Name as it appears on the ballot: Brian Irving
Campaign website: http://LibertyPoint.org
Phone number: (919) 538-4548
Email: brian@libertypoint.ogr
Years lived in the district: Not long, because of gerrymandering. But I’ve lived in NC more than 25 years, and in Cary since 2007.
1. What do you think are the three biggest issues facing our state? If you are an incumbent, what have you done to address those issues, and what more would you do if given another term? If you are a challenger, what would you do differently to address those issues than the incumbent has done?
It’s time to change how government works in North Carolina. Government should be about people, not politics. The old establishment parties have not only forgotten this -- they reject this idea. They’re beholden not to the people but to special interest groups and political cronies.
I believe in the people of North Carolina, their spirit, their ingenuity, and their compassion. Here, people can succeed through voluntary social cooperation, working together with dignity, respect, and understanding to meet our most critical challenges. That’s why I decided to retire here.
Let’s give people more freedom to choose how best to educate their children, how to earn a living, and where to get healthcare.
Parents should have a choice on how to educate their children. They should have full access to their tax dollars so they can find the best educational opportunity for them. Giving students, families and teachers greater choice is the best path to building successful lives, developing better learning environments, strengthening communities, and preparing North Carolina for the challenges of the 21st century
People should have a choice on how to make a living. Regulation and licensing laws should not exist just to keep out competitors. Allowing more choice in how individuals, businesses and entrepreneurs realize economic potential enhances personal income mobility, creates incentives for job growth, and allows businesses to better serve their customers.
People should have a choice of where to get healthcare and be able to choose the option that works best for them. Healthcare providers should be able to offer more options. Giving patients and families more choice around the healthcare options that meet their needs promotes a system that drives continued innovation, expands access to more people and maintains strong incentives to control costs.
Government often stifles innovation through regulation, subverts compassion with bureaucracy, and suppresses achievement by economic manipulation. This limits our potential to work together voluntarily to achieve shared successes and to live for our individual fulfillment.
Government should never be an obstacle to the people, an obstacle to who we are, who we can be, and what we can achieve.
2. It seems hardly a day goes by without news of another mass shooting. On the state level, what changes to gun laws, if any, do you support? If you do not support any changes, please explain why you think the current laws are successful.
Many days go by without “news of another mass shooting.” I don’t mean to demean the impact of such tragedies. But the perpetrators of many of these “mass shootings” were able to get guns despite laws and regulations which should have prevented them from having firearms. And in many cases, most notably the horrific shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, it was government that failed; police, social workers, and schools failed to do their job to identify and help a person with clear mental health issues. No, gun laws cannot and will never be “successful” in ending gun violence, because the problem is not about laws, it is about people. We will never end gun violence, or any violence for that matter, unless we change the values and morals of our society.
3. In recent years, Duke Energy’s coal ash spilled into the Dan River and Chemours’s GenX leaked into the Cape Fear River. Do you think these companies have been held sufficiently accountable? Do you believe the state has put in place sufficient regulations to prevent these problems from occurring again? If not, what more do you propose doing?
Neither these companies – nor the government agencies responsible for regulation -- have been held accountable. They were are negligent. More regulation will not solve the problem unless and until both private companies and government officials – elected and appointed – are held accountable for the harm they do or allow because of incompetence and for failure to do their their jobs.
Both Duke and Chemour’s polluted the environment and they should be held liable. They should be required to make things right and provide restitution to those their incompetence harmed. Their company stakeholders and company officers should pay for this, not their customers. In the Duke case, appears to have actually followed most regulations imposed under law and everything they did appears to have been approved by state regulators. So if there was harm done, than these government officials should also be held accountable and pay for the cleanup. If the same is true for the Chemours situation, the same solution applies.
