Red Clay Citizen

Annexation and Taxation without Representation

The proposed committee substitute for House Bill 524 (a combination of house bills 524, 645, and 727) is a really bad plan.

If this bill becomes law, cities and towns would be able to annex, with the approval of the Local Government Commission, and collect taxes for three years, but ultimately never provide services.

The LGC is a government board that deals with local governments' financial issues. Board members include the State Treasurer, Secretary of the Department of Revenue, Secretary of State, State Auditor, and a handful of appointed lawyers and former city officials.

Legislators in committee described LGC oversight as “meaningful” and emphasized its power to deny annexation proposals that are not financially feasible. The bill does give the LGC that power, but in reality it is unlikely that the LGC will use it wisely. If you take a good look at the board members, it’s pretty obvious that they won’t be paying much attention to the interests of the annexees.

LGC oversight will probably be a rubber stamp that allows cities and towns to collect property taxes from people they never intend to provide services. The bill extends the window for the provision of services from two to three years. If after three years no services have been provided, cities and towns must stop charging taxes.

In short, this bill allows local governments to use involuntary annexation as a way to fill temporary budget holes. It gives them the power (with rubber stamp approval) to levy taxes on people who will never really be part of the city or town and will never receive any services.

NC needs annexation reform, but this bill is not the answer. 

Gambling OK - As Long as it is State-Sponsored (Part 2)

Video poker is bad.  It's harmful to society because people fall prone to its addictive nature many argue.

So any attempts to allow video poker in North Carolina should be opposed as well, correct?

Well, yes, but only if private enterprise are the ones running the operation according to NC Lottery Director Tom Shaheen.

In a Charlotte Observer article today, he argues that IF video poker is allowed, it should be operated by the Lottery.

Trade group representatives recently asked Tom Shaheen, the lottery's executive director, about the possible return of the machines. According to Shaheen spokeswoman Pam Walker, he told them that any legalized video poker should be run under the lottery.

So gambling is bad if private industry is earning the profits, but OK if government is the one profiting?  This hypocrisy is just plain laughable.

DC Vouchers, RIP

   A voucher program that sent poor minority students to the school of their parents' choice in the District of Columbia has been killed by liberals in Washington.  Why do they fear giving parents a choice?  The education industrial complex is hell bent on making sure they keep an iron clad monopoly on our students. Reason has a great take on the matter. This cartoon from Red Planet Cartoons recalls my experiences with a global warming hysteric masquerading as public school science teacher.  Keep your political agendas out of my children's classroom.

Tea Party Protests Taking Off!

Elected officials beware! Last night a "Tea Party" in Wilmington drew up to 1,000 people to protest against against ever expanding government. You can watch video in the above link from WECT-TV and in this story and this story from the Wilmington Star-News.

Local folks along with radio host Curtis Wright from "The Big Talker FM" and Americans for Prosperity North Carolina organized the tea party and dumped 80 pounds of tea into the Cape Fear river. The protest drew hundreds of people who had previously never attended a public rally. They came together to protest events at the national and state level and to protest a specific local issue - Forced Annexation (along with high local taxes) of the Monkey Junction area of New Hanover County by the city of Wilmington.

The one thing elected officials at all levels of government fear is an educated and engaged electorate. They count on citizens being too preoccupied with the chores of daily living to pay attention to what they do and hold them accountable for their actions. In most cases they feel that only they "understand" the problems and the solutions and will take action with the belief that by the next election the voters will either not vote or have forgotten their anger.

We can only hope that the people who are taking time out of their busy schedules to attend the "Tea Party" in their local community will stay engaged. For a listing of Tea Parties around the state in the coming weeks click here.

Guns: two different views

A NC House Judiciary debated House Bill 270 by Representatives Hilton, Steen, Burr, Cleveland (same as Senate Bill 235) which is “an act to allow persons with concealed handgun permits to protect themselves and their families in restaurants.”  In practice this would allow people who have been trained and licensed under state law and regulations to legally carry their handgun into a restaurant.  Of the 48 states that allow concealed carry, 38 allow this practice and no one at the hearing could give an example of any problems with allowing this practice (I am citing these from memory so don’t hold me to exact numbers).

I currently do not have a concealed carry permit but intend on getting one in the near future. The people who take the time and trouble to get the permit, which includes background checks, are law abiding responsible people. There are no reports in the media of these people running wild in the streets. On the other hand we do have daily reports of people who do not have permits, and don’t worry about the law, shooting people in the street and using weapons in violent robberies - their actions are the strongest case for allowing people to legally carry their handgun wherever they go.

Representatives from both sides of this debate attended and spoke at the hearing but I found the comments of two legislators most illustrative of the divide over freedom and personal protection.  Rep. Susan Fisher (D – Buncombe) stated that “…guns should not be convenient…” while Rep. Laura Wiley (R – Guilford) stated “…this is about defense of yourself and your family…”

Guns already are convenient to criminals; the people backing this bill are just trying to level the playing field. It increases personal liberty while requiring people to act responsibly with that freedom.

Personal freedom and personal responsibility, two things which conservatives and all Americans should heartily embrace!

