NC Budget and Tax Center: Revenue Options to Support Children’s Educational Success
ITEP Work in ActionThe General Assembly legislative session begins on May 16, the same day teachers plan a day of action to highlight the unmet needs their students face in the classroom and their communities.
While the evidence is quite clear that supporting children’s educational success can generate lifelong benefits for families and the broader economy[1], the NC General Assembly has consistently prioritized tax cuts for wealthy taxpayers and profitable corporations instead.
This year, their unrelenting pursuit of tax cuts each year is projected to hit a key test. With scheduled personal and corporate tax rate reductions in January 2019, the state General Assembly’s Fiscal Research Division projects that the state tax code won’t be able to keep up current services for the state’s growing population after Fiscal Year 2019-20.[2] That remains true even with the projected over-collections reported last week for that Fiscal Year.[3]
It is time for the General Assembly to set up a tax code to meet the needs of a growing state seeking to compete and deliver a high-quality of life to everyone, no matter where they live, in a way that doesn’t continue to ask more from middle and low-income taxpayers and less from the state’s wealthiest ones.