4. In the wake of Hurricane Florence, at least six hog-farm lagoons were damaged and more than fifty saw discharges or were inundated with floodwaters as of this writing, according to the DEQ. More than five thousand hogs have died, and right now it’s unclear what the ultimate long-term environmental impacts will be. Since Hurricane Floyd, environmentalists have warned that, in a severe flooding event, the farms’ “anachronistic” waste-disposal techniques could pose a threat to the state’s waterways and public health, while the industry has insisted that its farms utilize best practices and are already heavily regulated. Do you believe these farms, and their lagoons, pose a risk to the environment? If so, do you believe the state has done enough to minimize that risk?
Laws cannot protect people from natural disasters. The media has focused on these hog “lagoons” (actually open cesspools), but not reported on any municipal waste treatment plants that may have been affected by the hurricane. But, yes, hog farmers should use more modern and environmentally friendly waste-disposal systems. They way to do this is not to mandate their use by law, but to encourage it by providing economic incentives. If it is mandated by law, it will be politicians, special interest groups, and lobbyists for the businesses that manufacture the waste-disposal systems who will decide which one is used, not not experts. Regulation will only ensure that the system with the most political crony support gets used, not the most efficient system.
5. This year, Smithfield Foods—the world’s largest pork producer—has lost three verdicts in North Carolina totaling millions of dollars, after juries found that its farms’ methods of waste disposal infringed on the property rights of their neighbors. But in the last two years, the General Assembly has taken steps to make it more difficult for these neighbors to sue or to recover substantial damages, citing the threats these lawsuits pose to the well-being of family farmers. Do you believe the legislature’s actions with regard to these nuisance lawsuits are prudent? Why or why not?
This is a classical example of the old establishment parties, supported by special interest groups and lobbyists, obscuring facts and obfuscating the issue to the point where it’s difficult for voters, or an average citizen running for office, to understand the issue, let alone determine the truth. Opponents of regulation claim in hurts “small farmers.” But Smithfield is an international corporation. On the other hand, it appears some of the homeowners who claim they have been harmed moved into their neighborhoods that already had hog farms nearby. Nonetheless, I believe the legislature’s actions to restrict lawsuits was wrong.
6. It has been estimated that special sessions of the North Carolina legislature cost about $50,000 per day. Since 2016, the General Assembly has called seven of them to deal with everything from passing HB 2—the so-called bathroom bill—to passing restrictions on the governor’s powers after Roy Cooper defeated Pat McCrory to, most recently, clean up controversial constitutional amendment language so that it complied with a court order. Under what circumstances do you think it’s appropriate to hold a special session?
These “special sessions” are a sham and a disgraceful waste of money. North Carolina is supposed to have a part-time legislature Special sessions should only be held for emergencies and be limited to that topic. I would support limits on session length and require a greater majority of legislators to support special sessions.
7. What are your thoughts on the six proposed constitutional amendments before voters this November? Please explain which you support and which you don’t support and why. What do you think about the process behind these amendments—what critics have described as a limited public debate, for example, as well as the elimination of amendment numbers and ballot summaries, and the lack of so-called implementing legislation, which could be passed in another special session after the November vote?
It’s easy to point out how the Republicans have manipulated and perverted the process both in writing these amendments, getting them passed by the legislature, and presenting them to the voter. But the Democrats have been equally deceptive. Neither of the establishment parties respects the democratic process or thinks the people are smart enough to make decisions on their own. The prefer to use fear and misinformation to appeal to their tribal members, rather than provide reasoned and rational pros and cons so voters can make an educated decision.
The Republicans drafted the bills in secret without any public input, gave them deliberately deceptive titles and descriptions, rammed them through the legislature, and them changed the law to prevent simple, clear captions on the ballot. Clearly, they don’t believe the people are smart enough to have a voice in the lawmaking process.
True to form, the Democrats ranted and raved about the process. But then they too demonstrated they don’t think the people are smart enough to read and understand the amendments and decide for themselves whether they’re good and bad. Rather than offer arguments against each, Democrats adopted the simplistic #NixAllSix mantra. That’s also a good smokescreen to hide the fact that a majority of Democratic legislators voted for two of the six; the proposals to protect the right to hunt and fish and the victim’s rights amendments, also called Marsy’s Law. A group called Deceptive Amendments is even using deception in urging votes against all the amendments.
