Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.”
— Voltaire (1763)
Pondering Voltaire’s aphorism, politically astute North Carolinians would consider Gov. Mike Easley the perfect embodiment of hypocrisy. What you see, or in Easley’s case, what you hear, is definitely not what you are likely to get.
In the modern era, though, the governor most likely could be characterized as an adherent of the crassly demagogic Bill Clinton school of thought rather than of the purely logical French philosopher’s.
During the 1990s graduates of the Clinton school became master blacksmiths who pounded truth into whatever shape suited their political objectives. Easley wields the hammer in North Carolina. Sen. John Edwards carries it in Washington. Secure in office, they are liberals. Vulnerable near election time, they become “moderates.”
Rhetoric aside, Easley’s record as governor speaks volumes about his shell-game shenanigans. The evidence lies in a lengthy list of injustices:
• Highway Robbery. Easley has treated the Highway Trust Fund as a slush fund to buoy the General Fund and to use in ways that were not intended. His recently passed “Moving Forward” legislation will take $700 million in bond authority approved by voters for new-highway construction and transfer it to road improvements, maintenance — and mass-transit projects. Employing a bait-and-switch tactic, Easley siphoned from the trust fund revenue that motorists paid in higher taxes on gasoline, car sales taxes, and other fees.
• Fleecing of Golden LEAF. Originally sold to the public as a benevolent and independent nonprofit dedicated to health care and antismoking programs, Golden LEAF in practice bends to the political manipulation of Easley and Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight. Already, the men have pressured the foundation’s board to “invest” $85.4 million for “Democratic initiatives” of biotechnological research and stimulation of the state’s economy. Long term, the foundation plans to commit an additional $108 million to biotechnology and millions of other dollars to programs outside the organization’s originally stated mission.
• Tax-Hike Mike. Despite prior assurances he would not raise taxes, Easley’s administration, if anything, has been punctuated by incessant tax increases. In 2001 the governor signed into law nearly $700 million in annualized tax increases. In 2002, he proposed a $400 million tax hike and eventually signed a $343 million increase. And in 2003 Easley proposed $461 million in higher state or local taxes (the latter due to imposing another hit on local government budgets). His latest plan reneged on earlier promisse to let the previous income and sales tax increases expire. Easley’s budget also broke a promise to give a tax break to families with children and to married couples.
• Local-Government Larceny. During the 2001-03 biennium, Easley seized hundreds of millions of dollars in tax reimbursements to localities. To help local governments patch the holes in their budgets, the General Assembly agreed to let cities and counties enact their own half-cent sales tax increases. For some localities for which the new taxes wouldn’t replace the withheld revenue, the administration agreed to make up $23 million in “hold harmless” payments. As mentioned, Easley soon reneged on that promise, too, in his 2003 budget proposal.
• Lottery Lunacy. Easley included $250 million for a state-run “education lottery” in his 2002 budget adjustments. The problem was, no lottery existed. A back-door measure to introduce a game failed to pass legislative muster. Even so, the proceeds were not necessarily limited to new education spending, as originally promised.
• “Clean Smokestacks” Smokescreen. In 2002 Easley crowed about legislation and an agreement with power companies that required them to install updated antipollution devices on smokestacks. By using a magical accounting technique, i.e, a five-year freeze on rates, Easley said, consumers would not pay more for electricity. Missing from Easley’s announcement was the fact that rates actually would have decreased without the legislation and that, according to research by the John Locke Foundation, there would be no significant environmental benefit.
• Economic Development. Ten months after taking office in 2001, Easley, apparently eager to show he had an economic development strategy, began making announcements of business openings in North Carolina. Unfortunately, most of the developments for which Easley took credit were bogus. Many of Easley’s announcements came many months after the openings had occurred, and several of those arrivals were by companies that had planned to come to the state long before Easley took office.
Starting with this year’s State of the State Address, Easley appeared to be a man on a mission to get re-elected. His speech included moves toward the middle ground, such as his proposal to index government spending. And for the first time, he seemed to acknowledge that spending, by the legislature — not tax cuts in the 1990s — lay at the root of the state’s recent budget deficits. Whether the governor was serious, or intends to persevere after the election, remains to be seen.
With a track record like his, Easley could hardly blame voters for doubting his credibility. He certainly talks the talk, but he continually fails to walk the walk.