The budget surplus and broken promises
Thursday, April 27th, 2006
By Chris Fitzsimon
The push for tax cuts is on from the anti-government folks, rallying their misguided followers with claims that politicians who don’t cut taxes this session are deadbeats and breaking promises.
They dismiss calls for spending some of the expected state surplus on raising teacher pay as “fattening the wallets” of educators, treating teachers as if they were the overpaid CEOs the anti-government folks always defend.
The Raleigh columnist who helps lead the anti-government crowd also brushes off suggestions that the state needs to spend money renovating state buildings or putting aside funds in the state’s savings account to cover hurricane damage or the next budget shortfall.
Better to let the buildings crumble and let people left homeless by a storm fend for themselves. It’s their fault after all, just like it’s always a poor person’s fault for being poor.
The Raleigh anti-everything writer wants the lawmakers to end two temporary tax increases passed in 2001, a half-cent sales tax increase and an income tax hike on the state’s wealthiest taxpayers, which he calls the soak-the-rich tax.
Letting them stay in place would mean that legislative leaders are deadbeats who are “all about taking, even when flush. Giving back repulses them.” Sen. Phil Berger said he wants both the tax increases repealed and wants to see Democratic legislative leaders to keep a promise.
But only about taxes. Berger apparently is not concerned with keeping other promises the state has made, like helping single mothers on public assistance with child care so they can work or go back to school to be able to get a job. That was the promise of welfare reform, but it is being broken every day.
A new report from Action for Children says there are now 37,000 kids on the waiting list for a child care subsidy. What about the promise to help them?
State lawmakers promised that mental health reform would provide money for community programs for services for many of the state’s most vulnerable citizens.
The programs don’t have the money and people with mental illness are being discharged from hospitals into homeless shelters. What happened to that promise?
Providing a sound basic education to every child in North Carolina is more than a promise from the state. It is a constitutional guarantee and yet the court has found that the state is not living up to the mandate. Poor schools need more money and better teachers who need a decent salary and are a long way from having a fat wallet.
It is no surprise that the anti-government, anti-progress crowd is clamoring for tax cuts. They mount the crusade every year, budget shortfall or not. The budget surplus makes it easier to attack the General Assembly and call politicians names.
But the columnist who thinks lawmakers are deadbeats needs to examine his own criteria for judging others. He writes “one of the hidden powers of money is its ability to reveal a person’s true character.”
Wonder what it says about character that some folks would rather cut taxes on the wealthiest people in the state and leave children on waiting lists and people with mental illnesses in homeless shelters?
Last 5 posts in Fitzsimon File
- Not so affordable college - December 3rd, 2008
- Funding gaps and double taxation - December 2nd, 2008
- A day to recommit to save lives - December 1st, 2008
- Settling for too little anti-smoking efforts - November 25th, 2008
- A troubling and ignored transition - November 24th, 2008
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