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In recent years North Carolina has experienced a loss of 185,000 manufacturing and textile jobs. The North Carolina legislature has responded to this crisis by raising taxes, raiding state trust funds, and keeping taxes high on North Carolina's small businesses in order to dole out several hundred millions of dollars of "incentives" to select companies to "bribe" them into coming to North Carolina. Our individual tax rates which impact small business are the highest of any state in the southeast. While small business creates 70% of the new jobs in NC, they have received no tax relief. The legislature has, in effect, acknowledged that North Carolina cannot compete with other states in the battle to lure companies that will provide good jobs for our future unless we give large financial inducements. We don't believe that we should have to "bribe" large corporations to come to move to North Carolina. We believe North Carolina is a great state - that's why we all have chosen to live here. But we also believe that we have painted ourselves into the proverbial corner with some short-sighted budget decisions, the total lack of desire for systemic reform, and legislators more concerned about their own personal power than helping the people of North Carolina.
The Foundation for NC Future believes that if our leaders provide fair personal and corporate tax rates, a good educational system, clean air and clean water, and a good, well-maintained transportation system we can have a state whose "quality of life" will serve as a beacon for families and companies who want to live and work in such a unique environment. The FNCF believes that such a climate can only occur when the citizens of North Carolina fully understand how their tax dollars are currently being spent and demand change and accountability in the North Carolina Legislature.
North Carolina is also rapidly approaching a crisis in our healthcare system. Medical malpractice claims and exorbitant insurance increases are forcing doctors to choose between practicing medicine or shutting down their offices. Every person in our state suffers when this choice is played out because many people, when faced with no doctor available to them, turn to seeking service in hospital emergency rooms - the single most expensive place to receive treatment. The costs of treatment under this system often fall to North Carolina's taxpayers when patients can't afford the higher costs of treatment. There have been studies done that show a high level of fraud in the state Medicaid program as well as savings that would occur if only the state bureaucracy would reform itself. The savings have been conservatively estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The state and the legislature, as currently constituted, have shown absolutely no interest in seriously trying to reform the system. Such lack of action, in a time when budgets are clearly strained, begs the question, "Who do the Governor and the state legislators work for: The citizens of North Carolina or the special interests who donate millions of dollars to the legislative campaigns to sustain the status quo?"
The North Carolina legislature is clearly influenced by the trial lawyer community who are one of the largest political action committees and donors to state legislative races. In addition to the legal community, we must involve the hospitals, the insurance companies, the doctors themselves, and the patients to address this crisis. Only by educating our citizens and bringing together all the elements involved in the system, in a sincere debate about improving our delivery of medical care, can we hope to achieve any progress in enhancing it. As long as the discussion stays in the private meeting rooms and non-public lobbying dinners of Raleigh, productive change will never occur. Maintaining the "status quo" is no longer acceptable.
The Foundation for NC Future intends to inform the voters of North Carolina how the state government handles both of these issues. It will also inform citizens of many other important issues including: education advancement strategies, transportation, environment, healthcare, marriage & family, illegal immigration, homeland security, and crime & gang violence. The FNCF will let voters know when bills are introduced that might improve these issues and why - and how - such bills are kept from moving forward in our legislature. The FNCF will comment on and try to educate the voters through a combination of TV, radio, newspapers, e-mails, candidate questionnaires, and public debate. We will comment favorably on candidates for state office who appear to be sincerely trying work on solutions to these problems and unfavorably on candidates who use the system to deny any meaningful reform. The folks who have power in North Carolina are not going to like us very much - and that's fine. If we can simply help show the voters of our state how to not just listen to what candidates for state offices say - but also to watch what they do after they are elected - we feel we can accomplish great things for our state.
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