Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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Let���s Focus on Job Creation by JOHN HOOD ��� such as refurbishing the state���s infrastructure and restructuring higher education It���s about time for New Year���s resolutions. My recommendation for North Carolina politicians of all stripes is to resolve to focus their attention, rhetoric, and legislation on ��� may well be advisable. Most of their economic benefits would come in the long run, however. Policymakers need both a long-term strategy and some short-term tactics. reducing the ranks of the unemployed. I would submit that the best tool available for creating jobs quickI don���t mean to suggest that state government is the primary ly is tax reform. Nationwide, there is a large and accumulating stock player in economic policy. To the extent public policy was imof financial capital. Investors and entrepreneurs are worried about plicated in the housing and financial bubbles, and the slow-asfederal fiscal and regulatory policies and uncertain about immedimolasses recovery from the Great Recession, the fault lies mainly ate prospects for growth. They are holding onto cash and targeting in Washington. The Federal Reserve���s easy-money policy inflated their new investments carefully. If we want North Carolina to be the bubbles. Lawmakers and regulators subsidized and distorted one of those targets, we need to send investors and entrepreneurs a markets. The legislative and executive branches ran up huge budget clear signal that they would be welcome ��� that their after-tax redeficits to paper over the consequences. turn would be higher here than in competing jurisdictions. But state leaders can play a key role in promoting real, investThere are several different models for pro-growth tax reform. ment-led economic recovery here in North Carolina. Their goal Leaders should make our state a more My colleagues at the John Locke Foundation suggest that North should be to make our state a more attractive place to invest, start attractive place to invest, start new busi- Carolina replace current state taxes on personal income, corporate new businesses, and create new jobs. nesses, and create new jobs. income, retail sales and estates with a single, flat-rate tax on conHere is the stark reality. Before the onset of the Great Recession sumed income. Administered within the existing income-tax sysin 2007, there were about 220,000 North Carolinians classified as unemployed but actively looking for work. That yielded a ���U-3��� rate tem, it would end the current double or triple layers of taxation on ��� the most common measure of unemployment ��� of 4.6 percent. investment income, taxing all household income once and only once, when it is used As of October 2012, North Carolina���s U-3 rate was 9.3 percent. The actual count to purchase goods and services. was about 440,000 unemployed North Carolinians, twice the pre-recession figure. A Our ���first-best��� proposal would be a consumed-income tax rate of 8.5 percent, with broader measure, the U-6 rate that includes both unemployment and underemployno additional state tax on retail sales, corporate income or investment gains. Our ecoment, stands at a staggering 17 percent, also twice as high as the pre-recession rate. nomic consultants estimate that such a plan would boost job growth by 80,000 jobs in Because new people enter the workforce every year, as teenagers became adults the first year of implementation alone. If enacting this ���first-best��� plan proves politicaland other job-seekers move to North Carolina, it will take robust annual job growth to ly impossible, we suggest a ���second-best��� proposal of a 6 percent consumed-income make a noticeable dent in the problem. Current trends don���t bode well. North Carolina tax and a reduced state sales tax. Such a plan would still boost proprobably added only about 40,000 net new jobs in 2012. Economists are predictjected job creation in 2013 by at least 15 percent, or 10,000 jobs. ing between 60,000 and 70,000 net new jobs in 2013. That would be a welcome Don���t like these options? Then improvement, if it came to pass. But even at that rate, it will take many more years to propose one of your own. But let���s JOHN HOOD, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? editor@upandcominbring unemployment down to its pre-recession level. keep focused on the core issue: gweekly.com Some of the usual ideas you hear about strengthening North Carolina���s economy economic growth. How To Find Network ATMs... With over 28,000 locations, it cannot be hard to ���nd, but here is how to locate a network ATM you can use for free! There are lots of ways... ��� Online - go to www.co-opfs.org and click on ATM locator at the top of the page. You can also ���nd a link to this website on Bragg Mutual���s Home Page (www.braggmutualfcu.com). ��� Text - you can text a city & state or a zip code to 692667 (my coop) to ���nd the nearest locations. Your standard text messaging rates apply. ��� Telephone - you can call the network and you will be given information regarding the nearest locations to you. The phone number is 1-888-SITE-CO-OP. ��� GPS - you can download data into your GPS to help you locate network ATMS while you are on the road. ��� Mobile - download the FREE ATM Locator app from the iPhone App Store. Several Convenient Locations: 2917 Village Drive ��� Fayetteville, NC ��� 910-488-3515 219 N. Main Street ��� Spring Lake, NC ��� 910-436-1894 201 Hay St., Ste. 101C ��� Fayetteville, NC ��� 910-484-2379 Call BMFCU for more information at 1-800-257-0276 or go to www.BraggMutualFCU.com 16 UCW DEC. 26, 2012 - JAN 1, 2013 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM