My wife looked up at me last Thursday and asked, “Why is it you think the North Carolina Legislature is capable of passing major tax reform when they cannot even pass a bill to eliminate unnecessary safety inspections of new cars?”

We were having breakfast and reading about how a legislative committee had, the previous day, killed a bill to end annual safety inspections for new cars less than three years-old cars likely still under the manufacturer’s warranty and for which there are no data indicating any safety hazard.

The spokesman for that legislative committee pontificated, in effect, on how these inspections were a necessary jobs bill for the inspection garages. Based on news reports, no one in the legislature disagreed. It was only the media that later talked about the unnecessary expense and waste of time for the average citizen.

Now I am all for jobs. But we don’t create jobs or a vibrant economy when the government starts picking winners and losers by forcing some people to spend their money so that other folks can make more money.

I’m with the media on this one. It’s not so much about cars as it is doing the right thing just because it is the right thing. If our leaders can’t figure out how to do the right thing on the simple issues, how do we ever hope to handle the hard issues?

There are many complex issues facing our government. Many of them are and should be about creating jobs and growing the economy. It is my belief that a priority should be restructuring our state tax system to take out the very things, like car inspections, that get in the way of job creation and growing our economy.

The boost tax reform would give our ailing economy is obvious. But, as my wife pointed out, eliminating unnecessary car inspections seemed pretty obvious too – and one special interest stopped it dead in its tracks.