#ncga: Talk about FAKE NEWS …
The tax-increase-loving, Common-Core-Caressing, Trannies-in-the-Ladies-Room-Appreciating, Illegal-Alien-Loving North Carolina Chamber is at it again.
They’ve dropped another mailer into the already-nasty Senate district 25 GOP primary featuring Tom McInnis and Michelle Lexo. Of course, the big-government face-in-the-trough types at the Chamber love them some Tom McInnis.
This particular mailer had the odor of a horse stable needing a good cleaning. How so, you ask:
The mailer claims Leo “supports a 50% property tax increase on Moore County home owners.” The source cited was The Fayetteville Observer fro 4/11/18.
The problem? No such article exists in that paper regarding Lexo or that subject. We looked. I reached out to the Lexo campaign. They looked. They couldn’t find it.
Calls were placed to The Fayetteville Observer newsroom. A number of editors there attempted to find the story cited by The Chamber mailer — and failed.
Wow. Quoting from a fabricated news story. That almost tops the Chamber’s ads a few years ago about how our kids were all going to die if we didn’t approve a tax increase. 
“I am the mayor of Whispering Pines,” Lexo told us. “Not Moore County. I have no control over tax rates for the county.”
She says she DOES support the school bond package on the May 8th ballot. Lexo said worst case projections she has seen related to the bonds forecast a 2% tax increase. Again, that’s worst case.
The pro-McInnis mailer also claims Lexo “wants to restrict growth”.
“Really? That’s news to me,” the mayor told us. “There have been more new homes built in Whispering Pines than in Anson, Scotland and Richmond counties combined.”
The Chamber mailer also calls Lexo “a roadblock for small business.”
Lexo said the incident referenced by the flier involved a business buying a parcel of land for future expansion that was zoned for single-family residential. They wanted it rezoned.
“That would have been a case of spot zoning,” said Lexo. “The General Assembly says that’s illegal. That’s why the whole council voted against it. It wasn’t about Michelle Lexo being a roadblock to small business. It was about Michelle Lexo not wanting to go to jail.”
Don’t believe everything that shows up in your mailbox. Especially stuff that smells like the organic fertilizer in your dad’s garden.
Tom McInnis has been in Raleigh for two terms. And this is how he asks us for our votes — by selling out to Raleigh trough-feeders and bald-faced lying.
The Chamber is nothing but a despicable bunch of prostitutes to big government. I would never vote for a Chamber Republican in a primary, and I am about to the point that I would leave the that race blank in November if the choice was a Chamber Republican and a Democrat. There is not a dime’s worth of difference.
The threat to ALL business comes from those politicians like McInnis who pander to the corrupt Big Solar and Big Wind special interests, who are trying to bring us expensive and unreliable electricity.
The Fayetteville Observer actually employs “a number of editors” ???
With newspapers an endangered species these days I’m surprised they have “a number of” anything except vacant desks.
Compare the two: one votes for sanctuary cities here in NC, votes to allow men in the girls’ bathroom, lies about his opponent – that’s all Mcinnis, and his votes are public information.
Michelle Lexo works as mayor of Whispering Pines to make her town a great place to live. She is a concealed carry gun owner and supports the 2nd Amendment. Michelle does not lie about her opponent.
Michelle Lexo has my vote!
This mailer makes ‘not truthful’ statements about Michelle Lexo and it also insults the Village of Whispering Pines and its residents. The attorney for the small business owner could have advised his client—‘the law does not allow for you to do this’.
The North Carolina Chamber is despicable for mailing this garbage and notwithstanding the disclaimer, candidate McInnis could stop this if he wanted to.
I was the Mayor at the time of this action and the Village Attorney was advising the Council as to the law.
Please vote for MICHELLE LEXO, a woman of honor and principles, unlike her opponent & his good ole boy minions, who’ll evidently LIE many times in a desperate attempt to win.
Vote for Michelle!!!!!
The Fayetteville Observer just updated the article:
http://www.fayobserver.com/news/20180411/moore-county-bonds-would-pay-for-new-schools-college-building
It now says this:
“County officials estimate that property taxes could be raised between 5.75 cents and 8.4 cents per $100 in property valuation to pay for the bonds. The county’s tax rate is 46.5 cents per $100 valuation. The county’s website has a calculator that allows residents to see how much their property taxes might rise.”
