WELCOME TO NC-20
NC-20 is a partnership of the people, local governments, and businesses of the 20 coastal (CAMA) Counties in North Carolina dedicated to economic development of the member counties.

NC-20 MISSION STATEMENT
To support, defend, and further the common environmental and sustainable economic development interests within the 20 coastal counties through coordinated communication, information sharing, data collection and monitoring, scientific research, and proactive interaction with legislation and executive decisions makers at all levels of government.

The Two Carolina's
A look at the economy of the Coastal region.
The graphic below demonstrates a disturbing trend. It is a trend that has gone largely unnoticed for a number of reasons. One reason is that we have just begun to emerge from the last of two back to back recessions, and absent this graph, there is a feeling that the pain is equally shared. It obviously is not. Another reason is that Eastern North Carolina has never been a manufacturing powerhouse. The Piedmont has always been considered more industrialized, even dating back to colonial times, while the east has largely been considered agricultural. There was a time when manufacturing and agriculture were both low wage occupations. The cotton mills and textile factories of the Piedmont didn’t seem that much more glamorous than the tobacco and cotton fields of Eastern North Carolina.

The advent of the interstate highway system, however, began a steady separation in the distribution of wealth. Aided by investment in State-sponsored research, the computerization of industry, and the mechanization of agriculture, things began to change. First, the Piedmont started gaining jobs and hence population at a faster rate than the east. Eastern farm workers, displaced by such improvements as tobacco harvesters and bulk curing barns, migrated to the Piedmont, and towns such as Raleigh and Durham became world renowned educational centers. And, I might add, Mecklenburg County is not called the state of Mecklenburg for nothing.
In the seventies and eighties, Eastern North Carolina did show some promise in terms of becoming more urbanized and affluent. Such well-known companies as DuPont, Procter & Gamble and Eaton Corporation announced multimillion dollar plants. But that was then, and much of that momentum has been lost. As the graphic above shows, there have been few major manufacturing announcements east of interstate 95 in at least the last six years. The Craven County JDIG depicted went to Cabo Yachts, which recently announced a shutdown along with Hatteras Yachts, an eastern icon. While plant
shutdowns have been common throughout North Carolina due to the increasing rapidity of technological obsolescence and foreign competition, the investments in the Piedmont in microelectronics, biotechnology, and the continued improvement of the interstate highways have spawned yet another generation of manufacturing. Manufacturing employment is not only increasing, but the wages in the urban counties are astronomical by eastern standards.
The situation in the east is now becoming almost desperate. Six of the seven counties that lost population in the last census were in Eastern North Carolina. Not only did Eastern North Carolina lose representation both at the state and Federal levels because of the last census, the residual representation shows just how bad the situation has become. The 20 coastal counties, composed of the inner and outer banks counties, have the same number of State Representatives as Durham County alone. Gone are such countervailing powers as Sen. Marc Basnight and a steady stream of eastern Governors. The top leadership of the State is now divided, probably forever, between Metrolina and Triangle counties.
Admittedly, there are some bright spots in the east, such as the military, but even that seems tenuous due to the shadow of Federal budget problems and the specter of sequestration. Nevertheless, the trend is clear: the east is not just failing to keep pace, it is declining. The question is what can be done? In a nod to brevity, I shall not attempt to fully explain my suggestions. My hope is that they may generate some discussion and provide a springboard to a more robust debate about possible solutions.
First, there is no benefit in reducing incentives to growth in the Piedmont. This is not a zero sum game. Reducing double digit unemployment in the east is its own reward: the social and monetary cost of poverty and unemployment is a drag on all of us. I am not suggesting that our metro areas lower their expectations but that we increase our efforts in the east.
