A surplus of state revenue, but only one GOP idea – cut taxes

North Carolina’s projected budget surplus now has grown to $580.5 million, up from $552.5 million. The news ought to encourage some great ideas and broader horizons from legislative leaders – more money for public education, perhaps a guarantee of more than one year for arts and music and physical education programs, bonuses for teachers, boosts for community colleges, investment in programs at the local level that help disadvantaged families.

Instead, Republicans in charge speak mainly of tax cuts for business and the “middle class,” but that middle class terminology is often deceptive. Most GOP tax cuts help the wealthy more than they do the middle class, of course, and the business tax cuts already have been excessive in a state that has long ranked one of the most accommodating for business.

But when news of the surplus and then the revised, larger surplus broke, Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, architect of things like HB2, responded to Democratic calls for using the money to help schools and families hit hard by Hurricane Matthew by saying: “While Gov. Roy Cooper thinks politicians know best how to spend your hard-earned money, we believe you know what’s best for your family and your bank account.”

That statement insults the intelligence of every citizen in North Carolina, and Berger and his sidekick, House Speaker Tim Moore, ought to be ashamed of that kind of pandering. North Carolina is not some lone prairie where people fend for themselves.

And it’s interesting that Berger speaks of “your money and your bank account” after being so generous with tax cuts for business, giving up money that might have gone to help all the families of North Carolina.

Surpluses and tax revenue benefit every man, woman and child in North Carolina, period. State and local government provide roads and schools and police and fire protection and emergency services and parks and countless things that enhance the lives of all. All.

And yet given the opportunity to really do something for all, Berger and his sidekick and their mates look only to help business and the wealthy. So that’s what they are going to do.

This isn’t governing. This isn’t smart stewardship of the public’s money. It’s wasting the public’s money, throwing it away for the benefit of a few. This is lackluster, shortsighted government, not steering the state through the early 21st century with foresight.

In the last 50 years, North Carolina moved ahead of other southern states because Gov. Terry Sanford, elected in 1960, promised to make schools better. Gov. Bob Scott put together a new formula for a modern university system. Jim Hunt pushed ahead with a progressive agenda – very progressive, in fact, for the late 1970s and early ’80s, and then came back for two more terms (’93-’01) devotedly primarily to education.

Now, with their lack of investment, Republicans are being every bit as reckless with spending plans as they’d claim the “big spenders” would be. They’re holding the reins on spending, all right. And on everything else.

This story was originally published May 8, 2017 at 1:18 PM with the headline "A surplus of state revenue, but only one GOP idea – cut taxes."