The director of a North Carolina based, public policy think tank on Thursday issued a broad criticism of state government decisions in a speech to Rowan County Democrats.

N.C. Policy Watch Director Chris Fitzsimon, who spoke during Rowan Democrats’ regularly scheduled meeting, spoke on a broad range of topics. Fitzsimon is registered as an unaffiliated voter, but focused much of his criticism on Republican decisions in Raleigh and education policy.

“The message, of course, that looks like it’s doing pretty well on paper, but ask the people you see at the drug store, a teacher’s assistant, or the guy working at the gas station if they’re better off now than they were in 2010,” Fitzsimon said. “See what they say.”

The legislature’s decisions have led to many North Carolina residents paying more taxes, he said.

“I can guarantee you that the top two three percent of people’s taxes went way down,” Fitzsimon said.

His criticism extended to a state-wide tax credit for teaching supplies that was previously provided to teachers and no longer exists.

“I would suggest that we fund supplies for teachers and quit messing around with the tax code,” he said. “It’s not a huge fee. I mean, we have public schools in North Carolina that don’t have enough classroom supplies.”

He told the story of a single mother who had to mop floors of a local grocery store after work because of her low salary as a teacher in the public school system.

Fitzsimon’s criticism of the public education system wrapped up with discussion about a voucher program that allows parents to send children to private schools.

“We give to schools that openly discriminate against gay and lesbian kids or kids with gay and lesbian parents,” he said. “We give to schools that teach crazy nonsense. The truth is we don’t know what they teach and we don’t know who’s teaching it.”

McCrory vetoes “ag-gag bill”

McCrory issued his second veto in as many days on Friday.

The first veto was against a bill that would’ve allowed magistrates, assistant registers of deeds and deputy registers of deeds to be recused from issuing marriage licenses. The second veto, announced Friday, was for House Bill 405. The bill would’ve allowed employers to sue employees who take records or documents from the workplace or capture images and sound of working conditions.

All four of Rowan County’s legislators voted for the bills in their respective houses.

When announcing his veto of House Bill 405, McCrory also issued a statement explaining his decision.

“This bill is intended to address a valid concern of our state’s businesses—how to discourage those bad actors who seek employment with the intent to engage in corporate espionage or act as an undercover investigator,” McCrory said. ” This practice is unethical and unfair to employers, and is a particular problem for our agricultural industry.  It needs to be stopped.”

He continued, saying the bill doesn’t adequately protect honest employees who uncover criminal activity.

“I encourage the General Assembly to reconsider this bill as soon as possible and add protections for those employees who report illegal activities directly and confidentially to the proper authorities,” McCrory said in his statement. “I stand ready to work with legislators during this process, and I am very optimistic that we can reach a solution that addresses the concerns of our North Carolina employers while still protecting honest employees.”

North Carolina ACLU calls for end to Section 215 of Patriot Act

The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina delivered more than 60,000 signatures today to U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., calling for an end to Section 215 of the Patriot Act.

In a news release, the N.C. American Civil Liberties Union said 1,211 of the signatures were from North Carolina residents. The petitions called for the end to Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which is scheduled to sunset on Monday. The National Security Administration is allowed to collect phone metadata because of the section.

The U.S. Senate has scheduled a special session for Sunday to consider the Patriot Act’s provisions.

Contact reporter Josh Bergeron at 704-797-4246.