News 14 Commentary by Jonathan Hill

Hi,my name is Jonathan Hill. I am State Director of Citizens for a Sound Economy, a non- profit, non- partisan, conservative grassroots organization dedicated to the principles of less government, lower taxes, and more freedom.

During the first two weeks of April, North Carolina Citizens for a Sound Economy and the John Locke Foundation co-sponsored a Statewide “Tax Awareness Tour” to inform taxpayers about our state’s fiscal problems.

We believe the budget crisis is caused by over spending by state government, not a revenue shortfall. Last year Citizens for a Sound Economy had pledges from 62 members of the State House not to raise taxes, but 10 members broke their pledge and the Governor and the legislature raised our taxes over 1 billion dollars.

Now the Governor is withholding 209 million dollars of dedicated tax money from local communities to help fund the state shortfall. Cities and counties will be forced to raise property taxes or support a local-option sales tax increase.

Last year in the Triangle, thousands of private sector jobs were lost because of the economic downturn. According to the Employment Security Commission, state government added 5300 jobs in the triangle during this same period.

We cannot tax ourselves into prosperity. The answer is not finding new ways to tax labor and services nor is it for the state to go into the gambling business— the answer is not new taxes, the answer is to reduce the size and spending of government.