N.C. Rep. Bill Faison wants to rebrand the little cup that holds pennies at cash registers: Give a penny, hire a state worker.
The Cedar Grove Democrat pitched a plan Thursday to reverse the state jobs cut in this year's budget by reinstating the one-penny sales tax - a plan he asks Republicans to consider during next week's special session. He says the sales tax would draw $1.1 billion in revenue and it would cost much less to rehire the 6,455 state employees whose positions were eliminated in the budget that took effect July 1.
Republicans pounced on the Democrat's idea. "New taxes do not create private-sector jobs, and this proposal suggests that Representative Faison and North Carolina Democrats don't understand that fact," N.C. GOP spokesman Rob Lockwood said in a statement.
But it's tough to smear all Democrats with Faison's paint. He stood behind the lectern at the Legislative Building by himself, though he made vague references to support from members of his caucus. And even Faison acknowledged upon questioning that his plan is probably dead on arrival.
Debate on gay marriage?
In these days leading up to next week's big fight - over the proposal in the General Assembly to amend the state constitution to ban same-sex marriages - there have been competing news conferences, commercials and interviews. And now a debate?
Alex Miller, interim executive director of Equality North Carolina, on Thursday challenged Rep. Dale Folwell to a debate - "at any time, in any place, in any setting with any host." Folwell, a Winston-Salem Republican who is the speaker pro tem of the House, is one of the key backers of a bill to put the amendment before voters in 2012.
Folwell said he would welcome the opportunity to debate the issue "as long as it doesn't involve the opposition threatening and calling everyone who disagrees with them bigots."
From schools to House
Wake County school board member Chris Malone announced Thursday that he will run for a seat in the state House.
Malone will seek next year the seat in the newly revamped District 35. The seat is now held by Democrat Jennifer Weiss, but the Republican-controlled legislature shifted her out in the new redistricting plan.
"I am running for North Carolina House because the challenges facing North Carolina require conservative solutions," Malone, a Republican, said in a statement. "My top priority as a state Representative will be to help foster a business climate suitable for job creation."
Malone was elected to the school board in 2009. He's been part of a Republican majority that has made changes such as eliminating the district's policy of balancing schools by family income level.
Malone is a case manager at G4S Compliance and Investigations. He served on the Wake Forest Board of Commissioners from 2001 until 2005.
