This year’s legislative session lasted from January until the beginning of September. Thousands of bills were filed and hundreds were passed. Here are the highlights. The Budget I voted against the state budget, (HB 662) which will spend $ 17.18 billion this year of state funds for the following ten reasons: It continues the same […]

Constitutional Requirement that third reading be on a different day – Article II, Section 23 Constitutional Requirement that on third reading the “yeas” and “nays” be entered on the journal. Article II, Section 23. Refusal to recognize members under Rule 24(a), who want to call for yeas and noes to be entered on the journal […]

Hickory, NC To the North Carolina Leauge of Municipalities It is politically correct in some circles to argue that the granting of tax and other targeted incentives to attract new business will create net benefits to the communities where the facility is located. However there are many studies that demonstrate this premise is false. Writing […]

To the Editor of the Raleigh News & Observer Dear Editor: You recently ran a story to the effect that the North Carolina lottery will bring the bucks back home to North Carolina instead of being siphoned off into the swamps of South Carolina. This is far from the truth. There are two basic economic […]

Summary Targeted state incentives do not provide a net economic gain. They merely redistribute jobs and investment from one business to another and from one region to another. Price adjustments in free markets lead to maximum efficiency in the use of resources. Targeted incentives destroy the efficiency of the free market by favoring inefficient businesses […]