Regardless of what you think of these amendments, the people deserve better. They deserve to be involved in the process. They deserve to hear honest, open debate. And they deserve to make their choice on election day. But so long as the old establishment parties -- dominated by partisan operatives and special interest groups – control our state government, the people will not be heard.
Most of these amendments don’t deserve to pass. The Photo ID proposal is perhaps the worst. The law should make it easier to vote, not harder. Establishment of a so-called Bipartisan Board of Elections is slap in the face to the more than one-third of North Carolina voters who choose to registered unaffiliated, as well as the increasing number of people registering with non-status quo Libertarian, Green and Constitution parties.
The only amendment I support is the amendment to lower the cap on the income tax from 10 to 7 percent. Despite the deception on both sides, it does not lower the income tax rate, nor will it result in old people dying and schools closing.
8. In May, thousands of teachers from all over the state marched on the legislature to demand better pay, more resources for students, and more respect. Do you think North Carolina’s schools are being adequately funded? If not, what taxes would you be willing to raise—or what services would you be willing to cut—to fund them better?
North Carolina spends nearly 60% of its budget on education, nearly $9.5 billion, and school spending increases every budget. So how much is enough: 70%, 80%? Most of the teachers I spoke to at this march said their primary reason for marching was not for higher salaries. They spoke about other needs: smaller classrooms, textbooks, to many additional duties, not enough recognition of academic credentials like masters degrees.
So I don’t think our schools can be improved merely by spending more money. Nor is it a choice between raising taxes or cutting other programs. It’s about how the money is spent, and who decides how to spend it, not how much money is spent. We need more education choice for parents, teachers, education administrators, and students.
Political solutions cannot adequately prepare students for tomorrow’s world. Conventional school policy drives districts, schools and teachers into solutions governed by politics and bureaucracy. It doesn’t promote more personalized and effective learning environments or curricula. It holds back students wanting deeper academic challenges. It doesn’t adequately serve children with special learning needs. When politicians and public agencies play a larger role in shaping educational policy than students or families, we do not prepare those students for a diverse society or a dynamic economy.
There is a better approach to cultivating opportunities for North Carolina’s students, families and educators. This better approach focuses on the freedom to access options for student success. It includes the freedom to reward engaged teachers and develop innovative instruction. And it allows for the freedom to enhance quality and performance while responsibly controlling cost.
North Carolina can promote a dynamic, future-oriented educational system based on choice. Students and families need choices among diverse, robust approaches. They need choices that promote high quality and responsive educational environments. They need choices tailored to the needs of individual students and the future they face. With these choices, we can achieve outstanding education policy for a better North Carolina.
Some of the real, practical, and effective solutions for education policy are to:
- Expand North Carolina’s state-funded Education Savings Account program to cover more students, allowing better education options for all students, especially students with special learning needs and families with financial hardships.
- Expand open enrollment within and between public-school districts, allowing families to find the best school fit within the public-school system without obtaining permission from their home district.
- Expand and fully fund the North Carolina Opportunity Scholarship program, allowing greater access for all families, including those who lack the financial means to enroll their students in a private school.
9. Currently, twenty-nine states have minimum wages above the federal minimum. North Carolina is not among them. Do you believe North Carolina should raise its minimum wage?
No. First of all most business already pay more than the minimum wage. Although people who want to raise the minimum wage may have good intentions, the end result hurts the very people they want to help. When Seattle raised the minimum wage in 2017, the result was a more-than-nine percent cut in low-wage workers’ hours. A minimum wage job is not supposed to be a career. It is a work force entry-level position for unskilled workers. Minimum wage laws actually destroy entry-level positions for the unskilled.
