McCrory can’t stop prevaricating about the tax plan

By Chris Fitzsimon, NC Policy Watch and NC SPIN panelist, August 2, 2013.

Governor Pat McCrory can’t seem to help himself. Among the whoppers McCrory told a crowd at the N.C. Chamber’s annual education conference this week was that most teachers would receive a one-percent increase in their pay from the tax cut package passed this year.

That is simply ridiculous. Even the tax tables the Republicans use to explain their tax plan show that someone must earn $250,000 a year before they receive a one percent tax cut.

It’s not the first time McCrory has made this blatantly false statement. He said it ten days ago when he signed the tax shift plan into law.

WRAL-TV and other media outlets pointed out then that the claim was not true, that most teachers would not see anything close to a one percent decrease in taxes. The truth is that many teachers, like most low and moderate income families, are likely to have a larger tax bill next year because of the changes, not a smaller one.

The folks on the Right dispute that of course and cite specific and narrow tax scenarios that show some middle class families might pay a little less.

But no one believes that teachers earning $40,000 a year will receive a one percent tax cut. No one that is but the Governor, who refuses to let the truth get in the way of what he clearly thinks is a good soundbite.

Next thing you know he will claim he has waded out among the Moral Monday protesters. Oh wait.

Private nonprofits and economic development

The troubles of the Rural Economic Development Center continue, as this week Board Chair Valeria Lee stepped down. Lawmakers ended state funding for the nonprofit in light of a recent audit that showed that the Center didn’t follow-up to see that its grants were administered properly and that jobs that were promised were actually created.

The audit also questioned the salary level of President Billy Ray Hall and noted that funds were set aside for a special severance package for Hall, in addition to his state retirement.

The audit was released earlier than originally planned so lawmakers could have it while making decisions about the budget and the Center’s funding, which was eliminated. The audit also prompted a strong reaction from Governor McCrory’s office where officials even considered an attempt to freeze the Center’s spending.

Shortly after the session another audit was released, this one of the Job Development Investment Grant (JDIG), an incentive program that gives money to corporations for jobs they promise to create. The audit noted that the state does not independently confirm that the jobs are actually created and that there are no measurable criteria for the amount of the grants.

In other words, the folks at the Commerce Department administering the JDIG program aren’t properly overseeing the grants they distribute. Gee that sounds familiar.

The final budget includes $60 million for the JDIG program and no real changes in the way it is run.

Then there is McCrory’s new plan for Commerce, turning over most of the responsibility for economic development to a nonprofit run by a political appointed board that will have wide latitude, not only with incentive policy, but also compensation of staff and consultants.

Other states that have tried the same approach have had problems with unusually high compensation packages and questionable decisions made by a largely unaccountable board.  That sounds awfully familiar too.

It is almost exactly what officials in the McCrory Administration have been saying in often overblown rhetoric about the Rural Center since the audit was released.

And if that’s not enough to give you pause, as you have read here before, the person in charge of the newly revamped board overseeing this new private approach to handing out state money to corporations is John Lassiter, McCrory’s former campaign manager.

Lassiter also the head of an advocacy group with ties to McCrory that is raising anonymous corporation contributions to further the governor’s political agree. Not much of a conflict there.

Apparently if an economic development nonprofit run by a former Democratic official who makes a lot of money and doesn’t do the best job administering grants is a bad idea, an unaccountable economic development nonprofit run by a Republican campaign manager that gives out grants while raising political money from corporations is a good idea.