Region will lose legislative power (Washington Daily News)
Population reports suggest that portions of eastern North Carolina will lose legislative strength in 2011 — an unwelcome reduction in power to a region already struggling to stay ahead of the economic curve.
This is a likelihood that some local officials fear could place areas like Beaufort County at a disadvantage when it comes to state funding and projects.
“I think we’re definitely going to see a shift in representation due to the population increase in North Carolina,” state Rep. Tim Spear, D-Washington, said Tuesday.
The problem is illuminated in an October 2009 report from the Program on Public Life, which is located at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The report notes that 2010 census projections show an overall 10-year growth rate of 19 percent across the state.
The report suggests that areas that have lost population, or expanded below the state’s average growth, could suffer during the next round of legislative redistricting.
State data show that Beaufort County is among the counties that have added people at a rate under the state average.
Among the counties that have lost population in the past decade are Hyde, Martin and Washington counties.
The numbers present ominous signs for the redrawing of legislative lines, a process that is handled by the N.C. General Assembly after each U.S. census.
That process is slated to unfold in 2011.
With the central portion of the state growing at a phenomenally higher rate than some other locations in the east and west, counties like Wake are poised to gain representation in the state’s legislative bodies, while counties like Beaufort could suffer a more diluted influence.
The Program on Public Life report shows that Wake County “is likely to gain two House seats and one Senate seat.”
According to the report, “Counties whose population rose by more than 19% will gain representation — either a whole seat or a larger fraction of a seat” in the Legislature.
“Counties that lost population or even gained less than the statewide average will lose representation,” the report continues.
“In effect, what we have is a weakening of the legislative power and the legislative authority from rural members of the House and Senate,” Spear observed.
Ferrel Guillory, director of the Program on Public Life, stated, “It’s difficult to speak of the east as a whole.”
He added that portions of the east are growing, including Pitt and New Hanover counties.
“The way you have to read those projections is that those counties that are growing above the state average are likely to gain some strength,” he said Tuesday. “Those that are declining are likely to lose strength.”
Beaufort County is projected to post 4.3-percent population growth over the 2000 Census, for a total population of 46,877 in 2010, the program’s report reads.
Official numbers tracked by the N.C. Office of State Budget and Management reveal Beaufort County’s modest growth of 2.1 percent over a seven-year period ending in 2007. That’s compared to 12.4 percent growth statewide during the same period.
“There is no good news in the shift in population to the Piedmont or the increased population in the Piedmont as compared to the east,” Tom Thompson, head of Beaufort County’s Economic Development Commission, said Tuesday.
As the state’s power centers consolidate their electoral strength, the east could see a range of assaults, from more of a focus on environmental regulations concentrating on coastal counties to less transportation money.
“That really pains me to say that because 17 is not even finished yet,” Thompson said, referring to the eastern-driven push to convert U.S. Highway 17 to four lanes from the Virginia line to the South Carolina border.
Thompson expects court cases to be launched in response to redistricting issues.
“There always are,” he said. “The only solution, as I see it, is to try to get as cohesive an eastern delegation together as possible to fight for things in the east.”
Spear said rural areas will have to strive all the more to build on the local coalitions they’ve already formed, adding that the process will be long-term because redistricting occurs every 10 years.
“In the meantime, it’s going to mean that legislators like myself and other like representatives and senators in the rural areas are going to have our work cut out for us,” he said. “There will be more competition for these dollars, and we’re just going to have to work harder to make sure that our people are represented.”
By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 2:20 AM EST
