Michael Lindsay: Funneling money

Regarding the March 16 news article “Senate plan would shift sales tax money”: Every day in North Carolina millions of consumers make marketplace decisions about where to shop. They reward some retailers with their business and punish others by not patronizing them. This is the “invisible hand” that philospher Adam Smith used to describe the unintended social benefits resulting from individual actions.

Now we hear our Republican leadership in the legislature wants to redistribute the wealth generated by those individual decisions. A proposal by the Senate’s majority leader, Harry Brown, would shift millions in sales tax revenues from the counties where people choose to shop to counties where they choose not to spend as much money. This from the political party that talks about letting the marketplace decide. The same party that is always against redistributing wealth.

Could it be the Republicans are funneling more money to the folks who elect them, the rural folks, and not the city slickers?

This story was originally published March 23, 2015 at 1:36 PM with the headline "Michael Lindsay: Funneling money."