10. Under current law, toward the end of 2020, municipalities will gain the authority to pass nondiscrimination and living wage ordinances—unless the General Assembly intervenes. Since the winner of your race will be in office at that time, do you believe local governments in North Carolina should be allowed to make these decisions for themselves?
No.
11. Over the last couple of years in Wake County, county commissioners and school board members have battled over local school funding. Recently, some commissioners have made moves to petition the legislature to allow for a pilot program in which the Board of Commissioners turns over school-taxing authority to the Board of Education, as is the arrangement in most states. In general, do you believe the state’s elected school boards should have the responsibility to raise taxes for the schools they oversee? Why or why not?
No, I do not believe a school board should have taxing authority. Their job is to run the school system with the money they are given. It’s interesting that when people identified as Republicans controlled the supposedly nonpartisan Wake County school board, there was constant sound and fury over these budget differences. Parents and activists stormed just about every school board meeting. Now that Democrats completely control both the Wake County Commission and school board there are still arguments, but no media storm or public outcry. This leads me to believe that it’s not about the money. It’s about the old establishment party partisan politics and control.
I already outlined by ideas for education policy in response to question 8. If school boards are given any more authority than they already have, I would propose they be given the authority to implement some of these ideas.
12. Since Governor Cooper’s election, the legislature has taken a number of steps to assume powers that were previously the executive’s domain, including overhauling the State Board of Elections. Do you believe these decisions were merely power grabs, as Democrats have alleged, or that they were made in the interests of public policy?
Yes, some of these moves were mere power grabs. But I’ve lived in North Carolina long enough to know That Democrats did the same thing when they controlled the General Assembly. It’s what the old establishment parties do. They can’t help themselves.
13. Over the last year, the state has frequently found itself in court over its legislative and congressional districts, which courts have ruled to be unconstitutional racial and partisan gerrymanders. Given this, do you believe the state legislature of that last several years has acted as a legitimate body? If not, what do you propose as a solution? If yes, please tell us why.
If the current legislature is not legitimate, or the districts are unconstitutional, as Democrats claim, then why are the Democrats still serving and accepting salaries and per diem? I also don’t recall any charges if illegitimacy raised by anyone when the Democrats controlled the GA and there gerrymandering plan was declared unconstitutional.
Both of the old establishment parties are guilty of perverting and manipulating the political redistricting process to increase and maintain their power. That is why I, along with 32 Libertarian candidates for the General Assembly have pledged to work for an independent, nonpartisan redistricting process. Like the overwhelming majority of the people in North Carolina, we believe that voting maps should be drawn in a fair and impartial way that protects the freedom of voters to hold their government accountable and to have a say in who represents them. Our party platform calls for an open and transparent redistricting process, involving significant public input with the opportunity for citizens to weigh in on proposed district maps.
Ideally, I would take the redistricting process out of the hands of the General Assembly and political parties altogether. But that is not a practical solution. Redistricting is a political process. But it does not have to be hyper-partisan. So I would work to minimize the role of political parties in the process. That is why I will support the League of Women Voters Reasonable Redistricting Reform proposal. https://lwvnc.org/we-need-fair-maps/
14. Give an example of a time, during your political career, when you have changed your position as a result of a discussion with someone who held an opposing view.
When I served on the Fayetteville City Planning Commission, especially in my two years as chair, I often had to reconcile my belief that a property owner had the right to do with their property what they wished with the rights of their their neighbors to do the same. So while I did not change my beliefs, I tempered them with an understanding of reality. I believe it is possible to achieve a principled compromise without compromising principles. In fact, I think that is the essence of good government.
15. Identify and explain one principled stand you would be willing to take if elected that you suspect might cost you some points with voters.
I expect many of my stands will be unpopular with some people because I don’t believe government is the solution to all our problems – not even most of them. If I have to choose one, it is that I will not vote to increase any taxes, on anyone for any reason. If more money is needed for a legitimate government action, that is, one that protects life, liberty, or property, I would look for programs to cut in order to cover the expense.
