To the Editor:

North Carolina has the 49th highest unemployment rate in the USA, tied with Rhode Island and followed by Illinois at No. 50 and Nevada at 51 (Washington, D.C., was included in this survey). 

There are well over a million people unemployed in North Carolina. This was the condition the state was in after 12 years of two Democratic governors. There have been many letters to the editor as well as several news organizations protesting our new governor. Do the protestors want to elect more people to office like the last two Democrats who were in charge? You would think so from all of the negative letters written to the papers. Do people realize it costs millions of dollars to help unemployed families in our state? We know our teachers are underpaid, but at least they have jobs. Until the economy in North Carolina gets better and employment increases, the state and the people will have to do the best they can to get by.

The legislature and Gov. McCrory substantially changed our tax system to encourage businesses to move to or expand in North Carolina. Gov. Perdue borrowed $2.5 billion from the U.S. Treasury to pay for unemployment insurance; the interest on that loan costs approximately $100 million a year. The governor hopes to pay off that loan by 2016. Our new tax system is now rated as the 17th best tax system for businesses in the USA. It will take time to get our business community booming again. Before the last election North Carolina was surrounded by four states that have lower tax rates and lower unemployment rates than our State. We can now compete against those states for business growth. 

Gov. McCrory was in Sylva on Sept. 12 for a lunch with many local citizens and business people and stated that he is committed to restoring prosperity to all of North Carolina. He admitted our state is broke and that the only way we can recover is to help our people find work. He said we had to change our tax system to compete with other states to do that. He knows his personal popularity has taken a hit, but he is committed to this goal. He made Charlotte into a prosperous city and he will do the same for North Carolina. Let’s see where North Carolina is by 2016?

Jim Mueller

Glenville