You can shift money around AND change the entity’s name — but it’s STILL a bureaucratic, money-bleeding mess | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: Brant Clifton returns to discuss the NC Rural Center scandal, and all that surrounds it, in his "bare knuckles" Conservative online publication known as The Daily Haymaker.

    Earlier this year, we got bombarded with information about what a cronyism-infested money-wasting mess the state's Rural Center was.

    State commerce secretary Sharon Decker was in town recently on one of those 'listening tours' that we *love* so much. Decker sang the praises of "public-private partnerships" as something revolutionary and innovative that will pull the state out of its economic doldrums. OK. We've got ALL THESE existing public-private "partners." WHY on Earth are we creating MORE?

    In the wake of the Rural Center scandal, that group was dissolved and its funding and scope of work were rolled into the footprint of Commerce. How does that put a stop to the cronyism and the money-wasting?

    Decker is also touting a NYC trip with leaders of some "regional partnerships." They're going to meet with some "consultants" who will turn things around here in good ol' NC.

    We voted in 2012 for radical change in state government. Yet, in some cases, we appear to be getting cosmetic makeovers for livestock. (I thought the, um, conservative party in this state was all about getting the government's claws out of stuff.) Creating new organizations that talk a lot, generate a lot of paper, and spend a lot of money all in the name of "economic development" is nothing new. Running off to NYC to dangle special tax breaks and other goodies in front of out-of-state mega-companies who will leave us for one-dollar-more is a slap in the face to folks who have been committed to The Tar Heel State for years.

    Why not partner with the GOP leadership in the General Assembly to create an environment that is beneficial to ANYONE wishing to start a business and create jobs in North Carolina? Groups of political and business elites running off to meetings in exotic locations at taxpayer expense won't cut it.

    In the first year of incorporation in North Carolina, the state could defer payment of the first year's taxes to tax year #2. In tax year #2, you pay your second year bill PLUS 50 percent of what you would have owed in year one. You could eliminate corporate taxes altogether.

    Stop running off to movie producers in L.A. and business consultants in NYC. There an awful lot of people right here in North Carolina with ideas they'd love to expand on - if it weren't for the onerous tax and regulatory burdens.