Hagan Catches A Lift to Washington Via Junk Cars
Well, the Democratic Primary is upon us, and I have to say it's gotten here much quicker than I thought. I had planned to do so much more in the way of helping out Jim Neal's campaign, but I fear complacency and pragmatism have kept me from following up on those plans.
I was well aware of the difficulties he would encounter in trying to succeed with a grassroots fundraising approach, and I feel at least partially responsible for the huge disparity in his cash collected/spent compared to his rival, Kay Hagan. I will freely admit that her fundraising numbers are impressive. But the more I pick at some of her donors, the more I come away with the feeling I picked the right candidate, regardless of the outcome of the Primary.
We've talked about Kay Hagan being "pro-business", but I think a lot of folks (even liberals) don't necessarily consider that a bad thing. Help the businesses, and you get more revenue, jobs, etc., which improves things for everybody. But when you start getting into specifics, things begin to stink a little bit.
As I was poring over the list of donors to Hagan's campaign, I noticed something that tickled the back of my memory a little bit. Something about scrap, that I had noticed when I went over Kay's sponsored bills list a few weeks ago. So I went back and found it, and spent some time trying to suss out the ramifications. She was not only the primary sponsor, she was the only sponsor for SL2007 0505,
AN ACT to require secondary purchasers of motor vehicles FOR SCRAP METAL OR SALVAGE PARTS TO MAINTAIN RECORDS, AND TO AMEND THE JUNKED MOTOR VEHICLE LAW APPLICABLE TO THE CITY OF MONROE.
When I saw this part:
SECTION 3. G.S. 160A‑303.2(a) reads as rewritten:
"(a) A municipality may by ordinance regulate, restrain or prohibit the abandonment of junked motor vehicles on public grounds and on private property within the municipality's ordinance‑making jurisdiction upon a finding that such regulation, restraint or prohibition is necessary and desirable to promote or enhance community, neighborhood or area appearance, and may enforce any such ordinance by removing or disposing of junked motor vehicles subject to the ordinance according to the procedures prescribed in this section. The authority granted by this section shall be supplemental to any other authority conferred upon municipalities. Nothing in this section shall be construed to authorize a municipality to require the removal or disposal of a motor vehicle kept or stored at a bona fide "automobile graveyard" or "junkyard" as defined in G.S. 136‑143.
For purposes of this section, the term "junked motor vehicle" means a vehicle that does not display a current license plate and that:
(1) Is partially dismantled or wrecked; or
(2) Cannot be self‑propelled or moved in the manner in which it originally was intended to move; or
(3) (applicable to most localities) Is more than five years old and appears to be worth less than one hundred dollars ($100.00); [or]
(4) Is more than five years old and appears to be worth less than five hundred dollars ($500.00). This subdivision applies only to the Cities of Belmont, Bessemer City, Cherryville, GastoniaGastonia, Monroe and Mount Holly, and the Towns of Ahoskie, Cramerton, Dallas, Farmville, LaGrange, Mint Hill, Louisburg and Stanley."
So why the special section for those specific cities? Well, according to Gastonia's code (big pdf), if you have a junk car (by their definition), even on private property, the city can have a wrecker haul it off to do with as the wrecking company sees fit. Okay, this kind of bothered me a little bit, being how they can snatch a car right out of your yard and such. But we're still talking about junk cars, even if the definition is getting a little..."loose", if you will.
So I went back to poking the Atlantic Scrap & Processing company to see about these junk cars, and I came across this story from 2004:
"Over the last 12 months, there's been no problem selling as much scrap as we can get," said Frank Brenner, president of Atlantic Scrap. "I've never lived through anything like this."
Steel prices have more than doubled in the last year, which is causing a ripple effect of rising prices for products that contain steel, but also creating a bonanza for scrap yard owners like Brenner whose junk metal has become a precious commodity.
Thus, Brenner's been on the phone trying to get more steel brought in from around North Carolina from the hundreds of independent contractors who pull steel from demolished buildings, old industrial machines or even landfills as well as the primary source: old automobiles.
Bob Young, president of 109 U Pull It Used Car Parts Inc. in Winston-Salem, had to expand his staff from eight to 12 workers in the last year in order to keep delivering old cars to Atlantic Scrap so he can cash in on the rising steel prices.
Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, right? You have no idea:
Brennner thinks March will be the peak for the steel prices. American Metal Market, a steel industry newsletter, reports that scrap steel prices dipped for the first time in 2004 to $318 a ton after dropping this week by $35 as fewer foreign countries buy old steel from American scrap yards.
Brenner declined to comment on revenues for the company, but Atlantic Scrap is now recycling about 250,000 tons of steel this year and almost made the rankings list of the 20 largest scrap companies in the country by Recycling Today magazine.
Unless my math is failing me, that's 89 million dollars-worth of scrap steel. Answering my question as to why the leaders of this company would accumulatively donate over $12,000 to the Hagan campaign, and why Kay was so interested in the disposition of junk cars.
Those fundraising numbers are not so impressive now, are they? I didn't think so. Stay tuned...
eta: I gotta go change. It appears I've wet myself. :)
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OMG....it's the smoking gun
Yes, let's go over FEC reports. Hmmmmm....I wonder if Jared Polis endorsed Jim before or after Jim's campaign made two contributions of $2300 to him?
$12,000? Really? That didn't buy legislation anymore than Jim's contributions bought Jared's endorsement.
You might need to invest in some diapers.
Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.
See, that's the thing about
most corruption, especially on the state level: it's boring as hell, which is one reason why people get away with it so often.
So you're saying Jim bought Jared's endorsement?
Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.
