North Carolina
NC Policy Watch: What you need to know as the state Senate moves to cut taxes yet again
April 3, 2017
The North Carolina Senate is moving ahead yet again – perhaps as early as this afternoon – with a new proposal to further reduce state taxes and the revenues they generate to fund essential public structures and services. While the plan is billed as “a billion dollar middle class tax cut,” a closer look at […]
The Progressive Pulse: New analysis: Most of NC senate’s “middle class” tax cut would actually flow to the wealthy
April 3, 2017
BTC’s analysis of SB 325 uses a more robust model developed by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a non-profit, non-partisan organization. ITEP’s microsimulation tax model calculates tax revenue yield and incidence, by income group, of federal, state and local taxes. The model is used in states across the country to analyze state […]
The Progressive Pulse: Why cutting taxes for business again makes no sense
March 31, 2017
When businesses pay their share of taxes, North Carolina is able to invest in the things that build thriving communities and a prosperous economy – things like good schools, roads, public health and a clean environment. The Senate’s tax plan, Senate Bill 325, includes a tax cut for businesses that goes against this proven principle. […]
North Carolina Justice Center: BTC POLICY BASIC: Marginal versus Effective Personal Income Tax Rates
March 19, 2017
A great deal of confusion abounds in discussions about state personal income tax rates and how they apply to income. This policy basic clarifies the difference between marginal and effective tax rates, and gives a North Carolina-specific example of how these rates work in action. Read more here
North Carolina Justice Center: Still walking the path to zero: The Senate tax plan will harm North Carolina’s goal of building a stronger, inclusive economy
March 19, 2017
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 […]
North Carolina Budget and Tax Center: The Road to Nowhere Good for North Carolina
February 22, 2017
Tax changes passed in the 2016 legislative session reduced the income tax rate and increased reliance on the sales tax. This continued flawed approach to taxation that policymakers have followed since 2013 has proven disastrous to other states’ fiscal and economic outlook. Such an approach delivers the greatest reduction in the tax load to the […]
North Carolina Justice Center: 12 Charts about N.C.’s Economy in 2016
January 6, 2017
“The economic challenges that face North Carolina families were front and center in 2016. North Carolina wrestled with the disconnect between political rhetoric and everyday reality this election year, thanks to a recovery that failed to boost wages or provide enough jobs for many of our communities. Here are 12 charts that tell the story […]
Progressive Pulse: New policy brief: The tax cut that North Carolina should enact
November 3, 2016
“According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, low-income North Carolinians pay nearly twice the share of their income in taxes as our state’s richest residents. Reinstating the EITC would be a crucial step towards rebalancing the tax load for all North Carolina taxpayers.” Read more
Politifact: Roy Cooper says Pat McCrory raised taxes on the middle class ‘in 67 different ways’
October 18, 2016
“A 2015 study from the liberal groups Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) and The Budget & Tax Center found that the bottom 20 percent of North Carolinians paid taxes equivalent to 9.2 percent of their income, while the top 1 percent paid taxes equivalent to 5.3 percent of their income.” Read more
Indy Week: The Durham City Council Gave a Biotech Company $77,000. Here’s Why That’s a Bad Idea.
