State Rep. Lorene Coates, D-Rowan, refrained from signing any campaign pledge in 2000 not to raise taxes. If only state Sen. Cal Cunningham, D-Lexington, could say the same.
“I knew better than that,” Coates said last week from Raleigh after voting for a state budget that included a $620 million tax increase. “We inherited a mess down here. ... No, I did not sign a pledge.”
Cunningham also voted for the final budget package, with the tax increase. But in his 2000 campaign for the Senate, he signed a no-tax-increase pledge when answering a Citizens for a Sound Economy questionnaire.
Will his political opponents and constituents remember that and make it an issue in the 2002 campaign?
“I expect to have to explain it,” Cunningham said. “I’ve been explaining it since May.”
In the spring, Cunningham said, it became evident that the state economy was souring and a tax increase was a looming option on the table. At forums back home in Statesville, Mooresville and Lexington, Cunningham “started aggressively talking about it,” he said, describing how he asked for suggestions on where to cut the state budget and, if taxes had to go up, what tax increases people were willing to pay.
Cunningham said the debate about taxes matured, and most lawmakers and constituents realized that they were needed to continue the state’s progress.
“I took the position that it was the right thing to do,” Cunningham added of his vote for the final state spending plan. “I certainly agonized over it.”
Cunningham believes the new state budget invests in education and economic growth at a time when it’s desperately needed. For those who opposed the budget, Cunningham likes to flop the question and ask whether they supported a plan that would have increased class size in every classroom in North Carolina by two students.
Cunningham added that he also campaigned repeatedly last year on the issues of education, healthcare and transportation and the state budget addresses those needs. In the end, he said, the budget fulfilled 16 out of 17 of his promises.
The one promise not met: the no-tax-increase pledge.
On the education side, the state spending plan provides funds for smaller class sizes, new teacher recruitment, improved accountability, pre-kindergarten for at-risk children and support for community colleges and universities, Cunningham said.
The economic initiatives will help the state overcome more than 43,000 job losses this year, he added. The efforts include job training programs, new business recruitment practices and replenishing state reserves to $338 million to protect its bond rating.
As for no-tax-increase pledges, both Coates and Rep. Eugene McCombs, R-Rowan, made references to former President George Bush’s political mistake of saying, “Read my lips, no new taxes,” during his campaign, only to have to raise taxes during his presidency.
Coates, a first-term lawmaker, had worked earlier for a compromise effort that would have cut business incentives by 20 percent and closed more tax loopholes to avoid a tax increase.
“But there weren’t more than a handful of legislators that would risk joining me and going after big business,” Coates said.
“There was another proposed budget that made cuts, but I couldn’t support a bill that closed down vital services like mental hospitals and the School for the Deaf. It didn’t put money into education and roads that we desperately need.”
McCombs joined most of his Republican colleagues in voting against the state budget signed by Democrat Gov. Mike Easley last week.
“With all the unemployment in this county, and the threat of jobs that are going to be lost,” McCombs said, “I just could not put another tax on the people.”
State Rep. Linda Johnson, R-Kannapolis, criticized the tax package included in the budget.
“The impact of this tax increase will be felt by every North Carolinian for a long time,” she said. “With some foresight, leadership and responsible planning, this tax burden on our citizens during these difficult economic times could have been avoided. “A great opportunity has been missed.”
Coates said the final budget wasn’t the best lawmakers could do, “but it was the best it would do. I felt it wouldn’t be responsible to vote ‘no’ on all of the budget proposals,” Coates said. It might have been smart politically, but I was sent to Raleigh to do the best job possible for Rowan County. I didn’t have the option to vote for just part of it.”
Cunningham explained it another way:He had only one vote, and he thought voting for all the things he supported in the budget such as farmland protection, small class sizes, better roads and the like was better than voting against it all because of the tax package.
The budget includes a half-cent sales tax increase, a half-percent tax increase on married couples making more than $200,000 a year, a six-cent tax on liquor, a 6 percent tax on out-of-state telephone calls and a 5 percent tax on satellite dishes.
As for the tax increase on married couples making more than $200,000, less than 360 people are affected in Rowan County, Coates said.
The average family will spend $48 to $52 more a year on taxes, according to analysts.
Coates said more budget cuts could have been made and that the approved budget includes pet projects, only because the Democratic and Republican leadership together “couldn’t come to any better understanding.”
“The good news for Rowan County is that our schools are getting the funding they need, and we are getting four desperately needed new kindergarten teachers,” Coates said.
She said other good news is that more roads are being resurfaced, mental health facilities are staying open, law enforcement and teaching jobs are protected and the marriage tax penalty is eliminated.
“I made the most responsible choice I could,” Coates said of her vote for the budget.
Cunningham emphasizes that the state’s revenue plan will cost the average taxpayer about a dollar week for only the next two years. He also mentioned the elimination of the marriage tax penalty, an increase in child tax credits and a one-day sales tax holiday to help working families before their children go back to school.
The new budget also sets up a special trust fund for mental health, developmental disability and substance abuse services, Cunningham noted, adding that it will help move adults and children off waiting lists and into treatment programs.
In addition, Cunningham said, 82,000 uninsured children will now have access to health care.
Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263, or e-mail him at mwineka@salisburypost.com
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