Puppetshow exerting pressure on municipal governments

Submitted by scharrison on Sun, 10/10/2010 - 1:59pm

JLF "expert" complains about giving voters the option to raise their own taxes:

Opponents of the sales tax hike, including members of the John Locke Foundation, a conservative think tank in Raleigh, said this week that the Alamance County Board of Commissioners should have held a public hearing before voting to place the issue on the ballot. The commissioners voted 3-2 on June 7 not to hold a public hearing to help decide whether they should ask voters to consider a sales tax hike.

Joseph Coletti, the foundation's director of health and fiscal policy studies, said the commissioners showed they didn’t want the process to be transparent since they decided not to have a public hearing.

Confused? You shouldn't be. It's a lot easier (and cheaper) to disrupt a public hearing with 15-20 bused-in "patriots" than it is trying to sway the voting public at large. True colors, showing through.

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Sad business

Submitted by James on Mon, 10/11/2010 - 9:25am.

It's sad enough that North Carolina's political reporters turn to the JLF clowns for "expert" opinion about anything, but local governments too?

I guess it's just a case of ignorance loving company.

  1. Start with a bunch of mediocre people who can't get real jobs in real businesses.
  2. Make up glittery new business cards with the word "expert" next to their names.
  3. Spend $15 million in daddy's money laundering their bad ideas into political pabulum.
  4. Buy yourself a government.

What's remarkable is the fact that they're all so far gone that they can't even see their perversion and subversion of democracy.

Do good. Be nice. Have fun.

It is a subversion

Submitted by scharrison on Mon, 10/11/2010 - 11:57am.

It takes a twisted mind to think that a handful of citizens attending a public meeting somehow "trumps" allowing all voters to decide an issue.

Pope's machine could do with a healthy dose of transparency itself.

Bad Messenger, Good Reason...

Submitted by WillR on Mon, 10/11/2010 - 3:00pm.

Maybe the messenger had an agenda beyond that of transparency but I think holding a public hearing would have served the public good.

We asked for and got a public hearing in Orange County. From that process the BOCC sharpened up their plans for the sales tax revenue and made a 5 year commitment for its allocation. The process helped the public understand what was being asked for and the purpose behind it.

Surely that is worth running the risk of a boatload of out-of-county grousers showing up?

In our experience, that didn't happen (in fact, only a handful of folks spoke up - the local Chamber, a previous BOCC candidate, myself).

CitizenWill
there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right. MLK,Jr. to SCLC Leadership Class