October 3, 2016
“Indeed, the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy concluded in a 2013 report that ‘tax incentives are rarely the deciding factor in whether a business chooses to hire or invest within a state’s borders.’ And a 2015 analysis by the policy resource center Good Jobs First of the state’s One North Carolina Fund found […]
Governing: Back-to-School Tax Holidays Losing Popularity Among Lawmakers
August 30, 2016
“[Tax holidays] don’t help lower-income people much either, according to the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP).” Read more
Indy Week: Meet N.C. Republicans’ Latest Plan to Lock In Trickle Down
June 22, 2016
“That’s because the most obvious new revenue stream would be a sales tax increase or expansion, which hits lower-income families the hardest, as they spend a larger portion of their incomes on items and services than do wealthier people. Thus, a greater percentage of their incomes will go to sales taxes than rich people’s will. […]
North Carolina Budget and Tax Center: North Carolina’s “Tax Swap” Gives Biggest Breaks to the Wealthiest, Undermines Public Investments for All
April 11, 2016
“Efforts to rely more on the state sales tax and less on the income tax to support public services have shifted tax obligations to less affluent North Carolinians, while saving the wealthiest the most money, and reduced resources available for public investments that build a strong economy.” Read full report
North Carolina Tax and Justice Center: Prosperity Watch Issue 58, No. 3: State EITC allows working North Carolinians keep more of what they earn, boosts economy
February 17, 2016
Low- and middle-income taxpayers in North Carolina pay a larger share of their income in state and local taxes than the wealthiest taxpayers in the state. This inequity in North Carolina’s tax code makes it difficult for working families to make ends meet and further challenges the state’s ability to invest in communities and […]
Fayetteville Observer: Live Wire: Reports indicate undocumented immigrants pay lots of taxes
January 12, 2016
“In the public debates over federal immigration reform, sufficient and accurate information about the tax contributions of undocumented immigrants is often lacking, said an April 2 report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington, D.C. “The reality is the 11.4million undocumented immigrants living in the United States pay billions of dollars in […]
North Carolina Tax and Budget Center: BTC REPORTS: Doubling Down on a Losing Strategy – More Income Tax Cuts Will Grow Budget Shortfalls, Not the Economy
October 21, 2015
North Carolina policymakers have proposed another round of income tax cuts on top of those they passed in 2013. Senate Bill 526 would cost at least $1.4 billion by 2017, causing a new wave of cuts to services North Carolinians rely on each day and compounding the problems created by the tax cuts passed two […]
North Carolina Budget and Tax Center: FACTSHEET: Keep Arbitrary Tax & Spending Limits Out of North Carolina – Vote No on Senate Bill 607
October 21, 2015
A suite of severe changes to the state constitution laid out in Senate Bill 607 would undermine the foundations of the North Carolina economy and make our current challenges much worse. The bill changes the state constitution in three ways: 1. Limits spending on education, health, and other services through a rigid, arbitrary, and fundamentally […]
North Carolina Budget and Tax Center: BTC REPORTS: Diminished Expectations and the Resulting Drag on NC’s Economy – A Summary of the 2015-17 Budget
October 21, 2015
The budget North Carolina will live under through June of 2017 will sharply constrain the state’s ability to make public investments crucial to promoting widespread prosperity and a growing economy. Read the full report here
News and Observer: An NC budget that chooses decline over investment
September 19, 2015
It is too generous to call the new state budget a spending plan. It is a spending reaction. Leaders should have a plan, a goal. This is a budget drawn by ideologues who blinked. Much of what is laid out in the $21.7 billion budget is determined by mandatory responses to growth in education and […]
News and Observer: Unfair ‘Bill of Rights’
August 26, 2015
According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, “The personal income tax can be – and usually is – the fairest of the main revenue sources relied on by state and local governments. When properly structured, it insures that wealthier taxpayers pay their fair share, provides lower rates on middle-income families, completely exempts the […]
Slate: Don’t Fall for Back-to-School Tax Holidays
August 14, 2015
If shoppers are simply shifting their spending to save on taxes, that means the states are losing revenue. That’s certainly the position of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonpartisan think tank that estimates the popular break will cost the states offering it $300 million this year. “Revenues lost through sales tax holidays […]
News and Observer: Problems with NC Legislation to Cap Taxes, Reduce Spending
August 13, 2015
Colorado has struggled with its TABOR, with declines in the percentage it has spent on education, including secondary and elementary schools, and on higher education. Colorado declined from 35th to 49th in the country in higher education funding as a share of personal income, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Read more […]
NBC: Sales Tax Holidays Complex, Controversial, But Popular With Shoppers
July 28, 2015
Research by the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy contends that increased sales during the tax holidays “have been shown to be primarily the result of consumers’ shifting the timing of their planned purchases.” That organization estimates sales tax holidays will cost states $300 million in 2015. “A two- to three-day sales tax holiday […]
CNBC: Tax-Free Shopping Ahead for These States
July 24, 2015
Research by the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, however, contends that increased sales during the tax holidays “have been shown to be primarily the result of consumers’ shifting the timing of their planned purchases.” That organization estimates sales tax holidays will cost states $300 million in 2015. “A two- to three-day sales tax […]
CNBC: Is Your State a Gas Tax Winner–Or Loser?
July 22, 2015
As states from Connecticut to California scramble to find money to fix crumbling highways, Congress once again is expected this week to put a short-term patch on the nearly insolvent federal highway trust fund. To make up the shortfall, Congress has transferred more than $53 billion from other tax revenue over the past five years, […]
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