One of the most important things to distinguish North Carolina from many of its southern neighbors over the past half-century has been a robust and relatively consistent commitment to public investments in education, health, and safe communities. The new state budget, passed by the General Assembly despite Governor Perdue’s veto, represents a major [Continue Reading...]
It’s doubtful you could find many North Carolinians who would argue that the state suffers from too little congestion, too few potholes, not enough crumbling bridges, or too many construction jobs. If state leaders follow through on threats to cap the state’s gas tax, however, (an action the state House has approved already) [Continue Reading...]
In survey after survey, North Carolinians have told pollsters that the Number One priority of state and national policymakers should be creating jobs. Yet the strategies for creating jobs championed by those policymakers are frequently at odds with what actually works. In North Carolina, leaders from both major political parties often tout tax [Continue Reading...]
According to recent polls, the vast majority of Americans, including even a majority of self-identified Republicans, feel that the wealthy are not contributing their fair share in taxes to support the nation’s public investments. Some conservative commentators say that underlying this widely held view is envy of the wealthy, but this couldn’t be [Continue Reading...]
Several state policymakers from both political parties have proposed cutting North Carolina’s corporate income tax rate—or even phasing out the corporate income tax altogether—in hopes that corporations will respond by investing in the state and creating much-needed jobs. The available evidence demonstrates, however, that corporate tax cuts offer only false hope on jobs. [Continue Reading...]
North Carolina has a revenue problem. Falling revenues created by an outdated tax system and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression have created a much-publicized budget shortfall – and some shortsighted parties want to try to cut our way out of the problem. [Continue Reading...]
Whether you are a worker or a business owner in North Carolina, the odds are that you’re paying a much lower share of your income in state and local taxes than your peers in other states. [Continue Reading...]
More than 2.5 years after the national economy began to collapse under the weight of the housing and financial crisis, almost fifteen million Americans-nearly 10 percent of the nation’s labor force-are still looking for work. Nine million more have been forced to cut back hours or have been unable to find full-time work. [Continue Reading...]
