Fitzsimon File

Driver licenses for immigrants will be a major battleground this session. Republicans always bring it up and will have draconian proposals soon. Conservative Democrats in the House and Senate have already filed legislation to tighten the laws. Reportedly, newly elected State Auditor Les Merritt has already begun a performance audit of DMV, the agency that issues drivers licenses.

Reduce corporate taxes or make corporations pay their taxes? Many folks are still pushing for a reduction in the state’s corporate tax rate. Maybe they ought to first make corporations pay their taxes. A report released Wednesday by the NC Justice Center and Citizens for Tax Justice shows that two big companies in the state paid no tax at all in one of the last three years and many more paid far less than the 6.9 percent tax rate. Read the report at www.ctj.org.

Governor Mike Easley will recommend in his budget that the 2001 tax hike on the state’s richest taxpayers expire. Easley adviser Dan Gerlach says it is the number one tax priority. What happened to raising money to help people?

Even rabid anti-taxers have moments of rationality. Some Republican House members signed on to a bill for a temporary sales tax increase to pay for hurricane damage. What about the absurd no new taxes pledge? Oh yeah. They remembered and took their name off the bill. Now they support it, now they don’t.

Don’t hurt poor people with the lottery, hurt them with budget cuts. Rep. Mitch Gillespie old NCCBI that the state should not “promote gambling at the expense of the poorest and most uneducated citizens.” What about cutting human service programs that help the poor and most uneducated citizens? Gillespie opposes any new taxes and wants restrictive spending limits on the state budget.

But the prospects for the lottery continue to brighten. House Speaker Jim Black says he has switched his position on the lottery and now supports it.

Call ahead for a table. Legislative halls will be crowded and Raleigh restaurants will be full. The list of lobbyists and the interests they represent is now 528 lines long. Many lobbyists represent multiple clients of course. And the list is sure to grow. Many top lobbyists haven’t listed all their clients yet.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 2nd, 2005 at 5:29 pm and is filed under Fitzsimon File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.