Carolina Politics Online

In reacting to news that the Greenville County School District may have won its court battle to levy six more mills next year, Butch Taylor, president of the Greenville County Taxpayers Association, this morning attacked the district’s spending program

“They have an enormous appetite for spending money,” Taylor said. “They’ve got a steak taste on a hamburger budget sometimes, and they’ve just got to eat hamburger sometimes like the rest of us do. Sometimes it’s not even that, it’s bologna, if we’re lucky.”

School board chairman Dr. Keith Ray and a school district attorney said last week that Greenville County Circuit Court Judge John Few announced his intention “to rule in favor of the state cap being applied to the district and not the local cap.”

The broader state cap, which allows tax increases based on population growth and inflation should be used, which would allow a six-mill increase this year for a budget of $451.5 million, Ray said.

The Greenville News

School districts across the country waste exhorbitant amounts of money on ineffective administrative positions and top of the line athletic facilities that sometimes rival a university, just to give a few examples.  It doesn’t take a whole of money to hire quality educators who can teach children reading, writing, and arithmetic.  School boards throw more and more money at public schools every year and they turn out a mediocre product at best.  Walk into any university and ask yourself why all the medical and science students are foreigners.  The answer is simple.  Young American adults are too stupid to enter those fields because they were not properly educated in the government schools.

Getting to Greenville County Schools in particular, while I agree with Taylor’s assessment at the macro level, Greenville actually ranks 75th out of the 85 school districts in South Carolina in terms of per pupil spending, so they are one of the most money conscious in the state.  Now that doesn’t mean they still don’t waste money and could afford to trim back a little.  The property tax increase they are asking for is rather substantial and I am willing to bet they could trim the fat a bit if they really made the effort.  This is a problem experienced with any bureaucracy and it exists due to the ignorance of the voters.

According to the South Carolina Department of Education, Greenville County Schools spent $7,163 per student in the 2006 fiscal year.  That’s more on par with our European counterparts, but even though Greenville has a reputation for being one of the better school districts in the state in terms of academic achievement, I would still bet on the Belgian kid to beat the pants out Greenville’s students in an academic decathlon. 

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.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 18, 2008
Contact: Brock McCleary
(202) 225-2576

McHenry Named “Hero of the Taxpayer”

WASHINGTON - Congressman Patrick McHenry recently received the “Hero of the Taxpayer” award by the nation’s leading taxpayer advocacy group, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR).

“Commitment and dedication to taxpayer’s interests, has been imperative in the fight against excessive taxation in the 1st session of the 100th Congress,” said Grover Norquist, President of ATR. “These Congressional ratings allow taxpayers to see, when it comes to their hard-earned money, exactly who the heroes and the ‘villains’ are in Congress. It is clear that Patrick McHenry has proven to be a hero.”

ATR double-rates the “Taxpayer Protection Pledge” in all its Congressional scorecards. The Pledge is a written promise offered to every incumbent and candidate opposing “any and all tax increases.” Patrick McHenry signed the Pledge when he first ran for Congress in 2004.

“I have never voted for a tax increase on Western North Carolina families and never will. With a federal budget that is expected to grow to $3.1 trillion next year, there is no reason why the federal
government can’t meet its obligations, and then some, without raising taxes,” Congressman McHenry stated.

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The General Assembly bill would require vendors to refund tickets if they are counterfeit or not delivered on time, and would tax the Internet sale of tickets at prices above face value.

Supporters say they want to protect fans from buying fake tickets. Opponents argue that legalized scalping in any form allows resellers to hoard tickets and price ordinary fans — taxpayers — out of the best seats at the most popular events.

“North Carolinians shouldn’t have to pay a scalping premium for entertainment that in many cases they’re already subsidizing via tax revenue or public buildings,” said Shana Becker, attorney for the N.C. Public Interest Research Group.

The N&O

Well, this simplest solution, and the one I support in a perfect world, is for taxpayers to not have to subsidize these stadiums to begin with. But since that’s never gonna happen, what’s the second best option?

I’ve always been kinda torn on the whole scalping issue. On one hand, if you bought the ticket, it belongs to you. You should be able to do whatever you want with it, and if in a free market someone is willing to buy it off you for a higher price, well praise Adam Smith!

