After national media outlets transcribed left-of-center talking points that criticized North Carolina’s Republican General Assembly and governor, John Locke Foundation President John Hood offered a more accurate assessment of the state’s political picture this week to readers of National Review Online’s primary blog, “The Corner.” Hood also attracted attention from the Heritage Foundation’s “Insider Online” for his latest research into North Carolina’s tax reform proposals.
The Charlotte Business Journal quoted Hood in two articles focusing on the planned reorganization of the N.C. Commerce Department. (John Hood, president of the John Locke Foundation, a Republican-leaning think tank, says the privatization of economic development has the potential to improve recruiting but should be viewed with pragmatism. “We ought not get carried away,” he says. “It’s not like, suddenly, North Carolina is going to create 100,000 jobs. Improving your sales force might improve your bottom line, but only if customers like your product. It’s not a substitute for reforming the tax code or streamlining the regulatory environment.”)
The Greensboro News & Record‘s “Mixing It Up” column cited Hood’s criticism of corporate income taxes. The Smoky Mountain Times quoted Hood in an article about the end of federal extended unemployment benefits this week for some North Carolinians. (“The Ul system is designed to buffer workers from the short-term effects of sudden job loss. It was never designed to be a source of long-term public assistance,” John Hood wrote before the changes became law. Hood is the president of the conservative John Locke Foundation, a think tank in Raleigh.)
A letter writer in Lumberton’s Robesonian mentioned Hood’s syndicated column on tax reform. N.C. Senate Republicans promoted in their daily press emails Hood’s columns this week on the history of the N.C. Railroad, real “progressives” in North Carolina politics, and efforts to resolve a tax reform impasse.
