2008 Candidate Survey Responses & Voter Guide

Paul Purdue (Republican)
House District 115

1. What are your top three policy priorities for your term, if elected?

Work to restore missing funds from education lost since the lottery began. 
Oppose all new taxes, and work on the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. 
Work tirelessly to benefit the citizens of Buncombe County, not to enrich the government.
 

2.An estimated 16-20% of Buncombe County’s children and youth live in poverty; many more live in low-income families facing many of the stresses and challenges of families living in poverty – especially in the current economic downturn. What initiatives or policies do you support to reduce the impact of child poverty?

Initiatives and policies indicate people believe government can solve poverty, when in fact it is government policy that creates most poverty to begin with. Let’s take the creation of jobs.  Small business creates new jobs, entry level to the boardroom, yet our state penalizes owners in many, many ways unseen to the general public. In order to have great paying jobs and opportunities so that poverty can be wiped out, we need to remove as many onerous taxes, forms, regulations and just plain bad ideas from the law books. When people in poverty can see their way clear to actually starting a small business, or becoming entrepreneurs, we all benefit. There is no support for those kinds of activities. Look what micro loans have done to erase poverty in Africa and some Asian countries.  Capitalism works.  Socialism and government control is a misnomer. No one ever controls all facets of a market.  So when they demand higher minimum wages, for example, businesses react by eliminating positions and having existing personnel work more hours. It is just a fact of life. You can’t make unreasonable demands and expect the world to conform to your needs. Allow the economy to flourish and many more people will find gainful work with advancement potential. Then the children of those families will no longer be [220 words exceeded]
 

3. North Carolina’s dropout rate and educational achievement gap between white students and students of color have been a focus of politicians, educators, and advocates over the past two years. In your opinion, what are effective ways that the General Assembly can address these issues?

It has been the focus for decades, but no one wants to address the real problem. Many parents simply don’t care about their kids and have just given up. They are left to the streets where they find easy money committing crimes.
Our society has to make a decision. Are we going to allow hoodlums to run our schools or throw them out? This is not a black and white issue. It’s about who wants to learn and who doesn’t. The legislature pretends that all things, including kids are equal. They aren’t. They should be provided with equal facilities, and opportunities.  

If parents see their child is in a safe place where they finally can succeed we might win more of the back to participate. But again, parents are more worried about economics because the jobs of the past have left the country, and have not been replaced.
 
The schools will suffer as always. Teachers are a blessing. But too many systems have too many unnecessary layers and those layers of management are costing our children their future. It’s time to prune back administrative costs, so the money can get right to the kids, where it’s needed most. 
 
Drop all this unnecessary purchases of new textbooks every single year. That’s a moneymaker for the book companies.  Who forces new editions [220 words exceeded]
 

4. North Carolina was one of a few states that enjoyed a budget surplus this fiscal year. However, there still were not enough funds to meet the growing demands for education, health, and human services funding proposed by many legislative leaders and the Governor. What, if any, tax or budget reforms are needed to ensure sustainable funds for state programs in education, health, and human services?

The surplus was destroyed by a legislature that acted more like drunken sailors on a spending spree than anything else. They claim they spent wisely.  Well, if so, where are all the improvements? Better schools? Better roads? More infrastructure? They just created more sweet deals for a corrupt inner circle who benefit from your tax dollars. 
 
As for health and human service demands - as long as your government destroys economic growth and potential of business, continues to give incentives to business that don’t need them, squanders tax dollars on ridiculous projects and doesn’t make vendors live up to contracting agreements, there never will be enough for children or others in need. There are those who genuinely need our help to care for themselves. And then there are those cheating the system.  Find a way to eliminate and prosecute the frauds and more money will be available to the rest who really deserve the help. 
 

5. Air and water quality are part of a myriad of environmental factors that can impact public health – especially in children. What policies do you support, or propose, that can assure a robust natural environment for current and future generations?

I support eliminating the vacant land tax. Right now, a land owner has two choices - try to hold land and pay full taxes calculated at the rate as if the vacant land were developed, or sell it to developers who MUST build on it, strip it, destroy the forests, ruin the watersheds, etc. because they’ve invested a fortune. 

Tell the legislature to pass that one bill and millions of acres will not just be sold off for inability to pay the taxes. They will be held by average citizens who can then keep the land clean, unspoiled and preserve what is left. The air and water all benefit from this and so do the kids.

We need some common sense in the legislature. But remember, we are up against people who are greedy. They want money, and if they have to raze a forest to get it, then that is what they will do. I oppose rampant development, because right now most of it occurs from the incentive to sell overtaxed land.
 

6. Affordable, high-quality child care ensures working parents can stay in the workforce and promotes positive child development. Within the child care industry, most child care providers in Buncombe County are not paid a “living wage” ($11.35/hr as calculated by Asheville-Buncombe Living Wage Campaign). Several state-funded programs impact child care availability, affordability, quality, and provider salaries. What are your recommendations for the state’s future role in providing both affordable, high-quality child care and promoting good-paying jobs within the childcare industry?

Childcare providers should be able to earn a decent wage. Again, this is not something the government can solve. Driving up rates or making demands and mandates destroys progress.

What really has to happen in this state and this nation is for people to stop thinking someone else is going to support them. If every group and every person who is underpaid or under funded, looks to the rest of us, we will quickly realize we are all in the same position more or less. Successful people started with nothing and used that incentive to create job.  I restore antique furniture.  It is not a terribly lucrative industry nor am I rich.  But I earn a living.  I can’t complain.  When I go to expand my company, I hope that I live in a place where the government isn’t standing there seeking to destroy my efforts to hire staff and grow. But for now, they do and that’s why we don’t have living wages.   It isn’t because companies don’t want to pay them - they can’t afford to. The laws of supply, demand and costs incurred are ignored by government and it is about time they had to balance their own budgets and run their house like we run ours as private citizens.

 

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