I felt Rep. Clampitt was not interested in finding out how his constituents felt about specific policies being considered in the state legislature. About only half of the meeting time was allowed for audience participation. Mr. Clampitt’s general attitude appeared to me to be “this is what I think, if you don’t like it, vote me out.”

Also, instead of discussing issues and policies, the rest of the meeting was wasted in arguing about which party, Democratic or Republican, did what and when and how long ago. Several stories were misleading and some accounts were basically not the whole story. They were shared simply to malign the opposing party.

One story in particular was about a teacher’s pay being “garnished” for two months in 2009. The speaker alluded that it was done to benefit the lobbying group of the National Education Association. After the meeting I fact-checked this account and found that it was untrue. 

Indeed, ALL state employees — including teachers — did have a slight pay cut in 2009 to derive the needed funds necessary to pay the bills of the state. The cut was not “garnishment;” it was done because of shrinking tax collections, to balance the state budget. In return for the half-percent of their annual salary being cut, the workers got an extra 10 hours of flexible time off. See the article in the Hendersonville Times News April 28, 2009. 

According to this article, Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, “agreed that salaries were probably among the few places to cut spending so late in the fiscal year, but he noted that the furloughs were only a tiny part of (Gov. Beverly) Perdue’s solution to closing the budget chasm.” 

While I believe opinions of policies should be shared, the facts must also be presented accurately.

Nancy Copeland

Waynesville