Timmy & Phil making an offer you CAN’T refuse
Speaker Timmy clearly is looking for a legacy that does not include the terms “group sex” or “Biscuitville.” He and his partner-in-crime, Uncle Phil, are super-eager to bless our beautiful state with all the “gifts” — labor unions, organized crime, et. al. — that Vegas, Reno and Atlantic City have been blessed with for decades. Apparently, there is a scheme afoot to quiet down and calm all of us who are questioning their sweetheart deal:
Before the end of August, the Republican-controlled North Carolina legislature and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper appear to be looking to wear down conservative opposition to expanded gambling in the state and get it on the books.
Gambling interests are pitching North Carolina conservatives a deal: “Give us more gambling, and we will cut your taxes.”They are really offering small potatoes, compared to how more gambling affects the state’s most vulnerable.
The draft legislation would permit wagering in locations chosen explicitly by lobbyists who wrote the bill in the back rooms of Raleigh. Specifically, there will be four “entertainment districts,” which would include hotels, dining, and housing. These districts would be located in Nash, Anson, and Rockingham counties and territory that is part of the Lumbee tribal lands.[…]
Wait a minute. There is no Lumbee reservation — YET. Have these goons accidentally spilled the beans a wee bit early? Is that something Ted and Thom have waiting in the wings in DC? Could this have anything to do with all the cash that has flooding into GOP legislative campaign coffers from the vicinity of Pembroke – the Lumbee home base?
MORE:
[…] The lobbyists have paid off the legislators, so they must figure the conservatives defending families and vulnerable individuals from more intrusive gambling will roll over if they get their payoff.
Here’s their deal: with the projected $1 billion in revenue from new casinos and video gaming machines and another $400 million from so-called iGaming, online gambling licensed by the state, the flat income tax goes from 4.75 percent to 3 percent.
Of course, the individual tax rate is scheduled to go to 4 percent by 2027 anyway.
Now, put the generosity of the gambling coalition in the context of the actual budget. In math-easy terms, the state spends $30 billion annually, and in 2023 revenues have jumped to $34 billion.
Take a moment to let that sink in. Right now, the legislators could cut taxes by $4 billion and still balance the budget—so why are they so desperate to gin up another $1.4 billion?[…]
*Lotsa new folks need to get “paid,” man! Why d’ya think?*
MORE:
[…] Seriously, $1.4 billion is a rounding error.Much is made of conservatives standing in the way of more gambling in North Carolina and how they have no appreciation of a tax cut, which is not really a cut at all because all that changes is the source of the revenue—the money is still pulled from the economy.
The truth is conservatives are opposed to more gambling for the same reason people have always opposed gambling. It is a vicious destroyer of lives and, by extension, families.[…]
This author is not wrong. We all saw it some 25 years ago with SC’s flirtation with video poker. The folks who could least afford to gamble were scooting over the border — with their mortgage, rent, baby food, and / or grocery money in hand. Most of the time they returned in the hole. You saw a jump in domestic violence, family break-ups, and new enrollees onto the social welfare “safety net.”
In 2000, the NC Senate banned video poker out of fears that SC’s pending ban would send a flood of gamblers north across the border. And HERE we now are.
MORE:
[…] Some states have enacted responsible gambling, recognizing the entertainment value and the rights of adults to conduct their own affairs, by engaging in years of thoughtful debate and implementing strict safety measures—this is not that.
All that money that pours into casinos, video gaming machines, and iGaming websites comes from people expecting a fantastic payoff. It begins as entertainment, and sadly for millions of Americans, it becomes an expensive addiction.
Profiting off addicts is never a conservative value.
A coalition of conservative and faith leaders signed a letter pleading with the lawmakers in Raleigh to consider the costs to the people on the losing side of all those bets. It was signed by
Chad Connelly, founder and CEO of Faith Wins; Pastor Tim Cruse, North Carolina director of Awake America; Kimberly Fletcher, founder and president of Moms for America; David H. Safavian, CPAC senior vice president and general counsel and Terry Schilling, executive director of American Principles Project.
Here is a key excerpt:
We are strongly against haphazardly promoting new streams of revenue that could adversely affect North Carolina voters, especially those in poorer communities where these casinos and video lottery terminals are being proposed without the proper risk assessment.
Finally, we object to the lobbyists holding tax cuts hostage to gambling expansion. Conservatives understand that we can cut taxes without raising revenue elsewhere. Give the people back their money, allow them to spend it, and watch your economy grow.
There is no way now to calculate what it will cost to repair the damage expanded gambling will inflict on the people who rely on the legislators to protect them.
Sure, people sing the praises of how gambling gooses the economy and the government coffers—no one has ever dared to describe the impact on the children of gambling addicts.
Everyone, you, me, and every legislator—and every lobbyist—know the new billions are coming off the kitchen tables of the most vulnerable amongst us. And for what?
Do the math. They are forecasting a bump in revenues less than the state’s surplus—and a tax cut, they could do today and still balance the budget.
