What’s the theme for limited government, personal responsibility, opportunity and freedom across North Carolina for the 2018 election cycle? Keep on keepin’ on. Reforms since 2011 have transformed our state into an economic powerhouse, creating jobs and opportunities like never before. Tax cuts begun in 2011 have put $5 billion back into the…
Editor’s note: This Daily Journal by John Locke Foundation Chairman John Hood originally ran here May 30, 2017. We are running it again in response to a story,”What happened when North Carolina cut taxes like the GOP plans to for the country,” published Sunday in The Washington Post. North Carolina Republicans…
Should you ever be taxed on “income” that is not, in any meaningful sense, yours? This is the fundamental question facing Congress in deciding whether to eliminate the deductibility of state income and local property taxes from federal taxable income, a policy change proposed by President Trump. Unfortunately, this question is unlikely…
There’s been a lot written about this year’s state budget, and there will be more. That’s what happens when you’re dealing with a 438-page bill allocating $24 billion. A lot of money, a lot of competing interests, a lot of detail. I looked at local government allocations in the budget previously, and it comes…
If you are a North Carolina taxpayer and you think something looks familiar about President Trump’s tax reform plan, you are right. In the three big areas of tax policy where the state and federal code overlap —the income tax, the estate or death tax, and the corporate tax —…
The Insider reported recently about a Fiscal Research Division analysis showing the Senate’s “Billion Dollar Middle Class Tax Cut” would lead to $600 million shortfalls in three of the next five years. Fiscal staff started from the assumption that state government would do all the same things the…
Mixed signals. Some things are clear — lower taxes, fewer regulations, skilled workers, and efficient infrastructure lead to economic growth. A robust and growing business community creates jobs. Vouchers offer opportunities to low-income students, and school choice leads to better and more fulfilling educational outcomes. Investments in education and public…
Stark differences in conservative Republican and liberal Democratic fiscal priorities were clearly on display during a Senate Finance Committee meeting Wednesday at which a $1 billion tax cut package was approved by voice vote. Senate Bill 325 was then forwarded to the Senate…
RALEIGH — A state legislator is hoping to give disabled veterans and spouses of fallen first responders a break on their property tax bills. Rep. Nelson Dollar, R-Wake, has filed a bill removing homestead exemption caps for disabled veterans. “Currently for disabled veterans the homestead exclusion is only…
Perhaps the biggest task facing a Republican-controlled General Assembly when it returns from a two-week hiatus Wednesday is finding common ground with a new Democratic governor, and vice versa. That’s a significant challenge, considering the contentious nature of last year’s special sessions and the flurry of lawsuits that followed. Lawmakers…
