So. We’re cutting taxes — AND SPENDING MORE ??????
The conservative revolution rolls on in The City of Oaks.
The mainstream media has been regaling us all day with stories about the $20.6 BILLION budget deal reached by the GOP majority in the North Carolina General Assembly. Yay! We’ve got a budget!
But, wait. This deal calls for 2.5 percent more spending than the last budget. SCREEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCHHHHH !!!
- SPENDING. On the face of it — 2.5 percent doesn’t sound like a big deal. In this case, we’re talking about a spending increase of HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.
The mainstream media has been boo-hooing about supposed hard-nosed conservative governance on Jones Street. But we’re getting hundreds of millions in more spending than the last go-around !!!
We couldn’t find ANY WASTEFUL SPENDING TO ZERO OUT OF THE BUDGET? How about MOST of THIS PAGE? How about the ABC and / or the ALE? Golden Leaf? One North Carolina Fund?
I see John Hood, Skip Stam and Thom Tillis got what they wanted — $20 million in reparations for people who got sterilized by the state government from the 20s to the 70s. I had nothing to do with that. But it appears I’m going to have to help “pay” for it. This opens quite a Pandora’s Box — inviting everyone who feels they — or their ancestors — were slighted by the state government at any time in history to demand tax dollars. After this, how do you say no to reparations for slavery?
2. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. The budget acts on the governor’s desire to migrate the state’s economic development activities over to public-private partnerships. HOW will that be different from what we’ve already got? We’ve got PPPs out the wazoo. Most all of them are money pits infested with cronyism.
So, we’ve apparently got four more years of tossing millions at MetLife and GE. How about creating a climate more enticing to entrepreneurs who HAVE BEEN committed to North Carolina — who won’t pull up stakes and move across the border in return for ONE MORE DOLLAR of freebies?
It’s being spun that the NC Rural Center — subject of a lot of controversy lately — is being zeroed out. Of course, the agency in its current form is being wiped out. But the Department of Commerce is being expanded to absorb the work of the Rural Center. It’s like a magician’s trick. (Don’t just watch the hand waving the wand over the hat. Keep an eye on what the other hand is doing, as well.)
3. TAX CUTS. I do have to give the honorables kudos for actually reducing tax rates. Unfortunately, that nearly gets negated by the spending increases in this budget that sink the leviathan’s claws deeper into our lives and our flesh.
This article is clearly written by someone who has never seen a budget before. A 2.5% increase is well under spending increases brought on by increase in population and inflation – which would have been over 3%. Fat has been trimmed. This is a responsible budget. And this tax reform legislation cuts $2.4 BILLION in the next 5 years.
Thom ”Toll Road” Tillis’ stupid reparations are included? What absolute nonsense. He and Skip Stamm need to be defeated in their primaries for sticking the taxpayers with that.. If this budget includes such stupid spending, it is NOT a good budget. I am sure little Thommy pitched a real tantrum to get the Senate to swallow that.
I am sure Rev. Two Ton of the NAACP is salivating at the precedent for reparations for slavery. Tillis is really an imbecile.
And here come the apologists. Budgets which increase spending are “responsible.” Anyone who criticizes spending increases is ignorant. Increases are actually cuts.
Spin, spin, spin.
Anytime you hear malarky like this, ask yourself: how do the politicians and the political class benefit if I believe this nonsense?
And the budget pay $27 million on the Global Transpark debt to the NC Escheats Fund. Don’t you remember that one? The legislature “loaned” the Global Transpark $25 million from the Escheats Fund. Of course the GTP has never made a dollar so the debt grew and grew. I think the debt topped out around $44 million. So the good ol’ boys got together and came up with a plan not to have to admit a mistake. So the legislature is paying back the Escheats Fund out of the budget. And of course still funding the Global Transpark.
I think the policy is referred to as “change we can believe in.” Or maybe the policy is “don’t ask about the GTP and we sure will not tell.”
I remember sitting in the Rotary Club meeting when an economist came to tell us of the coming glory of the GTP. He said that a man would walk into a car showroom in Los Angeles and order a car. The order would be faxed to the GTP and the car would be built overnight. Then we would fly his new car to him the next day. How is that for service? And how much do you think it would cost to fly a BMW to Los Angeles? Especially for a one-way trip. How much would it cost to fly one person there on a one-way fare?
It is a wonder that the GTP never got off the ground with such excellent planning.
“So, we’ve apparently got four more years of tossing millions at MetLife and GE. How about creating a climate more enticing to entrepreneurs who HAVE BEEN committed to North Carolina — who won’t pull up stakes and move across the border in return for ONE MORE DOLLAR of freebies? ”
This is the kind of stuff that drives real conservatives nuts. IF NC created a climate for business, they would come without enticements. You can’t buy loyalty or friends without strings attached.
The GOP is incapable or unwilling to do what it takes to actually make a change in government and return to principles. It appears like business as usual, and opens the door for the Dimwits in 2014.
A worse fear is the GOP’s inability to make course corrections. We will be stuck with McCrory for EIGHT years, not the usual four. Like they did with Eliz Dole, they simply cannot correct their mistakes and would prefer to go down in flames …again