Gov. Bev Perdue held a “no holds barred” roundtable discussion Tuesday at the Richmond Community College Diane Honeycutt Center with county leaders and merchants about state issues ranging from jobs to taxes.

John Cooley, a county commissioner and the owner of Cooley’s Nursery, spoke to Perdue in both capacities as he called on the governor to not to force counties to carry more financial obligations.

“In taking about skinning the rabbit and getting that budget in line, I hope you are not going to send a lot of it to the county because we have no one to send it to but the taxpayers,” Cooley said. “As a taxpayer, I listened to one state employee who was concerned about loosing a half of a percent of his income. I didn’t say anything, I just thought that I wish I’d lost a half of a percent instead of half of 100 percent or more. We’ve cut back employees, and unless we sell something, we’re going to have to cut back on hours.”

There are no extra resources for new costs, he said.

“At the county level and the personal level, we can’t stand any more,” Cooley said. “I hope you’ll skin that rabbit somewhere else besides the county level.”

Perdue said she understood Cooley’s concerns, but said she could make no promises. She is expected to unveil a plan Thursday that she says will “remake government.” Perdue said the plan will include “lots of downsizing and the elimination of middle management” as well as eliminating layers of duplication. But she also said that she would “talk in generalities” on Thursday.

“Since I’ve been governor, the state has faced the hardest economic times since the Great Depression,” she told Scotland leaders. “This is the third consecutive years of huge budget shortfalls. We’ve cut about $2.5 billion out of the state’s spending. We’ve cut about 3,000 employees, but this year we are going to have a $3.6 billion hole.”

The state will try not to shoulder the costs on the counties, Perdue said, but was uncertain what her final budget will look like or what the newly elected Republican legislature will do.

Commissioner Bob Davis mirrored Cooley’s concern, asking Perdue about maintaining secondary roads. Davis said passing the responsibility to the county would force Scotland to raise taxes 25 to 30 cents per $100 of property valuation.

Perdue says the issue comes up periodically and that she has “killed it every time.” She asked Scotland commissioners to pass a resolution asking the state to fund county roads.

After the meeting, Cooley said he was heartened by Perdue’s visit.

“I was encouraged with the whole meeting,” he said. “I am impressed that she would come and talk with us. I am glad that she came here to scotland county.”

He reiterated his concerns that the state would stick the county with the bill in next year’s budget.

“If the state passes down fiscal responsibilities or taxes that we haven’t already got and increases that for us when we are already on the ropes, it is going to push us down,” he said. “Hopefully she’ll keep us in mind as legislation is being passed.”

Job creation

Commissioner Guy McCook, the owner of Hasty Realty, asked Perdue to “look at tax credits for job creation in small businesses.”

McCook asked for help to reduce unemployment.

“We need jobs in our communities… and we need help creating them,” McCook said. “Our resources are extremely limited. As a county, we have no resources left. Our taxes are as high as we can have them. We can’t increase our taxes and we have cut our budget.”

Laurinburg City Councilman Tommy Parker later agreed with McCook, asking Perdue to consider creating incentives for small businesses to grow jobs. He pointed to help his store, Parker Furniture, received to hire someone who was unemployed for six months, saying it would help businesses and create jobs.

“It’s a great suggestion,” Perdue said. “Especially for Tier I counties.”

She said after the meeting that she would take that idea Raleigh and see if it’s feasible for the 2011-2012 budget.

Afterwards, Perdue said she’d keep Scotland officials in mind when crafting next year’s spending proposal.

“These are hard times for people all over the state and the country,” she said. “And for Scotland County the message is loud and clear: tell us how we can grow our economy.”

The governor says she’s been working to create jobs.

“We try to invest in good business things and good business investments that bring jobs,” she said. “I try to work with any company in the area – in Scotland County and Laurinburg – to try and bring jobs here.”

The state is currently working to ease some unemployment issues, Perdue said, doling out federal unemployment dollars through the Employment Security Commission and proving job training and retraining at community colleges

“It’s all about education and investment.”

Perdue called the discussion in Scotland County “impressive” and “helpful” as so many other such events have turned into an hour or more of the governor and other state officials fielding complaints from irate business owners and local officials.

“Today, the people, who I think were so representative of Scotland County, thought that it was much more valuable to talk about job creation and issues that are really important to Scotland County,” Perdue said. “That was impressive to me that rather than complain about the system. They really voiced what they thought would make the system work better. That’s helpful.”

She said the discussion on small businesses “exemplifies” her upcoming budget proposal as so many entrepreneurs have been forced to slash jobs and tighten budgets to stay in the black.

“With a state the size of North Carolina with a limited revenue base, you really have to decide what your priorities are, what the state’s core priorities are, and make sure you have the revenue to fund them,” she said.

Perdue says “the most nerve-racking” part of making a proposal as governor is sending her requests to the General Assembly

“I am in a different branch of government,” she said. “I am the executive.”

This can make it difficult in pushing through an agenda, she said.

Perdue says she will be using “the bully pulpit” to garner support for her budget, persuading legislators to back her proposal by convincing their constituents of her plan’s merits.

State Sen. Bill Purcell, who introduced the governor, also thought the meeting went well.

“There was a lot of good discussion and everything went well”

He added that the venue was appropriate for a discussion on jobs as Scotland County has the highest unemployment rate in that state at 15.6 percent.

“I think that coming to Scotland County to talk about jobs was extremely important for the community,” he said. “I want to thank the Richmond Community College satellite (campus) for hosting us.”

Taxes

Purcell made a plea to Perdue at the end of the roundtable to continue the temporary one cent sales tax that was enacted in 2009 to ward off future budget cuts until the economy improves.

Purcell, a Laurinburg pediatrician, told Perdue that many of those at the meeting likely didn’t even know how much sales tax they were paying and suggested it would be unwise to end the tax without a new source of revenue.

Purcell said after the meeting that the tax garners $1.3 bullion in revenue that can’t be replaced until the economy has fully recovered.

“If we don’t keep the sales tax, those who are doing the budget will have to cut an additional $1.3 billion from the budget, which will have to come from education and health and human services because that is where the real money is in state government,” Purcell said. “If we could continue that a little bit longer, it would probably be a good idea rather than firing state employees and teachers, increasing class sizes and cutting medicaid reimbursement rates.”

Purcell would not say how long the tax might be needed.

“The sales tax was put in as a temporary tax for two years,” he said. “It will be up to whoever is making the decisions of how long to extend it.”

Perdue thanked Purcell for the suggestion, but said nothing else of the tax proposal.

by Matthew Hensley, Staff Reporter The Laurinburg Exchange

12.07.10 – 09:31 pm

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