However, the ticket is only a ticket to the actual seat, which does NOT belong to you (though in a subsidized stadium… oh never mind). And I don’t like the idea of people being able to buy hordes of tickets in order to spike the price.

So I’m looking for some direction on this. Any comments from the peanut gallery?

Oh, and I’m fully aware that the only real reason the General Assembly passed this bill was so they could tax higher resale values. Hopefully you were too.

The council’s meeting room holds about 300 people and was almost full. Many arrived an hour before the mayor’s gavel dropped to ensure they had seats to show their support or disdain for the city’s moves toward discouraging bike rally visitors in Myrtle Beach, including passage of a 3-mill property tax increase to fund as-yet-undetermined anti-rally efforts.

Mayor John Rhodes gave each person three minutes to speak during the 30-minute public forum period at the beginning of the meeting. There’s another at the end of every meeting, but those who spoke didn’t even take up the first half hour, and all left when it was over.

The audience appeared to be about 60 percent against the rallies, 40 percent for. Some of those who were there in support of the rallies sported Harley-Davidson patches and insignias to support the 10-day Harley-Davidson rally in May and the shorter, smaller one in October.

The Sun News

I still believe that if Myrtle Beach goes through with this they are going to seriously regret it.  That city’s entire economy is tourism based and they would be throwing out some of their best customers by putting the squash on these bike weeks.  How are they going to replace the bikers with the vacationing families they are looking for?  There is no guarantee they can and they are going to waste millions of tax dollars to run ads and other such methods of enticing these folks there when they can spend no money at all to keep the same revenue streaming in as it is today with the bikers.  What sense does that make?  Furthermore, they don’t even know how they are going to spend that money anyway?  Who the hell would raise property taxes with no clue what they’re going to do with it and what moron would back up a politician who advocates such a think.  Intelligence among the Myrtle Beach City Council seems to be lacking.

Good luck to them trying to bring in new tourists.  I avoide Myrtle Beach because I think it is trashy and too touristy as it is and I know others who feel the same way.  The bikers willing go there annually despite that and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars there.

RALEIGH — Gov. Mike Easley, seeking cost savings to head off a potential revenue shortfall in the coming fiscal year, urged Democratic legislative leaders Friday to consider scrapping some agreed-upon tax relief and spend less on state employee salaries.

The governor’s appeal to fellow Democrats came a day after he warned lawmakers that tax collections would probably be $70 million less than projected last month when the current fiscal year ends Tuesday.

Charlotte Observer

Because God forbid we could just back on the spending instead, right?  Imagine the horror if we cut back on some of that corporate welfare.  Picture the terror if we cut back on some Medicaid entitlements.  It’s always stick it to the working folks instead.

State lawmakers are considering a plan that would provide a tax credit to parents of special-needs students who send their children to private schools.

Members of the House Education Committee discussed a bill Monday that would provide up to $6,000 a year to such families. Under changes approved by the committee Monday, home schools would be ineligible for the tax credit for tuition expenses.

The Fayetteville Observer

How about go a step further and provide a tax credit to any family that wants to send their kids to private school.  If the government schools don’t begin to actually teach something all of these kids are going to have special needs by the time they graduate.

Cary’s property-tax rate is back at 33 cents.

The Town Council voted 5-2 Friday morning to back down the tax rate only 36 hours after raising it to 37 cents.

Jennifer Robinson, for whom the decision to vote for the 37-cent rate on Wednesday was visibly difficult, asked the council to reconsider.

She cited her earlier ambivalence and the state of the economy as reasons she wanted to switch.

“I don’t think anybody feels good about it,” Robinson said.

Don Frantz and Gale Adcock also switched their votes.

Mayor Harold Weinbrecht and Julie Robison voted against setting the property-tax rate at 33 cents.

Weinbrecht said he was concerned about the impact that the lower rate would have on funding for parks and road projects.

“I think at 33 [cents] we’re cutting” some of those projects, Weinbrecht said.

The Cary News

Well, at least they got it right the second time. When people are struggling just to buy groceries, local governments have to cut back. Somebody tell Mayor Weinbrecht that his projects can wait until his constituents stop hurting financially.

