Tax-Increase Foes Plan a ‘Tar Heel Tea Party’

Organizers are calling it the Tar Heel Tea Party, and they hope that people who don’t want their taxes increased will turn out en masse for a rally today on Halifax Mall behind the Legislative Building.

“At some point, you have to say, ‘OK, that’s enough,’ ” said Jerry Agar, the WPTF radio talk show host who has been promoting the rally. “I was encouraging people to send e-mails to their legislators, and people were calling, some last Tuesday but mostly Wednesday, saying we should do more. So that’s how the idea for the rally got started.”

The rally, which begins at 2:30 p.m., represents a confluence of three forces – the N.C. Republican Party; an anti-tax group, Citizens for a Sound Economy; and conservative talk-radio hosts.

Agar will broadcast live from the rally, along with fellow talk-show hosts Mike Fenley of WSJS in Winston-Salem and Richard Spires of WBT in Charlotte.

Hill said he expects buses of participants to come from Winston-Salem and Wilmington. There was talk of a car caravan from Charlotte.

“Citizens need to speak up,” Hill said. “They’ve got to be clear. We want to say to the Legislature, ‘Are you sure? Have you looked at everything?’ Already we work 117 days out of the year to pay our taxes in North Carolina.”

The rally had been planned for the front of the Legislative Building but was moved to the grassy mall after organizers said they expected as many as 1,000 people.

Some lawmakers apparently were growing nervous about the rally. Sen. John Kerr, a Democrat from Goldsboro, asked staffers Monday whether extra security steps would be taken.

Capitol police said they will have several officers patrolling the rally and more available.

At a tax rally in Nashville, Tenn., recently, protesters stoned state buildings. Organizers say they don’t want a repeat in Raleigh.

Agar said he objected when one caller to his show last Friday said he was bringing a rope to hang tax supporters in effigy. “I’m not saying we should storm the Legislature. This is a nonviolent demonstration.”

Supporters of higher taxes – mainly educators, health care and social services workers – say they are not planning a counter-demonstration. Instead, they are urging members of their groups to continue flooding legislators with e-mail messages, phone calls and faxes, asking them to “save services, raise revenues.”

“We made a conscious decision not to respond,” said Paula Wolf, chief lobbyist for the Covenant with North Carolina’s Children. “Citizens for a Sound Economy is a national organization funded by big business around the country. There’s no way we can compete with that sort of thing.”