In general, they don’t want to pay more taxes. And people who responded a survey from Rep. Lorene Coates also hold a strong interest in education, roads, the environment and farmland preservation.
Coates, D-Rowan, says she has received hundreds of written responses to her recent newsletter that included a five-question survey.
“I still get four or five a day,” Coates said.
In January, Coates mailed 25,000 newsletters to people in her House district who voted in at least one of the past three elections. She paid for the four-page newsletter with the $559 a month legislators receive for office expenses and some left over campaign funds.
With postage, the newsletter cost between $12,000 and $13,000, she said.
Coates inserted a separate survey sheet inside each newsletter that had questions and space for answers on both sides.
Some of the concerns brought to her in the surveys dealt with issues that should be addressed by Congress, according to Coates.
“But it gives me a sense of what people want,” she added. “Basically, they want someone to listen to them and vent their frustrations with.”
Coates and her legislative assistant, Melissa Lennon, have read all the returned surveys and are responding to them, when warranted. Respondents had the option of including their names, addresses and telephone numbers on the surveys.
If they asked about the status of a particular road in Rowan County, Coates often has called them back personally after speaking with the local office of the N.C. Department of Transportation.
Coates said the number of responses she received were particularly impressive considering that people had to use their own envelopes and stamps to answer her.
“Look how much time they took to answer,” she added, showing seven examples what she received.
The survey questions:
- What are the issues that concern you and your family most?
- What can your representative in Raleigh do to better stay in touch with you?
- What would you like your representative in Raleigh to do about education?
- What would you like your representative in Raleigh to do about drugs and crime?
- Is there a particular problem in your neighborhood or community that needs to be addressed?
“Pay teachers more!” one respondent wrote. “Just watched part of the Super Bowl. Can’t believe how much these guys make. ... Those people who spend their time shaping the characters of young people need a real incentive to do so.”
One person voiced support for a lottery.
“It would help pay for better roads and education here while helping to keep our taxes under control,” he said.
Coates said 90 to 95 percent of the respondents expressed appreciation for her sending out a newsletter and wanted to know more about what local legislators were doing.
“Let the Salisbury Post have the full, true story of what’s happening in state government,” one person said. “Tell who is taking the state money and mis-using it.”
“Insist that educators make do with funds now available, since it appears that no matter how much is given, it is never enough,” one man wrote.
One woman wrote that she was most concerned about the lack of jobs.
“I lost my job due to my employer closing,” she said. “My unemployment has ended and still no job. My husband took an early retirement and is on a very limited income. I want to work!”
In the newsletter, “From the State House to Your House,” Coates discussed the budget passed in 2001, her bill to offer loan incentives for teachers and her vote against a safe storage bill related to guns.
One page also lists 62 pieces of legislation she introduced or co-sponsored in 2001.
The newsletter contained a glaring error, Coates acknowledged.
A headline over a brief message about road maintenance said, “$500 million in Transportation Projects Secured for Rowan County This Year.”
The General Assembly set aside $500 million in road maintenance money for the whole state, not just Rowan County.
Coates has received criticism for the newsletter. W.F. Owens, a frequent letter writer to the Post, said the page devoted to legislation sponsored by Coates was illustrative of why the 2001 session was the longest and costliest in state history.
He also criticized Coates for finally voting for a budget bill that increased five taxes. He said Coates could stay in better touch with constituents if she had enclosed a stamped, self-addressed envelope along with her survey.
In an interview, Coates noted that legislators often attach their names to various bills they support as co-sponsors. She said she only introduced or offered amendments to four bills during the session.
Coates has said previously that the state budget disappointed her, but it was the best the General Assembly would do, not could do. She said she wasn’t happy that the average family would spend $48 to $52 a year more in taxes, but added that she tried to make the most responsible vote on the budget.
The January newsletter was the second one Coates has sent out. She mailed one earlier in the session to fewer homes when she felt she should report on some major issues.
Coates expects to do more newsletters.
“I just think it’s important to let people know what’s going on,” she said.
Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263, or mwineka@salisburypost.com
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