NC State Govt: How about a nice tasty tax increase to go along with your recession? | Eastern NC Now

    Publisher's note: Brant Clifton takes a nonpartisan approach to the North Crolina's version of the "Fiscal Cliff" in his "bare knuckles" Conservative online publication known as The Daily Haymaker.

    We're in the top ten in the nation -- in terms of unemployment. Of the 19 states STILL indebted to the federal government for repayment of emergency unemployment funds, North Carolina has the third highest debt behind only New York and California. North Carolina's debt to the federal government is bumping right up to $2.5 BILLION.

    What's the state's plan for paying off this debt? They could sell off some assets, like -- oh - those port facilities, the railroad, or even the Dorothea Dix property. Wait. The Council of State has already agreed to basically give away the Dix property to the City of Raleigh.

    So, our folks in Raleigh are giving away stuff that COULD be sold to pay off this debt. Again, if they're doing that, what is the plan to pay these billions back to the federal government?

    Well, the so-called "conservative revolution" in our fair capital city has unveiled yet another nasty surprise for business owners rocked by our nightmarish national and state economy. State government isn't sacrificing. It's the nearly bled-dry taxpayers who will be sacrificing -- to the tune of higher unemployment taxes.

    So, the solution is to apparently snatch MORE MONEY out of private sector paychecks to try and clean up the messy results of Raleigh's spending orgy. How smart is that to further cut into the checks of folks scraping by in this nightmarish economy? If you knock up the unemployment tax, where is the incentive for employers to make new hires? Remember, this stuff from the state will be piled on top of the nightmare being unleashed upon us by Obama and The Congress at the first of 2013.

    Real conservative revolutionaries would be talking about cutting spending, selling off state assets, and shrinking the size of government to help get the state's fiscal house in order.