Welcome to Progressive North Carolina: A Poorer and Unequal State

I have to admit, I enjoy reading the opinion pages in our state’s regional rags.  There isn’t an Observer in North Carolina that doesn’t reek of progressivism.  But hey, these people are objective professionals looking after the best interest of the citizens of North Carolina.  Yeah, right.

I especially get a kick when these rags quote studies from nonprofit organizations and try to pass it off as nonpartisan, as though we’re incapable of looking up these organizations on the internet and see who is running them.  What is surprising is how many progressive nonprofits there are in this state.  I believe the Civitas Institute mapped around 170 at last count.  I only know of two conservative think tanks in North Carolina and I just cited one of them.

Think First NC is a new progressive organization.  I’m not exactly sure who is funding them, but we shouldn’t be surprised if Z Smith Reynolds Foundation and George Soros’s Open Society is involved along with a few other suspects.  Money is fungible when it comes to these organizations.  Only the mob is more creative.

Think First NC sponsored a study that was presented by one of their minions in the News and Observer entitled, What Carolina Comeback?  NC a Poorer, More Unequal State.  Here is an excerpt:

Take what should be the central feature of any recovery: widespread improvements in the income levels and living standards of ordinary households. In 2014, the last year with data, the typical (median) household in the state had an inflation-adjusted annual income that was significantly lower than when the recession started in 2007. Over that period, inflation-adjusted median household income fell by $4,449, dropping from $51,005 to $46,556. The income of the typical household fell by $2,814 during the recession and then dropped another $1,635 during the recovery. In short, the typical household lost ground during the recession and then kept losing ground even after the recovery took hold.

The fall in median household income levels has affected every major racial and ethnic group, all of which were, at a minimum, no better off in 2014 than in 2007. Specifically, the typical non-Hispanic white, African-American and Hispanic households all saw their incomes fall significantly over that period. And place has provided no protection against falling median household income levels, which currently are statistically unchanged or lower than their pre-recessionary values in 98 of 100 counties.

This is supposed to be an indictment on Gov. Pat McCrory’s administration and the republican General Assembly.  However, one cannot separate the policies of the Obama administration with the economy in general.  No state has escaped the machinations of Washington D.C.  As a matter fact, North Carolina has improved its economic standing in spite of Barack Obama and the Democratic Party’s power grab.

The decisions Gov. McCrory and the republicans in the General Assembly made improved the state’s fiscal solvency.  The Mercatus Institute noted the only state in the Union to improve its service-solvency ranking was North Carolina.  We were also ranked 8^th in budget solvency and trust fund solvency.  That wouldn’t have happened under a Democratic administration.  Had they taken over we would’ve ended up like Puerto Rico.

Progressives love to talk about median income while failing to discuss the purchasing power in individual states.  The Tax Foundation mapped the price levels of goods and services throughout the United State and contrasted that with per capita-income, adjusted for taxes and prices.  As of 2015, North Carolina had a 35^th ranking a 4+ improvement in ranking.

Another factor progressives don’t consider is state to state migration.  North Carolina always ranks in the top 5 as we did in 2015.  If North Carolina is a poorer and unequal state maybe somebody should tell all these people who are moving here.

Source:

 http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article95371847.html#storylink=cpy

http://costonscomplaint.blogspot.com/2016/06/north-carolina-named-big-mover-in.html

 http://www.nationalreview.com/article/435093/barack-obama-economy-jobs-ugly-truth

http://www.aei.org/publication/adjusting-state-incomes-for-taxes-and-price-levels-may-change-our-perceptions-of-which-us-states-are-poor-or-rich/

http://teammovemortgage.com/2016/01/05/reasons-for-influx-of-buyers-moving-to-north-carolina/

Nonprofits Flourished During Great Recession

Nonprofit organizations flourished during the Great Recession according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and published by the Washington Post.  We must ask: how could any business survive an onslaught of a government induced financial disaster that destroyed the lives of millions of Americans, indeed, countless millions of people around the world?  The answer is simple: the federal government subsidized them:

But private giving isn't the only way non-profits take in money. Federal government funding was extremely important in helping them expand services, especially as state and local governments cut back. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act pumped millions of dollars into education and training groups, for example, to help workers who lost their jobs.

At the same time, organizations dipped into rainy day funds to stay afloat, resulting in a decline in asset levels. Some workers may have accepted lower wages for non-profit work because of the poor job market, boosting employment as well.

 Oh yeah, the power of other peoples’ money, courtesy of the Federal Reserve, confiscatory policies of Democrats and the strong arm of the IRS.

Source:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/03/02/the-industry-that-adds-jobs-throughout-a-recession-but-makes-no-profits/?elqTrackId=bbc54964c1c145c3ae9e857928f90ef8&elq=2899e91b280548c5be40d8aaa8313aa9&elqaid=8145&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=2595

North Carolina's Shadowland Teat Squawkers

 

If you want to see the difficulty in trying to implement tax reform and a decentralization of power, look at North Carolina.  I can’t even imagine trying this at the national level.  Every special interest group is fighting tooth and nail to keep the status quo.  If the states’ republicans aren’t successful at beating back the teat squawkers, at least the exercise has been insightful.

