Rent Seekers Think You Are Undertaxed

A coalition of rent seekers are scheduled to have a press conference tomorrow outside the General Assembly building tomorrow.

On Tuesday, 80 groups will join at the legislature to tell lawmakers they favor "a balanced approach" of tax increases and strategic cuts to solve the state's estimated $4 billion shortfall. Calling itself Together NC, the coalition of nonprofits, service providers and groups such as the NC Justice Center, will hold a news conference at 10:30 a.m. on Jones Street outside the legislature.

The common bond of the 80 groups? They all rely (at least in part) on coerced taxpayer dollars, rather than voluntary contributions, for their existence. So naturally their "balanced approach" relies more on the tax hikes than the strategic cuts to balance the budget. And you can bet that "strategic cuts" is code for "cut other spending, but not ours!"

When Together NC was formed, Civitas offered this press release identifying the group's questionable tactics in attempting to make their plea.

According to their (Together NC's)  "Get the Facts" page:

“Spending isn’t the problem. The reality is that spending per person is actually down from eight years ago. This is a fiscally conservative state, and we don’t go on spending sprees.”

“The ‘spending per person is actually down from eight years ago’ is an embarrassingly misleading use of data. Legislators and citizens should not be fooled,” said Brian Balfour, a policy analyst for the Civitas Institute.  “Together NC cherry-picked this isolated outlier as some sort of ‘evidence’ that state spending is trending down in North Carolina, but the overwhelming amount of data indicates the opposite.”

A more complete summary of spending trends (as detailed here) reveals that overall spending trends are up dramatically:

Even after adjusting for inflation, per person budgeted spending in North Carolina is:

• Up 13.2 percent over 5 years
• Up 8 percent over 10 years
• Up 25.7 percent over 15 years
• Up 94 percent over 25 years

“Inflation-adjusted, per-person General Fund spending nearly doubled in the last 25 years, but according to Together NC, North Carolina doesn't ‘go on spending sprees.’ Such claims are disingenuous and intended to blur reality,” said Balfour.

“Furthermore, North Carolina’s state debt more than doubled in just six years (2001-2007). Even Together NC would be hard pressed to honestly describe such a feat as ‘fiscally conservative.’ It is quite disappointing that Together NC would resort to such questionable tactics to garner attention for their agenda.”