Democrat Beverly Perdue's campaign is running a new TV ad in her race against Republican Pat McCrory, accusing him of opposing a bill that would have allowed large landfills in North Carolina.
What the ad says: The ad shows pictures of garbage-filled barges in New York Harbor and newspaper stories about a 2007 bill. Announcer: "It's trash day in New York City. What will they do with all that garbage? If Pat McCrory becomes our governor, that won't be a problem. Because McCrory wants to let New York and New Jersey dump their garbage in North Carolina. Newspapers say we would become the garbage capital of the East Coast. It's no surprise McCrory's gotten thousands of dollars from landfill owners. Pat McCrory, don't let him dump on us."
The background: The ad refers to the Solid Waste Management Act of 2007. Favored by environmentalists, the bill was designed to restrict new landfills in the state.
It was spurred by concerns that private regional landfills would turn N.C. into one of the country's top five importers of trash. One landfill, proposed for rural northeastern North Carolina, would have buried up to 3 million tons of garbage a year and create a trash mountain 270-feet high.
McCrory cited the measure as an example of the kind of bill he would veto as governor. But he calls the ad a distortion.
That's because the bill also included new taxes on municipalities. An early version would have charged minicipalities $2.50 per ton to dump trash and debris.
The N.C. League of Municipalities also opposed the bill, at least at first.
It dropped its opposition after winning concessions such as getting a larger share of the proceeds to local governments and lowering the so-called tip tax to $2.
McCrory did receive a contribution this year from Lonnie Poole of Raleigh, chairman of Waste Industries.
Is it accurate? Technically. He did oppose the bill and it does restrict large corporate landfills in the state.
But did McCrory want to create a series of trash mountains? Doubtful. The Charlotte mayor, like the League of Municipalities, wanted to save cities from the taxes the bill carried.
— Jim Morrill
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Re: Claims Dept: Perdue's 'Floating' ad
Who in their right mind would believe anything McStory says? He hides behind the RGA negative ads and says he's "clean"...that's just one of many, many lies (didn't he hide from the press when his mentor GW Bush came to raise money for him? That's right, Pat, accept the money but not the relationship. Didn't he just say Sarah Palin is "hotter in person"? eew!! Now that's GARBAGE for you.