RALEIGH – I traveled to Charlotte today to talk about taxes, the state economy, and the outlook for the November 2002 elections. A crowd of 80 turned out at the Charlotte City Club, including some city and council officials with a few choice words about Gov. Mike Easley and the feckless state legislature.
My most revealing conversation, however, wasn’t with a politician. A retired businessman, active in the Queen City’s chamber of commerce, told me about his recent visit to Raleigh. A delegation from the chamber took the train up and back (and was repeatedly delayed, illustrating one more time while rail transportation is not going to make a comeback in North Carolina). The delegation split into groups and met with a sampling of House and Senate members.
My new friend told me that his meeting with House members went swimmingly. They seemed eager to talk, expressed disgust with the inability of their institution to address the state’s long-term economic and fiscal problems, and promised to fight against anti-growth measure such as new taxes.
Only one member of the N.C. Senate would meet with his Charlotte chamber group, however, and only for a moment. When asked why the legislature would consider raising taxes again in the midst of one of the weakest economic recoveries in the state’s history, the senator (whose name I could not acquire) told the chamber members that they did not understand: there was no alternative.
The businessmen then offered to sit down with a copy of the state budget, identify possible savings, and come back in a week for a follow-up meeting. The senator, now visibly irritated, proclaimed to the surprised constituents that they “did not understand budgeting” and that he had to run.
My new acquaintance, the retired businessman, had spent about as many years managing the budget of a major corporation as the senator had been alive. I told him that he had learned firsthand how arrogant, and simultaneously how clueless, many of our “leaders” have become. Unfortunately, his experience has likely been replicated many times this year as average North Carolinians confront, and are bewildered by, their elected officials.
Such are the wages of a political process that protect incumbents from competition and inside-the-Raleigh-Beltline types from the real world. These wages have simply become too steep to pay.