After the House passed a $20.3 billion dollar budget – 7.6 percent higher than last year’s budget – the JLF was quick to point out that this spending increase is not necessary. Following Joe Coletti‘s Freedom Budget, a Policy Report that improves upon the governor’s suggested budget, many local news outlets clung to some of the report’s suggestions, including relief for Medicaid. “Temporary taxes,” enacted in 2001, continue to bother residents, as their tax dollars continue to go towards expanded programs. New and old programs continue to be funded without proper oversight, leaving us with little choice but to conclude that dinosaurs still roam North Carolina. And then there’s the frivolous spending of state monies for upkeep of the Intracoastal Waterway. Joe pretty much had all this covered. And where he left off, Chad Adams picked up in conversations with the Roxboro Rotary Club and Curtis Wright on Wilmington’s the Big Talker.