So, it’s a 12-18% tax increase:
$115-$168 increase for a $200,000 house
$287-$420 increase for a $500,000 house
STILL not a 50% increase, as your former employer claims. And it’s a local school bond issue. The mailer makes it appear Lexo came out in favor of jacking up everybody’s taxes for no reason.
Are you going to correct your article now that the Fayetteville Observer article has been discovered (and now updated)? And correct your claim that the property tax increase would only be 2%?
Nothing to correct. But your buddies at the Chamber have something. 50% — even you admit — was false. Will they correct their dishonest mailer?
I didn’t claim 2%. Lexo did.
Are you, as a chamber mouthpiece, REALLY going to attack a mayor for favoring a local bond issue that will pay for a new school for her jurisdiction?
The chamber mailer portrayed the Fayetteville Observer article as though it quoted Lexo cheerleading for a 50% tax increase. THAT was not true. There was nothing in the paper about that.
You’re hopeless. The Fayetteville Observer article, which you claimed didn’t exist, says it will amount to an 18% property tax increase. (I don’t think it said that prior to this kerfufle; I think they had to go back and correct it, but that’s another issue.) If you support the bond, which you and Lexo do, you support the tax increase. I’m not attacking anyone for it; I’m just stating the fact.
I know it never said FIFTY percent like your dishonest flier said. You found a story about the bond issue. The chamber mailer said they had a story that quoted Lexo favoring a 50% tax increase. That was false. there was no such story in the Observer. You and your friends need to apologize for lying to the people of Moore County.
It’s awful nice to have folks like you parachuting in on local affairs and miseducating people. We’re having to borrow the money because the Jones Street mafia “reallocated” a whole lot of money that was meant to pay for new school construction here in Moore County.
Maybe I’m blind, but I don’t even see Michelle Lexo’s name in that “updated” article. How can the Chamber use that article as a source for her supporting a tax increase if her name isn’t even in the article?
Had to? Don’t you mean the Chamber goons called them and demanded they track your attack piece?
Based upon the Observer article and the Chamber’s claim that McInnis doesn’t support the inferred tax increase, is it safe to assume that McInnis is opposed to the school bonds? If he supports the school bonds, then he also supports the Chamber’s alleged “50% tax increase.
The Chamber has been a vicious anti-conservative organization ever since the crony capitalism / big government / special interest crowd ran the free marketers out of control. I remember when they used to advertise in favor of Jesse Helms, something today’s leftie Chamber would never do. Now the Chamber boasts about spending big money in GOP primaries to try to defeat conservatives, and this cycle even came out and said it might support Democrats in the general election against conservative Republicans.,
Today’s Chamber is a “5th Column” organization that reminds us of Lenin’s statement about the capitalists selling him the rope to hang them with. In this case, it is the CRONY capitalists.
Any conservative who is a member of a local Chamber should try to get them to disaffiliate with the national and state Chambers and to change their name.
The fact that the Chamber is so big on McInnis tells you 1) that he is NOT a conservative or anything close, and 2) that he is in bed with the special interests and NOT someone who will represent the citizens.
DOWN with the Chamber and all of their crooked candidates. The Chamber and ALL of its candidates can get stuffed.
Please urge all of your friends and neighbors to stop paying any branch of the Chamber of Commerce dues. They use that money for this exact kind of garbage. STOP being members of the Chamber. They offer you nothing for those dues.
If I were targeting races for the Constitution Party, I would be looking to challenge every Chamber backed Republican out there. Those guys are worms.
When will you all quit yelling at each other and research the money trail? An uber “lobbyist” raises the dark money; Jim Blaine directs where it goes; some pudgy kid does the mail; everyone rakes their part off the top; McInnis gets reeelected; the puppeteers at the Chamber/NCRMA/BCBS put Berger back in power, and the real lobbyists have unfettered access to the Senate Leadership. It’s all very legal, at least until someone’s returns get audited by the NC Dept of Revenue. They might want to quit screwing with judicial selection and put the Dept of Revenue under the State Treasurer.