Mismanaging expectations
Tax Day has passed and North Carolina Republicans must be relieved. Maybe now everyone will quit complaining about paying more state taxes this year. But maybe not. The GOP passed their massive tax reform promising that everybody would get a tax break. They based...
Election changes: The good, the bad and the ugly
The NC House Elections Committee voted to add party labels to a host of nonpartisan elections. They also approved having governor and lieutenant governor run as a ticket. The latter is a good idea. The former is not. It makes sense for the governor and lieutenant...
Like Indiana? Really?
Rob Christensen’s column on Sunday noted that the American Legislative Exchange Council, better known as ALEC, says that North Carolina is now the fourth most competitive state according to its criteria. We follow Utah, North Dakota and Indiana. Have you been to those...
Cronyism’s new poster boy
Remember how the GOP used to complain about cronyism when Democrats were in power? They were coming to Raleigh to clean it up, bring transparency and run government like a business. Well, that didn’t work out so well. Governor Pat McCrory got in trouble early in his...
Striking a nerve
Boy, these tax increases have Republican operatives unnerved. Several anonymous posters took issue with my post yesterday bemoaning paying higher state income taxes. Then on twitter, I noticed a fight between Progress NC staffers and GOP legislative staffers over the...
Pat McCrory raised my taxes
North Carolina Republican Party executive director Todd Poole told reporters, “Gov. McCrory signed historic tax reform into law which puts more money into the pocketbooks of working North Carolinians as well as small businesses.” But that’s just not true. This year,...
R.I.P. Eddie Mills
Edward Franklin Mills January 15, 1962-April 5, 2015 Eddie Mills, 53, died of liver failure in Wadesboro, NC, early on Easter Morning. He was a good brother, a loyal son, and a proud uncle. Eddie was born with Down’s Syndrome. He was a happy and gentle soul who...
Brand ’em
North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore told reporters earlier this week that he’s slowing down the religious freedom bill because he’s concerned about how it will affect the state’s “brand.” He should be equally worried about how all these bills to wrest control from...
Step it up
Ted Cruz and Roy Cooper have something in common. Both got punked by parody web sites using domain names that their campaigns should have owned. TedCruz.com leads to a site promoting Obama’s immigration policies. RoyCooperforGovernor.com goes to a parody site...
Targeting minorities
The so-called religious freedom bill in Indiana has blown up in Republicans’ faces. In response, defenders claim either the bill does not really discriminate against gay people or that it mirrors a federal law passed in 1993 and signed by Democrat Bill Clinton....
