NCGOP releases 2013 party platform. (Will elected GOPers notice?)
The platform document approved at the recent NCGOP state convention has been released to the public. If you’ll recall, there was a bit of a hubbub at the convention about toll roads, HOT lanes, and the like. The week following the convention, the GOP-dominated state House pushed through legislation OK-ing toll roads on North Carolina hallways.
Here are some points of interest in the document.
Article II, section 3:
The government should tax only to raise money for its essential functions. Government should not use the tax system to control our behavior, steer our choices or change the way we live our lives. North Carolinians pay the highest tax rates in the southeast, which is hurting industrial growth, imposing economic pressure on families and crushing the entrepreneurial spirit. We support a thorough review of expenditures each year, and we support a taxpayer’s bill of rights. We applaud the efforts of the North Carolina General Assembly to reduce spending.
Article II, Section 8:
We oppose any plans for, or legislation in favor of, High Occupancy Toll
(HOT) Lanes.
Article III, Section 7:
We oppose government–sanctioned tracking of drivers to enforce occupancy rates on our highways.
I encourage everyone to contact legislators to ask them to stop plans to put HOT lanes on our highways, such as I-40, I-85, I-95, 485 and 74. The public has been mostly unaware of the plans to install HOT lanes operated by private, for-profit companies on our highways throughout North Carolina. It’s essential that we stop these plans now. We won’t be able to “return” the HOT lanes once they are built, and they will only benefit the tolling companies and the politicians who partner with those companies. For more information, go to http://www.tollfreenc.org or http://www.wideni77.org. WidenI77 is also on Facebook.