State business group gives high marks to Lincoln’s legislators
by: Sarah Melton
(1/15/2010)
Two Lincoln County legislators, Sen. Jim Forrester and Rep. Johnathan Rhyne Jr., were recently rated in The Business Ratings of the 2009 N.C. General Assembly.
The 2009 Business Ratings were based on votes cast by members in the State House during the 2009 Session of the Great Assembly. Also, the opinions of business leaders and government affairs professionals who work in the state’s political and policy-making arena daily were incorporated into the Ratings.
Rhyne scored a rating of 83.2, ranking him ninth out of the 120 members of the House of Representatives in North Carolina.
A Lincolnton attorney, Rhyne has served four terms in the House from 1985-1992 and 2009 to the present. He was a Minority Leader from 1988-1992. He was ranked fourth in effectiveness – the highest ranking ever for a Republican legislator at that time – by the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research.
Rhyne said he was appreciative of the high rating, which he believed reflected his passion for creating jobs in a struggling economy.
“The goal in this recession is to produce jobs and you can’t produce jobs unless you’ve got a business-friendly environment, which means low taxes and reasonable regulations,” he said.
“We are in the middle of a deep recession and people are hurting. We need to do anything we can to revive the economy and produce jobs.”
Many people are still without work in Lincoln County. The N.C. Employment Security Commission reported an unemployment rate of 13.7 percent in Lincoln County for November. The state’s unemployment rate for November was 10.7 percent, the Commission reported.
“It is going to take some time, but we are not rebounding enough to incorporate all the young people coming into the marketplace,” Rhyne said.
“It’s not only a concern for people who lost their jobs, but also for the young people coming into the job market for the first time.”
Forrester ranked 18 out of 50 members of the N.C. Senate with a rating of 76.1. A family physician from Stanley, Forrester is serving his ninth term in the Senate and was elected to serve as the Senate Minority Whip for four years, as well as Deputy Republican Leader and Republican Leader in the Senate. He also served as Republican Joint Caucus Leader.
“I consider myself pro-business,” Forrester said. “I always have. I always will.”
Like Rhyne, Forrester wants to keep jobs on the rise in North Carolina. “I used to always say the things I support are lower government, lower taxes, less regulation, and then, I had in fourth place, supporting the jobs and economic development, but I kind of moved that up to first place right now,” he said.
Both Rhyne and Forrester agreed that balancing the state’s budget will be challenging.
“We are going to have just as much problem with the budget this year as last year, if not more,” Forrester said.
“We will have a couple billion dollar deficit and you will see (the Democrats) cut more programs and raise more taxes. I didn’t vote for the budget last time because (the Democrats) raised taxes by almost $1 billion or something like that.”
The economy’s recovery will be slow, unless more jobs and stimulus money becomes available faster, Forrester said.
“It may take a few years before we get back to where we want to be,” he said.
“There are a lot of good programs we want to do with education and health care. We just don’t have the money to do it.”
The N.C. FreeEnterprise Foundation, a statewide, nonprofit organization, published the Ratings. Legislators with a Business Rating of 70 or above are consistent supporters of the free enterprise position.
To see a complete report of the Business Ratings, go to www.ncfef.org.
