Have to double-back to the Uptown paper of record’s odd decision to run an old and debunked column by Chris Fitzsimon, executive director of NC Policy Watch the other day. In it Fitzsimon claims that it is just a myth that the General Assembly has raided the state’s Highway Trust Fund over the years and that if North Carolina wants road money, only a tax hike can supply it.
Oops. That’s why the column ran. Never miss a chance to plug a tax hike.
Anyway, Fitzsimon is in denial about the extent of the transfers out of the Trust Fund in recent years. On top of that, let’s not forget the criminal funding formula which directs the dollars that we pay in gas tax in Mecklenburg to be used to pave over everything east of I-95 in a pointless attempt to attract economic activity.
The truth is, there is plenty of money for roads in this state — were it actually used for roads and not pork.