What surprised me is how powerful nonprofit organizations are in this state.  Hospitals, which have higher profit margins than Exxon, are complaining about the loss of revenue because the General Assembly refused to expand Medicaid.  They are also bitching about proposals that would eliminate exemptions from collecting sales taxes and subsequent refunds.  Yet, Carolina’s HealthCare System’s CEO’s 2012 compensation was $4.7 million, which included bonuses over $2 million.  And this is a nonprofit?

Another band of teat squawkers that operate under the radar are cities and townships.  To get a good idea of how involved the State is in funding everyday operations, here is an excerpt from the Charlotte Observer:

In the Senate plan, the biggest hit for the city in the tax bill would be the repeal of the privilege license tax that cities impose on certain businesses. The loss of this levy would cost between $17 million and $18 million a year when fully implemented.

The business privilege tax is levied on all businesses, trades and professions operating inside Mecklenburg County. The minimum tax is $50. The maximum is $10,000.

The city could also lose $15 million per year if it loses refunds on sales taxes that it pays to the state, plus an additional $10 million from the elimination of the local sales tax on food. The lost revenue would be partially offset by an additional $11 million in revenues from additional taxes that nonprofits such as hospitals would pay.

Berger spokeswoman Amy Auth said the Senate’s tax reform plan incorporated feedback from people across the state, including constituents, businesspeople, other legislators and the governor. In particular, a vast majority said the state should not tax food, she said.

Local governments have other options for raising money for local services and infrastructure, including impact fees, water fees and other local taxes, Auth said. Governments could make up for lost sales tax by reinstating the food tax, or they could reduce spending, she said.

As for privilege taxes, Auth called them a disincentive for business to move to and create jobs in North Carolina and noted municipalities will have five years to prepare for the change.

According to the League of Municipalities analysis, Charlotte would lose the largest amount of revenue in the state, but other communities would face steeper tax increases. The Edgecombe County town of Leggett, for example, would need to raise property tax bills by 849 percent to make up for $83,584 in lost revenue.

Among Charlotte-area communities, Monroe would take a $2.2 million hit, Gastonia would lose about $2 million and Mooresville would come up $1.1 million short.

Cities like Charlotte have been double dipping.  Besides imposing their own taxes, they use the state to confiscate wealth from their citizens through taxing services and items like food.  They then get the rebates, all the while scrubbing their hands of the dirty political process.  In the meantime, we have sprawling unaccountable bureaucracies that perform duplicate, and without a doubt, substandard service.

A famous Democrat once said all politics is local.  That’s the way taxation should be as well.  All forms of revenue should be transparent and the politicians of that community held accountable.  But as we’ve seen, it’s better to operate in the shadows.       

 

Source: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/06/18/4114965/charlotte-says-senate-tax-bill.html#storylink=cpy

 

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/06/11/4099814/carolinas-healthcare-chief-worried.html

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/06/20/4119453/senator-questions-bonuses-for.html

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/05/30/4076506/senate-proposal-would-require.html

N.C. Rural Development Center's Taxpayer Funded Gravy Train

Finally, we have some actual journalism in North Carolina.  I was beginning to think that investigative reporting was a lost art, but lo and behold, the local rags published a damning article on a prominent nonprofit organization.  And it couldn’t have come at a better time.   The General Assembly is crafting the state’s budget and is looking to cut programs that are undeserving.  And I can’t think of a more deserving organization to get the axe, than the NC Rural Economic Development Center.

Governor McCrory has already slashed this nonprofits annual appropriation from $16 million to $6 million.  As far as I’m concerned, after reading this article, they deserve nothing.  This organization has been subsidizing corporations that can afford their own projects.  Here is an excerpt from the Charlotte Observer:

The N.C. Rural Economic Development Center portrays itself as working to heal North Carolina’s struggling rural counties. Its brochures and website feature tractors, farm animals and brick buildings lining small-town streets. Leaders highlight work on the “long-range future” of rural counties.

But the private nonprofit organization also has used millions in taxpayer money to help build fast-food restaurants, golf resorts, discount stores and big-box retail outlets that include a Kohl’s in Southern Pines and a dozen Walmarts, records and interviews show.

It spent $85,000 to help an electronic sweepstakes software company outfit a building in Greenville after lawmakers tried to shut the sweepstakes industry down.

It granted $350,000 for water wells in La Grange, about an hour southeast of Raleigh, saying the infrastructure would generate 35 full-time jobs at a new restaurant. The restaurant was a Bojangles’ that had already hired workers and opened its doors the next week; the wells were drilled six years later to solve a major water-capacity problem in the town.

Nonprofits like the N.C. Rural Development Center have no governmental oversight.  They spread the money around without taxpayers’ knowledge or consent, usually in the form of grants to local governments.  They in turn wave this “free money” around hoping to land a chain store, restaurant, or political entrepreneurs who know how to game the system.  One city official called these grants “gravy money” not essential to business plans.

I say it’s time to stop the gravy train.  It’s time to put an end to the N.C. Rural Development Center.

Source: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/06/14/4107757/nc-rural-agency-claims-jobs-that.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.wral.com/some-say-mccrory-budget-shortchanges-rural-areas/12257858/

http://hamptonroads.com/2013/06/nc-house-starts-public-debate-over-budget-proposal

http://www.ncruralcenter.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=61&Itemid=131