WEST JEFFERSON — On Thursday evening, July 18, the Ashe County Republican Party hosted a community chat with Ray Pickett at Sweet and Savory Bakery and Deli in West Jefferson. Pickett is the current NC House Representative for District 93, which includes Ashe County and is running for reelection this November.
Rep. Pickett fielded questions and engaged in numerous discussions with members of Ashe County for two hours as all were refreshed with beverages and bakery delectables from Sweet and Savory.
A broad spectrum of topics was discussed including clean and accurate voter rolls, ensuring only citizens vote in NC, upcoming changes in state income tax laws in NC, efforts to get new industries into NC to increase jobs and tax income for the state, bills about cryptocurrencies in NC, DHS rules concerning the Baby Box, and issues and regulations affecting NC volunteer firefighters.
A lengthy discussion ensued on several aspects of energy cost, conservation, and production for NC citizens and businesses. These included the heavy draw on electric infrastructure by the increase in EVs and AI computing. One particular point was ways of recouping the lost gas tax revenue from the drop in gasoline purchases, and thus the gas tax revenue, due to the increase in Electric Vehicles. How does this revenue loss affect the maintenance and repairs necessitated by the increased impact on roads and bridges caused by the markedly increased weight of EVs over internal combustion vehicles? Also ratiocinated were several local issues including the issues in maintaining a properly functioning dump, the challenges and barriers in the recycling of plastics and aluminum, and why the recycling of glass products is not more pervasive in our county and state. Several other local issues were reviewed.