NC colleges and universities need some sprucing up, governor says | McClatchy Washington Bureau

North Carolina Republican Gov. Pat McCrory on Monday discussed the state’s economy, education investments and areas with potential for growth at the annual North Carolina Business and Economic Development Summit in Washington.

Lawmakers have attended the summit for two decades. It provides them with the opportunity to network and discuss shared concerns for job creation in North Carolina with attendees, said Tatum Gibson, spokeswoman for Rep. Richard Hudson, a Concord, North Carolina, Republican. Hudson hosted the 2016 summit. He and McCrory began the event with a question-and-answer session that focused on the state’s successes and struggles.

“Three years ago, North Carolina had the fifth-highest unemployment rate in the country,” McCrory said. “That was three years ago – the fifth-highest unemployment rate in the country. We had the highest income tax, the highest corporate tax in the Southeast.”

North Carolina has faced some rough times, he said.

“We did owe the federal government $2.6 billion in unemployment compensation . . . and we had lost about 250,000 private-sector jobs,” he said. “That was about three years ago this week, and I think the only states we were beating at the time were California and New Jersey and Nevada, in unemployment.”

Now, according to a statement from McCrory’s office, unemployment has decreased across the state, bolstered by efforts to cut taxes by $4.7 billion – while there has been a $430 million revenue surplus. McCrory has implemented tuition freezes and capped fees to make college more affordable, his office said. Additionally, a Connect NC bond will put $1.3 billion into North Carolina’s universities and community colleges, along with other areas such as public safety, state parks and water infrastructure, the statement said.

And the state is going to need to make good use of that money. North Carolina’s higher education facilities have multiple problems that need to be addressed, McCrory said.

McCrory said he’d taken a tour of higher education facilities in the state and found them to be lacking 21st-century equipment. Western Carolina University “had no better than a high school biology lab, maybe worse,” he said. He went to Appalachian State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was dismayed at the quality of their facilities.

“We have doctors being trained in classes in the hallway next to the fire escape and the drinking fountain and, by the way, the fire escape is rusted,” he said.

North Carolina still has higher education struggles, and some of the smaller towns are still suffering, McCrory said. But the state is also making significant progress, he added. Tourism is up and the number of residents is increasing, he said.

“We’re . . . seeing an increase in travel and tourism, which has gone up 7 percent from last year,” he said. “Regardless of what you’ve seen about people not coming to North Carolina, it’s not true.

“Regardless of what you read in the newspaper, they’re all moving to North Carolina.”