Got an extra $1.2b. sitting around? State lawmakers think you do. The “tax reform” lie would actually hike taxes by $600m. a year — and call that reform.
Thrall Master Hood explains:
There is absolutely no evidence that North Carolinians are undertaxed. Measured properly, as a percentage of personal income, North Carolina taxpayers pay more for state and local government than does the average American taxpayer. It’s not by much. I’m not arguing that North Carolina is a tax hell akin to New Jersey (yet). But by no stretch of the imagination can the data be contorted to prove that our tax burden is too low – though the data do show that North Carolina’s tax system is more unfair, confusing, and inefficient than that of the average state.
Couple more things. Love to see something, anything on the cost of compliance associated with the proposed changes. Many of the service sectors which would be newly taxed have never interfaced with the NC Dept of Revenue on retail sales transactions. Starting to would represent a huge new burden on these businesses. And it is that burden, not the amount of the tax which they would merely pass on to consumers, that constitutes an insane drag on productivity in a time of economic contraction.
In short, Dan Clodfelter and other backers of these tax changes are saying to thousands of small business persons across the state, “Wait, before you do something productive, stop and fill out these forms and make these calls, then be sure to increase your prices — possibly beyond what your customers can afford — to make sure we get our take.”
Completely nuts. And here’s another thing. Recall that Clodfelter told us a couple years ago that if you go monkeying with the local option sales tax rate you have to go back and re-write the entire revenue section of state law, even that which deals with repeal and adoption. I guess we’re doing that now, right?
Damn skippy we are — the money and power would flow toward Raleigh, not away.
