Cooper Appoints Gibson to Lead New Rural Economic Development Group | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: This post, by Brian Balfour, was originally published in the Economic Development section of Civitas's online edition.

    Gov. Cooper this week declared that "not enough is being done to help rural N.C. counties build roads, expand high-speed internet, train people in job skills and find other ways to improve the economy."

    So naturally, just like every other issue, the 'progressive' way of addressing it is to create another government program.

• Cooper's program, called Hometown Strong, is meant to cut through the bureaucracies with a small team that will help rural counties track down funding from state, federal and nonprofit sources. The team, so far just two people, will offer expertise on what projects are needed and can reasonably be attained, and help with paperwork and staffing.

    And just who will be supplying this "expertise"? None other than Pryor "buggy whips" Gibson.

• Pryor Gibson, a former state representative from Anson County and lobbyist for former Gov. Bev Perdue...will be the director and public face of the program...Gibson will be paid $148,000 annually

    Going to the way back machine, we learn more about Gibson's "expertise" when it comes to economic development. From a 2008 article:

• Gibson recently declared, "I'm positive it's in our best interest to keep XYZ company with 1,000 jobs, even if they're making buggy whips." Buggy whips?
• Propping up businesses that no longer produce a product or service that society values is the perfect recipe to halt innovation and economic growth. I suppose Gibson's home is full of 8-track tape players and Beta Max recorders because of his desire to "save" those jobs.

    For this kind of backward thinking, Gibson will be paid $148,000 a year?

    This doesn't bode well for rural North Carolina.