For years, opposition to state and local tax breaks for business came mainly from school officials and public employee unions, who feared erosion of the tax base, and from activists like Ralph Nader, who lambasted corporations that incessantly fed at the public trough. But in recent years, fiscal conservatives have joined the fray. Privette, the Cabarrus County commissioner who voted against the Corning deal, is typical. The county must build three new schools annually to accommodate the children from the 3,000 new homes that go up every year. With Charlotte's sprawl moving to adjacent counties in the 1990s, the population has risen 40 percent to 126,000.
Sales tax is regressive taxation.
The senior citizens and average citizens would have had to pay the highest taxes in North Carolina, while the corporations don't pay at all. Privette's religious convictions were on display in his suburban living room. He served tea, but not coffee. And on the table an open Bible sat before a statue of two hands clasped in prayer. It said to me that our corporate citizens ought to want to help the good citizens, the hard-working citizens of this county build these schools.