By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
jonathan@wdnweb.com
Staff Writer
In a wide-ranging interview, state Rep.-elect Bill Cook, R-Beaufort, held forth on everything from how legislators can aid in job creation to the future of the N.C. Education Lottery.
Elected to office last November, Cook’s first official day in Raleigh is Jan. 26, the day the legislative session begins.
The freshman lawmaker said he’d been told by the House leadership that, provisionally, he’ll sit on three committees: agriculture, appropriations and a committee that will examine jobs, economics and regulations.
“They told me up front that this is what I’ll be working on as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
Asked what a legislator can do to spur job creation locally, Cook indicated that task needs a more-friendly state regulatory environment.
“Nowadays it seems when businesses try to do things, they have so many regulations, so many regulatory hoops to jump through, that they spend all their time doing that,” he replied. “It seems like government puts roadblocks in the way.”
Cook declined to say which state regulations he finds onerous or in need of revision or elimination. He suggested he’ll look into the answers once he starts work in the Legislature.
“I’ll be looking at all kinds of regulations across the state,” he said.
Later, Cook was queried as to whether he agrees with the practice of directing state incentives to major corporations.
“The short answer is no,” he said. “I think incentives will get folks to come in, at least in the short run, but businesses aren’t stupid. They know if they play the game, they’ll come in and get their tax credit and say, ‘Thank you very much,’ and they’ll stick around until that runs out. Unless there is some compelling overall business reason for being in the state, they won’t stay.”
Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue has said state incentives should be preserved as an economic-development tool.
Two recent job-creation announcements in Beaufort County — one related to Fountain Powerboats, the other to appliance-panel maker PAS — were made in connection with state grants.
In November, it was announced the consolidation of four boat-making operations on the Fountain campus in Chocowinity could result in the creation of 411 jobs here over the next five years, thanks in part to a $150,000 grant from the One North Carolina Fund.
In December, it was announced PAS USA would hire 239 people to work at its Washington plant, due partly to an $800,000 One N.C. grant.
The companies’ full receipt of these grants was contingent upon meeting certain state criteria.
Asked whether these two announcements served as examples of how incentives or similar measures can work, Cook said he didn’t know enough about those initiatives to comment on them.
“I hope they are examples of them working, but I just don’t know enough about them to say one way or another,” he said. “Theoretically, in my mind you shouldn’t be doing that kind of thing.”
He acknowledged that incentives can work in certain situations, and didn’t advocate eliminating incentives altogether, at least not right away.
Shifting gears, Cook answered an inquiry about his thoughts on whether the General Assembly should abolish the N.C. Education Lottery, as some liberals and conservatives have suggested.
“As far as I’m concerned the jury’s still out on that. I can argue in my mind in a lot of different ways,” he said. “I think the lottery allows people who don’t have a lot of hope of becoming wealthy a chance to become wealthy. It gives them some hope they wouldn’t have had otherwise. However, those people are the people who can least afford to play the lottery.”
The chances of winning the lottery are slim, Cook pointed out.
“However, who am I to say folks shouldn’t have the chance to try anyway? I believe in freedom, freedom of choice,” he said.
The other side of the argument is that the poor, who can’t afford lottery tickets, shouldn’t spend their cash on a game that benefits people who don’t need the money, Cook summarized.
Speaking of lottery revenues going to the state, he added, “I don’t think balancing your books through gambling is a real good plan in the long run.”
Cook let it be known he’s working to answer his constituents’ questions, revealing he has more than 300 e-mails to respond to and has been laboring to wade through them all for the past six days.
“What we need is representatives who truly represent the people,” he said. “The only way they can do that is if the people speak to them, and if the regulator speaks to the people.”