I guess it's possible, but
it's more likely Jim was trying to help another gay candidate for Congress. He also may have been trying to garner more national exposure for himself among the LGBT community (and their supporters) as well.
And how is that comparable to an elected official writing legislation that helps a company secure their supply and then getting paid for it? It doesn't even come close.
It's simply something I found in the FEC report
I can't wait to see you prove that Kay broke the law.....for $12,000. Go ahead. You've provided dots that you can't connect and you've now accused Kay Hagan and owners of a private company of breaking the law.
Unfortunately, it's not against the law
But it should be.
Betsy...
You should check your facts... Jared Polis has support Jim Neal, Linda Ketner and Andrew Martin all out folks running for Congress. If they choose to support him back... that is up to them.
I did check my facts
I was simply pointing out to Steve that little things like that can be made to say whatever you want them to say.
I've got a couple of questions for you ...
When did Hagan introduce that bit of legislation?
Does U Pull It (etc.) ..., which is based in WS, have offices in those cities? Or is a statewide junk car dealer?
Those cities are either around Charlotte, near I-95 or east of I-95. (from memory, could be off). I am pretty sure none of then are within a couple hours drive of WS.
Admittedly, it is an odd bill.
Person County Democrats
Introduced sometime last year,
and bounced back and forth (to Committee) a few times before being signed into law.
I don't know U Pull It's range of operations, but I think the person who wrote the article (in WS) talked to them because they're local.
And I think you're right about those cities being far away from WS/Greensboro, which makes it even stranger that a Triad Senator would write the legislation with no other sponsors.
Actually, Steve, I think you need to do a little more digging.
This is the legislation Kay Hagan proposed. ....... You can go here to see when it was in committee and when it was on the floor of the Senate. You can also see all the different versions. It looks like your "smoking gun" section might have been added as an amendment when it was in the full Senate, so maybe you can track that down to see who actually proposed those changes. I don't know if there is an old law this is replacing and it is relaxing the rules/records required to have for the sale of junk cars, but this looks like it is imposing rules for record keeping. It includes 20-62.1 and that is all. Were you aware that Kay's original proposal did not include language that you've attributed to her?
When it came out of committee they had included the text for 20-61 with one change. This is the committee it went to. You can see all the other people involved in this process.
Finally, it went to the floor of the Senate where it appears it was amended to include G.S. 160A‑303.2 - your "smoking gun". Now, I've searched a little bit to see if I could find minutes online that would give us the name(s) of the senator(s) who might have proposed that amendment that seems to allow certain areas to be cleared of junk cars that have a higher value, but it seems to me if Kay Hagan wanted that in her bill, she would have included the language from the very beginning. Were you able to find the name(s) of the Senator(s) proposing the amendment?
I'm not saying the scrap metal industry doesn't benefit from the legislation. I don't know what NC's law was before, but I'm guessing it required a title to transfer even a junk car. It looks like this legislation is making it easier for an owner to dispose of a junk vehicle without the title, but with certain other restrictions involved. I didn't analyze every little point, but that's what it looks like and I'm making an assumption on the whole title thing. I seriously do not know what the law was prior to this. Did you find what the law was prior to this legislation?
This is a prime example
of why we need to have easier access to GA business.
Not yet, but the fact she (still) had no co-sponsors by the time the bill was signed is extremely odd, if someone else got in there changing things.
The statute shown on the GA site already has the amendment in there, so it's hard to tell. You can see from these fiscal notes that the legislation creates a new criminal offense (1st strike=misdemeanor, 2nd strike=felony), if someone deviates from the record-keeping.
Of course, that doesn't apply to Atlantic Scrap, who only process crushed cars:
So they don't have to worry about all the restrictions this law contains. I wonder who does? Smaller companies who get their scrap by dismantling instead of shredding? And thanks to this section:
they also don't have to worry about those pesky local governments trying to regulate them either.
OK...so you didn't really research to find out
who was responsible for the amendment, instead you chose to attribute it to Kay..... Obviously, accuracy is a top priority for you.
When you write a new law, doesn't it make sense that you would also have to assign a punishment for those who violate it?
As far as the crushed cars vs actual cars.......OK.... I imagine that cars that have already been crushed have already been purchased once and the information was collected when the car was originally purchased and before it was crushed. I guess what you're saying is that when they turn around to sell the piles of crushed steel/metal/plastic, they should have to provide all that same data for each pile....which I should point out no longer resembles a motor vehicle. I have to disagree. I think once the original sale is completed and records are kept, those doing the crushing and melting should not have to keep the same detailed records on each indiviual pile of steel or drop of melted steel.
The only part I found interesting was the preemption and I'm sure with a little more research you could find out if that is standard/customary or why it was added.
Tell you what,
now we're even from my "now you're just making shit up" comment, so why don't we both stop with the condescending smartass stuff, okay?
No, what I'm saying is: this bill authorizes municipalities to remove from private property vehicles which (in some cities) are five years old and appear to be worth $500 or less, which are subsequently turned over to towing companies who are feverishly trying to cash in by crushing them and selling them to scrap recyclers with auto shredders, of which there are only seven of in the entire state, and three of those (42%) are owned and operated by Atlantic Scrap & Processing, who donated $12,000 to Kay Hagan's campaign.
It ain't rocket science, Betsy. It's political back-scratching, even if you refuse to acknowledge it.
But that wasn't part of the original bill
it was an amendment added after it went to the Senate floor. Are you not interested in the real facts, Steve? Who added that amendment? You did a bad job collecting the real facts and connecting dots and you refuse to acknowledge it.
Nope...as long as you're doing the condescending smart ass stuff I will return in kind. Okie dokie? You dish it, you take it.
Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.