What's the best use of $500 million?

Published July 20, 2014

Editorial by Charlotte Observer, July 19, 2014.

You can have your opinion about teacher pay, other spending and tax cuts – we certainly have ours. But here are the facts:

• North Carolina cut personal income taxes and corporate income taxes last Jan. 1. Those tax cuts will reduce state revenue in the current budget year by at least $500 million and possibly by closer to $1 billion. Most of that money went to the state’s wealthiest taxpayers.

• North Carolina is scheduled to cut taxes further this coming Jan. 1. Those cuts will reduce state revenue by about $300 million in the 2015 calendar year, according to the N.C. Budget and Tax Center. Most of that money will go to the state’s wealthiest taxpayers.

• North Carolina ranks 48th in the nation in teacher pay, and dead last on what has happened to teacher pay over the past decade. The legislature would like to give teachers a raise totaling around $400 million, but is struggling to pay for it. All proposals involve cutting elsewhere, and some would lay off thousands of teacher assistants and kick people off Medicaid.

• Both the House and Senate are looking to cut hundreds of millions from K-12 spending for the current fiscal year. According to the Budget and Tax Center, the latest House plan cuts $293 million from the previously enacted 2015 budget and the latest Senate plan cuts $437 million.

• Many states, meanwhile, are enjoying budget surpluses as they recover from the recession. As personal and corporate incomes have bounced back in those states, so have state tax revenues. Many of those states are restocking their rainy day funds.

Those are facts. They lead to our opinion that the best use of that money is to fund teacher pay raises without cutting teacher assistants, rather than to give it to the state’s wealthiest taxpayers. Others, including the Republican leaders in Raleigh, have the opposite opinion.

It’s not too late for them to change their minds. While it’s extremely unlikely that they’d undo the tax cuts that took effect last Jan. 1, they could get themselves out of a financial bind, and do the best thing for the state, by unplugging the next round of tax cuts. The previous cuts established a flat personal income tax rate of 5.8 percent, down from staggered brackets of 6, 7 and 7.75 percent. The next cut would drop it to 5.75 percent and drop the corporate income tax another percentage point, from 6 percent to 5 percent.

In other words, legislators could go a long way toward helping teachers without raising taxes one cent. All they have to do is not cut them even further.

That would be a political winner, and that’s practically a fact.

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July 20, 2014 at 9:26 am
Richard Bunce says:

The best use is not using the coercive power of government to confiscate it from taxpayers in the first place...

July 20, 2014 at 11:26 am
Norm Kelly says:

I'm impressed. The Charlotte Observer printed 'practically a fact'. Since they point this out for us to notice, I'm guessing it's not something they do too often. If they regularly printed 'practically a fact' they wouldn't have to tell us about it when they do it.

When libs/socialists/demons implement tax increases that mostly affect the poor, sometimes referred to by libs as 'the education lottery', do editorialists and 'news' papers come out swinging? Do they denounce their lib allies for penalizing the poor? When the socialist/lib/demons implement tax increases that mostly hurt the poor, sometimes referred to by libs as a 'temporary sales tax increase', do editorialists and 'news' papers come out swinging? When the demons/libs/socialists pay a company to move to the state, causing others in the state who may not be able to afford the expense to have to pay more in state taxes & fees, what libs refer to as incentives, do editorialists and 'news' papers come out swinging?

When libs/socialists/demons implement a tax increase ONLY on the wealthiest, penalizing success, do editorialists and 'news' papers come out swinging? Do they complain that 'the wealthy' are already paying the majority of the taxes, but pols feel it's morally acceptable to hit the same group again? When the demon pols claim that the state can't afford NOT to raise some tax, do the editorialists and 'news' papers ever wonder how the people impacted by taxes and fees are going to 'afford' it?

When taxes are cut, who gets the 'benefit' of keeping more of their own money? Those who pay little to no taxes to start with, what libs refer to as 'the poor'? Or the libs most hated group, 'the wealthy'? When the wealthy are taxed at a higher rate to start with, they automatically pay an additional penalty for being 'the wealthy', or as libs call them 'those hated cheating bassturds' who only got that way by taking advantage of our favorite group 'the poor'. That's not practically a fact, that is a fact. If a 'wealthy' person is taxed at 5.75% they ARE paying more. When that same person is taxed at 6.75%, not only are they paying more, but they are being penalized for their success! Is this morally acceptable? Does it send the message to the rest of society that libs/socialists/demons desire for even more people to be successful? By having a more friendly and fair tax code, isn't it possible that 'the wealthy' will consider moving here to take advantage? And wouldn't that bring more money into the state coffers? If it's right & proper for government to violate their own tax code by offering 'incentives' to a company to move here, then why is it bad policy to simply set the tax rate fairly to start with having the intent to attract new money here? If 'the wealthy' who are leaving demon-controlled areas like NY, NJ, Chicago, etc because they are being unfairly targeted and taxed excessively, wouldn't it be nice if our state could compete for some of that 'wealth'?

Or are 'the wealthy' so hated by the left that they desire to not only penalize the ones who are already here, but they want to make sure that our state is not attractive to any more of those scum-suckers? The only people who have money, outside of major lefties (biden, obamy, clinton, etc), are those who have taken advantage of the beloved poor. That is what libs refer to as practically a fact! It is only right & proper that our state get in line to penalize 'the wealthy' bass-poops who continue to hold down unsuspecting 'poor' people who have such little opportunity and such poor educations. The only reason 'the poor' are so suppressed is because they didn't get a proper education cuz Communist Core didn't exist when they went to school! It's the libs/demon/socialist mandate to protect those who are incapable of protecting themselves. That is until the state can't afford not to raise taxes & fees.