Legislators may go a half-step further
than Gov. Easley in finally allowing the temporary tax cuts to finally
lapse. They may bring top income tax rate to 8.0% from 8.25%, in
addition to moving the sales tax rate to 6.75% from 7% as the governor
proposed.
If you wonder why they can’t return to the former tax
rate now, bill drafting requests were running about double the rate of
two years ago. Funding requests include those that might be good ideas but have no place in the state budget and those that throw good money after bad.