NC Rep Moore updates the community of Cleveland County

Current House budget calls for Cleveland Correctional Center, along with seven other prisons around the state

June 13, 2009

CLEVELAND COUNTY NC NEWS -- Republican NC House Representative Tim Moore updates the community of Cleveland County and North Carolina on the current status of his objectives within the House. Representative Tim Moore discusses:

• The North Carolina State Budget
• The Cleveland Correctional Center proposed closing, along with seven other prisons around the state.
• The proposed tax package, which will increase North Carolina marginal tax rates to the seven highest in the nation.

The General Assembly has been moving at a very fast pace this week with Appropriations and Finance committees, as well as Appropriations Subcommittees, all meeting on the budget. On Tuesday, I was in meetings or in session from early morning to very late in the evening. I have been fighting very hard to protect funding for Health and Human Services, Education, the Department of Corrections, and Transportation. Our first vote on the proposed budget will likely occur today.

As many of you have heard, the current House budget calls for Cleveland Correctional Center, along with seven other prisons around the state, to be closed December 1st. Tuesday I offered an amendment to restore funding to the Cleveland Correctional Center in the Appropriations Committee. I had previously offered this amendment in the Appropriations Subcommittee on Justice and Public Safety. These amendments were defeated on a predominately party-line vote. In my opinion, it does not make sense to be closing prisons when crime rates are on the rise. There are many things done by state government that some question as a priority. I have yet to meet the person who opposes spending money to put criminals in prison, and I believe that, along with other criminal justice funding, needs to be a priority. Rutherford County Republican Senator Debbie Clary said:

"There is tremendous support from our community for the approximate 55 jobs the prison represents. We will continue to fight through the conference committee to keep the prison jobs in Cleveland County."

I, along with the rest of the Cleveland County delegation, will continue to try and get this funding restored and to preserve jobs during the conference committee process.

I must say that throughout this entire budget process, I have been quite disturbed by the leadership's proposals to balance the budget. In their original House budget, there were huge budget cuts proposed to all areas of state government that hurt education, and our hardworking citizens along with our most vulnerable. These massive cuts should never have been put in the proposed budget in the first place. There are several programs funded by state money that are not performing, wasteful, or frivolous. These are the programs that we should focus on cutting, as opposed to vital services, such as education, criminal justice and healthcare, as the majority proposed. In the same way that families are cutting back, our government must show fiscal responsibility in these tough times, but must choose wisely where to cut.

The majority's proposal burdens working families and small businesses as tax increases of almost $785 million in the Finance Committee were approved. Revenue projections as a result would increase spending for the upcoming fiscal year to $19.9 billion. It should be noted that State spending as recently as 2006-007 was almost $19 billion (adjusted for inflation and population). There is no question that responsible prioritization of spending would eliminate the need for new taxes. In this time of recession, the absolutely wrong prescription is to increase tax rates. We must not continue the tax and spend philosophy that has clearly resulted in this unprecedented budget crisis.

As part of the tax package, the state sales tax would be raised by .25 percent and the scope of services to which it is applied would be broadened. Raising the sales tax during a time when many people are struggling to make ends-meet will hurt all North Carolinians. This will likely be a counterproductive tax increase as it will encourage many people to go out of state to make their purchases.

Also, in the proposed tax package is a provision to raise North Carolina's highest marginal tax rate to 8.5 percent. Under this proposal, North Carolina would have one of the seven highest marginal tax rates in the nation. This will be devastating to our economy. We need to keep jobs in North Carolina and entice new businesses to move here. Instead, this will encourage new industries to look to surrounding states because of their more favorable tax rates. I will continue to oppose these tax increases as I have done since being elected to the House of Representatives in 2002.

Please know I will continue to work to protect funding for core governmental services while opposing government waste and tax increases.

Finally, in the Cleveland County district 111 Republican NC House Representative news update, Tim Moore concludes with the following request, "As always, please feel free to contact us with any concerns or comments you may have. We look forward to hearing from you. You can reach us at our Raleigh number at 919-733-4838 or you can e-mail us at timm@ncleg.net or Moorela@ncleg.net."