Bill Faison
Last week when the legislature was in Raleigh, the Republican leadership wasted $150,000 of our taxpayer money to take up a referendum amending the state constitution when we should have enacted a jobs plan. This unprecedented wastefully expensive boondoggle is Republican partisan game playing for ultra-conservative votes and neither a necessary nor wise use of public money. The cost to bring legislators back to Raleigh is approximately $50,000 a day, too expensive for constitutional amendments that could have been taken up, at no additional expense, when we meet next year.Â
Unemployment is the 800-pound gorilla in the room. Almost a half a million folks are out of work in North Carolina. According to N.C. Employment Security Commission August data, 468,140 North Carolinians, 10.4 percent, are unemployed, up from 10.1 percent in July. Unemployment is worse in some metropolitan areas and in our already struggling rural counties. Unemployment generally hits minorities, youth and those with limited education the hardest.
The shocking truth is that the Republican legislature passed a budget in June intentionally terminating 6,455 state employees and throwing away federal matching funds, which together are projected to cause almost 30,000 jobs to be lost in the private sector. The Republican legislature is not creating jobs; it is inflicting widespread job loss at a time when unemployment is already the toughest problem we face. They are part of the problem.
We should put the legislature to work now solving the very real problem of unemployment and put people to work immediately. We are expecting more special sessions in September and November. Our jobs plan needs to be on the agenda.
First, we need to cut the penny sales tax by 30 percent and put it in the budget. Lapsing the penny sales tax cost tens of thousands of private-sector employees and thousands of state employees their jobs. Putting it in the budget allows us to help each other get through these tough times and is broadly and widely supported by folks across the state who say, “This is nothing; if it will save jobs, I want to help.†People are willing to share a fraction of a penny to keep each other employed.
We can fix this problem with the “power of a painless penny.â€
Second, we can use tax incentives for small business to create 155,784 more jobs. Small businesses with fewer than 20 employees hire 640,210 people in our state. We need a tax-incentives policy aimed at the 155,784 little guys who make up 86.7 percent of employers and collectively hire 18 percent of the workforce. The legislature has passed numerous special provisions to bring and keep national companies, but no effort has been made to provide meaningful incentives that will motivate small businesses to invest in people. We can provide for small businesses by closing tax loopholes. The Department of Revenue found $5 billion in tax loopholes in 2005, which grew to $5.8 billion by 2009. It also found that 65 percent of regular corporations filing tax returns paid no taxes. We can close 40 percent of the tax loopholes and motivate small business to help solve the unemployment problem.
The legislature should pass a tax-incentive package for small businesses that provides enough to fund a full-time position, and incentives for investment in infrastructure including technology, expansion and marketing. This type of tax incentive has the potential to motivate each small business to hire another employee, cutting our unemployment almost in half.
We can fix this now.
Rep. Bill Faison represents N.C. House District 50, which includes Northern Orange and Caswell counties.
Rep. Faison makes several assertions and assupmtions in this article that need further investigation. First , if the Dept. of Revenue found $5 billion in 2005 and $5.8 billion in 2009 , why didn’t his party take care of these while they were in power? Second, he refers to the sales tax as 1 cent, but it is 1 percent (they keep forgetting the “per” on the front). This 1 percent takes $800 million out of the economy, and holds the 2009/2010 Dem. controlled legislature accountable for statements to sunset it this year. Last and most important, Rep. Faison refuses to support the Energy Jobs Act (Senate Bill 709), which will create thousands of jobs in the hardest hit counties of this state. This bill allows for the exploration of natural gas which can replace coal, gasoline and deisel fuel, thus reducing CO2 air poluution by over 90%, SOx by almost 50%, NOx by over 70% and mercury, selenium and aresenic air pollution by almost 100%, So, if you speak with Rep. Faison ask him why he doesn’t like to clean up the environment and create jobs. It’s time to stop the rhetoric and start putting our folks back to work!
Rep. Mike Hager
Rep. Mike Hager