Jul 19 2008
N.C. Legislature Ends Session
The session of the North Carolina State Legislature came to a close last night after two months of a pretty heavy agenda. They managed to get some good proposals through such as Jessica’s Law and stricters probation guidelines, the lack of which arguably caused the death of Eve Carson. However, they dropped on some stuff too. They failed to address the state’s growing congested highways and while they didn’t raise taxes, they didn’t really reign in spending either. In fact, they authorized over $800 million in debt spending. What’s striking about that is that there was no reason to if they cut out the needless pork.
The Civitas Institute has a complete list of the $159 million in pork spending the General Assembly authorized for this fiscal year. Some of my favorites are the $2 million in taxpayer money for the Oyster Sanctuary Program, $800,000 for industry promotion funds to the Wine and Grape Growers Council, and $2.9 million to renovate and expand the polar bear exhibit at the North Carolina zoo.
Bear in mind that Mike Easley was opposed to the Senate’s plan to cut some taxes because he we are in a recession and the state needs the money.