CMS Superintendent Peter Gorman has been huffing and puffing about the $18 million the County Commissioners refused to give him of the $28 million increase he requested for the 2008-09 school year. I’m glad they didn’t cave in to his threats of cutting teachers’ positions and other “programs” (he’s never specific). While I still think that the $10 million they agreed on is too much, they were correct in significantly paring down his request. In his two years as superintendent Gorman has not shown himself to be any agent of change. While he pontificates on how the school board should have their own taxing authority to be able to raise the money they “need”, he and the board have shown themselves to be anything but responsible stewards of the money allocated to them to run the school district.

While Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools faces a budget season that Superintendent Peter Gorman has warned could lead to potentially devastating cuts at the schoolhouse level, the district’s Communications Division engine steams forward, fueled by a nearly $4 million budget and a staff of just less than 30 employees.

The Communications Division is the umbrella group for the district’s Public Information Department, CMS TV3 and the Department of Strategic Partnerships. Since the 2004-05 school year, its budget has more than doubled, exploding from $1.73 million to the 2007-08 adopted budget of $3.57 million.

And it’s not done growing. Under the Communications Division’s proposed 2008-09 budget, its total take would have jumped to a whopping $3.84 million, to include the addition of a so-called World Class Service branch. That proposal got nixed during discussions leading up to the superintendent’s approved budget, when several school board members said the World Class Service expansion was overblown.

Rhino Times

This is a perfect example of misplaced priorities and mismanagement of school tax dollars. Why on Earth does CMS need to have a gargantuan budget dedicated to communications? The purpose of the government schools is to supposedly educated peoples’ children so why is a media department taking priority over buses and classrooms? This department has significantly grown under Gorman’s watch.

How much money is spent on CMS’s different programs? There must be close to 100 different departments in the district, many which are not directly related to the basics of education. Are all of these departments even effective at achieving their stated goal? How many administrators and other non-educating personnel are employed and what is the effect of their salary and benefits expenses on the district? My personal favorite is the district employed “Diversity Specialist.” How much money is he drawing in each year to essentially do nothing productive? Shouldn’t the school board be looking at these departments before teachers and buses?  These are the questions that need to be asked.

As I noted earlier, Gorman and the school board are pushing to have the state grant them their own taxing authority. Bill James said it best on the consequences of such a decision.

“They hide behind the phrase ‘it’s all for the children,’” James, a Republican, said. “I’m not about to give them taxing authority when they fail to address the core reason for their being, which is to close the achievement gap and produce intelligent, articulate children. CMS isn’t doing that and in my opinion they don’t deserve to be awarded because they can’t be trusted. Giving CMS taxing authority would be a recipe for disaster.”

Precisley. If they can’t succeed now with the billion and a half dollar budget they are currently using why should they be trusted with the power to waste even more money? I’ve lived in areas where school boards have taxing powers and it is exactly the disaster James described. The Pittsburgh Public School system in Pennsylvania has a budget that is higher than the city’s and one third of the students enrolled never end up graduating. They have taxing power and they tax the hell out of the city residents and it makes no difference.

The school district should not be granted this authority under any circumstances. The County Commission needs to be involved to act as a buffer. If the school board is given this authority they will rapidly increase their expenditures which will result in higher taxes that will push residents and businesses out of the city turning a once vibrant town into a run down shell of its former self. It’s already happened to major cities all over this country.

DURHAM — A public-employee union has fired a parting blast at City Manager Patrick Baker’s administration, criticizing its handling of holiday payrolls and a city policy that penalizes workers who are behind in paying their taxes.

The Herald-Sun

My point here is in regards to the penalization policy of those behind in their taxes. Apparently, city managers are allowed to suspend workers who do not have their taxes paid on time and/or go delinquent. That sounds fair to me. These peoples’ salaries are paid for with other peoples’ tax dollars. If they can’t meet the responsibility of paying their own taxes, why should they continue to get paid by other people who have met their obligation?

WRAL.com

Sen. Julia Boseman kept to legislative business Tuesday, trying her best to downplay recent revelations that she smoked marijuana the year before she was elected to the Legislature and that she had defaulted on a $1.3 million loan on her former coastal home.

The unpleasant disclosures generated compassion from Democratic colleagues in the Senate, where powerful Senate leader Marc Basnight called her an excellent lawmaker.

