Favoritism in NC Politics

Another example of favoritism in NC political circles was reported in the July 8, 2007, News and Observer about the leader of NC's DMV organization helping a friend get a recently built "kit car" titled as an authentic antique car.

According to a DMV staff member, a friend of DMV Commissioner George Tatum was allowed to get a vehicle title issued that says the owner's kit built car is an old 1937 Ford truck when it is not after the commissioner became aware the car owner's first attempt at getting a title failed. Titling the vehicle in this way "reduced what the vehicle's owner must pay in taxes and could inflate the value of the vehicle on the open market".

This blatant abuse of registration requirements allows the owner to pay far less in taxes than with a properly registered vehicle. According to the report the vehicle owner "paid $15 in highway use taxes on the truck because the DMV values a 1937 Ford truck at $500". In reality this tax amounts to 3 percent of the book value for the vehicle and the state and taxpayers lose out on lost taxes. "Tax on a newly built custom car is based on the cost of labor and materials, which is typically in the $10,000 to $30,000 range" ($300 to $900 in taxes).

It seems recently like many of Governor Easley's team members are being tied back to political favoritism, helping friends and friends family members get jobs, denial of responsibility for failures and blunders in state organizations and other involvements unbecoming to the Governor and his circle of friends.

Read the report and you decide...

News and Observer
July 8, 2007
Dan Kane, Staff Writer

Staffer says DMV chief favored friend
Commissioner calls charge a lie; staffer briefly suspended

DMV Commissioner George Tatum oversees the documentation of millions of North Carolina motor vehicles, but he has come under fire for a document attached to just one -- a kit car that looks like a vintage 1937 Ford truck.

Although the car isn't a real '37 Ford, it has a title from the Division of Motor Vehicles that says it is. The title might have reduced what the vehicle's owner must pay in taxes and could inflate the value of the vehicle on the open market.

How the fake '37 Ford came to be titled as a real '37 Ford has provoked a charge that Tatum wanted DMV inspectors to approve the title as a favor for a family friend. Read more...