John Hood
By JOHN HOOD
RALEIGH – I don’t often agree with Joe Hackney, the minority leader of the North Carolina House. A longtime Orange County representative who is retiring this year, Hackney previously served as majority leader and speaker. His political philosophy lies to the left not just of the overall House but also of the Democratic caucus.
Still, I’ve always respected Joe Hackney. Now I have reason to thank him.
John Hood
by John Hood
Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton wants a new job. President Barack Obama wants to keep his current job. The two Democrats have the same challenge, however. In order to win this fall, they have to persuade disaffected voters not to try a new direction in the executive branch.
John Hood
By JOHN HOOD
RALEIGH, N.C. – As the North Carolina House and Senate work out their differences over a 2012-13 spending plan, it’s not too early to be thinking about what the state’s fiscal policy choices will be in 2013.
There will be a new governor. There will be many new members of the General Assembly, although it seems likely that Republicans will retain control. I think 2013 may prove to be an opportune time for North Carolina to make fundamental changes in fiscal policy.
John Hood
By JOHN HOOD
RALEIGH – If you see the two major political parties as more polarized and more ideological than they used to be, congratulations! Your Spidey sense is working. But let’s be sure to interpret those tingles accurately.
John Hood
By JOHN HOOD
RALEIGH – If you say that North Carolina’s public schools are better than they used to be, you’ll get no argument from me.
A generation ago, educational attainment and quality in North Carolina ranked low by national standards. We had a low rate of high-school graduation. Our students ranked low in reading, math, and college readiness. In 1992, more than 60 percent of North Carolina students lacked even basic math skills.
John Hood
By JOHN HOOD
RALEIGH, N.C. – North Carolina’s unemployment rate fell in April by three-tenths of a point, to 9.4 percent. Good news? Not really.
When interpreting government statistics, you have to look at the details, not just the top-line number. North Carolina’s April decline in unemployment was attributable entirely to people leaving the workforce, according to the seasonally adjusted figures. At 9.4 percent, our state still has one of the highest unemployment rates in the United States – a dubious distinction North Carolina can claim for virtually the entire period since the onset of the Great Recession.
By JOHN HOOD
John Hood
RALEIGH, N.C. – North Carolina’s political culture is dysfunctional. No, I’m not just talking about sex scandals. These are merely a symptom of a more fundamental problem: arrogance.
North Carolina politicians exhibit a pretense of humility. They pretend to honor deeds over words, to “be rather than to seem” as the state motto puts it. They call their state “a vale of humility between two mountains of conceit,” meaning Virginia and South Carolina, even though it takes a fair amount of arrogance to say things like that.
John Hood
By JOHN HOOD
RALEIGH – Progressives make a point that conservatives ought to take to heart: taxes are far from the only factors that households and businesses take into consideration when deciding where to live, work, invest, shop, or create new businesses.
In other words, you can’t explain the performance of any economy simply on the basis of the prevailing tax rate. Some states and nations with above-average taxes have above-average growth rates. Some states and nations with below-average taxes have below-average growth rates.
John Hood
By JOHN HOOD
RALEIGH – If Gov. Bev Perdue and liberal activists want to know why their Edu-scare campaign against the Republican-led General Assembly hasn’t worked, they need only to consider the insight of essayist Kahil Gibran, who once wrote that “an exaggeration is a truth that has lost its temper.”
John Hood
By JOHN HOOD
RALEIGH – The next time you hear a North Carolina politician talk about the “need” to use tax dollars or public debt to build a new ballpark, convention center, rail line, or similar luxury, ask them this simple question: how much more do you think we can afford?
By JOHN HOOD
John Hood
RALEIGH – After the U.S. Supreme Court declined to protect private property from unjust government confiscation in its 2005 Kelo decision, the backlash from Americans across the political spectrum led many states to strengthen their protections against the abuse of eminent domain – that is, the government’s power to condemn and acquire private land.
By JOHN HOOD
John Hood
RALEIGH – In a previous column I described the political debate about North Carolina’s economy as a disagreement among three schools of thought about how best to stimulate growth. For the sake of convenience, I employed the familiar labels of Left, Center, and Right.
By JOHN HOOD
John Hood
RALEIGH – It’s an election year, and both major political parties have an interest in accentuating the differences between Democratic and Republican candidates for governor, legislature, and other North Carolina offices.
But as a nonpolitician, I have an interest in promoting a broader understanding of North Carolina government among the general public. To that end, let’s consider a few policy areas where the two major parties have grown closer together, not further apart, over the past couple of years.
John Hood
By JOHN HOOD
RALEIGH – If all you know about North Carolina’s state budget is what you see in headlines or hear in political ads, you don’t know enough. Most politicians and analysts talk only about the General Fund – the share of state spending paid for by North Carolina’s income tax, statewide sales tax, and a few other sources.
By JOHN HOOD
RALEIGH – Although those involved may wish us to forget, there were actually two attempts over the past year to
John Hood
make a certain statistic, one percent, into a political cause here in North Carolina. Both flopped in telling ways.
The obvious example is the Occupy movement, which began on Wall Street but soon spread to Charlotte, Raleigh,Greensboro, and other North Carolina communities. Protesters rallied against crony capitalism, bailouts, and insider influence. So far, so good. Then the rallies turned into squalid camps of bums and professional agitators, with no coherent message or goals. That far, that bad.
