To hear audio
of Paul Stam's speech against House Bill 1473, click
the link below.
HB-1473-Paul-Stam
Raleigh - Late Thursday evening
the House passed its Appropriations Bill for the next
fiscal year (H.B.1473) on a vote of 68 -
51. All Democrats voted for it, and all
Republicans voted "no." Republican Leader Paul
Stam of Apex summarized many of the reasons for
the opposition of the GOP caucus.
"It spends over 7.6 percent more than the current
year," Stam said, "after last year's 9.7 percent
increase and the previous year's 8 percent increase.
This rate of growth in spending is simply not
sustainable when population growth plus inflation are
only about 3.8 percent combined.
"Tax rate hikes in the budget amount to $300 million
next year," Stam said. "The Democrats could have had
a 6 percent spending increase without violating their
longstanding promises to voters to end the temporary;
tax rate hikes on sales and income. There was no
broad based tax relief in the bill, only targeted
relief to a few
"The bill spends too much and taxes too much, he
said."
"I don't know we can even call these taxes temporary
any more," said Rep. John Blust (R-Guilford). "If my
neighbor borrows my car temporarily, and then he just
keeps it, how long can I call that borrowing
temporary?"
Republican Whip Bill McGee (R-Forsyth) cautioned
Members concerning $450 million in new Certificates
of Participation, debt not approved by the voters. "I
would have the voters approve this and get lower
interest rates," McGee said. "This is placing an
unfair obligation on future legislatures by tying
their hands."
"It's funny money, in a lot of ways," and McGee said
"State Treasurer Richard Moore agrees with me."
Rep. Leo Daughtry (R-Johnston) noted the process used
by the Democrats did not allow the House to vote on
the repeated extension of the "temporary taxes." Nor
would they allow a vote on whether Charter Schools
should be expanded, even though these save the
government money.
Rep. Dale Folwell (R-Forsyth) noted the lack of any
funding for the State Retirees' future health
insurance, as required by accounting standards, and
that school boards would not be receiving a sales tax
refund on their purchases.
The appropriations process consumed about ten hours
of amendment and debate in the Appropriations
Committee on Wednesday and another six hours of
debate on the House Floor.
Republicans enjoyed some success in the amendment
process. By telling Democrats they were going to
suspend the rules to ensure that $100 million would
be available for Medicaid relief to the counties,
they dragged the Democrats "kicking and screaming"
into putting all that into the budget after refusing
to do so earlier in the week.
Although the amendment passed unanimously, this would
never have occurred if Republicans had not demanded
it be so.
A similar victory occurred on the Democratic proposal
to exchange needles with drug addicts. In the
Appropriations Committee an amendment by freshman
Representative Wil Neumann (R-Gaston) failed by one
vote to eliminate this needle exchange. The
Appropriations Committee is stacked with the
Democrats.
Neumann had the amendment ready for the floor, and it
would have prevailed. Democrats, however, did not
want to put their members on record voting for drug
paraphernalia so they amended the bill to take the
provision out.
In committee another freshman, Rep. Ruth Samuelson
(R-Mecklenburg), amended the bill to change the
formula for fixing school buses. By changing the
provision from one category to another, she qualified
North Carolina to receive an additional $8 million of
Federal assistance to fix North Carolina's public
school buses.
And another freshman, Rep. Charles Thomas
(R-Buncombe), was able to have an amendment adopted
to provide a million dollars of focused programs for
mental health by eliminating other positions that
were not filled.
In a victory for the sophomore class, Rep. George
Cleveland (R-Onslow) surprised the Democrats by
obtaining approval 70 to 45 for an amendment
requiring U.S. Citizenship eligibility under some new
programs. Rep. Bryan Holloway (R-Rockingham) helped
with drafting and rallying support so Democrats in
swing districts had to vote for Cleveland's proposal.
All in all, the Democrats emphasized the good things
they could do with $20.3 Billion. Representative Stam
pointed out "it's hard to spend $20.3 Billion and not
do something good. But the problem is Democrats never
examined their base spending to eliminate low
priority items so overall spending can be
sustainable. They seem unable to cut a program,
although on March 14, during a public press
conference they promised to do so.
"We will closely examine the needs of our
state to ensure every tax dollar is spent as wisely
and efficiently as possible. Our budget writers will
first look for ways to eliminate or consolidate
existing state programs before we create and fund new
programs."
- A Plan for One North Carolina
- By Democratic Members
of the N.C. House of Representatives
- Wednesday, March 14,
2007
General Assembly/2007 Budget Rejection