Announcement:

Let me ask you a question. Do you know what industry employs the most people in North Carolina? According to state Employment Security Commission records, it’s government. That’s right – a higher percentage of people work for government in our state than salesmen, hospital workers, workers in manufacturing or agriculture.

That alone tells you there’s something wrong.

And that’s why I’m here today. My name is John Szoka and I’m running for the North Carolina House of Representatives in District 22 – which includes all of Bladen County and the southern third of Cumberland County.

I want to introduce you to my wife Laurie. We have two grown children, Hunter, 24, who owns his own insurance business in Kansas City and Morgan, 21, who is working full time while finishing her college degree. –they both attended and graduated from Cumberland County schools.

As I said, I’m here today because I believe there’s something wrong in state government. Frankly, it’s broken and needs fixing.

I’m not a politician. I’m a veteran, a small businessman, and family man who can’t stand by any longer and do nothing about what’s happening to our state and country.

I believe we need to get government off the backs of regular folks – we need to lower taxes and reduce the size of government to unleash small businesses to create jobs - and get our economy turned around.
The national economic meltdown and President Obama’s schemes to fix it by spending billions was shocking. What’s happened here in North Carolina in the General Assembly was worse.

Even though we were sinking deeper in recession, the liberal Democrats in charge raised taxes across the board. In fact, North Carolina was unique.

North Carolina led the nation in raising tax rates. The Tax Foundation examined five major taxes in rating state tax increases across the country – individual income taxes, sales taxes, cigarette taxes, alcohol taxes and the so-called “Amazon” tax, that taxes on-line purchases. North Carolina raised all five. Only one other state – New Jersey – raised three. And no other state raised more than two.
No wonder the Tax Foundation also said North Carolina had the worst business climate in the Southeast.
And people wonder why we have over 11 percent unemployment.

The liberals in the North Carolina legislature can’t balance the budget without relying on handouts from Washington. Instead of cutting spending on unnecessary projects, they keep on spending like there’s no tomorrow. You’ve probably heard of the $25 million they’re spending on a fishing pier at Nags Head. At a time when the liberals were cutting teachers for lack of money and cutting back on healthcare services for the elderly, they build an extravagant fishing pier for State Senator Marc Basnight to fish on.

That’s political arrogance at its worst and it’s got to stop.

I believe voters in this year’s election have a choice to make. They can vote to keep things going down the same path of creeping socialism that’s ruining our country. Or they can vote to reform state government and get things right.

You can vote for words and promises. Or you can vote for action.

As I said, I’m not a politician. I’m just a man who believes in our way of life; who served his country as a soldier, raised a family and is living the American dream owning a business – a small business that provides jobs to families in our community.

That’s how we get out of this mess. Lower taxes and cut back government. Unleash the American spirit of innovation and opportunity and build our economy from the bottom up.

That’s why I’m running – and I hope to have your support and your vote in the coming race for NC House. We’ll be talking about other issues as we build my campaign. Please go to my website SzokaForNCHouse.com, which will be up in the next day or so, and get involved.

Thank you.