Joseph Coletti

A letter writer to the Hendersonville Times-News worries that private liquor sales would eliminate “profits for public advantage” and put personal profits ahead of the “control and prevention of underage drinking.” Alcoholic Beverage Control managers, however, seek personal profits just as much as a private business would. The current system…

Wealth taxes and estate taxes are taxes on the virtue of saving. And nobody has found a good way to implement such a tax. Ten European countries, including France, Germany, and Sweden have repealed wealth taxes. India also repealed its wealth tax, first enacted in 1957, in 2015. Chris Edwards, in…

“We might need a rating agency to threaten [North Carolina’s AAA bond rating] for us to see both sides return to the table in earnest.” Zagros Madjd-Sadjadi, an economics professor at Winston-Salem State University, told the Winston-Salem Journal. This begs the question: What about current spending threatens North Carolina’s…

North Carolina had the sixth-best funded pension for state employees and teachers in the country in 2017, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts. Past and present state leaders deserve credit for regularly setting aside enough money to meet those pension obligations. The pension system also holds up well in…

Gov. Roy Cooper offered a budget counteroffer that would be hard to classify as a compromise. It still includes Medicaid expansion, a $3.5 billion bond (10% less than his original $3.9 billion plan), rejects a franchise tax reduction, and refuses to expand the number of Opportunity Scholarships. The proposal…

When a politician starts talking about free things, you know to check your wallet. Medicaid expansion, in all its varieties, is no different. It would add $4.2 billion to state spending in fiscal year 2020-21, a 27 percent increase over Medicaid without expansion, and 7.4 percent more than total state…

We hear a lot about the need to return spending to pre-recession levels. And spending grew a lot just before the recession. The budget grew 8.9% in fiscal year 2006-07 and another 9.0% in fiscal year 2007-08. What doesn’t get mentioned is that the Democratic General Assembly and Democratic Gov.

Did you hear the one about the nineteen billionaires who loved their wealth so much they could not voluntarily part with it? George Soros, his son, one unnamed person and 16 others signed a letter claiming they “believe it is our duty to step up and support a wealth…