Tag: taxes
May 16, 2013 at 4:36 pmCategory:Uncategorized
The following picture from the good folks at Together NC tells provides the main information you need to know about the right’s move to shift North Carolina’s tax code away from income taxes and toward sales taxes:
May 16, 2013 at 10:33 amCategory:Uncategorized
How low have things sunk in the Raleigh policy debate? This low: A front group for corporations and greedy billionaires is bringing a has-been Washington lobbyist to town to promote higher taxes on poor and middle class North Carolinians and some are calling it a “tax reform” event.
Grover Norquist is about ”reforming” tax policy in the same way that Rush Limbaugh is about ”reforming” American political discourse. Norquist is a well-funded bully who has done much to ruin the well-being of the Republic. His most infamous quote — that he wants to shrink government down to the size at which it can be “drowned in the bathtub” bespeaks the hatred and violent underpinnings of his noxious, greed-is-good “philosophy.”
Norquist will confirm the dishonesty and hypocrisy that lies at the heart of his work today when Read More…
May 15, 2013 at 10:15 amCategory:NC Budget and Tax Center
This is the third of a three-part blog series presenting voices from other states that have unsuccessfully pursued versions of comprehensive tax “reform”. (See Part 1 and Part 2)
Commentary provided by Jan Moller, Director of the Louisiana Budget Project in Baton Rouge, LA.
Louisiana is a conservative state with a very conservative governor who, until recently, was one of the most popular in the country.
But when Gov. Bobby Jindal unveiled a “revenue neutral” plan to eliminate Louisiana’s individual and corporate income taxes this year, something extraordinary happened: the people of Louisiana stood up, and the governor backed down. Less than three months after the plan was announced, the governor admitted defeat and said he was “parking” his package of bills. A week later, the chairman of the House tax-writing committee said any efforts to scrap the income tax were dead for the year. Read More…
May 10, 2013 at 4:10 pmCategory:NC Budget and Tax Center
An article in today’s News & Observer by John Frank focuses on the vague tax plan presented by Senator Phil Berger earlier this week. Preliminary projections by the Fiscal Research Division indicate that the majority of taxpayers would see a tax increase once the plan is fully implemented, reports Frank. Accordingly, Berger’s claim that his tax plan would represent the biggest tax cut in North Carolina’s history would instead represent the greatest tax shift in the state’s history, raising the tax load on middle and low income North Carolinians while providing the highest income North Carolinians with a tax cut. Read More…
May 9, 2013 at 1:06 pmCategory:NC Budget and Tax Center | Uncategorized
This is the first of a four-part blog series presenting voices from other states that have unsuccessfully pursued versions of comprehensive tax “reform.”
Commentary provided by Alan Essig, Executive Director of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute in Atlanta, GA.
As North Carolina considers major tax reform, it’s useful to take a look at a similar effort in Georgia a few years ago, because what started out as a plan to overhaul the state’s tax system in a responsible way that preserved important state investments quickly devolved into a proposal that put ideology and politics above the welfare of Georgians.
The core of Georgia’s problem was similar to what you are now seeing in North Carolina: the pursuit of drastic income tax cuts paired with a failure to replace this with another revenue source makes it impossible for a state to provide the services that people and businesses depend on every day, like roads, schools, and safe communities. Georgia wisely chose to reject such a proposal in 2011, just as North Carolina should this year. Read More…