The Cost Of Trickle-Down Economics For North Carolina

Since 2013, state lawmakers have passed significant income tax cuts that largely benefit the state’s highest income earners and profitable corporations. These costly tax cuts have made the state’s tax system more upside-down by delivering the greatest income tax cuts to the state’s highest income taxpayers, while maintaining a heavier tax load on low- and middle-income taxpayers.

New analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) finds that, since 2013, North Carolina would have $2.8 billion more in annual revenue if state lawmakers had not changed the tax system that was in place in 2013.1 This figure is a conservative estimate because it does not include the tax changes proposed by the Senate in its recent budget, which would bring the total revenue loss to $3.2 billion. (See Appendix for details on major tax changes).  Read more