The New York Times gave the N.C. legislature a deserved raking over on Wednesday’s editorial page, trumpeting “The Decline of North Carolina” and enumerating a list of offenses by the Republican majority.
These included cuts in unemployment benefits, repeal of the Racial Justice Act, refusal to expand Medicaid rolls (under the Affordable Care Act), voter ID requirements and other ballot access issues, changes in the state’s tax structure and inadequate funding for educaton. It all adds up, in the Times’ view, to a “demolition derby, tearing down years of progress” in a state once considered a bastion of reason and progressivism. (You can find the full text of the Times editorial attached to the online version of this article.)
The Times editorial pages, of course, are predictably liberal, and another newspaper — say, the conservative-leaning Wall Street Journal — might offer a much different perspective on the changes wrought in Raleigh. Republican legislators also might point out that they’re attempting to address economic, infrastructure and educational issues that they largely inherited from previous Democratic-led governments. They’re convinced their policies will yield a brighter future.
But here’s the question: Beyond the policy disagreements, does it matter that the state is getting this blast of negative national attention? Probably not, in insular political terms. N.C. voters who read the New York Times most likely have made up their minds about current legislature trends. It can be jolting to bear the brunt of national attention — as Rowan County learned a couple of years back when its economic problems were dissected in a Canadian newspaper. But newspaper articles and editorials tend to have a short life, fading with the next outrage or catastrophe.
However, for business leaders — the CEOs of major corporations — national publications like the Times and Wall Street Journal are required reading. Perception matters, and the Times editorial is not the sort of publicity that complements corporate recruiting.
That should concern lawmakers. So should the perception among their own constituents. Recent statewide results from Public Policy Polling indicate that only 20 percent of voters approve of the work of the legislature, versus 56 percent who disapprove. Among Democratic voters, 10 percent approve and 64 percent disapprove. Among Republicans, 36 percent approve, while 40 percent disapprove. Not exactly resounding support, even among supposedly friendly partisans.
Legislators may dismiss the Times’ editorial as “mainstream media” hand-wringing. But many voters are increasingly concerned about the decision-making in Raleigh, and lawmakers ignore them at their own peril.

Below is the editorial from Wednesday’s New York Times:

The Decline of North Carolina

By the editorial board

Every Monday since April, thousands of North Carolina residents have gathered at the State Capitol to protest the grotesque damage that a new Republican majority has been doing to a tradition of caring for the least fortunate. Nearly 700 people have been arrested in the “Moral Monday” demonstrations, as they are known. But the bad news keeps on coming from the Legislature, and pretty soon a single day of the week may not be enough to contain the outrage.
In January, after the election of Pat McCrory as governor, Republicans took control of both the executive and legislative branches for the first time since Reconstruction. Since then, state government has become a demolition derby, tearing down years of progress in public education, tax policy, racial equality in the courtroom and access to the ballot.
The cruelest decision by lawmakers went into effect last week: ending federal unemployment benefits for 70,000 residents. Another 100,000 will lose their checks in a few months. Those still receiving benefits will find that they have been cut by a third, to a maximum of $350 weekly from $535, and the length of time they can receive benefits has been slashed from 26 weeks to as few as 12 weeks.
The state has the fifth-highest unemployment rate in the country, and many Republicans insulted workers by blaming their joblessness on generous benefits. In fact, though, North Carolina is the only state that has lost long-term federal benefits, because it did not want to pay back $2.5 billion it owed to Washington for the program. The State Chamber of Commerce argued that cutting weekly benefits would be better than forcing businesses to pay more in taxes to pay off the debt, and lawmakers blindly went along, dropping out of the federal program.
At the same time, the state is also making it harder for future generations of workers to get jobs, cutting back sharply on spending for public schools. Though North Carolina has been growing rapidly, it is spending less on schools now than it did in 2007, ranking 46th in the nation in per-capita education dollars. Teacher pay is falling, 10,000 prekindergarten slots are scheduled to be removed, and even services to disabled children are being chopped.
“We are losing ground,” Superintendent June Atkinson said recently, warning of a teacher exodus after lawmakers proposed ending extra pay for teachers with master’s degrees, cutting teacher assistants and removing limits on class sizes.
Republicans repealed the Racial Justice Act, a 2009 law that was the first in the country to give death-row inmates a chance to prove they were victims of discrimination. They have refused to expand Medicaid and want to cut income taxes for the rich while raising sales taxes on everyone else. The Senate passed a bill that would close most of the state’s abortion clinics.
And, naturally, the Legislature is rushing to impose voter ID requirements and cut back on early voting and Sunday voting, which have been popular among Democratic voters. One particularly transparent move would end a tax deduction for dependents if students vote at college instead of their hometowns, a blatant effort to reduce Democratic voting strength in college towns like Chapel Hill and Durham.
North Carolina was once considered a beacon of farsightedness in the South, an exception in a region of poor education, intolerance and tightfistedness. In a few short months, Republicans have begun to dismantle a reputation that took years to build.