Citizens get passionate when discussing a potential state tax increase

State wrestles on taxes; Citizens get passionate when discussing a potential state tax increase.

By Paul Muschick
Staff Writer

If you're going to talk taxes with Tony Moschetti, pull up a comfortable chair - but not too close. Moschetti tends to get loud when cursing governments for taking too much of his paycheck.

''It's a subject that just angers me to no end,'' the High Point insurance agent said.

Karla Ewald isn't so loud, but supporters of higher taxes are rarely heard over tax opponents. The Greensboro woman would rather pay more so the state doesn't cut services.

''The level of service that we are talking about cutting would be catastrophic,'' said Ewald, executive director of the Association for Retarded Citizens of Greensboro.

North Carolina lawmakers and Gov. Mike Easley have yet to decide who they will appease as they debate whether to raise taxes. As they argue, one thing is
clear: Both Moschetti and Ewald have a point.

North Carolinians already pay plenty of taxes, especially gas and income levies, and people in other states pay less.

But plenty of people pay more, too. North Carolina isn't even close to being one of the heaviest-taxed states when all state and local taxes are considered.
Governments erase less from our paychecks than the national average.

The state and local governments took nearly $ 11 of every $ 100 earned in North Carolina in fiscal 1997-98, ranking the state 30th in the country. That does not include federal taxes.

When compared on a per-capita basis, or tax-per-person, the state ranks 33rd at $ 2,557, also lower than the national average.

The comparisons, from an annual survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, were released last month and are the most recent available. They include all taxes - property, income, sales, corporate and others.

Maine had the heaviest tax burden, with people paying more than $ 14 of every $ 100 earned to state and local taxes; New Hampshire ranked lowest at about $ 9.

People like Moschetti say North Carolina needs to do better because the state is taking a bigger hit in these hard times than other places. North Carolina experienced the sharpest drop in employment in the nation from May to June.

''They continue to raise the taxes of the people of this state while they're losing jobs,'' said Moschetti, a former member of the Guilford County Mental Health Board who has criticized public officials of all sorts in person and on radio talk shows.

Some lawmakers say North Carolina's taxes are acceptable.

''When you put the whole tax burden together, I think we have a pretty good place to live,'' said state Rep. Nelson Cole, a Rockingham County Democrat.

He said lawmakers have no choice but to raise taxes this year.

Legislators have to look at North Carolina's needs, he said, and not worry about how it ranks with other states.

''I don't think we necessarily look at that,'' Cole said. ''That's just a barometer that's out there.''

Nonsense, said state Rep. Harold Brubaker, a Republican on the other side of the tax talks.

''If you get your tax out of kilter, if you're going to be higher, people are going to flock to lower-tax areas,'' said the former House speaker from Asheboro. ''That's why it's critical to keep them in a good balance.''

He wishes the state had placed even lower on the list of how much earned income goes to taxes and won't support calls to raise them.

The Democrat-controlled legislature is pondering various tax hikes, including levies on liquor, managed care companies and personal income greater than $ 200,000.

Gov. Easley, a Democrat, last week suggested that lawmakers instead raise the state sales tax 1 percent.

North Carolina already ranks among the highest states in personal and corporate income tax, with $ 3.96 of every $ 100 made here going to those levies, ninth-highest in the land in 1997-98.

The state ranked 12th in the percentage of all income going to fuel taxes and 13th in alcohol taxes.

Some lawmakers say taxes will have to get higher. And though no one likes to lose more of their income, some taxpayers agree it's the right thing to do instead of cutting services.

''Not having a tax increase and devastating persons with special needs is just not the right way to go about it,'' Ewald said.

Others also have come forward urging people to support higher taxes to improve services.

Several local preachers lobbied people to support giving more money to the Guilford County Schools, even if it meant a tax hike, which it did.

''Nobody wants tax increases, but unfortunately the underpinnings of so many of our programs are at stake,'' Ewald said. Contact Paul Muschick at 883-4422, Ext. 231, or pmuschick@news-record.com

News & Record
August 19, 2001

Election report bares liberals' hypocrisy

After reading your ''idiotorial'' on Aug. 8 concerning the ''messy'' election system and detailing many of the problems with the last election, I must wonder.

Is one a liberal because one is ignorant and dishonest, or is one ignorant and dishonest because one is a liberal?

You liberals, who went apoplectic over Florida, would not listen when many of us tried to tell you that what happened in Florida was no aberration - that the same problems occurred in almost every state and have happened in every election. It has taken a team of ''experts'' eight months to figure out what some of us knew all along. You continue to speak of ''uncounted'' ballots as if someone (Katherine Harris, of course) took perfectly executed ballots and tossed them in the trash, thereby ''disenfranchising'' the paranoid among us.

In fact, machines kicked out improperly executed ballots.

Now you want a holiday to vote. Is it too much to ask today's citizens to do what Americans have done without problem for 225 years? If you can't spend 15 to 30 minutes one day every four years to vote, you probably shouldn't be voting.
This is just a ploy to give the unions, who already have a holiday on Election Day, even more time to round up folks, take them to the polls, and direct them to vote for Democrats even if they know nothing about the person for whom they are ''voting.''

Tony Moschetti
High Point

News & Record
August 17, 2001