Tag: economy

Tax plan not a path towards shared economic prosperity for all North Carolinians

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December 3, 2013 at 2:02 pmCategory:NC Budget and Tax Center

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The tax plan signed into law by Gov. McCrory earlier this year has been lauded by proponents as a major accomplishment during the 2013 legislative session. The tax plan, which cuts the state’s corporate and personal income tax rates, makes changes to the sales tax, and includes other tax law changes, reduces revenue for public schools and other public investments by more than $500 million over the next two years. By 2018, the tax plan reduces annual revenue by more than $650 million.

By chalking the tax plan up as a win for all North Carolinians, proponents fail to acknowledge the reality of fewer dollars for public investments and that the plan produces winners and losers. The tax plan does not represent a path toward shared prosperity for all North Carolinians, as BTC’s highlights in its analysis of the tax plan. Under the tax plan, taxpayers earning less than $84,000 a year, on average, will see their taxes increase under the tax plan and more than 65 percent of the net tax cut will flow to the top 1 percent of income earners in the state. 

Here are examples of taxpayers in North Carolina who are likely to see their total tax bill go up as a result of this plan. Read More…

A hard truth about unemployment

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November 25, 2013 at 11:14 amCategory:Uncategorized

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This little, under-reported development in China is likely to have vastly greater impact on North Carolina’s unemployment rate than all of the conservative tax giveaways to corporations and the wealthy combined.

Economist-extraordinaire  Dean Baker explains:

“China’s central bank announces job creation program for the United States Read More…

Food Stamp expenditures already dropping, with decline expected to fall faster over next five years

November 21, 2013 at 1:07 pmCategory:NC Budget and Tax Center

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Federal spending on the SNAP program—formally known as food stamps—is already declining as a share of the economy, according to a new report released by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.  This is the case even though some critics, who claim that SNAP is growing out of control, are calling for deeper SNAP cuts as part of current congressional negotiations over the Farm Bill. These cuts would come on top of the cuts that took place earlier this month.

North Carolina has the fifth highest food insecurity rate in the nation, and cuts on top of cuts will create an even greater challenge for the 1 in 6 Tar Heel households that struggle with too few resources to meet their family’s nutritional needs.

As expected, there was a steep rise in SNAP spending due to the Great Recession—the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression during the 1930s—and the lagging recovery. However, this spending trend is reversing, with the decline in spending expected to accelerate over the next five years (see chart below). Read More…

We haven’t lost the “War on Poverty” but much work remains

November 19, 2013 at 1:29 pmCategory:NC Budget and Tax Center | Poverty and Policy Matters

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Last week, North Carolinians came together to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the North Carolina Fund, an effort that was launched amidst crisis levels of poverty. The mission of the NC Fund was to mount “an all-out assault on poverty,” and while short-lived, it served as a template for President Lyndon Johnson’s ambitious—and effective—national “War on Poverty.”

Those asserting that efforts to reduce poverty have failed point to an antiquated way of measuring poverty. But, when you examine more accurate poverty statistics, it’s clear that the North Carolina Fund and the War on Poverty have helped lift millions of Americans out of poverty.

As Arloc Sherman, a poverty expert at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, points out, the official poverty measure doesn’t reflect how safety net programs are helping people:   Read More…

Bernstein, Baker: Trade deficit, not the budget deficit holding back the economy

November 7, 2013 at 2:06 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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Here’s the intro to today’s ”must read” from two of the nation’s most astute economists:

Taking aim at the wrong deficit
By Jared Bernstein and Dean Baker

Jared Bernstein

Dean BakerWASHINGTON – Ask most people in this city what the most important step is to increasing economic growth and job creation, and they’ll reply, “Reduce the budget deficit!”

They’re wrong. So-called austerity measures — lowering budget deficits while the economy is still weak — have been shown both here and in Europe to be precisely the wrong medicine. But they could be on to something important if they popped the word “trade” into that sentence.

Simply put, lowering the budget deficit right now leads to slower growth. But reducing the trade deficit would have the opposite effect. Not only that, but by increasing growth and getting more people back to work in higher-than-average value-added jobs, a lower trade deficit would itself help to reduce the budget deficit….

Read the rest of the essay at the New York Times by clicking here.