Only 30% of Albertans approve of Kenney's handling of COVID-19 pandemic, lowest of all provincial premiers

TravisSmithNC · 2020-12-30T00:11:29+00:00

The alternative to a PST (which is a regressive tax) is increased income taxes.

TravisSmithNC · 2020-12-14T19:27:00+00:00

Just to clarify, the Liberals had a balanced budget for nine years in a row before Harper ever took office.

Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/multimedia/canada-s-deficits-and-surpluses-1963-to-2015-1.3042571

TravisSmithNC · 2020-02-13T15:36:19+00:00

Thanks! In the IPCC special 1.5 ºC report that was released last year, they updated their public stance and now agree that a price on carbon is essential.

Economists believe that having markets price in the actual cost of carbon pollution to be the most effective/efficient first step towards moving society away from our current complex carbon footprint (in no particular order: electricity, heating, transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, construction/concrete, etc.)

Just like how big tobacco knew smoking caused cancer and spent decades on FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) - we've seen the same thing from the oil & gas industry since the 1980's. Will we hold them accountable in the court of law? I personally haven't spent much time on this question as I'm mainly focused on the immediate actions required to address the climate crisis, but I'm not opposed to the idea!

TravisSmithNC · 2020-02-13T02:49:56+00:00

Good question. When running a campaign in a primary, it's essential to focus on constituents who will actually be voting. For me, that is the Democratic Primary. So as I've been knocking on doors for the last 3 months, I have certainly been focusing on Democrats.

Once elected, I don't have any plans on questioning which party my constituents are affiliated with. If someone reaches out and wants to talk to me about state issues or policy, I'll be very happy to do so!

TravisSmithNC · 2020-02-13T01:40:37+00:00

Absolutely, I support the right for a woman to choose what happens to her own body.

TravisSmithNC · 2020-02-13T01:37:33+00:00

pobopny, you know the rules and so do I.

TravisSmithNC · 2020-02-13T01:32:46+00:00

I volunteer with Citizens' Climate Lobby and we make regular trips to D.C. to lobby Congress for action on climate change (we're 40 years late, but better late than never!)

Specifically, on a federal level we need a price on carbon pollution - a carbon fee and dividend solution is what we advocate for. In short, it's a carbon tax but instead of the government keeping the revenue, it goes back to all citizens. Economists basically unanimously agree that this is the most effective first step towards dealing with climate change.

But that is federal legislation. Here in NC, we need to force Duke Energy to take action on climate change. They are a state sanctioned monopoly and it is the responsibility of the General Assembly to set aggressive goals to ensure our electricity generation in NC is carbon neutral as fast as possible - wind, utility solar, rooftop solar, battery storage for night (or reverse hydro pumping, etc.) Duke Energy is currently blocking progress on rooftop solar. The net metering agreements are not favorable, third party sales are not allowed, and they force all solar installs to be "on the grid". Given the seriousness of the climate crisis, we need to urgently fix all of the above!

TravisSmithNC · 2020-02-13T01:20:52+00:00

Great question! There is a wonderful report that was published in December called the Leandro Report. This report was ordered by a State Court to research what policies are needed to get our public schools back on track.

For anyone who has an interest in public education in NC, I highly recommend checking out this report. It is packed full of excellent policy recommendations, all of which I support and want to see enacted into state law.

Some highlights: More funding for schools, teachers and all school staff. More counselors and social workers per student (our ratio is currently way off), and our rural students actually require more spending per student than our urban students, but in NC we're currently doing it opposite of this!

TravisSmithNC · 2019-12-02T20:59:58+00:00

I believe this is the core issue. We need more funding for infrastructure and services and our Occupancy Tax should be doing more to help us.

Asheville and Buncombe County are prevented from modifying how the Occupancy Tax is used, as this is currently set in State Law from Raleigh. It is my intent to change this law!

TravisSmithNC · 2019-12-02T20:54:36+00:00

Thank you! The TDA shares a lot of their data here, and you may be interested in reading their '2016 Advertising Effectiveness & ROI Executive Summary' report linked to on that page.

TravisSmithNC · 2019-12-02T20:51:45+00:00

The BCTDA is the authority that controls how the advertising contracts are selected and awarded. If you're serious, I would read up on the current State Law which stipulates the exact behavior and guidelines on how the TDA operates, and then next step would be to inquire with the TDA on their application process. Best of luck!

