I don't know how much the state can do. They work on basically seven
percent—that is what our tax rate is. I think there's a lot of programs,
because I'm a
Page 22 county commissioner, that aren't
working. They are administrated through the state. They include social
services, or Head Start, or any of the rest of them. They've proven they
are not working, but they keep funding them. There's a lot of money
that's being wasted in this state. Not that we deserve any more than
anybody else in the state, but I think that we've all shown that when
other disasters happen in other places, we pitch in and help. All we
expect is the same from them when it happens to us. The majority of
people are moving to
[Unclear.] [Background noise of car driving by.] . We happen to be in a cycle right now, and they say it's a
ten-year cycle on hurricanes. I mean, we went for years, and years, and
years, and we paid the rates. We pay them down here because we live here
on the coast. Insurance-wise and everything else, we pay the rates. This
is the time that it is hitting us the hardest. I'm not sure how it
worked, but when Hugo turned and went up and went into our mountains and
then to Charlotte, and all, for what I understand, they helped those a
lot up there. No one complained down here about helping. I happen to be
a Republican, and if any Republican senator or house of representative
that doesn't feel like they want to cut any programs out or help the
people down here, they don't get to be in office. You know, and whether
you are a Democrat or Republican makes no difference. I don't look to
see what you are, when you come before us as a county commissioner. It's
either right or its wrong. Now, if you don't feel like it's right to
help the people of Eastern North Carolina through this devastation, then
you vote that way, but if you're doing it purely because you think the
money is more important in a Head Start program, or one of these
programs that has been proven they're not working—. I mean, basically, a
lot of these programs are baby sitting programs. Are they more important
than people's homes and lives? To furnish a baby sitting service? I
Page 23 hope none of them have to go through what we've
gone through down here. I hope that it never hits them at home like it
has us. This cycle will change. We'll go back to sunny skies. The one
thing that the law makers need to understand is a lot of our tax base
comes right off this coast. It feeds the whole state, it doesn't just
feed us. Tourism is one of the biggest things there is. That's one thing
we have a lot of. Your mountains have a lot of it, but you need to look
out for each other. We're all North Carolinians, one way or another. I
mean, all you have to do is go back over history and look at all the
pork barrel money that's been wasted. Instead of cutting our taxes where
maybe we could afford to carry more of the load, instead you all keep
the same tax rate, but you keep wasting the money. You keep doing these
projects. I mean, every day you read in the newspaper where somebody has
got caught because they've done something they shouldn't have done. I'm
talking about our legislators, our highway commissioners, and everybody
else. It seems like they don't ever have to pay money back. Most of us
down here are not getting "give away" money. We're paying it back. Most
of us pay taxes. I'm going to pass up the state level because I don't
know how much the state can really do. Federal money—. I'm in the
thirty-eight percent tax bracket. The federal government is not loaning
me anybody else's money, except what I've worked hard and paid in, and
they're charging me interest to use it. It's the same way with federal
programs. Every week you see on the news, it's something, the fleecing
of America. Well, it's time for the fleecing to stop. This week I saw
where we were shipping out to
[Unclear] all these millions and millions of dollars worth of aid. They
don't have to pay a dime back. All we want you to do is cut the red tape
out and if we're going to borrow money, get it down here and let us get
started. Let us get to build back and be productive again. I've got
twenty-three
Page 24 employees that are sitting out here
looking for a job. They're going to have to go to work before long if I
don't get open. One of the things the state did this time, and I think
it's great that they did, is they are not going to change the businesses
unemployment rate because of this disaster. Which is a big help.