In the state budget passed last August, legislators took a quarter-cent of sales tax revenue from local governments and the school capital portion of the corporate income tax. Stateline.org says local governments don’t expect to ever see that money again.
In North Carolina, about 7 percent of the proceeds from the state?s corporate income tax had routinely been transferred to local governments for school capital costs, but starting this year, lawmakers decided to put that money ? roughly $125 million over two years ? towards the deficit. For Cabarrus County, a fast-growing county near Charlotte, that translates into an annual loss of about $2 million. ?We?re not counting on it coming back,? says Pam Dubois, the county?s finance director. ?If it does, great. But when we?re projecting out what we?re going to be doing for the next five years we?re acting like it?s not going to be there.?
