Why NC business leaders support McCrory, legislature
Published October 7, 2016
by Ron Dowd, Ron Joyce, Garland Tucker, printed in The Charlotte Observer, October 6, 2016.
If you listen to the press, you would believe every North Carolina business executive is up in arms against Governor McCrory and the Republican legislature over the HB2 issue. That’s just not true.
Most of us give very little thought to how people use bathrooms and showers. We spend our time thinking about our customers, our employees and our businesses. But we all agree that government at all levels often oversteps and makes it harder to innovate and create jobs.
The real story is how McCrory and the Republican legislature rescued North Carolina from years of fiscal mismanagement and slow growth. They inherited a state with the 5th highest unemployment rate in the nation, some of the highest individual and corporate tax rates in the southeast, an employment insurance debt of $2.8 billion owed to the feds, and $500 million in annual Medicaid overspending. The turnaround is nothing less than astounding.
Since the Republican majority and Gov. Pat McCrory began their historic 2013 tax reforms, the economic record of North Carolina is the envy of the nation. Even Virginia’s Democratic governor said his effort to lower the Virginia corporate tax was a “...direct response to North Carolina’s effort to lower its corporate tax rate....” North Carolina lowered its 6.9 percent corporate rate in 2014 to 3 percent - lowest in the nation among states with the tax.
More significantly, North Carolina cut income tax rates for all working North Carolinians, changing from rates ranging from 6 percent to 7.75 percent to a single rate of 5.8 percent. Next year, the rate will fall again. North Carolina will go from having the highest income tax rate in the southeast to the lowest rate among its neighbors.
But taxes aren’t the only story. Since 2013, North Carolina has added more than 300,000 jobs and the number of unemployed in North Carolina is 45 percent lower. That’s hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens relieved of the stress and anxiety of being out of work and now able to provide for their families.
Not only are jobs on the rise, so are incomes. North Carolina posted the highest median household income growth in the nation since the beginning of 2013, more than doubling the U.S. average. Additionally, the $2.8 billion employment insurance debt has been re-paid and the $500 million annual Medicaid overspending ended.
Reversing another trend, North Carolina has experienced 10 consecutive quarters of per capita income growth equal to or greater than the national average, the best stretch of growth in 20 years. If our state’s economy had merely matched the national average for income growth during those 10 quarters, our economy would be smaller by $4 billion.
Such broad-based gains add up to significant improvements in the well-being of North Carolinians. For the poorest among us, the number and percentage of families and children living in poverty have decreased each year since 2013. This strongly improving economy enables the governor and legislature to make significant investments in infrastructure and education, which benefits all.
Because of the reforms passed by Governor McCrory and the legislature more people are working and paychecks are growing. This is why McCrory and the Republican legislature enjoy the strong support of business people like us.
Frank Dowd IV is the CEO and chairman of the board of Charlotte Pipe and Foundry. Ron Joyce is the president and CEO of Joyce Farms. Garland Tucker is the chairman of the board of directors at Triangle Capitol.
October 7, 2016 at 11:36 am
Robert J Millikin says:
What a puff piece!! These are companies I will never support. We hire a Governor to lead and use good judgment - McCrory has failed on both counts. Did he read HB2 before he signed it? Did the Chamber of Commerce write part of HB2? Did he think this was a canny political move to fire up his rural base? Did he miscalculate the blowback on HB2? Did he overplay his hand? Does he think we're all that stupid? Has he been effective in dealing with his master, Phil Berger? Did Berger emasculate him? McCrory must pay the price!
October 16, 2016 at 11:40 am
Norm Kelly says:
Based on the only other response to this post, the old liberal adage that facts be damned, this post proves that facts are to be ignored if you are to call yourself a lib voter.
What we have here is the old conservative technique of trying to persuade people who don't care about facts, who rely solely on feelings & emotions, to make a logical decision based on truth & facts.
What have we learned from liberals, socialists, and most Demon pols during this current election cycle, and the past 7+ years of socialists ruling in Washington? Facts, truth, honesty are not just irrelevant, but are to be denied at all costs at every turn. When the facts are NOT on your side, sling pointless mud at your opponent; call your opponent a racist; the more illogical/irrelevant/wrong your statement is about your opponent the more you will repeat it; the more your rant will be picked up by your allies in the media. Such as the N&D of Raleigh. Imagine, they've endorsed nothing but demon pols. Again. Or is that 'still'?
When presented with facts, demon pols are trained to respond with an emotional gut-wrenching 'for the children' say-nothing statement that tries to convince their low-information voters that the issue is how negatively illegal aliens, women, children, or blacks were affected by the positive news they just heard. When all is said and done, the facts that were stated truthfully are meant to distract most people from the hurt that said policies had on specific groups of typically lib-supporting individuals.
Once again, the only play demon pols have is to pit groups of people against each other, hoping that these individual groups don't notice how their goals contradict each other and that there's no way possible for said demon pol to satisfy all their disparate groups.
What's the demon solution? Keep low-information voters low-information. Mislead low-information types by using emotion & feeling. Claim that some other group is getting special treatment, while promising to provide special treatment for your low-information lib-supporting group(s). Claim the rich aren't paying their fair share, knowing that not a single used-to-be-journalist is going to ask what the means. Claim that central planners really do know best how to manage your day-to-day life, while exempting themselves from the same regulations.
Bottom line? Lib/demon/socialist pols have NOTHING to offer. Other than buying more low-information votes. Oh, and don't forget, letting illegal aliens vote. (which simply means invalidating an american citizens' vote!)
