So. We're cutting taxes - AND SPENDING MORE ?????? | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: Brant Clifton knows it is still budget time in his "bare knuckles" Conservative online publication known as The Daily Haymaker.

    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 !!!

    1.   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?
The NC General Assembly, May, 2012: Above.     photo by Stan Deatherage    Click on image to expand to as much as 1000 pixels.
    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.