Here We Go!

I'm just starting up this blog. I hope to use this as an opportunity to let folks know what I'm doing and where I stand on the issues. If you've been following my two terms on the Lenoir City Council, you know I'm against economic development incentives, a.k.a. corporate welfare. When the best thing the staunchest supporters of a policy can say about the policy is that "No one likes it, but everyone is doing it, so we have to," you know the policy is bad. I've voted against every incentive proposal that's come before us, including the massive Google handouts. I'll never vote for one, and if elected will propose laws to eliminate State-level incentive programs. If you earn your money, you should be able to keep it, instead of politicians giving it to multi-national businesses and using it to pat themselves on the back over the businesses they want to claim they recruited.

I'm also very much against involuntary annexation. Lenoir annexed my family and me back in the 1990s. It caused me to run write-in in 2001, to get elected in 2003, and re-elected in 2007. Involuntary annexation is wrong. It deprives citizens their voice in government. If I'm elected, I will propose legislation to abolish involuntary annexation, and will support any legislation to enact a moratorium or to limit cities' ability to involuntarily annex.

I'm also opposed to eminent domain for economic development purposes. The government shouldn't be able to take your house and give it to some big corporation that wants to build a big box on your land. If elected, I will propose a constitutional amendment to make clear that politicians can't pass a law that would allow this to happen.

So that's my first post. I welcome your comments and questions.