“Prior to her being elected, obviously, she made mistakes. She admitted to those mistakes, and she’s deeply sorry for what happened in her past,” said Basnight, D-Dare. “In life, if we punish those who make mistakes, then no one would be elected.”

Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, however, said he was concerned – particularly about the unpaid taxes.

“The people in New Hanover County will have to make the decision, whether (her problems have) something to do with her ability to perform her duties as an elected member of the North Carolina Senate,” Berger said.

Basnight says “In life, if we punish those who make mistakes, then no one would be elected.” You know how stupid and arrogant that sounds? So what is Basnight hiding in his past? It seems that when Democrats are breaking laws or committing immoral acts it is ok. And Senator Marc Basnight has deemed it in his best interest to protect the entrenched corruption and dishonesty in the North Carolina Democratic party.

ASHEVILLE – City taxpayers will help subsidize a performing arts center, a film festival, golf and buses to the tune of $2.2 million next year, supplementing services and facilities meant to support themselves through fees.

The services are set up as enterprise funds, operating like private businesses, according to the city finance staff. User fees are supposed to cover the costs.

But next year, elected officials plan to subsidize four enterprise funds with $2.2 million in city money, $2.4 million in state and federal taxpayer dollars and $248,000 from another enterprise fund. The money will go to transit, festivals, including the Asheville Film Festival, the Asheville Civic Center and the Municipal Golf Course.

Asheville Citizen-Times

Less then two months ago, Asheville was projecting a $3.9 million deficit for next year’s budget if all services were to remain at current cost. There have been discussions among the City Council of rolling back tax breaks due to this projected loss.  The posting I made on this subject was responded to by Gordon Smith, author of Scrutiny Hooligans, who said,

I don’t recall the frivolous spending you describe. It’s called an economic downturn.

How now, does the City of Asheville explain to the taxpayers that they can afford $2.2 million in frivolous expenditures that are not vital city functions?

My “esteemed” Congressman Jack Spratt (D-SC-05) who most certainly has had his share of fat, is running around bragging about the record $3.1 trillion budget that the Democrat Controlled Congress has passed in Washington. This is a reckless and irresponsible budget for a great many reasons.

One, it eliminates cuts to Medicare and Medicaid which are both a huge drain on our tax dollars and becoming more of a financial burden on the Federal government with each passing year. These entitlement programs need to be drastically cut back or they are going to consume a piece of the pie far too large for us to sustain in the not so distant future. The budget also expands SCHIP, another Socialist entitlement program that addicts our newborn citizens to the government nanny state the moment they exit the womb.

Spratt claims that we will have a balanced budget by 2012 with a large surplus, but that is also a flawed assessment. This balance will only be achieved if the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire which will result in the largest tax increase in American history, heavily hitting the middle class and if the are no further military expenses regarding operations in Iraq and Afghanistan after 2009. If John McCain becomes President that is out the window and if Barack Obama becomes President it’s not likely to happen despite what he says.

This is a feckless spending plan that throws the baby out with the bath water.

There are three candidates in the Tuesday’s primary to determine who the Republican nominee will be for the 12th Senate District. The 12th covers part of Spartanburg County and is currently represented by State Senator John Hawkins who is thankfully retiring. The three candidates are business owner Lee Bright, State Representative Scott Talley of the 34th State House District, and business L.B. Watson.

Bright has a firm and outspoken position on lowering the income tax burden on state residents and reigning in the disgusting 40% growth of government we have experienced over the past three years in Columbia. He is correct in his assessment that if we lower the income tax and institute some type of tort reform it will be a beacon for industrial growth here in South Carolina.

Talley also has a taxpayer friendly record. Governor Mark Sanford named him a “taxpayer hero” for his efforts at cutting taxes and frivolous spending.

As a State Representative, Scott:

• Served on the committee that drafted the property tax relief package…cutting property taxes by $500,000,000.

• Backed a plan to eliminate grocery taxes, saving taxpayers $200 million per year.

• Supported a plan to cut income taxes by $86 million per year.

• Pushed a plan to suspend the state’s $16.75-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax for three months.

• Introduced a plan to cap state spending at the rate of population growth plus the growth in personal income..

Scott has also consistently backed a plan that limits the growth of government spending to population + inflation.

L.B. Watson has also proclaimed himself to be have a conservative view on spending public dollars. I’ve a harder time finding more information on him.

