's just automatically I go straight to absolutely the worst human behavior, unfortunately. And then I'm ple pleasantly surprised when they don't act that way. Well, that's hilarious because that's exactly what my my argument was because I just went to a Republican thing this weekend and I was talking about the plan of organization. Just to be totally one hundred percent off on a total different tangent. ⁓ we were at District Seven convention in and I was like, You guys read the plan of organization because this may not apply to you, but you have to imagine the worst person possible. Imagine your worst person and they and they put and you put them in that position. How are they gonna do it? Right. What is the potential there? So that Actually brings me to a pretty good point. local so last Tuesday I did go to the Civic Center Commission board, the Crown Center that I'm on, and ⁓ I I did make a motion, it was seconded and accepted by the board that we are requesting a an economic impact study for the Crown Coliseum because after much research and time with ⁓ the the operator OVG out there and stuff like that on my own time, ⁓ We don't believe it exists. Nope. It never existed. And I I'm I'm I'm afraid the economic impact of thirty five million dollars was written on a napkin someplace in a bar. And then it was you know how they say you say a lie enough times and then people start to believe it. I don't think it was a straight out lie. I think it was based in some kind of reality. I just don't know whose. It was probably a projection and then they liked that number and they kept it. Now we have requested, so our board is going to send a request to county commission. Mm-hmm. I we're gonna request that they commission the report. Now that can be done by subject matter experts like the TDA here, ⁓ the convention visitors bureau. There's there's you're not gonna hire an outside. No, we have enough we got enough I was gonna say can we please use somebody from Cumberland County? Okay. ⁓ well the thing is these these organizations, they kind of know how to do these reports and they have the data available. Right. And ⁓ very honestly, I looked at ⁓ Commissioner Patel and I'm like, look. A lot of this I have available ⁓ as a CCIM realtor as a commercial investment member. A lot of the the data now is it's scarily available to me. Mm-hmm. I can tell you how much people spend on ⁓ like it's C V S or I can tell you the average ⁓ market potential for something. It we use it for site selection. So, you know, if somebody wants to put a McDonald's there, we say, Well, does it match so I'm able to get that? So it's not like it was ten, fifteen years ago. With the data, but ⁓ but I mean how many events do they have out there at the Crown anymore? They have a lot. So I wish I don't hear about any of them. So here's here's one benefit I think of being on the Crown board. And free tickets? No, we don't get free tickets. No, we do not. ⁓ so don't don't volunteer thinking you're gonna get free tickets. the thing about that board is you're supposed to be a community advocate. You're supposed to be on that board and say, really have your eyes open as to what all they do out there. And they do a lot. There's usually an event every day out there. Really? It's just not in the main Coliseum. It could be in the theater, it could be in the arena. What are they doing to advertise this stuff? Well, they have new marketing director, a friend of mine from the chamber. His name's Gary Rogers. ⁓ he was with ⁓ WKML Beasley for a long time. ⁓ he's over there now trying to direct their marketing. ⁓ I think they're building things you're not seeing yet. Okay. And ⁓ But I have seen more press releases from them. I have seen ⁓ more visibility, but I it's hard to measure because you've got three I think the recent number for our population was about three hundred and forty thousand in the county. That's a lot of people to advertise to, mm-hmm for sure. ⁓ but where I was going with the whole commission thing, finally we won. We're gonna have we were gonna ask commission for that study, basically to say, look So the commission can still say no. They could. They could. I doubt they will. ⁓ they seem pretty pro facts these days. Well, you've got an election coming November, so it better happen soon. And ⁓ yeah, so I went live may change. I went live by accident right before the show. I was trying to record a video. ⁓ I was gonna I'm gonna record a video and invite people to the show, but I'm gonna tag them in it and basically guilt them into publicly anyway. ⁓ but anyway, I accidentally went live with that one. But ⁓ because we need to have a lot of these guys on. We need to hear from Democrats, we need to hear from the independents, we need to hear from the conservatives and the republicans, and we need to hear what they what is their value proposition. What do they offer? Why should we give them a damn vote? Why should I use my ballot for you? Again, I digress. Back to the commission. What you said earlier about trying to at District 7 with the plan of organization for the party. we have been trying with the current board I'm on, we've