Posted on Sun, Mar. 09, 2008
DEBATE AT UNC CHARLOTTE
GOP candidates clash in debate
GOP gubernatorial hopefuls outline stances on immigration, crime and tax incentives
JIM MORRILL

North Carolina's major Republican candidates for governor clashed Saturday over illegal immigration, gangs and economic incentives.

The four -- Bill Graham of Salisbury, Pat McCrory of Charlotte, Bob Orr of Raleigh and Fred Smith of Johnston County -- debated at the Mecklenburg County GOP convention at UNC Charlotte.

While the candidates agreed on many things, they differed on three of the campaign's major issues.

Illegal immigration

McCrory, Charlotte's mayor, called for extending a federal program known as 287(g) throughout the state. The federally subsidized program trains sheriff's deputies to identify illegal immigrants who pass through the county jail."Every area of the state should have the ability to check immigration status," McCrory said.

Smith, a state senator, said it's "critical" to give every county the ability to be part of the program. He called illegal immigration "the number one issue in this governor's race."

But Orr, a former N.C. Supreme Court justice, said, "Talk's cheap."

"We all agree we have to do something," he said. "The $64 question is, where's the money going to come from?"

"How can you not afford to fund it?" said Graham, a Salisbury lawyer.

McCrory also called for a new federal detention facility and immigration court in North Carolina. Federal authorities had considered Mecklenburg before looking to Gaston County. On Friday, officials there called the proposed $150 million investment too risky, though they might consider a smaller facility.

Orr questioned the need for that.

"I'm not so sure North Carolina needs to be the repository for illegal immigrants arrested across the Southeast," he said.

Crime and gangs

McCrory said that as mayor, he has seen the same people arrested over and over. When he complained about a lack of detention beds in Mecklenburg for young offenders, Smith shot back.

"Pat, if you don't have a place to put criminals in Mecklenburg County, its because you used money to build a new basketball arena," he said.

McCrory called that "an unwarranted and ill-informed attack."

He said the hotel-motel taxes that paid for most of the new uptown arena must, by law, be used for tourism-related expenses, not jails. Then he took his own dig at Smith.

"I get criticized today, and last year he came to a fundraiser of mine," McCrory said.

Smith acknowledged attending McCrory's mayoral fundraiser with a friend but said, "I didn't make a contribution."

On the gang issue, Orr pointed to his years on the bench and called for more money for the criminal justice system.

Graham said "the problem is in the Department of Corrections."

"You have to keep these people ... in the prison system," he said. "There are streets in Baghdad that are safer than corners and streets in North Carolina."

Economic incentives

Orr, who has long opposed incentives, called them "a defining issue.""Is it government's job to subsidize private corporations?" he asked.

He criticized McCrory and Smith for supporting a constitutional amendment that helped pay for a controversial theater in Roanoke Rapids. That city used so-called tax-increment financing -- made possible by passage of the 2004 amendment -- to build the Randy Parton Theater. Opened last year, the theater never panned out as a tourist draw and led instead to state and federal investigations.

Neither McCrory nor Smith responded. But McCrory has called the amendment -- designed to create special zones where taxes from private development can pay off public investments -- a useful tool for economic development. Voters narrowly approved the amendment.

As mayor, McCrory has supported some incentives. Smith and Graham also support incentives in some cases.

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