A national taxpayer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. opened its third state chapter Tuesday in North Carolina.

The Americans for Prosperity Foundation, which will develop grass-roots activism that promotes limited government and individual freedom, established other chapters in Texas and Kansas.

The nonprofit organization was formerly known as the Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation, a sister organization to the similarly themed Citizens for a Sound Economy. CSE still has a presence in the state.

“Americans for Prosperity will fight to end the out-of-control growth of big government programs,” former state Rep. Carolyn Russell, North Carolina co-chairman of AFPF, said at a press conference. “When I was a legislator, I introduced the taxpayer protection bill of 1997 that limits the state spending to the growth in the economy. That safety net would have prevented North Carolina from the deficit it now faces.”

Russell said the $200 million in excess revenues the state collected during the last fiscal year does not represent a real surplus. Lawmakers expect a shortfall next year and beyond because of the usage of onetime revenues, including temporary sales tax and income tax increases that are scheduled to end in 2005.

“I am fearful now that we will never see this happen,” Russell said.

AFPF plans to motivate grass-roots activists to support candidates and elected officials who consistently vote for less government spending and lower taxes. Russell said the group will ask lawmakers to sign a “no new taxes” pledge, and publicize the names of those who do and don’t make the promise.

National AFPF President Nancy Pfotenhauer said one goal of the organization would be to seek the implementation of stronger state tax and expenditure limits. She said the limits that most states currently have in their laws “are paper tigers.” She cited Colorado’s TABOR law as the closest to the ideal such limit, because it requires surplus revenue to be refunded to taxpayers.

“It has been one of the most remarkable fiscal instruments at the state level,” Pfotenhauer said.

Paul Chesser is associate editor of Carolina Journal. Contact him at [email protected].