North Carolina Bribery Bucks On The Chopping Block
Politicians like to call it “creating jobs” by “recruiting business” or “awarding investment grants,” which sounds a lot more wholesome and clean that what it really is, which of course is bribery.
And not just any bribery, but the very best kind, sanctioned by the state, which enables the same politicians who take your money by force to turn around and give it to businesses that, in many cases, may compete with your own, and then take credit with beaming smiles of their faces at ribbon cuttings for creating jobs.
The state-sanctioned, taxpayer-funded bribery scheme is a favorite of Gov Bev, so it’s no surprise to hear her wail and howl at attempts to curtail it.
Facing a $3.7 billion budget deficit, Perdue has already agreed to cut about $400 million from state agencies. Republicans are aiming for $800 million and looking to slice about $142 million from state accounts for so-called business investment grants and various other political piggy banks, to include $3 million from amorphous job development grants and $5.2 million the One North Carolina Fund.
In their audacity to demand some semblance of fiscal sanity, Republicans are even going after the Golden LEAF Foundation sacred cow, vowing to cut upwards of $67 million from the mother of all slush funds.
This has produced the entirely predictable response from Democrats, who for years have used the payola scheme of job-creation grants as de facto campaign treasure chests.
“We need to fight for every job in this country, and this is the only way you can fight for them,” Senate Minority Leader Martin Nesbitt, an Asheville Democrat, tells the Raleigh N&O.
The only way? As opposed, I guess, to creating a more business-friendly environment in North Carolina through fiscal responsibility, lower corporate and individual tax rates, less cumbersome bureaucracy, and less red tape.
Or as Sen. Bob Rucho, a Mecklenburg Republican, told Democrats during recent debate: “You spent us to death. Pay attention. This is what you should have done when you had a turn.”
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