been trying to get more. ⁓ authority from the commission down to the board. The only fear is right now we have a good mix of folks on that board. We have ⁓ Yeah, you have to imagine, we have teachers, we have ⁓ attorneys, ⁓ a couple of attorneys. ⁓ and then you got guys like me, you got people from the chamber, ⁓ people v well versed in tourism, stuff like so you have some industry people on there? And yeah, it'd be great if we could get some more jobs for us to do. But then imagine if everybody gets cousin uncle Eddie because cousin Uncle Eddie came out and sat up at a poll for me during my campaign and you put dummy on there. Well, there's a difference in ⁓ cousin Uncle Eddie that ⁓ is worked the polls and cousin uncle Eddie that's actually good for the job. Mm-hmm. It has to be okay, here here here's a job here's a job that I think my friend would be you do the interview, whatever. But I mean that that to me, that's but that that's part of ha building relationships. Because a lot of people, ⁓ you don't want to ask. No, you do. I want all of my friends in in politics that I know to say, Hey, she might be really good at that because I might be. So yes, and and nowadays you're you're competing with thousands of people online. Some of them aren't even real. They're like, Are you a real person? Yes, I am. You're talking about applying for jobs again. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Well up until the last couple of years, the appointments process for county boards has been as far as I know, they put your name on a list in the clerk's office. And if one of the commissioners happens to come by, then they'll say, Yeah, let's let's let's vote on this guy. It's more formalized now than the ⁓ okay. So what is it now? ⁓ it's I think they tried to make it more like the city's process. You have to go online and apply and there's no interview. It's just a up or down vote at city council or county commission. Still, it's better than it was. It's not there yet. Let's just put it like that. So if Cousin Eddie has three friends on county commissioners. Then Cousin Eddie's gonna get it. Okay. That's all right. I mean, hopefully there'll be enough smart people in the room to counteract cousin Eddie's crazy. I think there will be. I have faith in the groups we do have, they are run pretty decent. I mean, there's we follow Robert's rules of order, you know, in I love the rules of order. Unfortunately, people are afraid to speak out in these meetings. That's one thing, you know, I'm not pretty very shy about. ⁓ it always cracks me up when we go over the financials and then I get the the chairwoman says, ⁓ Mr. Pappas, what do you ha 'cause she sees me fervently taking notes so she knows I'm up to something. Well, I can respect the fact that you speak out because I'm the problem child because I always speak out. Because to me, if you're not speaking out, what are you doing? Well you're not nice. You see, you don't you don't you're not nice like me when you speak out. See is that what it is? Yeah, you're not sweet and sunshine like me. ⁓ I see here. Is that what I need to do in me? No. I it's matter of fact. It's not that I'm being sweet or not sweet. It's matter of fact. It's hearing people do not like hearing the truth about their mis misf well their shortcomings. Plain as simple. I do. I mean I don't like it, but I'm like, you were a normal bird though. That's I mean, come on. ⁓ I like feedback because how can I change and be a better human if you don't give me feedback? And one of my feedbacks is that I'm too direct. And you know what I'm trying to do? I'm trying to be nicer, kinder, gentler. Well, you are a nice and kind person. You just don't appear that way to most people sometimes. I don't. Because because that's me, in my opinion, being soft and weak and being taken advantage of because I've been taken advantage of a lot of my life and so I don't let people in as a general rule. Yep. Yep. Well, you know, ⁓ the ⁓ acts of service is one of my one of my things. Words of affirmation don't go far with me. I love you or I whatever. I'm like, no, ⁓ no, I'm questioning what do want? You know, I'm too I've tried to do more things for you. Do I do that? You do, you have. I'm I'm not a doer thing ⁓ for of ⁓ ca I don't think of ⁓ I should have done that later. But ⁓ Yeah. Well ⁓ before we go, I do love you. Let's say that online. I do love Peter Pappers, he's a wonderful one and he is got himself the sweetest, most kindest and loving little girl that I love them together. She is gonna pass out if she sees you talking like that. But you know, to to your point, ⁓ she did let loose that I think you and another friend of mine at my father's funeral told her that even if you and Peter don't work out, we we'll keep you in the divorce. Well I might have said that. Ouch. I feel bad if it was at your dad's I'm glad that I have friends that are that good that at least, you know They'll take her in, you know? She won't she won't be lost. ⁓ it's not an either or. I would take you both. Okay. All right. Just separate weekends or whatever. Yeah. That's right. I do want to mention ⁓ the data center debacle that's