Winston Salem-Journal: Five Basic Truths About the State Budget

The budget is unfair and unjust: North Carolina has always relied upon a regressive tax structure that takes more from the incomes of the poor and middle-class than from the wealthy. But this pattern has grown significantly worse and more unfair in recent years as the personal income tax was flattened and cut and corporate taxes were slashed. In its most recent “Who Pays?” report, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy calculated that poor and middle income North Carolinians pay around 9.5% of their incomes in state and local taxes. The wealthiest 1%, in contrast, pay only 6.4%. New GOP tax cut proposals would almost certainly worsen this inequity. Read more