The Charlotte Observer called on John Locke Foundation President John Hood this week to discuss the downside of the city manager’s proposed tax increase. Hood discussed state zoo privatization proposals with the Triad Business Journal. (Objections may arise in relation to the pension benefits and other issues related to transferring state employees to a private organization, but relatively broad support should give it a good shot with the Republican-led legislature, according to John Hood, president of the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh, a conservative think-tank. This would be much more difficult if a legislator was proposing something opposed by the zoo and its supporters, Hood said, “but this is something that many at the zoo believe to be in its interest.”) N.C. Senate Republicans promoted Hood’s columns this week on out-of-bounds political discourse, ObamaCare, danger associated with public debt, and political prognostication tools. The N.C. Metro Mayors Coalition highlighted the debt column.