Still Walking the Path to Zero: Senate tax plan will harm NC’s goal of building a stronger, inclusive economy

Senate leaders continue to pursue reductions to the income tax rate for wealthy taxpayers and profitable corporations even as they claim to be focused on helping low- and moderate-income taxpayers. This year they will do so without proposing immediate replacement of the revenue with sales-tax base expansions. The result is a loss of nearly $1 billion in revenue, meaning that the state’s tax code in the next fiscal year will bring in $3.2 billion less than it would have under the tax code pre-2013 changes. That’s more than the state currently pays for the North Carolina Community College system and the early childhood system statewide combined, and in a state that has seen its population grow by more than the entire city of Raleigh since that time.

The top 20 percent of income earners in North Carolina would receive nearly half of tax cuts included in this proposal, relative to current law. That is more than $300 million annually being channeled to the state’s wealthiest taxpayers. This is not a pathway to prosperity. Cutting taxes for the wealthy and profitable corporations—making it impossible to invest in the education of residents, economic development of struggling communities and infrastructure that supports connecting workers to jobs—is a losing strategy for North Carolina

This is not a pathway to prosperity. Cutting taxes for the wealthy and profitable corporations—making it impossible to invest in the education of residents, economic development of struggling communities and infrastructure that supports connecting workers to jobs—is a losing strategy for North Carolina.