News

Rural Center to lead $20 million rural infrastructure initiative
The N.C. General Assembly has approved legislation to pump $20 million into the still-shaky rural economy with a combination of grants and investments aimed at generating new jobs. The center will receive $15 million to help rural communities build and upgrade water and sewer systems in addition to funding technology projects that have the capacity to create jobs. The remaining $5 million will be used to renovate vacant industrial buildings in distressed rural areas for reuse by new and expanding businesses, with priority given to towns with a population of less than 5,000, and to fund major research and demonstration projects. Also part of House Bill 1352 is a $20 million emergency appropriation to replenish Gov. Easley’s industrial recruitment fund and $4.1 million to state community colleges to continue a worker training initiative. Lawmakers expressed their desire to see the governor’s One North Carolina Fund receive a recurring annual appropriation of $10 million beginning July 1, 2005. Rural Center President Billy Ray Hall said the two major components of the funding package – one designed to attract big businesses, the other targeted to rural areas – complement each other in a way that will maximize the impact of both. “Together, these initiatives will go a long way toward strengthening the state’s overall economic standing,” Hall said. To read the full text of House Bill 1352, click here.

North Carolina inches toward economic recovery, though still in the top third of states on unemployment
Though North Carolina’s unemployment rate is at its lowest point in two-and-a-half years, the state still has a higher-than-average jobless rate compared with the rest of the nation. In the summer edition of the center’s quarterly report, The North Carolina Rural Economy, the center finds that the state at present has the 18th-highest rate of unemployment in the nation. At 5.3 percent, the state’s overall unemployment rate has been below the national average – currently 5.6 percent – for three months. The rural jobless rate is currently 5.7 percent- still high, but down significantly from a high of 8 percent in January 2002. Though the numbers suggest at least moderate growth in the state’s economy, they belie two troubling scenarios playing out in North Carolina’s labor market: the continued decline of the state’s manufacturing industry and the relatively high number of North Carolinians that have given up the job search after exhausting their state unemployment benefits. According to state Employment Security Commission data, nearly 12,000 people exhausted their unemployment benefits in May without finding a new job. The state has lost more than 213,000 manufacturing jobs to date, with many of the industry’s laid-off workers taking lower-paying jobs in the service and retail sector.

U.S. House approves tobacco buyout, North Carolina growers would receive $3.8 billion over five years
After years of debate over how, when and even if to end the nation’s 1930s-era tobacco allotment program, the U.S. House of Representatives has approved a plan worth $9.6 billion, nearly 40 percent of which would go to North Carolina quota holders. The bill faces stiff opposition in the U.S. Senate, mainly because it doesn’t give the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate cigarettes, which health groups have long fought for. Nearly 76,000 farmers and quota holders in the state would receive $3.8 billion under the plan, which calls for payments to be divvied out as follows: $10 per pound to quota owners who farm their allotment; $7 per pound for quota owners who rent their allotment to others; and $3 per pound for farmers who rent allotments. According to a June 27th article in the Raleigh News and Observer, the median payout for state growers would be $14,798. A searchable database of payouts due to every tobacco allotment owner in the nation, as devised under the current buyout proposal, is listed on the Environmental Working Group’s website www.ewg.org/farm/tobaccobuyout.php.

Reports and Research

Southern Growth Policies Board releases 2004 report on the Future of the South at annual conference
At its annual conference, held this year on June 13th in Oklahoma City, the Southern Growth Policies Board released its 2004 Report on the Future of the South. The Chapel Hill-based think tank sums up its report, titled The Globally Competitive South, as “focusing on globalization and both the opportunities and challenges it presents to Southern states and communities. The report encourages states and communities to act on their own to create better jobs, more wealth and stronger communities in response to the changes in business climate and demographics. The report includes research on the gap between what the South exports and what it could export, and the number of jobs lost or unrealized as a result of this under-performance.” Recommendations for future action include increasing exports and international education, and building relationships with foreign communities at home and abroad. To order a copy of the report or to read the introduction, visit www.southern.org/2004report.shtml. Reports are $10 and can be ordered on-line.

Report offers local governments help with zoning issues related to low-income housing
For local governments struggling to provide decent housing for low and moderate-income families, inclusionary zoning presents an array of confusing legal and public policy issues. The School of Government at UNC-Chapel Hill has released a new publication titled Locally Initiated Inclusionary Zoning Programs: A Guide for Local Governments in North Carolina and Beyond, available for purchase on the school’s website. The report is designed to help local governments balance the issues raised by inclusionary zoning, a strategy for local governments to create more affordable housing for low- and moderate-income residents. The report is a collaborative effort between the School of Government and the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law. The report is $21 plus 7 percent tax for in-state residents, and can be ordered through the School of Government’s website at https://iogpubs.iog.unc.edu.

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Meetings and Events

Summit on minority business financing to be held July 29 in Charlotte
The Charlotte Chamber of Commerce will host a summit on minority business financing on July 29th in Charlotte. The summit is aimed at developing new incentives and programs that encourage the lending community to better serve minority businesses and help create new jobs in the process. The keynote speaker will be Ronald Langston, National Director of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency. The event, to be held at the chamber’s office at 330 S. Tryon Street, starts at 9 a.m. For more information and to register, contact Robyn Hamilton at (704) 332-5904.

N.C. Association of Community Development Corporations to hold annual conference in Charlotte Aug. 2-4
The N.C. Association of Community Development Corporations (NCACDC) will hold its annual conference August 2-4 in Charlotte at the Hilton Charlotte and Towers. Speakers include U.S. Senate candidates Erskine Bowles and U.S. Rep. Richard Burr. The theme of this year’s conference is “Celebrating the Past, Building Partnerships for the Future.” The conference is for NCACDC affiliates, as well as community and economic development professionals and managers from business, government and other nonprofit organizations who want to enhance and expand their skills, learn about new research in the field and examine new tools and management issues. Registration fees are $80 for single NCACDC members, $90 for non-members, and group rates are $225 for up to three NCACDC members, $255 for up to three non-members. For more information call Carolyn Ingram at: (919) 831-9710 ext. 100.

