McCrory plays smart politics with smart stands

Editorial by Asheville Citizen-Times, April 10, 2015.

In recent weeks, McCrory has come out against several initiatives by fellow Republicans in the General Assembly. We’ll grant it’s a good move politically as he is looking to a 2016 re-election campaign, but that doesn’t change the fact that he is doing the right thing.

Some in the General Assembly would enshrine discrimination in state law by allowing businesses to refuse service to homosexuals on religious grounds under the so-called Religious Freedom Restoration Act. “What is the problem they’re trying to solve?” the governor asked. “I haven’t seen it at this point in time.”

We know the problem such a law would create. Indiana ran into a firestorm of opposition from business interests when it passed a similar measure. Conventions and performances have been canceled. Some state and local governments have cut off travel to the state. The law has been softened somewhat but the damage remains.

Another bill would let some officials refuse to carry out duties regarding gay marriages on religious grounds. “I don’t think you should have an exemption … when you swore an oath to the Constitution of North Carolina or to the Constitution of the United States of America,” McCrory said, “even if there are things in the constitution that I disagree with that are upheld by the courts.”

As to the legislature’s meddling in local election by changing district lines, etc., McCrory said, “If someone wants to change the form of government in one of your cities, then go run for city council, for mayor.’’

And there is the measure to distribute the local share of sales tax based on population rather than on where the money is collected. This “will cause great harm to the economic engines of this state” and would raise taxes, McCrory said. It would “decimate” communities that have spent money to lure visitors, he said, and pits one part of the state against the other.

The idea of spending the money according to population has a nice populist ring. The problem is that urban counties and counties dependent on tourism have to build and maintain infrastructure used by people who do not live there. It only makes sense that they retain the local share of the sales tax they collect.

Fortunately, some of these bad ideas are running into opposition. House Speaker Tim Moore, a Republican from Kings Mountain, is lukewarm to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

“My thought is that the high priorities we have right now are about job creation, improving our roads, improving education,” Moore said. “I want to find out how this bill accomplishes those objectives. What does it do to move North Carolina’s brand forward?”

Regarding the sales tax, measures have been floated to lessen the impact on urban counties. One would broaden the base of the sales tax. Another would allow counties to raise their sales tax by a quarter-cent, which would be significant only for more populous counties.

Republicans by and large come from rural areas or suburbs, while the state’s cities lean Democratic. Much of the GOP agenda seems to be designed to punish people who vote Democratic (i.e. city dwellers). Granted, this dichotomy is simplistic, but so is the thinking of those who would exploit it.

For example, the sales tax bill would hurt urban counties but also those rural counties that are dependent on tourism.

McCrory, a former mayor of Charlotte, understands the importance of a strong economy. To accomplish this, the cities he cites as economic engines must prosper. He recognizes that the state cannot advance if it adopts policies that pit one region against another.

As he put it with relation to the sales tax bill, “We must unite North Carolina, not divide North Carolina.”