Issue Position: Reduce Unemployment

Issue Position

Finding work in State House District 6, and most anywhere in North Carolina, is very difficult due in large part to the incompetence of our state legislators. Beaufort County's unemployment rate as of December 2009 is 11.9%, up a half point from the previous month and continuing the year long level at over 11%. The rate for North Carolina is 11.2% and 86 of 100 counties increased their unemployment rates in December. During 2009 the state rates held near 11%.After reviewing 34 years of NC unemployment rates, I found that the current unemployment rates are the worst during that entire period. Statewide Unemployment Insurance benefits paid in 2009 were $4.8 billion, about a 4th of the state budget.

What the unemployment rates don't take into consideration is the workers that have given up looking for work and those that have only managed to find part-time work. If you include the workers who gave up on finding a job and those who could only find part-time work, these rates grow to a level that means about every 5th to 6th house has an unemployed worker. This accounts for some of the highest unemployment rates on record for the state of North Carolina.

So, what did our democrat controlled state legislators do in response to this great loss of jobs? They passed a bloated budget that is 30% higher than 5 years ago. They raised our taxes $1.1 billion dollars with taxes that affect both businesses and individuals alike. In addition to this, they proposed and passed legislation that increased uncertainty in the markets and costs to businesses.

Raising taxes and inhibiting small businesses from growing is the wrong approach - the solution is quite the opposite. We can get people back to work by reducing the size of government and state spending which will allow us to lower taxes. We can eliminate unnecessary regulations to liberate small businesses and give them more room to grow. In the state of North Carolina, the majority of jobs are created through small business. We can enable small business to thrive and create more jobs in a low tax, reduced regulation and small government environment.

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