I’m not opening my wallet for a new Panthers stadium

Charlotte doesn’t need a new stadium

Wednesday’s story speculating about what a new Panthers ownership group would want from city and county tax funds just served to confirm what I thought when I heard about sale of the team. Here we go again, with another round of our elected representatives giving away our money to billionaires. By past actions, they’ve already established they’re an easy touch. Now it’s just a matter of negotiating the price. Hang on to your wallets!

What present is the GOP really giving us?

This tax cut will be a big, big Christmas present for the American people. It will cut taxes for the middle class. Well, mainly big business and the super-rich. It will be the biggest tax cut in history. Gross exaggeration! It won’t raise the debt. Ok, just $1.5 trillion or so. There will only be three tax brackets. Seven is pretty close to three. We will get rid of the loophole for carried interest. Wonder how that loophole still ended up in the bill? Trump: This bill is going to really hurt me. I’m only coming out a billion or so to the good.

We won’t cut Social Security. There will be no cuts to Medicare. Wonder what our next big, big present will be?

Here’s how the tax bill will help

Our conservative Republican tax reform doubles the standard deduction, doubles the child tax credit, and preserves important middle class deductions including charitable contributions, mortgage interest, medical expenses and retirement savings. The average N.C. family will gain $2,000 per year.

We also made America’s corporate tax rate competitive with the industrialized world and made the tax code fairer and more equitable for small business owners. The U.S. Chamber expects this will create 25,000 N.C. jobs.

Ask yourself why the mainstream media and special interest groups are so focused on maintaining the status quo? The left is afraid that reducing unnecessary regulations and taxes will actually raise the standard of living for all Americans.

How to settle the City Council debate

I have a simple solution to the controversy surrounding pay raises and longer terms for the City Council. If truly warranted, by all means adopt the changes, with the stipulation that all current members are exempt, even if reelected. Your successors will thank you.

Christ actually never left Christmas

As I rang a bell for the Salvation Army at Wal-Mart the other day, once more I became aware of the generous spirit of folks at Christmas.

There is always talk this time of year about how Christ is left out of Christmas. In fact, we have a president who egotistically proclaims he is putting Christ back into Christmas!

Christ has never been “out of Christmas.”

To begin with, the holiday bears His name. Secondly, even if you substitute the expression, “Happy Holiday,” you are acknowledging His birth for “holiday” is a derivative of “holy day” and we know whose day that is.

Folks are – by far – more loving, giving and cheerful this time of year. That behavior emanates from the life of Christ who went about doing good.

An issue for N.C. politicians to tackle

I’m a professional actor and receive alerts for paid acting jobs up and down the East Coast. Most of them are in Georgia, Tennessee and Florida.

Some are in North Carolina and a few even show up for Charlotte. But the sad part is North Carolina is losing millions of dollars in revenue because we’re apparently not trying to get this business back into our state. We’re talking about movies and commercials. These generate jobs, attract people to live here and eventually offset the need for new and higher taxes. I’d like to see the governor and Charlotte’s new mayor pushing for this. We’re missing out on a great opportunity.

This story was originally published December 20, 2017 at 5:27 PM with the headline "I’m not opening my wallet for a new Panthers stadium."