Minding legislators' business

The Free Enterprise Foundation's recent rankings of what legislators are most supportive of business included a few notable elements:

GOP INC. - Republicans, who nationally are seen as more sympathetic to business, fared much better in the rankings than Democrats. Republicans accounted for 18 of the 21 senators rated as "consistent" business supporters. Of the 57 House members in the "consistent" supporter category, 48 were Republicans.

BLACK LIST - Members of the Legislative Black Caucus did poorly in the rankings and, with one exception, 27 or the 28 black senators and House members were placed in the lowest ranked category, "occasional" supporter of business. Rep. Pearl Burris-Floyd, a Gaston County Republican, was in the middle ranking of "frequent" supporter.

NEXT OF YAD-KIN - Former Rep. Chuck Neely, a Raleigh Republican, was a paid lobbyist for Alcoa during the legislative session. He was paid to work against legislation creating the Yadkin River Trust, which would have given the state control over the hydroelectric dams that Alcoa built on the river. Neely is also a Free Enterprise Foundation board member involved in the rankings, and the House and Senate votes on the Yadkin River legislation ended up as one of the measures for the rankings.

"The North Carolina FreeEnterprise Foundation is an impartial, nonpartisan organization," said director John Rustin. "The process and methodology used to produce the 2009 Business Ratings was established by a broad-based committee made up of individuals representing a wide variety of industries, interests and geographical areas of the state."