Saith the Tryon Daily Bulletin:
The North Carolina Horse Council has announced plans for holding an equine industry referendum to extend the Horse Industry Promotion Assessment, which was first authorized in 1999. The referendum will be conducted in all of North Carolina’s 100 counties on March 11.
The HIPA is a $2/ton tax on horse feed marketed as being billed to the manufacturers of horse feed. Now, if we put on our dunce caps like good little citizens, we will think there is a mighty law of economic force that prevents manufacturers from passing the cost of compliance on to consumers. That way, we can get the consumers to vote for a tax on the unrepresented manufacturers while keeping the manufacturers silent – unless they, too, own a horse.
The horse sector is claimed to have a $1.2 billion economic impact in the state. That means, some political pitcher got a college student to run a cost/benefit analysis, zeroing out expenditures while maximizing returns. Can you say, “This is exciting!”?
