JustinThibault's blog

The North Carolina Research Campus project is underway and public improvments to the site are proposed to be financed by Tax-Increment Financed (TIF) bonds. Because of the size of the project, the City of Kannapolis has asked Cabarrus County to participate in the TIF. While a number of Commissioners have expressed support, there is - as always - a small vocal minority that's opposed to improvement of the site for unrelated political reasons.

This is a bipartisan effort - supported by Republicans (Cabarrus NC Legislature Delegation, Cabarrus Board of Commissioners) and Democrats (Mayor of Kannapolis, Kannapolis City Council)

I've put the reports that detail the TIF and the fiscal and economic impact on my site here - if you would like more information.

In the comments section, I caught some hell for a comment I'd made about the use of "Liberal" and "Progressive". It went a little something like this:

Conservatives are just as guilty as liberals (or progressives or whatever y'all are calling youselves this month) as failing to see the diversity of opinions within the opposition's ranks and making an honest attempt at trying to understand the underlying philosophy behind the argument.

Of course, I've been equally baffled by Neo-Conservative vs. Conservative beyond the Neo-Conservative association with the War in Iraq.

But "Liberal" and "Progressive" are ones that are treated interchangibly by those on the Right, with some mutual exclusivity by those on the Left, and with some confusion by us folks in and around the Middle.