The last time I checked, North Carolina had a vibrant democracy as a “purple” state with a Republican legislative majority, a democratic Governor, a state Supreme Court which has switched back and forth between Republican and Democratic Party majorities over the last decade and we are again considered a closely contested battleground state for this year’s Presidential election.
Rather than working to dismantle democracy through “egregious gerrymandering,” in fact, I have been a proponent and sponsor of constitutional amendments to enact independent nonpartisan redistricting since the 1980s through the 2020s. I also was the successful lead plaintiff-intervenor in the U.S. Supreme Court case, Shaw v Reno, that restricted racial gerrymandering and a successful plaintiff in the North Carolina Supreme Court Stephenson cases that restricted partisan gerrymandering.
I personally never gave a dime, nor has the John Locke Foundation given a dime, to fund “the architects of Project 2025,” parts of which I strongly oppose and have criticized. The John W. Pope Foundation has donated to 18 Project 2025 advisory board members, and the opinions of Project 2025 and The Heritage Foundation do not necessarily represent the opinions of every one of its advisory board partners. Furthermore, none of the Pope Foundation grants were for the purpose of funding Project 2025.
The $414 million “Management Flexibility Reduction” for UNC back in 2011 was not an overall budget cut. It refers to reductions in the budget. There was an actual increase in total state funding for the UNC System between from FY 2010-2011 to FY 2011-2012, as documented by the state’s official budget records.
The 2011 Management Flexibility Reduction did require reductions in part of the UNC budget, in order to shift funding to other areas of the budget, during a fiscal year when there was an overall net increase in the total UNC budget. Regardless, that was over a decade ago, before I served as State Budget Director (2013-2014) and had ever met Lee Roberts.
While The James G. Martin Center, formally known as the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, supported proposals for budget cuts that fiscal year, I speak for myself — people at organizations do not speak for me. Back in 2011 and today, I do not act as publisher or editor for the Martin Center (or Locke Foundation) and do not know in advance what they will publish.
Rather than having “targeted Black and low-income communities,” I believe my company has served hundreds of communities, including African American and low-income communities, by providing thousands of local jobs, providing affordable merchandise to millions of customers and generating tens of millions of dollars in taxes to provide for state and local government, including education. I would rather this, than my company engage in discrimination and avoid serving African American neighborhoods, that too often are located in retail food deserts.
- Art Pope, Class of 1978