going on. ⁓ what's going on with that? I haven't heard anything about it. So the stupids are running wild online. ⁓ and I I'm sorry, but they most people don't understand what the county and the city is trying to do right now. Right now When it comes to data centers, we have absolutely zero regulation. Right. None. So and you have to understand that moratorium or there was the other word, those are legal terms. Right. So before you apply a moratorium, you gotta say what's it for? How long is it for? What is it? You have to be detailed. You can't just say moratorium. Okay. That's number one. Well, you can say it, but it doesn't Well, it's it's the equivalent of Michael Scott yelling, I declare bankruptcy. And then not Closing a credit card. Okay. So where we're at with the data centers is that the city and the county are both working on a framework of if a data center, then we do this. Okay. Because right now we have none we have nothing in our codes at all. Data centers are a new construct. So we're we're just trying to create some kind of a framework on how we're putting them with them in our community. Before we just build a house, we're putting the foundation in so it doesn't fall over. Because the the nightmare scenario is you get what's called a bad actor. ⁓ some evil, you know, evil Acme Corporation, you know, comes in and well, they don't have rules, so we're gonna do what the hell we want. Right. Then they sue the city because and they win much money because we didn't have the rules. So why should we say cry boo at anything? Right. So I I wish that some of the ⁓ Are you saying this online to those little people that you I you know, I really don't. argue much in those groups because it's just you can say the sky's blue and it's people just are like, you know whatever. And I I Sometimes life too short. It's not worth it. You know, they'll they have nothing to do, obviously. And they're in their parents' basement, most of them. So ⁓ but at any rate, I I I'm not as concerned with the data centers because I feel like we're trying to take steps to be responsible about it. And the other thing that took So our city council and our county commissioners right now are doing a good job? They are trying to do the job. Okay. They're trying to get there, but they're having they're being attacked and distracted. And look, they're public officials. That's the job description. Right. ⁓ I feel like ⁓ commission has done a good job of trying to ⁓ hold public hearings and stuff like that. But remember, people may go and they're gonna say justice wasn't served. Well, just because you don't like the outcome doesn't mean the process wasn't followed. And that's that's what we have to remember in our system. You hear the people, you evaluate, you make a decision as a board, and you have to move on. ⁓ city council maybe could afford to do couple other ⁓ public hearings but I don't know I don't know what they're working on. I I I was gonna say would that be repetitive? No, because the city has its own development ordinance and so does the county. Okay. And then town of Hope Mills has one. But the smaller guys like Spring Lake and Hope Mills usually in the city having a data center. More than likely it's gonna be out in the county. It it possibly could. But I'm I'm just thinking of what the concerns for the data center are power usage, water usage. We're already ⁓ You know, it water's already tough to come by here. we're working on regulated water out to the ⁓ the edges of our county. And the county commission has set up ⁓ water districts so they can attack each section. And it sounded like ⁓ they're making some progress. But ⁓ at any rate, I just the whole data center thing, I'm like, look, first of all, you're on Facebook complaining about it, and that's exactly a data center that you're using to argue you don't want data centers. I don't want one to come in here and drink all of our water, but I also think there's a better way to handle it. And I think we just need to give these guys a little bit of time to come up with something. So Okay, you guys have ten days. Yeah. Ten days. So get on it, guys. Get on it. I I you know, I'm trying to softballing it in as much as I can. So ⁓ well I think I think it's about time we get out of here. Yeah. ⁓ we have a guest coming on tomorrow. We sure do. my gosh, I'm so excited about this guy. So these The conservative ⁓ mayor from Monroe U ⁓ Union County. He is one of the closest elections in North Carolina history. He and his opponent tied with exactly nine hundred and seventy votes each. And how do they decide it? They flipped a coin. Flip a coin. I love it. I love it. So our flipping of the coin winner is Mayor Burns and he will be here with us tomorrow. Excellent. And we most likely go live. I don't know. We might save that one for later. So Everybody, thank you for joining us as we return to the cabinet. ⁓ I do appreciate the sh support shown to my family over several weeks. But as always, we'll continue bringing you the straight talk from the Heart of Carolina. Until then, we'll see you next. Well we'll see you tomorrow. Yeah. All right. Well, have a good evening.