I think the state will probably do well with any one of these guys in the Senate which is a nice change of pace and they’ll certainly be an improvement over Hawkins. This is a win-win situation no matter the outcome.

Buddy Witherspoon has called for an end to the Federal Income Tax and has instead advocated for the Fair Tax in its place. The Fair Tax would be a 23% national sales tax on all new goods and services. While I am an advocate of ridding us of the income tax and I am glad to see Witherspoon supporting this, I gave up hope a long time ago of this ever becoming a reality. However, it’s still important to try and get people into Washington who share the vision of the tax’s abolition.

The County Commissioners in Durham have been pushing their representatives in the state legislature to propose and pass a bill that would allow them to implement a 1% sales tax on all restaurant meals and bar tabs.  The purpose of this is for funding cultural amenities, such as the proposed Minor League Baseball museum that has been getting discussion.

As far as I am concerned this is a waste of money.  It’s not the city or county’s place to using taxpayer dollars to fund a baseball museum.  Putting that point aside, however, the response to this by the President of the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association isn’t a sensible one.

It believes the tax “would be harmful to Durham County citizens and restaurants because it is highly regressive, hurting lower-income citizens significantly more than higher-income citizens,” association President Paul Stone

That’s just simply not the case.  Lower income individuals are not dining out because they can’t afford it with or without this tax.  Even with those that do, the tax is only 1% of the bill.  On a $50 bill that’s 50 cents.  It’s the same argument Paul Luebke was making initially and I pointed out how absurd it was.

In any  case, this tax isn’t needed and if it does go on the ballot it should be voted down.

Mecklenburg County commissioners moved a step closer Wednesday night toward asking voters for a quarter-cent sales tax increase to fight crime.

By a 5-to-3 vote, commissioners declared their intent to put a tax referendum on the Nov. 4 ballot. They’ll vote later to actually authorize the measure.

Wednesday’s vote split along party lines, with all five Democrats voting in favor of the plan.

A quarter-cent increase would push Mecklenburg’s sales tax to 7.5 percent. The current rate is already highest in the state.

Charlotte Observer

It’s absurd that they would request another tax increase to fund something they should already be funding out of existing revenue.  The city has blown money on stadiums, arenas, public transportation, etc instead of putting it where it should have been in the first place.  Voters should reject this tax and demand that the county cut back on its excess.

The bill would eliminate North Carolina’s gift tax, which currently generates about $18 million annually for the state. North Carolina is one of only four states that has such a tax, according to legislative documents.

Someone who gives more than $12,000 in cash or other items must pay a tax ranging from 1 percent to 17 percent on the amount given above that threshold, depending on the size of the gift and whether the donor is related to the recipient.

The Herald-Sun

I have never heard of this before.  What a stupid tax.  You’ve already been taxed on the money to begin with when you earned it and the government wanted people to pay more tax for giving it away?  Why tax you for giving it away?  That’s absurd.  I’m glad to see this was repealed by a unanimous vote.

House members don’t mind higher fees for divorces, but they’re not crazy about charging more for marriages.

House budget writers had proposed a $10 bump in the marriage license fee, to $60, and $10 in the court fees for divorce, to $65. The money would pay to expand domestic violence shelters.

Asheville Citizen-Times

Why do we even have a marriage license in the first place? I have never understood the purpose this (well, I know the purpose. It’s another revenue stream for nanny). If I want to get married I have to have permission from the government first? What the hell business is it of theirs? How was this ever allowed to happen?

A proposal that passed the House Finance Committee this morning would boost the state earned-income tax credit from 3.5 percent to 5 percent of a similar federal credit.

The state would return an estimated $21 million more to taxpayers per year, for a total of $70 million under the credit.

If the proposal becomes law, legislators drawing up this year’s state budget would have to cut spending or find another way to way to offset that loss of revenue.

The credit is refundable, meaning even workers who don’t earn enough to pay income taxes would receive money.

Asheville Citizen-Times

So it’s a welfare handout.  I’m certainly not opposed to people getting back what they paid, but why are people who haven’t paid any income tax receiving an “earned income tax credit?”  That’s realistically impossible for them to receive a credit on money they haven’t paid so this Marxist transfer of wealth from one class of people to another is wrongly named.