To regulate is to tax
Gov. Cooper’s coal-ash policy will cost hundreds of millions of dollars a year. If it were an on-budget state expenditure, it would attract significant scrutiny.
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Opinion (Page 7)
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Rule of law should dictate outcome of renewable tax credit dispute
A lawsuit contends the N.C. Department of Revenue is making tax law, a job that belongs instead to state legislators.
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States are better governed
Even if Washington confiscated every dollar received by every American in excess of $500,000 a year, that would yield only $11.8 trillion in new revenue over the next decade — less than currently projected deficits.
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It’s time to fix redistricting. Why not now?
Redistricting calls for leadership, and now is the time for reform. A three-judge panel is reviewing maps of some of the state’s House and Senate districts, which were drawn by lawmakers to comply with a ruling in Common Cause v Lewis. Plaintiffs…
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Redistricting, gerrymandering, and legislating from the bench
I have written about gerrymandering in these pages before, but the recent Superior Court ruling that the state’s legislative districts constitute an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander makes me want to do it again. This is a prime example of judicial overreach and regrettable encroachment of quantitative social…
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Tax system remains progressive
Although special circumstances may temporarily yield atypical results, in general the effective tax rate — annual taxes paid divided by annual income — rises as annual income rises.
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Likely opponents in 2020 chief justice’s race have squared off once this year
Just one of this year's N.C. Supreme Court cases features contrasting opinions from the Democratic chief justice and the lone Republican.
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Pols should accept urban realities
If your goal is to alleviate traffic congestion and its adverse consequences, reduce the extent to which people enter vehicles of any kind in the first place, and how long they stay in them.
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Share the roads … and share the costs, too
Let me be clear, before I get too far into this piece, that I’m a big fan of good health. I try to eat right, I work out or run about every day, and, even at my advanced age, consider myself physically fit. I like bicycles,…
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Putting rightward nature of political polarization to rest
Partisan polarization has been a fixture of American politics for several decades now. Recently, analysts have argued it’s asymmetric. To be sure, Democrats have moved to the left. But they have not drifted from the middle ground as much as Republicans have to the right. …