I have been struggling to understand why Gov. Roy Cooper blamed business tax cuts as his reason to veto a bill for teacher pay raises after vetoing the bill that would have cut business taxes. His claim could have made sense in his veto of the original budget bill back in June. That bill contained both the tax cut and the pay raises. Instead, by vetoing the stand-alone pay increase bill, according to Rep. Deb Butler’s hashtags on the personal effects of the budget stand-off Cooper is forcing teachers to go hungry. This seems to be spitefulness at the expense of other people, even though the most vocal teachers are perfectly support the governor, and spitefulness strikes me as bad policy, whatever its political advantage.
by Joseph Coletti
Senior Fellow, Fiscal Studies, John Locke Foundation