I’m still waiting on the rest of those tax cuts the “conservative revolution” promised us when they 
took power in Raleigh in 2010. I’m also waiting on the cut in our gas tax — one of the highest in the nation. And that food tax. Been to the grocery store or gas station lately, folks?
They can’t seem to find votes to codify the belief parents overrule bureaucrats when it comes to raising children. Apparently, they’re struggling to override Gov. Doofus’s vetoes of bills meant to protect children from grooming and mutilation. But there’s plenty of Tim time for gambling.
I remember Timmy trying to force an Indian casino on the folks in his home county. He got it done, but it cost his dad – Timmy, Sr. — his seat on the Kings Mountain City Council.
Did Timmy and Phil learn ANYTHING from Jim Black and his entanglements with gambling lobbyists?
“Honorables” on Jones Street have loved to poo-poo tax cuts. We can’t “afford” them, we’re told. But the tune mystically changes when thick-walled slicksters promising Vegas-style prosperity and big profits roll into town.
The research that I encorparated in my HS senior theme was enlightening. Wish I still had a copy of it. It was entitled Compulsive Gambling. That research would not lend favor to the efforts of MORE NC gambling. BUT, neither do ABC stores lend favor to alcoholics. BUT, they are legal.
Dear God,
We beg you to enter the hearts of the men and women making decisions for the people of North Carolina.
Guide them to turn away from the destruction of lives and families by the addiction of gambling. We elected these people in good faith that they would lead our citizens to freedom, health, and prosperity. Give them the courage to turn their backs to Satan and refuse his temptation of personal enrichment in exchange for the grave and inevitable consequences of gambling. Give our leaders wisdom, as they appear lacking.
Thank you Lord, for listening to our earnest prayers. Amen.
Let’s recap what our veto proof super majority is focused on:
1. Medicaid Expansion
2. Medical marijuana
3. Increasing online gambling access
4. Casinos
The budget and a pile of vetos are sitting in Raleigh right now and they are not there.
The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act is sitting there vetoed by Cooper and with the votes for the over-ride, but where are they?
All we heard on the ground for the last 2 years — we need a veto-proof super majority. We gave it to them, with a little help from Tricia Cotham, yet we get Medicaid Expansion??
Sadly, Moore & Berger have given Cooper the legacy he will run on during his Presidential campaign.
Michele…you are spot on. These two have shown you how they are OVER an and OVER. Being a Conservative is not amongst them.
That is just this year, and that record is HORRIBLE.
Last Year, this socked us with the NC Green New Deal, HB 951, which is even more radical that the EU’s Green Deal, which it is modelled after. That will really stick it to electric cusotmers, and they did it to please far left Roy Cooper and the very “woke” electric monopoly Duke Energy. Phil Berger is now Phil Thunberger and Tim Moore is Tim Whore.
Then there is the boys in the girls bathroom issue. Thunberger and Whore got their panties in a twist as scared rabbbits and caved in to the “woke” corporations that demanded we stop protecting our girls and women from perverts in their locker rooms and restrooms. Those despicable cowards and traitors led the repreal of HB2
If your legislator is a bootlicker of Thunberger or Whore, just sit on your hands next election and don’t give them a nickel or any other campaign help. They are as worthless as Cemocrats. Damn the difference. That pair has made a mockery of the NC Republican Party.
NC seems to have become an Illinois, NY, NJ crony capitalism, mob-like, pay-for-play.
The elected gop in this state, and certainly those in leadership positions for many years now, are nothing more than mobsters. And apparently not near enough conservative types to battle OR enough that the gop leadership makes deals across the aisle to get legislation/deals/cronyism done. Certainly their main deal maker has become gov’s office. Is that why such a weak, non-campaigning candidate was offered up against Coop? No gop sitter on capitol hill in my district gets my vote. I was down to local and state races and now appears the state level has run amok of dem/gop shenanigans we see on capitol hill everyday. Uniparty…unified to benefit themselves and da*** the people they serve…(or the peasants).
It is truly frightening to witness what has become of our GOP legislative leadership. Is this what I spent my life in conservative politics working for?
Moore and Berger have been left leaning for years now. Haven’t you noticed? Please STOP FEEDING THE RINOS.
It all started with Tillis, who has always been a Democrat collaborator and a speacil interest whore, which he started doing as a legislator and continues to do as a US Senator. Moore is nothing but Tillis 2.0, and John Bell is cut from the same cloth and would be Tillis 3.0 None of them are much different from Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer. And Berger the Bully is even worse.
I had to leave office at the end of last year because I had promised when I was appointed in 2011 that I would only serve five full terms after I finished my predecessor’s last term. I am growing to regret that promise more and Moore. There may be some others who wish they were still there to keep fighting this corruption. It is absolutely disgusting to see the ungodly garbage coming from so-called Republican leaders. They are turning my pride in my home State into shame before our Lord. Knowing that bad legislation that I helped stop while I was there is passing with such ease now is making me wish I had not had to leave. If there are those in Raleigh who are standing up to this evil, we who are Christians need to be praying for them and we need to do what we can in the primary next year to send more good people to help them and “separate the wheat from the chaff.”