RALEIGH – I haven’t talked directly to anyone who defends the now-infamous “booze cruise” of public officials, lobbyists, and other political insiders on a state ferryboat during Beaufort’s Tall Ships event. But I know there are defenders. I’ve read their apologetics. And having gotten to know many denizens of North Carolina’s political class over the years, I can well imagine what they are saying privately and about whom.
First of all, they are wondering what the big deal is. Political insiders get special treatment all the time. Lawmakers get free tickets to concerts, conventions, and packed ACC games. Local governments and tax-funded nonprofits spend public dollars routinely to tout their wares to tourists and economic-development prospects. North Carolina’s state ports have frequently lobbied Raleigh for years to secure additional operating and capital subsidies (more on that in a moment). What is the fundamental difference between these activities, long enjoyed by the political class, and the booze cruise?
The answer is, inevitably, none. There is nothing fundamentally different about the ferryboat party. It is similar to lots of other invitation-only events and promotional activities, perhaps not held in as picturesque a setting but certainly hosted at nice venues, often taxpayer-financed such as university campuses or state museums. What makes the Tall Ships example significant is that it has become a perfect symbol of excess. It inconvenienced ordinary North Carolinians. It involved calypso music and alcohol. Some of the attendees wore silly hats.
That’s what really bugs the defenders, I guarantee you – the fact that the event is symbolic. Many of them were also angry last year when a relatively small amount of taxpayer money got spent on a teapot museum in Alleghany County and the resulting furor turned the expenditure into a statewide (and occasionally national) joke. When state lawmakers supplement their relatively modest pay with freebies or expense reimbursements and the talk-radio chatter turns ugly, our friends fume still more at the injustice of it all. Why does anyone care so much about a few thousand dollars, in the context of a $19 billion state budget?
Sorry, but one must accept human beings for what they are. It is human nature to latch onto a symbolic event to convey a larger truth. It is human nature to bicker over small-dollar items and find larger sums, and issues, too mind-boggling to contemplate. It is human nature to resent privilege, even when the rewards of privilege seem trifling. By now, we should have learned that a war waged against human nature will likely be won by human nature.
On Monday, Gov. Mike Easley demanded that the North Carolina Ports Authority repay the state treasury some $3,800 in Department of Transportation money used to defray the costs of providing the ferryboat for the cruise. While a welcome step, it will grate on the nerves of the defenders. “That’s all, $3,800?” they will ask with a snort. “So what?”
Well, for one thing, it isn’t all. I wish the governor had demanded a larger repayment. While many say the ports authority is not subsidized by the general taxpayer, this is not really true. Its operating costs are subsidized by an income-tax credit for shipping goods through the ports. Its capital costs are subsidized by direct state expenditure. I think Easley should have requested an additional $25,000 repayment by the authority, or else a reduction of $25,000 in authorized expenditures or tax subsidies for the ports in the coming fiscal year.
Yes, that would still be relatively small potatoes in the context of state government as a whole. No child will be deprived of a sound, basic education, or woman deprived of a sound road, or man deprived of basic safety, because of the expenses incurred by the booze cruise. But often, larger issues are best understood, debated, and reformed by focusing on telling symbols. Right now, the cruise is that symbol – a symbol of how government policy should not be formed. Politicians who fail value to appreciate its symbolic value will derive little benefit from their pals’ private vituperation.
Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation.