The mainstream media is reporting that a bill allowing Guilford County to specify that a 0.25 cent increase in sales tax would be used to pay for school capital expenses, as if it is news.

The bill sponsored by Guilford County Democrat state Senators Michael Garrett and Gladys Robinson is likely to pass when pigs are flying over the ice skaters in hell.

Of the 60 bills where Garrett was a primary sponsor in the 2021-2022 session, none passed.  The vast majority, like the sales tax bill, were referred to the Rules Committee, which is where bills are sent to die.  Some were referred to Appropriations Committee where, if they passed, they would then be sent to Rules Committee, but none passed the Appropriations Committee, according to the North Carolina General Assembly website.

Robinson did have one of the 28 bills she sponsored actually become law.  It had to do with the accreditation of Bennett College.

However, Robinson once had the distinct honor of having a bill she sponsored referred to the Ways and Means Committee, which at the time hadn’t met in 20 years

The Guilford County commissioners wisely attempted to get Republican state Sen. Amy Galey to sponsor the bill, but she declined.  If Galey had sponsored the bill, it would have at least had a fighting chance.

Any bill sponsored by Garrett and Robinson has virtually no chance of making it to the floor of the Senate, much less being passed by the decidedly Republican majorities in the state House and Senate.

The fact that Democrat Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston requested the bill be introduced makes it more unlikely that the Senate or House would ever consider the bill, but reporting that the bill was introduced does make it sound like Alston has some influence in the state legislature.

 

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