Need Help in Raleigh Monday
Dear CCTA Members and Friends,
A bill is oozing its way through the NC House that needs to be stopped, and Representative Michael Speciale has asked us to help him stop it. It's HB 983.
The short title of the bill is "2013 Fisheries Economic Development Act." The truth is this controversial bill is anything but an aid to economic development. It is a detriment to our fishing industry. Aren't you tired of government's harming businesses? I surely am.
The first thing the bill does is to make it illegal for commercial fishermen to catch Red Drum, Spotted Sea Trout, or Striped Bass. They're to be designated "coastal game fish" and made off limits except for "hook and line" fishing.
Next (Part I, Section 2), the bill provides for compensation to commercial fishermen "who can demonstrate actual financial losses."
We've seen farming distorted by government interference. This is only a tiny first step (I'll explain in a minute), but we need to stop government's distorting business decisions, reducing the size and potential of whole segments of the economy, and making TAXPAYERS PAY to get it done!
Ok, back to this financial compensation mess. The bill provides for "mitigation payments" based on the "average annual income to a commercial fisherman from the sale of fish designated as coastal game fish..." under this act. These payments are to be made during the years 2014, 2015, and 2016. Then they stop.
Is it assumed the fishermen would have voluntarily stopped catching these fish by that year? Can't you just see how this gives NC government lots of options to develop red tape sufficient to drive the fishermen who are eligible for compensation absolutely nuts trying to figure out how to get it?
The second type of compensation the state is (read, "taxpayers are") required to make to these fishermen is for equipment used "exclusively" to take the fish newly designated as "game fish." This payment is to be made in 2014.
The total payments to commercial fishermen (for both lost income and equipment) "shall be limited to a total of one million dollars" according to the bill. That's why I said it's a tiny step. While a million dollars is a lot of money to me, it's small potatoes to an entire state government. However, the principals involved here are huge!
Are we going to sit on our hands and watch our government harm, and even kill, businesses one after the other? What business are you in? Or what business were you in if you're retired? Have you seen it get harder and harder to conduct that business because of government interference?
Let's do something!
Michael Speciale works hard on our behalf. Now he's asked for our help to stop HR983. Let's do it!
There is a meeting on Monday (5-6-13) in Raleigh at 1:30 PM that Michael would like a lot of us to attend. We'll need to get to Michael's office prior to that, say not later than 1 PM, so he can get us to the meeting on time.
Let's plan to meet at the Bridgepointe Hotel parking lot not later than 9 AM. We can carpool. Hal will drive, and hopefully, we'll need other drivers, too. If you'd like to participate and cannot get to the hotel parking lot, let us know, and Hal and I will pick you up at your home.
We want our representatives to do their parts. Now it's time for us to do ours.
Sincerely,
Raynor
(Raynor James, CCTA's NC Watchdog Sub-Committee Chair)
No comments:
Post a Comment