The Follies

From NC Policy Watch

By Chris Fitzsimon
Debunking the high-tax rhetoric one more time
It's always interesting to note when a national study or report names North Carolina one of the best places in the country to do business.
The Governor's office sends out a press release, a few media outlets mention it briefly and the next day the anti-government crowd resumes making their ridiculous claims that state tax and regulatory policies make it virtually impossible for companies to operate here.
They almost always include the talking point that North Carolina taxes are the highest in the Southeast (they're not by the way) and that the state is losing jobs to its neighbors because it's so hostile to business and free enterprise.
That was the script again this week as CNBC released its annual ranking of the top states in the country for business. North Carolina was 4th, and made the biggest jump in the rankings from the previous year.  The results are worth looking at in a little more detail.
One of the criteria was the cost of doing business, which included taxes, utility costs, workers; compensation insurance, etc.   North Carolina ranked 15th in that category, but ahead of southern states like Georgia, Louisiana, Virginia, even Texas, the top-ranked state overall.
The cost of doing business in North Carolina is lower than it is in Texas. That's not something we hear very often during the debate in the General Assembly about taxes or regulation. Or on the campaign trail.
Empty your wallet scratch-off game
The North Carolina Exploitation Lottery unveiled three new games this week, always a reason to celebrate. One of them is an instant scratch-off game appropriately named "Break the Bank."
It does bring to mind a lot of other ideas for instant scratch-off games, "empty your wallet," "waste your savings,"  "throwaway your kids college education," or "take a chance with grocery money."
The possibilities are endless once you decide to fund education by convincing people to buy lottery tickets.
The UNC PAC is reloading
Here's another interesting note from the campaign finance reports that were filed this week by candidates for state office and political action committees. Citizens for Higher Education, the PAC funded by wealthy supporters of UNC-Chapel Hill has just under $180,000 in the bank and that's after already contributing $58,000 to legislators campaigns this election cycle.
The PAC handed out $479,000 to legislators' campaigns in the 2008 elections, so plenty more cash is likely on the way to campaign coffers from the well-heeled UNCers.
This legislative session, lawmakers finally repealed the provision that let out-of-state athletes pay in-state tuition, which has been a $10 million windfall for the athletic booster clubs that pay for athletic scholarships.
The PAC continues to employ two lobbyists to patrol the legislative halls on its behalf, even though UNC-Chapel Hill has its own lobbyist and the university's interests are also represented by the folks from the university system who work with legislators on a daily basis.
The booster club subsidy is gone for now thank goodness, but it's hard to rest when the fatcats who support it are still throwing their money around.
From the Fringe
There's plenty to choose from for this week's From the Fringe. Angry Locker Jon Ham is still seeing a liberal media conspiracy behind every tree.
Ham was upset that a national story carried in the News & Observer about the NAACP's resolution about the tea party movement incorrectly capitalized the word democratic in a quote by a tea party official.
The N&O reported the statement this way. "There's no room for that kind of vitriolic language in a civilized Democratic society," Shelton said.
Democratic little d is the correct usage.
Sloppy copy editing you might think?  Ham is sure there's much more to it, either the reporter intentionally used the capital D, or more likely used it by accident which Ham thinks would be far worse, because it reveals a "deep and unconscious bias."
Maybe he could help crack the code behind the common misuse of the word Capitol, which only refers to a building, not a city.
It all seems to add up to a covert plot to overthrow the government through carefully and diabolically placed grammatical errors. Be on the lookout. You have been warned.
Ham's not the only one on the Right breathlessly hyperbolic this week. The Locker's Asheville ranter uses this headline to criticize a story in the Hendersonville paper about Congressman Health Shuler's position on legislation allowing public employees to collectively bargain.
"Mollycoddled Weasel Words to Bring Down a Nation."   Letting firefighters collectively bargain would destroy America? Who knew?
The fear-mongering even finds its way into the Lockers event announcements. One for something called a citizen's constitutional workshop proclaims that "the past 100 years of Progressive Ideology have almost destroyed the US Constitution."
We are hanging by a thread ladies and gentleman.  Our nation is at risk. Make sure all your subjects and verbs agree and please, please, don't make any mistakes in Capitalization capitalization.