Wow, it's been a long time. I'm running for re-election to the Lenoir City Council, for a fourth term. Hard to believe! I'll continue to stand up for Lenoir residents and taxpayers, even against Big, Bad, Google and their massive corporate welfare that costs us millions of dollars every year. I look forward to your support.

Thanks for the Support!

I've gotten some positive telephone calls and e-mails regarding the article in Sunday's News-Topic, wherein I reiterated my stand against incentives, especially in light of the bonuses paid out to Jeff Cook and other executives at Furniture Brands. Thanks for letting me know some of you agree with me.

8,579.19

Wasn't the $850 billion federal bailout supposed to provide short-term stability to the markets?

A New Investment "Opportunity"

Thanks to the "wisdom" of our very own Senator Richard Burr and others (but thankfully not Senator Dole or Congressman McHenry), we are all unwilling investors in a new, risky hedge fund. I fear for the future of our nation.

Bailout passes Senate. :(

Sometimes I hate it when I'm right. Let's hope the House opponents will show some guts and not allow themselves to be bought out.

Bailout voted down?!?

Color me shocked. Now let's see if the opponents voted on free-market, non-government-interference principles, or simply because they weren't able to "get enough." Will Our Learned Leaders manage to create a Frankenstein's monster to get a majority? Call me a cynic, but I'm afraid they just might throw in some new programs or add in pork to swing some "Nay" votes. I hope I'm wrong.

Broyhill/Furniture Brands

So I guess everyone knows by now. The City of Lenoir and Caldwell County have rolled over and taken Broyhill's hijacking, spending our money to make themselves look good.

If you'll recall, one of the arguments used to justify Google's handouts last year was that the tax rebates were on investment that wouldn't have happened without the incentives; we were giving away money we wouldn't have gotten otherwise. Not even that excuse works here.

Furniture Brands International (Broyhill's owner; let's be honest, it's not really "Broyhill" anymore) is staying in Lenoir and consolidating its operations, including closing several other plants. For this, the City and County have given them massive incentives conditioned on placing limits on job REDUCTION, rather than promoting job creation. If Furniture Brands cuts ONLY 100 jobs, City and County taxpayers will pay them $2 million dollars over the next year or so. This isn't tax rebates. Checks will be written out of the general funds, paid for by you and me, to Furniture Brands, a company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.

The John Locke Foundation, in its Agenda 2008 pamphlet, put it better than I can:

[Government] will reward specific companies that it deems worthy. If a company will run its business the way politicians and state economic development planners think it should be run, then the subsidies will flow in its direction.

If it locates in the right place, if it hires the right amount of workers, if it compensates the workers with the correct mix of salary and benefits, and if it is producing the right products or providing the right services, then it will qualify for the privilege of being subsidized by the citizens of North Carolina. This is government central planning, plain and simple.

Of course, the City and County will go through the motions of the public hearings required by law. Lenoir's hearing will be October 21 and Caldwell's hearing will probably be October 20. But the votes have already been unofficially cast. I'll very likely be the only local official who opposes these taxpayer subsidies.

Despite this, I encourage you to turn out for the public hearings and express your opposition. Because I will, and if enough citizens show up to voice their opposition to this corporate welfare, maybe together we can put a stop to it.

Criminal Matters

North Carolina wastes too much taxpayer money on harassing and prosecuting non-violent offenders. This includes the court system and the prison system. This takes away valuable resources from prosecuting criminals who have damaged or stolen other people's property, or harmed or defrauded other people. This will lead to safer streets and homes, and a better environment for small businesses to grow in.

When I'm in Raleigh, I'll support laws that will focus our laws toward investigating and prosecuting violent crimes, while opposing laws that further attempt to harass people who are not hurting others.

Feel free to contact me here or directly by e-mail if you have specific questions. This is an incredibly broad topic that could take numerous blog postings to answer fully.

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.