Easley – Black – Basnight: Offering False Choices

The Democrat leadership, including Governor Easley, Speaker Black and Senate President Basnight, has been carefully choreographing a way to raise taxes over the past six months. It appears that their plan is to present a false choice between raising taxes and cutting human services.

Jonathan Hill, director of North Carolina Citizens for a Sound Economy, issued the following statement regarding this false choice:

“The truth is, the real choice is how will we spend the over $500 million of new state revenue that we have available this year. Will we use the over $500 million in new state revenue to balance the budget or create new government spending?

“These ‘leaders’ have created a false choice. The real choice is between spending beyond our means so they can raise taxes on hard working North Carolinians or spending within our means so that the tax burden on the families of North Carolina isn’t increased.

“What would the families of North Carolina do if faced with the same choice? They would decide to spend within their means.

“It’s important to note that former State Treasurer, Harlan Boyles, had this to say about the issue: ‘It shouldn’t have taken a rocket scientist to know we were headed for problems financially. We were so carried away with the prosperous economy that we assumed all would be well. In 1991, the economy was our problem. In 2001, spending is our problem. We are our problem.’

“The choice is clear to the hard working families of our state, why isn’t it clear to these liberal, big spending politicians in Raleigh?”