Thread: undocumented workers can't find jobs

GOP candidates familiar to many District B voters
Three incumbents and one challenger running



By Wesley Young | Journal Reporter
Published: April 29, 2008

http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2008 ... -b-voters/



Many of the Republican candidates for District B on the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners are familiar to voters.

The three incumbents are all in the running, as is a challenger who served on the board for 12 years. The one candidate with no elective experience -- Jim Hatcher -- is on the ballot, though he cannot campaign because of a recent back injury.

The three incumbents are Richard Linville, Gloria Whisenhunt and Bill Whiteheart. Challenger Dave Plyler lost his seat in 2006 to Democrat Ted Kaplan.

The three winners May 6 will advance to the general election Nov. 4, where they will face Democrats John Gladman II, Nancy N. Young and Jimmie Ziglar Jr.

In District B, Republicans outnumber Democrats 44 to 36 percent. In 2004 Linville, Whisenhunt and Whiteheart had no trouble besting the sole Democratic challenger.

This year's race has not drawn a lot of sparks, although Plyler is maintaining that Whiteheart broke a promise he made in 2004 to never raise property taxes. Whiteheart says that the voters actually approved the increase by passing school bonds, and denies Plyler's charge.

Plyler said that the current board has not been active enough. He said it has too long delayed action on improvements to the courts. The board is drifting, Plyler said, and needs to do more to improve teacher pay, law enforcement, emergency medical services, the health department and social services. Too many county employees are using the county as a training ground so they can find better-paying jobs elsewhere, Plyler said.

Plyler said he is making no promises about where the money for these improvements will come from until he sees where the county is financially. Forsyth is expected to benefit from the state's assumption of Medicaid financing from counties, and Plyler says he believes that could be one source of money. County officials say that the Medicaid financing change is not going to help in the coming fiscal year, but it may do so in the long run.

At a recent forum for Republican women, Plyler said he wants to try to revive a 2006 proposal that would have had Novant Health providing prenatal care at a free clinic for people who have no health insurance.

Whiteheart, looking for a second term, said he is the candidate who brings business sense and an appreciation of the county's small businesses to the table. In a diverse board of commissioners, he said, it is important to have that viewpoint.

He said he wants to focus on encouraging the development of medical technology and small-business growth in the county. The county can do that, he said, through zoning decisions that would encourage appropriate development.

Whiteheart recently called his vote to approve Dell incentives a betrayal of his position against economic incentives for private business. He said that public money is better spent on such uses as school improvements. Though he wants to help the schools, he said that needs have to be balanced with the money that is available.

Whiteheart said that the illegal-immigration issue has been getting "a lot of rhetoric," but expressed fear that crime may increase if undocumented workers can't find jobs in a slowing economy.

He said that his friends have commented that his seat on the far right of the commissioners' dais describes his political philosophy.

"I'm conservative when it comes to spending money," he said.

Whisenhunt is also promoting her fiscal conservatism. A former member of the county school board, with one exception she has supported tax increases only to pay for school bonds. She has never promised to not raise taxes, however, and voted for a 5.2-cent increase in 2002 when the county had to make up for the withholding of state money. The alternative that year was to raise the sales tax, she said.

"Education has always been my top priority," she said.

Whisenhunt said she believes in giving small businesses less regulation and in protecting property rights. The last position is a nod to opponents of the Heart of the Triad planning process, who do not want the government to condemn land for development in the center of the Triad region.

While calling for business-friendly government, she is against economic incentives in most cases. She cast the only vote against the incentives package that brought Dell Computers to Forsyth County.

"I voted for an incentive for Piedmont Triad Research Park because it involved infrastructure," she said.

"That is an investment in the future and it stays here with us. I have a difficult time giving one company a tax break and not everybody else. We have businesses here, including small businesses, that are truly struggling, then we turn around and give a tax break to one. That is not fair."

She said she is also proud of the board's stand on public prayer before board meetings. The board allows sectarian references in public prayer, but-it is fighting a lawsuit filed by two residents, Janet Joyner and Constance Lynn Blackmon, about the practice.

Linville, elected first in 1980 and the longest-serving commissioner, said he sees the county going forward "doing the basic things that we are doing now."

With costs going up for social services and health programs and a need for more spending on emergency services, he said, the main challenge is to contain the growth of the budget within reasonable bounds.

Linville said that the county should continue to encourage the City-County Utilities Commission to do more recycling as a way of staving off future landfill needs.

At his suggestion, the board recently heard a proposal from a private company for taking over much of the county's construction and demolition debris for recycling.

Linville said he can't take sole credit for it, but cites the county's construction of a general-services maintenance center in 2004 as an improvement that he pushed hard to get.

On taxes, Linville said he would not commit to never raising taxes because there are too many unknowns when it comes to financial decisions.

"If we keep our growth of county government within the current tax base, with the new tax base that comes on each year you can go along and not likely have much of an increase," he said.

"But if you let the government grow faster than the tax base you may have to have hiring freezes."

Linville said that future tax increases may be needed if the schools once again go to voters for help in building new school buildings.

"Because of the last school bond we had to raise the tax rate nearly three cents," he said.

Jim Hatcher was campaigning against waste and high taxes before he injured his back. Hatcher fell while working on his house, and said in an e-mail that the injury is severe.

He said that keeping taxes low is his main priority, along with improving the local economy and doing more to help senior citizens. He would like to see summer education programs for poor children.

To get all those things without raising taxes, Hatcher said, the county should try to overhaul the tax-exemption status regulations and bring more property onto the tax books.

"I would not vote for a tax increase until the county cleans up its waste," he said, criticizing the amount of money that commissioners spend for travel and the approval of the Dell Computers incentives package.

Hatcher said that if he wins in the primary he will re-evaluate his health before the fall election.

Wesley Young can be reached at 727-7369 or at wyoung@wsjournal.com.

Whiteheart said that the illegal-immigration issue has been getting "a lot of rhetoric," but expressed fear that crime may increase if undocumented workers can't find jobs in a slowing economy.

They might do better, then, in their native countries, eh?

Whiteheart said that the illegal-immigration issue has been getting "a lot of rhetoric," but expressed fear that crime may increase if undocumented workers can't find jobs in a slowing economy.

BRING IT ON!!!!!!!!!

Whiteheart said that the illegal-immigration issue has been getting "a lot of rhetoric," but expressed fear that crime may increase if undocumented workers can't find jobs in a slowing economy.

Really? If you "fear" they may commit crime as a result of being here, wouldn't that be even more of a reason to deport these illegals who have a propensity towards crime when their needs and demands are not met?

Certainly, you are not proposing we keep these illegals employed out of fear of what might happen otherwise. The reason I question this statement is because of his use of the word "rhetoric" when describing what appears to be legitimate concerns from his potential constituents regarding illegal immigration in this district.

We need to be very suspicious of any candidate who uses the term "rhetoric" when describing our concern regarding illegal invaders.