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 Rising above playground politics
by Tom Campbell
July 9, 2009
No one can argue our legislators have an extremely difficult and disagreeable task trying to put together a budget for the year that started July 1. But that is no excuse for unnecessarily dragging out the task.
While not privy to the closed-door discussions taking place between the House and Senate we know one house has one approach for imposing a billion dollars of new taxes and the other house has a different approach. What we see reminds us of children jostling for position on a playground.
Governor Perdue was right. It is time for legislators to pass a budget. Their failure is hurting our state. Perdue was also correct in trying to broker an agreement, but her solution was wrong. The legislature has already agreed to raise an additional one billion dollars in revenue, likely believing it the maximum burden they can impose on taxpayers in this terrible economy. The Governor added another half billion dollars to the pot, clearly not acceptable to either house and likely not to taxpayers.
Here’s what can be agreed upon. We have a budget crisis. We do not believe our lawmakers have done a sufficient job of cutting waste, duplication or low priority programs, but it is generally agreed they cannot or will not entirely cut their way out of this crisis. New revenues are needed. Over many years there have been studies, blue ribbon panels, and advice from experts that North Carolina’s tax codes need a major overhaul, even some consensus that a solution includes taxing services. But here is where the wheels come off the wagon.
Trying to complete a significant overhaul of our tax codes in the midst of crisis is fool’s folly and will further complicate already unwieldy codes. Our fear is a few changes will be made that everyone will believe to be tax reform. The kind of reform we need requires careful, considered, and conscious deliberation and debate that is open to the public, a once in a generation process that demands our best thinking, is fair, clearly understood and implemented. This cannot and should not be done in the heat of a major budget battle.
We like the Governor’s alternate solution of a temporary one cent sales tax hike and such other increases that would raise only the billion dollars needed to balance this year’s budget. The problem is that taxpayers remember too well the “temporary” taxes passed earlier this decade, taxes our lawmakers took a long time to remove. The legislature has a credibility problem. Any authorizing legislation for “temporary” taxes should sunset in 13 months, requiring a 2/3 majority vote in both houses for them to continue.
In the intervening 13 months we have time to carefully reform our tax codes. To ensure special interests don’t overly influence the result, the panel considering these reforms should include experts in public finance, tax policy, business, and consumer groups. Ideally, the reforms should be a package voted up or down in the legislature with no amendments.
It is past time for this ridiculous “is not, is too” budget debate to end quickly. If enough of us put pressure on our legislators to end it we suspect a speedy resolution would be found. This is a time to rise above playground politics. |
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