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News: Primary Election 2008 Preview
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Primary 2008Return to the list of candidates. Tony MooreAge: 57 Residence: Winterville Occupation: Retired educator, former state senator Q: How do you plan to balance Greene and Pitt counties' needs with the needs of Wayne County? A: My plans are to consult with (retiring) Sen. John Kerr (D-Wayne) on the issues. Our staff will establish a local office in Wayne County and I will be there personally at least two days a week and become active in the community. Q: How can the state help the counties/regions in terms of economic development, farmland preservation, water resources? A: We can increase the funds for the North Carolina Department of Commerce to help bring new jobs in our region and to the state. I will work in the General Assembly to help family farms continue in operation and be successful. I also support tax breaks for family farms and for senior citizens. Q: Will you continue Medicaid relief? A: We must continue to lessen the load each year and supply country government with Medicaid relief. Q: Will you raise the gas tax? If not, how will you pay for transportation needs? Will you pledge to not push secondary road maintenance responsibilities onto the counties? A: I do not believe the public can take on more taxes. We must continue to work to make government more efficient. Q: Will you lower state income taxes? A: No one has approached me with this concern. Q: With the state experiencing surpluses in recent years, how will you deal with the likely deficits as the economy continues to go south? A: Our state will continue to be in better condition financially than other states. Our surplus is dwindling but until I see the reports I do not believe we are hurting as much since people are still moving to our great state. Q: How do you plan to deal with the rapidly overcrowding of the state's prisons and county jails? A: We need to continue with alternative programs for those not dangerous to society. We also need additional judges with staff to bring cases to court. We need to do a better job of educating the public on our laws and how they will be affected if they break our laws. Q: What can be done to help counties deal with school facility financing? A: Our legislators have helped local school systems finance schools facilities, but additional financial resources are needed. Counties can opt for an additional sales tax or adopt a land transfer tax. This will be another issue addressed during the 2009 session. Q: What message do you want to take to Raleigh about eastern North Carolina? A: Eastern North Carolina has tremendous challenges ahead in order to play catch up with the other areas of the state. We must push the limits and continue to ask for additional funds to assist us in moving forward economically. We need to continue to work toward funds that are needed for business and industry for growth needs. Again two important projects that need funding are a regional agricultural center in Wayne County and funding to make U.S. 13 four lanes. |
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