Damn It's Easy to Cheat 'Billies

Georgia to Spend $100 Million Meant for Helping Homeowners on Corporate Giveaways Instead

By Pat Garofalo

Several states have been taking their share of the $25 billion foreclosure fraud settlement that was crafted in February with the nation’s five biggest banks and, instead of using the money for its intended purpose of providing foreclosure relief to troubled homeowners, have used it to bolster other areas of their budgets. Georgia lawmakers, for instance, have been planning to stash nearly $100 million from the settlement into their state’s general fund.
As Kate Little, president of the Georgia State Trade Association of Nonprofit Developers wrote today, that money did indeed wind up in the state’s general budget, where it will be spent on corporate giveaways — economic programs meant to entice companies to move to Georgia — rather than helping homeowners:

According to Georgia’s Attorney General Sam Olens, the state’s Constitution requires such funds to be deposited in the general fund with the General Assembly responsible for determining how to allocate the money.
Gov. Nathan Deal and the General Assembly decided in the waning days of the 2012 session to divide the money between the Regional Economic Business Assistance (REBA) and the One Georgia Authority.
That means that none of the funds will go to address foreclosures, even though Georgia has consistently ranked in the top five of states across the country with the highest rates of foreclosure.

Georgia is hardly alone in siphoning off foreclosure settlement funds to plug holes in its budget. But using the money for corporate handouts — which often backfire on a state and lead to a race to the bottom as states attempt to out-do each other in terms of the biggest giveaways — is doubly insulting to homeowners depending on the settlement to provide them with a lifeline.
To read the entire article and comments go to NationofChange at: http://www.nationofchange.org/georgia-spend-100-million-meant-helping-homeowners-corporate-giveaways-instead-1340032952.

NC Legislature Tries to Prove Its Citizens Are Dumber Than Dirt

Sea Level Bill Would Allow North Carolina to Stick Its Head in the Sand

A bill moving through the state legislature would allow developers to ignore sea level predictions based on global warming

By Seth Cline

June 1, 2012

Wading into the turbulent debate over global warming, North Carolina's state legislature is considering a bill that would require the government to ignore new reports of rising sea levels and predictions of ocean and climate scientists.
Business interests along the state's coastline pushed lawmakers to include language in a law that would require future sea level estimates to be based only on data from past years. New evidence, especially on sea level rise that could be tied to global warming, would not be factored into the state's development plans for the coast.
[Poll: Republicans Coming Around on Global Warming]
"We're skeptical of the rising sea level science," says Tom Thompson, chairman of NC-20, an economic development group representing the state's 20 coastal counties. "Our concern is that the economy could be tremendously impacted by a hypothetical number with nothing but computers and speculation."
That 'hypothetical number' came from the state’s Coastal Resources Commission, which recommended planning around a 39-inch rise in sea level by 2100. At the behest of NC-20 and coastal governments, the commission decided to remove the number from its policy entirely.
"Originally we did have the 39-inch recommendation, but the commission chose to remove that," says Michele Walker, spokeswoman for the North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission. "We got a lot of pushback from coastal governments and groups who were concerned that would hurt their ability to develop in their communities."
 The bill is still in its early stages, but the section stirring up controversy states:
"These rates shall only be determined using historical data, and these data shall be limited to the time period following the year 1900. Rates of seas-level rise may be extrapolated linearly…"
The parts about using only historical data, which shows a slow, linear sea-level rise—not the faster increases associated with global warming—have drawn the most ire from scientists.
"Clearly they don't understand science at all – (sea level rise) hasn't been linear," says Stan Riggs, a professor at East Carolina University who is an expert on the state's coastline. "To put blinders on and just say we don't accept what's happening on our coast is absolutely criminal."
"But the people that live out there that aren't developers are all on board. It's the managers and developers who want to keep the status quo. They're making a lot of money off of it," Riggs added.
Read the full article and comments here.