Center to hold annual Rural Partners Forum Sept. 30-Oct. 1, 2004 in Raleigh
The Rural Center will hold its annual Rural Partners Forum Sept. 30 through Oct. 1 at the North Raleigh Hilton. The theme for this year’s forum will be "A New Day Dawning for North Carolina's Rural Workers, Small Businesses and Family Farms." Participants will hear from top state and national speakers, who will share their ideas for creating home grown jobs in the changing rural economy, and will participate in workshops focusing on promising community solutions. The center will also be releasing new reports and reference guides on small business and agriculture. Plenary discussions include: creating home-grown jobs in the global marketplace; embracing entrepreneurship as a rural economic strategy; and redefining North Carolina agriculture for the 21st Century. The cost for the two-day event is $125, which includes meals. To register online click here. For questions, call Kelly Griffin at (919)250-4314.

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Funding Sources

New website offers resource for professional fundraisers, grant seekers
Grantstation.com is a new website aimed at professional fundraisers and anyone else looking to expand their organization’s capacity, find new sources of funding, and enhance grant seeking skills. GrantStation.com markets the site as a one-stop shop for all the tools and resources grant seekers need. The site also offers weekly, in-depth interviews on philanthropic issues, such as ‘building a stronger relationship with corporate grantmakers.’ Annual membership rates are $399 for the basic service, $599 for the upgraded service, which includes access to regional philanthropic organizations. To find out more, visit the website by clicking here.

Up to $1 million in grants available for organizations that help low-income residents save for a new home, business, education
July 27th is the deadline for organizations to apply for the Assets for Independence (AFI) Grant program, which is offering grants of up to $1 million to non-profit and government agencies that help low-income families and the working poor save money for the purchase of a first home, starting a business or furthering their education. The grant program, administered by the Department of Health and Human Services, is designed to help low-income people become economically self-sufficient by building the funding capacity of organizations that provide financial counseling and training in addition to matched savings accounts, or Individual Development Accounts (IDAs). To find out more about the grants program, click here: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/grants/pdf/HHS-2004-ACF-OCS-EI-0027.pdf. To download a copy of the grant application click here.

From the N.C. Press

Raleigh News & Observer: Leandro Spending
Wake Superior Court Judge Howard Manning Jr. has blessed a plan from education leaders to spend $22 million next year as a first step in complying with his ruling that the state begin meeting its constitutional mandate that all children have the opportunity for a fundamental education. The court order now rests with the legislature as it begins final budget deliberations for next year. The House of Representatives, in its spending plan, includes none of the $22 million in proposed funds; the Senate's plan includes $12 million of the cost. "I hope that as the budget moves into conference that both the House and Senate will agree to meet the full $22 million expansion request," state Superintendent Mike Ward said. The funding proposal was part of the State Board of Education's budget request in January, but Gov. Mike Easley's spending plan only funded $4.5 million. "I hope that Manning's letter provides some leverage," Ward said. The money would be directed to 16 school systems, including the district in rural Hoke County that has been the focus of the 10-year-old Leandro lawsuit over school funding. The $22 million is being proposed as a first installment toward an estimated total cost of $220 million to meet Manning's order to improve educational opportunities for struggling students. The state's plan for next year would provide an additional allotment of $250 per student in the 16 districts, which qualify because of factors such as low student achievement, high teacher turnover and high poverty.

Raleigh News and Observer: Buyout checks would go to a few
Ask Johnny Barnes about a tobacco buyout, and he'll tell a story about his grandfather. A tobacco farmer in the 1930s, he was so poor that, when his overalls split up the back, all he could afford was a needle and thread to stitch them back up. Since then, Barnes and his father have built one of North Carolina's largest tobacco farms, seated in Nash County and spreading into two other counties. If Congress approves a buyout of the federal tobacco program this year, his family stands to gain more than $8.6 million As buyout legislation moves on Capitol Hill, advocates are invoking images of struggling small farmers and poor widows who rely on tobacco profits or renting the right to grow tobacco. In reality, a buyout would pump $3.8 billion into North Carolina, but more than three-quarters of it would go to the top 20 percent of the state's farmers and "quota" owners, about 15,000 people, a News & Observer analysis of government data shows. Of the top recipients, 269 would get more than $1 million each -- and many of them, like Barnes, are among the few who are positioned to continue to profit from tobacco. In a free market without quotas, or allotments, farmers could grow as much tobacco as they want, though it would sell for a much lower price. In a buyout, the more than 60,000 remaining recipients would split about $850 million, an average of about $14,000 each. Naysayers use the figures to indict the buyout as a giveaway to the rich. But farmers and their backers say the payments are fair compensation for generations of toil and investment. "I can tell you one thing, the Barnes family didn't steal any quota," said Larry Wooten, president of the N.C. Farm Bureau. "They bought and paid. In this country, if you get up earlier, if you work harder, if you take risks, then you gain more." To read the full Raleigh N&O article click here.

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The mission of the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center is to develop, promote, and implement sound economic strategies that improve the quality of life of rural North Carolinians, with a special focus on individuals with low to moderate incomes and communities with limited resources.

N.C. Rural Economic Development Center
Michelle Taylor, UPDATE editor
Kelly Tucker Griffin, UPDATE production manager
Elaine Matthews, vice president for communications and development
4021 Carya Drive, Raleigh, NC 27610
(919) 250-4314 Fax: (919) 250-4325
www.ncruralcenter.org