WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU? A Jacksonville small-business owner with a gift for politics champions the state's rural areas.

• Author: Mildenberg, David

In 1999, Onslow County car dealer Harry Brown caught the political bug when he became president of the trade association representing the state's auto retailers. Almost two decades later, the illness persists: He's running for an eighth term in the state Senate and now ranks as one of North Carolina's most entrenched lawmakers. As Senate majority leader, Brown is a key architect of the state's $23.9 billion annual budget approved in June, while helping drive income-tax cuts that ne says will save N.C. businesses and citizens $1.5 billion annually. Such is his power that a half-dozen capital lobbyists contacted for this story declined to comment publicly on his work, citing fear of getting on his bad side.

It's Brown's advocacy for rural North Carolina that has gained him particular notoriety, however. As much as any legislator, Brown, whose district includes Jones and Onslow counties, has promoted a Robin Hood-style program of fete shifting sales-tax revenue from wealthy areas to the poorest regions. "I'm just really concerned about the rural- urban divide," he says. "Some of our counties can't take care of their core issues like schools and housing because they have no real revenue stream. We've got to address these issues, because a lot of people in rural areas have to have some more opportunities."

What bothers Brown is the ability of larger counties to grab more sales-tax revenue than their share of the state population. In April, Mecklenburg and Wake counties--with about a fifth of the state's population--reported sales-tax collections of about $170 million, or nearly a quarter of the state's total. That enables the two counties to pay teachers more and improve other public services more easily than less-affluent areas. In northeastern North Carolina, one of the state's poorest regions, "they have no way to replace [school] facilities, no chance for bond packages. They get further and further behind, whereas a wealthy county has more options," he says.

He's also pushed for tweaks in how North Carolina doles out incentives: Most of the state's Job Development Incentive Grants go to Durham, Mecklenburg and Wake counties, which are attracting many of the new jobs. Under a plan supported by Brown, companies expanding in the state's 20 wealthiest counties receive 75% of the total grant. The other 25% goes into a utility account that helps pay for water, sewer and other projects in struggling areas. If a company expands in one of the 40...