Dell

Murderers, rapists to be released

bniolet — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:04:38 -0400

READY OR NOT: Recent court rulings will force state officials to release 20 murderers, rapists and robbers sentenced to life in North Carolina prisons in the 1970s at the end of the month. Ten of those scheduled to be released were sex offenders, including men who raped young girls. Seven have spent time on death row. The one woman in the group was convicted of murdering a state trooper while fleeing a bank robbery. (N&O)

BIG PAY CUT: Outgoing Bank of America Corp. chief executive Ken Lewis will receive no pay in 2009 after a review by the Obama administration's pay czar. The Charlotte-based bank received $45 billion in government loans. (Charlotte Observer)

JOBS HEADED SOUTH: A federal filing shows that Dell intends to shift its production from a closing North Carolina plant to Mexico. (High Point Enterprise)

Spellchecker unchecked

markjohnson — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 06:36:58 -0400

Dome makes its own share of blunders and in no way means to demean our distinguished colleagues at the Associated Press ("A deadline every minute.") A recent correction, however, was too humorous to refrain from sharing. It also requires no additional comment.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) In an Oct. 9 story about state and local incentives used to lure a Dell Inc. plant to North Carolina, The Associated Press misspelled the surname of the president of the Golden LEAF fund. The correct name is Dan Gerlach, not Girlish.

Symphony aggressively raising cash

bniolet — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 07:15:14 -0400

PLEDGE DRIVE IN D-MAJOR: The struggling N.C. Symphony has begun its new season with an unusual fundraising drive to secure private donations to be eligible for additional state money. One patron bid $10,000 for a private recital by famed violinist Joshua Bell. (N&O)

PATIENTS BEGIN MOVING: Opposition to the safety of the new Central Regional Hospital in Butner is easing and a judge has allowed the first patients to move to the facility, which is eventually intended to replace Raleigh's Dorthea Dix Hospital. Dix will remain open with at least 100 mental patients for the foreseeable future. (N&O)

IT'S NOT YOU, IT'S ME: North Carolina aggressively courted Dell, but the company dumped the state Wednesday, announcing it was planning to walk away from a $150 million manufacturing facility and turning out nearly 1,000 workers. Maybe the state can find a rebound company. (N&O)

Dell to close plant, lay off 905

bniolet — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:56:40 -0400

Dell plans to close its computer manufacturing plant in Winston-Salem by January, and lay off 905 employees.

Dell opened the assembly plant in 2005 and was offered a massive incentives package valued at $305 million if it met hiring and investment goals, Alan Wolf on the .biz blog reports.

The project was seen as a major economic development victory by supporters and a huge waste of taxpayer money by critics.

About 600 workers at the plant will be let go next month, Dell announced this afternoon. The rest will be out of work by early next year.

The closure of the Forsyth County plant is part of a broader cost-cutting effort by Dell, which is trying to offset weaker PC sales worldwide during the recession.

"This is a difficult decision, especially for our North Carolina colleagues, but a necessary one for Dell customers and our company," vice president Frank Miller said in a prepared statement.

A win for Orr, too

bkrueger — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:24:30 -0400

June Atkinson wasn't the only big winner today. Bob Orr also won.

Orr, a former state Supreme Court justice, is a student and teacher of North Carolina's constitution. He cited the constitution regularly last year when he unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor. (During his run for governor, Orr offered his own plan for how the state's public schools should be governed.)

Orr, who runs the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law, has sued the state over the lottery, tax-increment financing and tax incentives for Dell. None of those suits has been successful.

But Orr represented Atkinson, a Democrat, in her suit against Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue and the State Board of Education over who has the authority to run the state's public schools.

And, on Friday, he was on the winning side.

Claims Dept: Pittenger on pigging out

bkrueger — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:29:07 -0400

Former N.C. Sen. Robert Pittenger, Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, is running a TV ad against his Democratic challenger, state Sen. Walter Dalton.

What the ad says: Announcer: "Raleigh's pigging out. Take Senator Walton Dalton. Dalton gave Goodyear tax breaks...after they hired his brother-in-law. Dalton made state insurance pay for erectile dysfunction drugs...while Dalton's daughter was the drug company's lobbyist. Dalton gave Dell special tax breaks...while he owned Dell stock. Wasteful Walter Dalton. He made government work...For Walter Dalton."

"I'm Robert Pittenger, running for Lieutenant Governor, and I sponsored this message."

The ad features cartoon images of pigs prancing around with bags of money.

The background:

- In September 2007, the legislature passed an economic incentives bill that would give Goodyear more than $24 million over 10 years. On a strictly party-line vote, Dalton voted in favor; Pittenger against.

Goodyear hired Dalton's brother-in-law - former Republican legislator and gubernatorial candidate Chuck Neely - on Aug. 31, a day after Gov. Mike Easley vetoed an early version of the incentives bill. Dalton publicly supported that version. But when it passed the Senate overwhelmingly, he was absent.

