news-record.com

Parents often explain orders to their children with, "Because I said so."

That works until the kids are old enough to demand better reasoning.

A preschooler might swallow a spoonful of terrible-tasting medicine "because I said so," but a more worldly youngster needs to hear that it will make him feel better tomorrow.

Bev Perdue sounded like the preschooler's mom Tuesday when answering why anyone should believe "emergency" tax increases really would be temporary as promised. "Because I'm the governor," she said at a press conference, with no elaboration.

Perdue released a long list of suggested tax changes, which altogether would increase state revenues by more than $3.3 billion over two years. Part would come from an "emergency surcharge" on incomes greater than $500,000, or $1 million per couple, effective for two years; a much larger share would accrue from a boost of 1 cent on the state's sales-tax rate over a 13-month period beginning Sept. 1.

Perdue is showing leadership by offering what she called a pathway to a balanced budget. She's already enacted spending cuts but wants to protect education from further losses.

Everyone of a certain maturity level understands that, one way or another, painful choices have to be made in this economy. So the governor's attempt to sugarcoat the bitter medicine is insulting -- especially because North Carolina taxpayers with long memories know that "temporary" tax increases always linger much longer than advertised, if not forever.

Perdue's assurance that history won't repeat itself this time "because I'm the governor" is misleading at best. The governor doesn't structure tax increases or decide their duration, the legislature does. And the idea that the legislature would so quickly remove a "temporary" tax is implausible. The state's revenue "emergency" probably will be just as dire a year from now as it is today.

Perdue's promise that ailing taxpayers will only have to take her medicine once demands more trust than she or any recent North Carolina governor has earned.