Earl Honeycutt: McCrory’s misunderstanding
Regarding the Oct. 31 news article “McCrory brokered meeting to extend donor’s contracts”: Once again Gov. Pat McCrory demonstrated that his knowledge of the free market has serious gaps. By the governor’s actions, it is obvious he does not understand the difference between market-based decisions and crony capitalism.
Does the governor seriously expect anyone to believe a free-market decision required him to meet with a contributor to make a decision about extending a cleaning service contract?
Said differently, what was the purpose of the governor’s attending a meeting that pitted one division of the state government against a political supporter? Was the governor there to referee or decide the outcome?
If McCrory really believes in a free market, he should have the state request open bids from companies that can provide the business and have a nonpartisan group (not his budget director) evaluate and award the contract to the lowest bidder.
Instead, McCrory interjected partisan politics at the behest of one of his supporters and, now that his behavior has come to light, he is trying to deny the obvious. Wow!
Earl Honeycutt
Chapel Hill
This story was originally published November 7, 2015 at 1:00 PM with the headline "Earl Honeycutt: McCrory’s misunderstanding."