Unlike other state legislators serving Surry County, Rep. Darrell McCormick has the luxury of no opposition for re-election this year — but he’s expecting a busy spring and summer nonetheless.

On May 4, McCormick can just sit back and watch as two fellow Republicans, incumbent Don East and Paul Johnson, square off for their party’s nomination for this area’s 30 Senate District seat. The winner of that primary battle will advance to face a Democratic nominee in November, either Ric Marshall or Robert Nickell.

Meanwhile, Rep. Sarah Stevens escaped primary opposition, but will face a challenge in November from lone Democratic candidate Randy Wolfe in a bid to retain her 90th District seat in the N.C. House of Representatives.

So how did McCormick manage to avoid having any candidates of either party file to run against him this year?

“I hope people felt like I was doing a good job,” said McCormick, 50, a Yadkin County resident who was elected to his first two-year term in 2008. His 92nd House District includes the eastern half of Surry County along with all of Yadkin County and a portion of Iredell.

Although he won’t have to sweat out the results of this year’s election process, McCormick still is expecting some challenging times after the N.C. General Assembly begins a “short” session next month.

“It’s going to be all budget,” said McCormick, who as a member of the minority party in Raleigh is expecting the usual philosophical battles over taxing and spending which mark virtually every session of the state Legislature.

In 2009, a 64-52 budget decision in the Democratic-led House resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of higher sales and income taxes as well as increased charges on items ranging from liquor to movies.

Despite the fact that budget was to cover a two-year period, battle lines already are being drawn for another fiscal showdown this year. House and Senate leaders have been told that they might have to close a gap of $700 million to $1.2 billion in order to have sufficient revenue to meet projected expenses — a reflection of the economic downturn.

This will require budget amendments by July 1 to balance the state’s books.

In the face of weak tax collections and double-digit unemployment, McCormick believes North Carolina must take a hard look at various social programs, public agencies and non-profit groups.

He thinks this is a matter of identifying expenditures that are necessities and those representing luxuries, along with determining what they are costing the state and which are “giving us a good return on our investment.”

“Nobody has a hard number,” McCormick said of these costs.

Taxes Hurting Growth

McCormick also is hoping the upcoming short session, which begins on May 12, will provide an opportunity to address jobs creation, which he agreed continues to be the top issue in his legislative district.

While there is much despair over jobs that have been lost, McCormick also is concerned about retaining existing ones through a lowering of corporate and personal tax rates. “We’re running some of the highest tax rates in the nation,” he said.

“That’s not an inducement for me to bring a business here,” McCormick said from the vantage point of a company considering a plant in North Carolina.

“Let’s not run off the jobs we’ve got, and see what we can do to bring some more on board,” added the first-term House member, who owns a commercial real estate business in Winston-Salem.

Yet North Carolina also should “look at what we’re doing right” with economic development, McCormick says. This includes the training capabilities of institutions such as Surry Community College which can be readily adapted to meet the needs of prospective employers.

McCormick said he is supporting projects that seek to bring jobs to the district, including a Surry prison-recruitment committee’s effort to land a state penal institution in the county.

Along with those of the state, McCormick has had to battle taxation problems of his own, which became public around the time he was elected to the House of Representatives in the fall of 2008.

Records emerged showing that McCormick allegedly owed back state and federal taxes for 2004 and 2007 of more than $88,000.

McCormick said in earlier reports that the problem related to how much revenue generated from his commercial real estate business should be reported as individual income on his personal returns.

The Yadkin legislator says those problems now have been cleared up, claiming they resulted from a “paperwork Snafu.”

“It took entirely too long to resolve,” McCormick added of the matter. “I feel like if I hadn’t been an elected official, it would not have been brought up.”

Along with the statewide budgetary and other issues, McCormick says much of his role as a representative involves trying to help local government units solve problems with Raleigh as well as addressing needs of individual constituents.

“There is no way to describe this job,” he said.

Contact Tom Joyce at tjoyce@mtairynews.com or at 719-1924.