RALEIGH – After decades of mostly Democratic rule in Raleigh, the political establishment of North Carolina’s capital city – the government staffers, the media, the associations, the power brokers – came to share a common political vision.
I don’t mean to suggest that it was a pristine philosophy, or even a detailed political platform with which everyone in the Raleigh establishment agreed. If anything, it might best be described as a kind of chauvinism – a Progressive version of North Carolina Exceptionalism.
The vision went something like this. Generations ago, North Carolina was a backward place. Then a series of progressive governors and legislatures assume power. They raised taxes, expanded government, and improved education. The state boomed as a result.
Sound simplistic? It’s even worse than you think. Some of the “heroes” of this story were bigots, demagogues, or enthusiastic participants in graft, corruption, forced eugenics, and the like. Others were really more expert at public relations than at government reform.
Of course, some of the programs that North Carolina governments created during the 20th century bore bountiful fruits, such as investments in roads and highways. Others, however, did little more than squander the scarce resources of taxpayers. While North Carolina grew faster than most other states during large stretches of the 20th century, its growth was often matched and sometimes exceeded by other Southern states with similar climate and other economic resources but smaller governments.
What’s worse, North Carolina’s recent experience has been as an economic laggard, not a leader. Our unemployment rate has exceeded the national average for much of the past three years. And on some measures of economic performance, North Carolina has posted weak results since the early 1990s.
In short, there is no valid statistical correlation between government spending and state economic growth. There is a correlation, a modestly negative one, between tax rates and economic growth.
Still, the political establishment remains convinced that North Carolina is a better place to live and work than most other states because the state has been more willing to spend tax money on public universities and other government institutions. Because the establishmentarians spend a lot of time together – in the halls of government, attending meetings and seminars, socializing, etc. – they tend to have their prejudices reinforced, not challenged.
So when conservative Republicans won majorities in both houses of the state legislature last fall, the establishment in Raleigh responded with a combination of confusion and revulsion. Surely, it was thought, those incoming GOP lawmakers didn’t really believe what they were saying. Or if they did, surely all it would take would be a few phone calls or personal meetings to “educate” them.
Things didn’t work out that way. Much to the horror of the establishment, the incoming Republican majorities meant what they said – and for the most part, they have implemented the agenda they’ve talked about for many years and ran on during last fall’s election.
Believing that North Carolina government was unnecessarily large, unwieldy, and expensive, conservative majorities in the legislature have drawn up a state budget that funds basic state functions while simplifying the state’s organizational chart and lowering taxes. Gov. Beverly Perdue vetoed the budget over the weekend, but the General Assembly is expected to override her veto this week.
Believing that North Carolina’s education system offered too few choices for parents and too little competition for district monopolies, conservative majorities in the legislature are about to eliminate the cap on charter schools and authorize tuition tax credits for families with special-needs children.
Believing that North Carolina’s business climate was hampered by over-regulation, over-litigation, and excessive workers compensation costs, conservative majorities in the legislature are in the process of approving reform measures in each of these areas.
Believing that North Carolina’s laws offered insufficient protection for the rights of state citizens, conservative majorities in the legislature are about to reform annexation, strengthen gun rights, and abolish the practice of forcing taxpayers to pay for the campaigns of politicians with whom they disagree.
As each bill passes one or both legislative chambers, the political establishment in Raleigh grows increasingly dismayed. At her budget-veto ceremony, Perdue accurately described the establishment view. “I cannot support a budget that sends the message that North Carolina is moving backwards, when we have always been a state that led the nation.”
But it’s Perdue and the political establishment who are backward. They continue to live in a past that, in truth, never really was. By promoting fiscal restraint, school choice, property rights, and other reforms, conservatives are bringing North Carolina into the 21st century – no matter how much liberals in Raleigh kick and scream about it.
It’s about a decade late, admittedly, but better late than never.
Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation.