The much touted “Carolina Comeback” came from my Regulatory Reform framework.
During the 2011-2012 Session of the North Carolina General Assembly, I devoted 95%+ of my time and effort to pushing HB 587, the North Carolina Jobs Bill.
Filed on April 4th 2011, I led a team of legislators – consisting of Harry Warren, John Torbett, and Kelly Hastings, as well as Regulatory expert Daren Bakst of the John Locke Institute – to put together the kind of regulatory reform framework explicitly aimed at expanding job growth in the State of North Carolina, hence the name of the bill, the North Carolina Jobs Bill.
During April and May, I pressed during every free minute for a hearing on my bill, and I pushed the Joint Committee on regulatory reform to adopt the language in my bill. Then, on June 6th 2011, the Joint Committee on Regulatory Reform introduced SB 781, the Regulatory Reform Act of 2011.
Over the course of 5 revisions to SB 781, each revision adopted more and more of the language from HB 587, the North Carolina Jobs Bill, until the version ratified into law on July 25th 2011 was nearly the mirror image of my bill – minus the stringent enforcement measures. It was basically my bill, without the teeth.
Over the next seven years, job growth in North Carolina has been phenomenal, leading to one of the fifteen strongest employment environments in the entire United States, and within the top ten of the fastest growth in employment in America.
Business North Carolina – Tech job growth sizzles in Charlotte
I can only imagine how much faster job growth in North Carolina would have been had we adopted HB 587 and not defanged it. Had we adopted my bill in full, I dare say we’d have been ranked #1 in Job Growth ahead of Washington State.
How North Carolina’s job growth stacks up to national stats (DATABASE) (Charlotte Business Journal)
We need the kind of forward-thinking results-oriented work that led to one of the greatest job growths to come out of the Great Recession. In the end, I cared more about getting my text written into law to provide relief to North Carolina workers, and less about the laurels and accolades that come from having my specific bill passed into law.
North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management – Economy
Many people have taken credit for the Carolina Comeback. The Republican Legislative Caucus, Governor Pay McCrory, even officers of the North Carolina Republican Party. The truth is that the text of the regulatory reform package that was inserted into SB 781 and was passed into law, came from Glen Bradley, Harry Warren, John Torbett, Kelly Hastings, and Daren Bakst, under my direct leadership.
It was this text that brought us the Carolina Comeback, and had we adopted the entirety of HB 587, the North Carolina Jobs Bill, that comeback would have even been an order of magnitude greater!
The truth is, because the Legislature failed to adopt the entire text of my bill, failing to adopt the enforcement measures, this phenomenal job growth has slowed down in the last 2 years, and we are starting to lag behind the rest of the country. Regulatory agencies, absent the enforcement measures the Legislature was afraid to adopt in 2011, and a regulation-happy Governor, have figured out how to work around the regulatory reform package leading to a slowdown in Job Growth from 2016.
Wake and Franklin Counties have led job growth above and beyond the US Averages, while Nash County and rural areas have lagged behind the US. When elected, I will dedicate myself to finishing what I started, and bring record job growth to Nash County and the rural areas in Northern Franklin and Nash that have thus far been left behind.
The Geography of Job Growth in North Carolina – North Carolina Department of Commerce
If we fail to act, then all of our astounding growth from 2012 through 2015 will be erased, and we will fall back into the doldrums of recession. My pledge to you is that I will once again dedicate the vast majority of my time and effort in Raleigh to the kinds of reform explicitly directed towards job and economic growth in North Carolina.
After all, you can’t save the world if you can’t put food on the table.
If you want the kind of dedication and thinking that will increase job growth and personal prosperity, it is my promise to you that I will dedicate the majority of my time and effort during the 2019-2020 Legislative Session to expanding the very measures which brought us record employment growth and prosperity emerging from the last recession.
Please support me, Glen Bradley, for the North Carolina State House in 2018, by making a generous contribution to my campaign, volunteering to help – and, of course, vote for Glen Bradley during the May 8th Primary.
