Other ways to raise money

In the Press release below, NOM Claims they will raise $2 million dollars to reverse Same-Sex Marriage in NY. I wonder since NC will be taking up this issue in the fall, I wonder just how much money our local bigoted citizens will be giving to groups like these. While I bet some of these same people are same as those whom have been bitching and crying about budget cuts in Education and few other areas in the budget.

If NOW can raise 2 million plus to reverse something so damn stupid, why can’t North Carolinians do the same to help protect our Schools and teachers???? I mean I didn’t have a problem paying 1 cent more in taxes for education issues. Have you really checked you grocery receipt lately, 2% on food and 6.25% on other items and another 6.25% and yet another group of of items. Well, that was on my last receipt.

While the NCGA and Governor Perdue was deciding what items to cut and if there was going to be any new taxes, I feel they over look one area. They love to raise taxes on cigarettes, why not on Alcoholic drinks, $1 tax on 6pks, $1.50 tax on 12pks and $2 tax on suitcases of beer, a wine tax of $2 dollars a bottle, and $3 tax on hard liquor (no matter the size).   

But there is a down side to this, just like the cigarette tax, more people are not smoking, which means lower cigarette taxes are being collected, yet, the sale of Alcohol just keeps going up, doesn’t it. So let tax Alcohol to death, that way less people will become Alcoholics, which will save lives, and money on alcohol-related health cost.. (higher the cost of boozes will lower a lot of NC social problem and health care cost too)

via the Heraldsun.com

Nothing seemed immune -- nothing, that is, except the tax on alcohol. Readily embracing taxes that negatively impacted all North Carolinians, including taxes on income, utilities, entertainment, sales, gasoline, even tobacco, they stoutly resisted increasing taxation on alcohol. The budgetary debate outcome confirms the extraordinary influence the malt beverage industry exerts over too many legislators.

Arguably no legal product imposes a greater financial cost or societal harm than alcohol. Health care, violent crime, law enforcement, social welfare, broken families, workplace productivity and premature death or injury are just a few of alcohol's associated harms. In addition, alcohol, a regulated product, can only be sold with a state license.

Representing 88.8 percent of alcohol sales in North Carolina, the malt beverage tax was last increased 40 years ago. While legislators have occasionally increased the tax on distilled spirits (7 percent of overall sales) and wine (4.2 percent of sales), the Very Special Interest malt beverage industry seems bulletproof.

North Carolina annually recovers $211 million in alcohol taxes -- covering only a small fraction of the harmful financial consequences associated with alcohol misuse. Underage drinking alone costs our state $1.4 billion in health care, crime and other costs, while our Institute of Medicine finds alcohol costs our state economy approximately $12.4 billion.
Read more: The Herald-Sun - Alcohol industry should be taxed more

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 24, 2011

NOM To GOP Senators: “We Pledge $2 Million to Reverse Same-Sex Marriage in New York”

“Politicians who campaign one way, and vote the other, can expect consequences come election time,” Brian Brown, president of NOM

NEW YORK – The National Organization for Marriage’s (NOM) president, Brian Brown doubled his previous pledge, promising to commit "at least $2 million" in elections in 2012 to make sure Republicans understand that voting for gay marriage has consequences:

“The Republican party has torn up its contract with the voters who trusted them in order to facilitate Andrew Cuomo’s bid to be president of the U.S. Selling out your principles to get elected is wrong. Selling out your principles to get the other guy elected is just plain dumb.

Gay marriage has consequences for the next generation, for parents, and for religious people, institutions and small business owners. Politicians who campaign one way on marriage, and then vote the other, need to understand: betraying and misleading voters has consequences, too. We are not giving up, we will continue to fight to protect marriage in New York, as we are actively doing in New Hampshire and Iowa.”

NOM’s pledge to commit at least $2 million in the 2012 elections to hold politicians accountable for their vote includes independent expenditures as well as through NOM PAC New York.

“The New York Republican Party is dysfunctional. When Democrats control a chamber, they refuse to permit the people to vote for marriage. When they are a minority, as in Wisconsin and Indiana, they even flee the state to prevent a vote on a bill their base disapproves,” noted Maggie Gallagher, Chairman of NOM. “Contrast that with the behavior of the Republican party today. The Republican Party in New York is responsible for passing gay marriage, and sadly it’s the families of New York who will pay the worst price of the new government-backed redefinition of marriage.”