By JOHN HOOD
RALEIGH – Remember when the Republican-crafted North Carolina budget passed over Gov. Beverly Perdue’s veto
John Hood
last summer? Liberal activists predicted economic disaster. By failing to extend a sales-tax increase, and by balancing the state’s General Fund with budget savings rather than tax increases, the General Assembly had supposedly damaged North Carolina’s job market by shoving tens of thousands of workers into unemployment.
By JOHN HOOD
RALEIGH – Despite his recent stumbles in Colorado and Minnesota, Mitt Romney is still the favorite to win the
John Hood
Republican nomination for president. As Democratic and Republican strategists begin to work on their general-election strategies, swing states such as North Carolina will be their main focus. But the presidential race, as important as it is, won’t be the only political story that focuses on battleground states.
January 6, 2012
By JOHN HOOD
John Hood
RALEIGH – The president was personally liked. But his policies were failing. After initial signs of improvement, the economy again began to sputter. Job creation was virtually nonexistent. Programs meant to stimulate “aggregate demand” had in reality funded wasteful and politically connected projects. Millions of Americans feared for the future.
John Hood
by John Hood
If you are a current or prospective Democratic politician in North Carolina, I would expect that right about now you are either congratulating yourself for staying away from the Occupy This or That movement – or nervously trying to figure out how to distance yourself from the movement after the fact.
John Hood
by John Hood
In the liberal imagination, conservatives oppose excessive government taxes and regulations because of their unwarranted faith in the competence, nobility, and perfect knowledge of business executives.
As with so many other figments of the liberal imagination, this image may tell you something about liberals but not much about how conservatives think. In reality, conservatives oppose excessive government taxes and regulations because we know full well that many business executives are incompetent, ignoble, and ignorant – and that politicians and regulators, being fellow human beings, are equally likely to be incompetent, ignoble, and ignorant.
by Frank Williams
I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to believe that we are already in late October. 2011 has flown by, and 2012 will be here before we know it.
If you are a business owner or organizational leader, now is the time to begin preparing for 2012.
While many retail businesses and other businesses that sell consumer products are gearing up for their busiest time of the year (the Christmas shopping season), many companies that offer professional services or sell primarily to other businesses are entering what is often a down time.
by Daren Bakst
The “Occupy” movement has brought about some recent discussion regarding the merits of capitalism, but its anti-capitalist arguments are nothing new. The protesters aren’t the first to characterize capitalism as a greedy and immoral economic system that benefits only the wealthy.
It’s an unfortunate reality that some Americans forget why capitalism isn’t just important to our economic well-being, but also to our freedom. Capitalism embodies and is an extension of the morals and values that exist in the Constitution and that still exist in our society today. There are many reasons why capitalism is moral. I’ll discuss three.
John Hood
by John Hood
When during a recent speech House Speaker Thom Tillis endorsed the idea of drug testing for North Carolina welfare recipients, he set off a raging controversy.
The Mecklenburg Republican’s most-controversial suggestion wasn’t really about welfare families, actually, but about state employees. In response to an audience question, Tillis opened the door to random drug testing for state employees. He should immediately close that door – the idea is likely to be neither cost-effective nor consistent with privacy concerns.
By the Wilmington-Cape Fear Home Builders Association
Policymakers who are considering whether to eliminate or cut the mortgage interest deduction to reduce the federal deficit should think twice before taking an action that would harm the nation’s 75 million home owners, including millions of seniors who no longer utilize the deduction but still depend on it to secure their future.
by Frank Williams
This Sunday marks ten years since the tragic terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Like you, I will never forget that day.
Below is an article I wrote on October 11, 2001, shortly after returning from a trip to New York City following the 9/11 attacks. The article is entitled An Unimaginable Experience in New York City. I hope you will take a few minutes to read it and join me in reflecting on 9/11 and the impact it has had on our nation.
by Gregg Thompson
Small business owners in North Carolina – and throughout the United States – face thousands of federal regulations that have unintended economic consequences. Compliance costs continue to rise for small business owners who must keep up with regulations trickling down from Washington.
By the Wilmington-Cape Fear Home Builders Association
Policymakers looking to target the mortgage interest deduction in the name of tax reform should think twice before imposing a huge tax increase on millions of middle-class home owners that would sink the nascent housing and economic recovery.
Cutting the tax benefits associated with owning a home would send shockwaves throughout the economy. Eliminating or limiting the mortgage interest deduction would further depress home values, raise the tax rate for millions of working families, and reduce consumer spending and confidence.
By the Wilmington-Cape Fear Home Builders Association
Discussions among Washington policymakers and pundits about whether the mortgage interest deduction should be sacrificed in the name of deficit reduction are irresponsible and undermining an already fragile housing market.
With mortgage interest rates near historic lows and housing affordability at or near record levels in many markets, now is the time that young families should be looking to enter the housing market. Yet, these policy talks alone are fueling uncertainty and standing in the way of a full-fledged housing recovery.
John Hood
by John Hood
Before Thomas Jefferson died in 1826, he wrote his own epitaph. Did he mention any of his political offices? No. Jefferson wanted only three accomplishments listed on his gravestone: author of the Declaration of Independence, founder of the University of Virginia, and author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.
John Hood
by John Hood
If you want to understand why the fiscal politics of Raleigh and Washington got so heated this summer, you have two choices.
One is to delve deeply into the details of each Democratic and Republican proposal to balance government budgets. I’m certainly not going to dissuade you from doing that. For North Carolina’s budget, the John Locke Foundation (johnlocke.org) can offer you some handy shovels to dig through state government’s major programs and revenue sources.