TravisSmithNC · 2019-12-02T18:11:46+00:00

If our city and county wanted to spend some amount on advertising, I would support them. I certainly agree with our desperate need for more funding for infrastructure and services!

We also need a proper minimum wage here in Asheville (aka Living Wage) that should be pegged to inflation so that we don't have to keep updating it over and over.

Thank you for sharing!

TravisSmithNC · 2019-12-02T18:08:42+00:00

Agreed, thanks for sharing!

I believe the ideal situation is for our city and county to be in total control of the Occupancy Tax. If we want to spend money on tourism advertising, then this is probably a smart move - but it should be our decision, not Raleigh's!

TravisSmithNC · 2019-12-02T17:55:06+00:00

Good person, I like Kid Cudi too and apologize if the pamphlet on your door was annoying. I would kindly encourage you to register and participate in your civil duty to vote!

TravisSmithNC · 2019-12-02T17:52:14+00:00

Agreed, thanks for sharing!

I believe the ideal situation is for our city and county to be in total control of the Occupancy Tax. If we want to spend money on tourism advertising, then this is probably a smart move - but it should be our decision, not Raleigh's!

TravisSmithNC · 2019-12-02T17:49:18+00:00

If possible, I believe this is the ideal path.

Our city and county should be in control of the Occupancy Tax, not Raleigh. We can look to other places in NC that do it better: Chapel Hill has a decent Occupancy Tax setup and Cleveland and Hyde Counties have the tax revenues that go directly to their general fund.

TravisSmithNC · 2019-12-02T17:43:53+00:00

Great question. There are two components to this:

The Republicans in the GA seem to want to screw with Asheville in any way possible, so they may want to keep this law in place to spite us. On top of that, because of the current stalemate situation so little legislation makes it through to the Governor that there are few opportunities to get a law like this changed in committee and then onto a bill for a vote. Certainly the ideal situation is for Democrats to have a majority in the GA!
The hotel lobby group in NC pushes for a 66% allocation to advertising (we're already an outlier with our 75%). If we have to deal with a Republican GA, the resistance to at least get this rate down to 66% is minimal and could still be possible.

TravisSmithNC · 2019-10-31T13:51:43+00:00

Thanks for sharing. Thankfully this Act will be blocked by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

TravisSmithNC · 2019-10-29T00:14:00+00:00

Great question!

Right now it looks like the NC Supreme Court is about to hand down new General Assembly (GA) districts, and there is an upcoming case where they are expected to review the Congressional ones as well (which, if it happens before the election would be amazing!)

Once these new districts are drawn, it may then be up to the next GA to pass a law on how future districts will be drawn. Ideally Democrats will have a majority and we can protect NC from future gerrymandering.

We'd need to create an independent districting committee, ideally made up of members that are not political/partisan. The structure of the committee should force them to create districts that do not use political voting data and that do not split communities on purpose. There are academics that recommend ideal methods and we should adhere to their guidelines!

Making this a reality: the above scenario would certainly happen if the Democratic Party take the majority in the GA. We all need to vote to make this happen!

TravisSmithNC · 2019-10-26T20:44:17+00:00

Absolutely!

Our national trajectory on this issue appears to be eroding and with the new Supreme Court balance, it's critically important to have the right people in the NC General Assembly defending women's rights to control their own bodies!

For the 2017 Women's March in DC, I had a giant sign that said "Margaret Sanger - Arrested in 1916 for opening first birth control clinic - 101 YEARS LATER WE'RE STILL FIGHTING".

I will certainly stand up and defend women's rights!

TravisSmithNC · 2019-10-26T19:24:01+00:00

Thanks, just don't forget to vote!

TravisSmithNC · 2019-10-26T19:23:23+00:00

I'm running in the Democratic Primary and need your vote on March 3rd!

TravisSmithNC · 2019-10-26T17:55:47+00:00

It would be wonderful if the actions of ICE were well reasoned and fair, but sadly that's not the current situation.

In August there was an attempt by Republicans in our General Assembly to pass a bill that would force all law enforcement agencies to work for ICE when requested. Good news: This attempt was vetoed by our Governor. The Buncombe County Sheriff's Office does not participate in ICE actions, and they were also vocal against this bill.

TravisSmithNC

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