Students Want Guns On Campus

Students at NC State University last month held a clever little protest where they wore empty holsters on campus to call attention to the vulnerability of so called "gun free" campuses.  After the massacre at Virginia Tech, students want to know why they can not lawfully defend themselves against an armed attacker.  The universities have, in effect, become a soft target for the killer who only wants to end as many lives as possible before taking his own or going down in a hail of police bullets.

How different would Blacksburg been if students were armed?  We don't have to guess what would have happened because it did happen.  Five years before and only 130 miles from the Virginia Tech massacre a killer was stopped in his tracks by armed students that had retrieved guns from their cars.  The Appalachian school of Law in Grundy, Virginia (Bev Perdue's hometown) was the scene of an on campus shooting that was stopped by armed students.  (Needless to say, the media wasn't quick to tell the story.)

But, if you are a student that would like to see legally carried guns on campus, you might want to keep that proposal to your self.  A student in Connecticut laid out his position during a class project in his communications class as was promptly reported to the university administration as a violence risk and questioned by campus police. UNCW's professor Mike Adams has the details.

We used to have a concept in this country known as criminal intent that tended to keep honest people from being charged with gothcha style justice.  What ever happened to that idea?  Hang in there Holster Boys!  Common sense may appear on your campus one day.

The Rich vs. Politicians

Walter Williams pens this article that should make class-warriors take pause. What has puzzled me for a long time is how lefties love to demonize wealthy individuals in the private sector who have acquired their wealth from voluntary transactions as "oppressors" or "exploiters". Meanwhile, these same lefties turn a blind eye to politicians who accrue power only through the threat (and use) of force, and gladly endorse policies that force people who are doing nobody any harm to do things they don't want to do.

As Williams puts it:

Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, with about $60 billion in assets each, are America's richest men. With all that money, what can they force us to do? Can they take our house to make room so that another person can build an auto dealership or a casino parking lot? Can they force us to pay money into the government-run retirement Ponzi scheme called Social Security? Can Buffett and Gates force us to bus our children to schools out of our neighborhood in the name of diversity? Unless they are granted power by politicians, rich people have little power to force us to do anything.

A GS-9, or a lowly municipal clerk, has far more life-and-death power over us. It's they to whom we must turn to for permission to build a house, ply a trade, open a restaurant and a myriad of other activities. It's government people, not rich people, who have the power to coerce and make our lives miserable.

SC vs. NC

In a past post, that will likely become a regular feature, I contrasted the difference between North and South Carolina by examining the types of license plates each state's legislature have authorized.

Word now comes from our conservative cousins to our south of a forthcoming sales tax holiday.  Both states have tax holidays for back to school supplies and North Carolina just completed a sales tax holiday for energy efficient appliances. So what, pray tell, could South Carolina temporarily exempt from sales taxes next?

How about guns?  The South Carolina Legislature authorized a sales tax holiday on firearms on November 28th and 29th. Nothing warms the heart quite like the feeling you get when you purchase a firearm for the holidays and cut the state out of the revenue at the same time.

North Carolina: Growing Less Free Every Year!

I recently wrote about North Carolina's disappointing economic trends since 2001. Rising poverty, unemployment consistently above the national average, job and income growth lagging national and regional averages were among the findings.

Now, we can add to that list: less economic freedom.

The Pacific Research Institute recently released their U.S. Economic Freedom Index for 2008. In it, North Carolina is ranked 36th, with 1 being "most free" and 50 being "least free." Compare this with NC's ranking in 1999 of 17, and we can see one reason why NC's economic growth has been sluggish.

The Index is based on 143 indicators, including "tax rates, state spending, occupational licensing, environmental regulations, income redistribution, right-to-work and prevailing-wage laws, and tort reform, to name just a few."

North Carolina's drop of 19 slots since 1999 was the second largest drop-off of any state (Texas). This trend does not bode well, and reflects on the "bigger is better" attitude about government acted upon by state leaders.

Back to Basics: Bastiat's "The Law"

If you haven't yet read "The Law" by Frederic Bastiat, I recommend you do so. It won't take you long - its only 76 pages. The brevity of this work is perfectly appropriate as the proper role of government, and the law it enforces, is quite minimal.

In his weekly column out today, Sheldon Richman reminds us of Bastiat's seminal work - describing it aptly as "the best antidote for the toxic demagoguery that issues forth from across the political spectrum" during this election season.

Richman cites some of his favorite passages:

"What, then, is law? It is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense.... If every person has the right to defend -- even by force -- his person, his liberty, and his property, then it follows that a group of men have the right to organize and support a common force to protect these rights constantly. Thus the principle of collective right -- its reason for existing, its lawfulness -- is based on individual right."

"When a portion of wealth is transferred from the person who owns it -- without his consent and without compensation, and whether by force or by fraud -- to anyone who does not own it, then I say that property is violated; that an act of plunder is committed.

I say that this act is exactly what the law is supposed to suppress, always and everywhere. When the law itself commits this act that it is supposed to suppress, I say that plunder is still committed, and I add that from the point of view of society and welfare, this aggression against rights is even worse."