RALEIGH — I savor the opportunity to agree with Rep. Martin Nesbitt, the Asheville Democrat and would-be House speaker, mostly because the opportunity is so rare. Today is one of those special times.
Nesbitt was among the (alas) minority of members of the North Carolina House to vote against a noxious piece of legislation that began its existence as an end-run around the voters of Charlotte. Back a couple of years ago, said voters spoke out overwhelmingly against a plan to use tax dollars to build a new arena for the Charlotte Hornets, who promptly fouled their nest and buzzed away to swampier climes on the Gulf.
Having duly noted the opinions of the great unwashed of the Queen City, who were under the mistaken impression that they did not reside in a King City, the monarchs in charge went to their legislative vassals and demanded another option for squandering public money on the project. They got it in the form of proposed state legislation that would rebate sales and other taxes paid by the arena — oh, yes, and other tourism-related projects around the state, for good measure — in order to defray some of the construction cost.
Several gratuitous anti-Charlotte swipes in the General Assembly later (it infuriates me as a sort-of Charlottean to see the city leaders confirm the worst prejudices of the rest of the state), the bill had become less about the NBA arena and more about a variety of convention center, civic center, and other projects dreamed of by the busybodies who populate city governments and their hangers-on.
It provokes a sigh to have to say this, yet again, but the citizens of North Carolina did not construct and do not elect their local governments to engage in what is basically a profit-seeking business. There are certain functions that only coercive institutions (governments) can perform. These are few but critical. Hosting tractor pulls and medical-device-salesmen conventions aren’t on the list.
Now back to Nesbitt. He put it best when he noted the odd timing of this legislation:
“I don’t know where all this is going to stop, but we cannot come down here and keep raiding our future revenues,” he said. “Are we now going to say that it is our priority to build sports arenas and civic centers in the middle of a recession?”
But tourism is North Carolina second-largest industry — blah, blah, blah. But you have to spend money to make money in economic development, blah, blah, blah. But communities need jobs and this legislation represents leadership, blah, blah, blah.
I’ve heard these arguments over and over again. So has Nesbitt. So have you. The bottom line is simple: given the travesty of a state budget that just passed, including two more years of higher sales and income taxes (and, from Nesbitt’s perspective, two more years of cutbacks in essential state services), does anyone really believe that the state’s priorities properly lie in building more civic centers?
This is, inescapably, nonsense, and thanks to our favorite liberal mountaineer for saying so.
Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation and publisher of Carolina Journal.