- Under one version of the 2004 budget, drugs such as Cialis -- after a four-year absence - reappeared on a list of those eligible for coverage under the state health plan. Dalton, a chief budget writer, said at the time that the suggestion came out of a subcommittee. The measure passed the Senate but never became law.

Dalton's daughter, Elizabeth Dalton, was a lobbyist for Eli Lilly, which manufactured Cialis. Aides say Dalton also has voted against his daughter's clients, such as the N.C. Retail Merchants. And they say he voted for a similar drug provision in an earlier budget, when his daughter was still in college.

- In 2004, Dalton was among a majority of lawmakers who voted for $242 million worth of incentives to computer-maker Dell. Dalton had bought $10,000 worth of Dell shares in 1999. While the stock value rose after the incentives deal, he later sold it at a loss.

Dalton spokeswoman Kimberly Reynolds said the stocks were in a managed account and "daily decisions are made by his financial advisor without input from Sen. Dalton." She said Dalton has long supported measures he believes will create jobs.

Is the ad accurate? The votes are accurate. But the implication that Dalton voted because of family ties or personal benefit is subjective.

- Jim Morrill, The Charlotte Observer

Pittenger targets Dalton over Dell

DavidIngram — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 18:24:08 -0400

Robert Pittenger is criticizing Walter Dalton's vote to give incentives to Dell.

In a UNC-TV debate Wednesday, Pittenger said Dalton had a "major conflict of interest" in the vote because he owned Dell stock at the time. Dalton said after the debate that he does not manage his own investments and that the stock did not affect his vote.

And he appears to have sold the stock at a loss.

In 2004, Dell was considering building a computer-assembly in the Triad that it said would employ 2,000 people. Lawmakers approved $242 million in incentives over 20 years if Dell were to meet certain benchmarks.

Dalton, a Democrat, voted for the incentives. Pittenger, a Republican, voted against them. They are running for lieutenant governor.

"Probably the biggest concern I have about our differences is that Senator Dalton, he voted for incentives — a $280 million incentive for Dell — at the same time that he owns stock in Dell. And I would say very clearly that's a major conflict of interest," Pittenger said Wednesday.

Dalton said it was still appropriate for him to vote. "The key there was I was voting for jobs for the people of North Carolina," he said.

A campaign spokeswoman said Thursday that, according to a preliminary review of records, Dalton bought about $10,000 worth of Dell stock in November 1999 and sold it for about $4,000 in February 2007.

Dalton has publicly disclosed owning the stock on his state ethics filings since the 1999-2000 election cycle. In his most recent filing, he listed stocks and options in about 25 companies.

State law generally allows legislators to decide for themselves whether a conflict of interest should keep them from voting.

Things at Dell are looking down.

Lawsuit challenges Goodyear incentives

ryanteaguebeckwith — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 08:16:19 -0500

The N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law is challenging the Goodyear incentives.

The Raleigh-based legal group filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging the $60 million given to Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. in Fayetteville and Bridgestone Firestone in Wilson.

"The state constitution requires that any expenditure of state funds be for a public purpose. In the past, government and big corporations have said that massive corporate welfare was necessary to create jobs and they claimed that was a public purpose," said Jeanette Doran, senior staff attorney with the law group. "Now, North Carolina is just giving away $60 million and not requiring a single new job. There is no public purpose in that."

Earlier, the group lost a challenge to incentives for Dell. (N&O)

Orr responds on Google incentives

ryanteaguebeckwith — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 17:42:18 -0500

Bob Orr says he does not oppose all incentives.

In e-mail to Dome, the Republican gubernatorial candidate says that his rival, Bill Graham, misunderstands his position on attracting business to North Carolina.

Orr writes that he does not oppose all incentives, just those targeted at a specific company, such as Google, Dell, Goodyear or Lowe's Motor Speedway.

"However, an incentive policy that benefits a broad range of businesses or preferably all businesses is potentially acceptable," he writes.

He also argues that there is "general acknowledgement" that targeted incentives are bad public policy.

"I would encourage Bill to oppose this system which has exploited our state and local communities rather than fall into the trap of saying that some are OK," he writes.

Orr in the courtroom, part II

ryanteaguebeckwith — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 09:30:00 -0400

Bob Orr says the Dell lawsuit is an attempt to overturn judicial activism.

In response to a post on Dome yesterday, the former Supreme Court justice e-mailed to say that he thinks the 1996 decision to allow corporate incentives was "a real case of judicial activism."

"The majority overturned years of Supreme Court precedent to somehow authorize the expenditure of tax money to private companies, a ruling contrary to the established law for 50 years," he wrote Dome.

He defined judicial activism as failing to follow precedent, making result-oriented decisions and "playing fast and loose with constitutional limitations."

Orr was one of two dissenters in the 1996 case, Maready v. Winston-Salem, that allowed the state to use incentives to lure business.

In his dissent, he wrote that the majority was using the excuse that "everybody's doing it" to justify calling incentives constitutional.