General MacArthur once said, “There is no substitute for victory.” I will borrow that sentiment by saying, “There is no substitute for transportation.” The eastern counties lie on the most affluent corridor in the world. From Boston to Miami lie the banking and political centers of the most powerful nation in the world. And yet, while all the other eastern States have four-lane, north south highways, we have one of the most pitiful examples that can be found of transportation neglect. I will be happy to send anyone who asks a video of US 17 between New Bern and Washington in which garbage trucks are stopping traffic to pick up residential roll-out containers. Another sad fact: Myrtle Beach hijacked much of our tourist traffic by providing a four lane corridor from I-95 decades ago. Many of us have worked for years to realize the dream of a four lane US 17coastal corridor that would recapture some of this north-south traffic and we are still waiting. The State DOT has a plan, but it’s not a strategic plan, it’s a piece at a time, some restricted access, much is not. When it is finished, if it ever is, it will be a second class highway. School buses will still be stopping traffic in significant segments. While considering the impact of JDIG grants and Research Centers, consider that our tourism industry, one of the few bright spots in another wise gloomy economy, is now burdened with ferry tolls and a perpetual debate about closing one our biggest producers of tourism revenue, NC 12. I’ll bet most readers do not know that Dare County sends substantial sums of money back to the State every year due to tourist sales taxes.
Second, realize that not all new manufacturing plants are high-tech, bio-tech, multi-million dollar investment, $50,000 a year job providers. Moen is providing 800 jobs in New Bern making the faucets and shower heads many of us have in our homes. They came here 30 years ago and chose not to go to China. For those not involved in economic development, may I introduce the term “on-shoring.” It refers to manufacturing work being brought back from China and other low-wage countries because the low wages there are not as low wage as they once were; also, the transportation and management problems often trump any labor savings. What is needed in North Carolina is a development program that works in the East and other rural areas to attract more Moen’s. We obviously don’t have one. (Blaming the recession is not good enough: Check the graphic again.) There are a number of cost-effective, productive steps we could take to increase manufacturing job growth in the east which I do not have the space to enumerate here, but I would welcome the dialogue. One suggestion: JDIGs only go to high-wage, large employment plants (usually more than 200 jobs) and they don’t require a county match. There are no incentives to go to smaller, less prosperous counties. One-NC grants, given to smaller companies that usually go to rural areas, require a county match. Why? And, quite frankly, there are better methods of inducing employment anyway.
Lastly, get off our backs. Several years ago we were singled out for special stormwater treatment. We were told stormwater ponds (think big bucks and loss of usable land) would “capture” the fecal coliform and save our oyster beds. DENR graphics that formed the “sales pitch” for more controls showed New Hanover County Creeks rapidly degenerating in water quality (more than 30% closures). Funny thing though: Dare County had less than 1% and Beaufort County, with only 3%, had actually improved in the past ten years without any increase in stormwater ponds. Fast forward to 2012: DENR has admitted the ponds breed fecal coliform in many cases. If any wants a picture of geese living on a stormwater pond, send me your email address. The cost of this boondoggle? The State doesn’t even know. Same with buffer rules on waterfront development and the most insidious threat of all: a projected rapid rise in sea level to 39” in the next 77 years with attendant “help” from the State in the form of land use mandates to “help us adapt.” (Large numbers of tide gauges from the northern hemisphere show deceleration in sea level rise, including the Wilmington Tide Gauge, our State’s longest record.) In all of these eastern restrictions, not one economic impact study was ever done and there was no mechanism for evaluating and removing restrictions that don’t work. Fortunately, the legislature put a four year hold on any regulatory action regarding sea level rise mandates, but why should a proposal with nothing but speculation masquerading as science even be considered?
Concluding: the economic disparity is getting worse. One cause is past decisions as to where State investments were made. A second is that present decisions are making things worse. Look at the graphic.

Goodwin touts settlement at NC-20 meeting- April 12, 2013
NEW BERN — The state’s insurance commissioner told an audience here Friday his department’s recent settlement on homeowners policy rates, which raises premiums for coastal counties, spared property owners from much higher requested increases. But one coastal legislator said the commissioner “caved” in his negotiations with insurers. read more...