Despair, Ashe County, Is All You'll Get

The implied criticism of Dan Soucek and Jonathan Jordan, newly elected Republican members of the General Assembly, is buried deep in the editorial, but it's there. Jefferson Post editor Lonnie Adamson gingerly points out the Soucek/Jordan campaign mantra of "tax cuts" as woefully inadequate for the crisis right now in the state of North Carolina.

Which has created an immediate crisis in the County of Ashe ... the threatened closing of Mt. Jefferson State Park.

While Sen. Steve Goss and Rep. Cullie Tarleton would have fought, and effectively, for the continued operation of the park, Soucek/Jordan offer little prospect of (1) giving a good goddamn about it or of (2) having any clout in Raleigh to head off disaster.

Lonnie Adamson:

The perceived answer to economic success themed in the recent election was tax cutting. The idea is that with lower taxes, businesses will invest, and hire and spend money to grow the economy.

Re-investing has not been the habit of businesses recently when they had a few extra dollars to spend. They have been more likely to sit on the reserves and see what the future holds.

I like to have a few extra dollars lying around as much as anyone, but you'll have a tough time convincing me that cutting immediate revenue sources -- taxes -- is the proper course of action when we are lacking at least $4 billion for the state budget already. In the coming reapportionment of property, we may well see a decline in county revenue sources also.

It seems more likely that tax cuts are going to leave people hurting if we take away more dollars from already hurting entities like schools and health departments.

Does it make sense to take away dollars from Mt. Jefferson State Park that brings thousands to Ashe County who buy things in our shops, eat in our restaurants, buy fuel in our service stations. Those attributes of Mt. Jefferson State Park make it -- in my limited understanding -- a revenue generator for the community.