Protecting Families and Businesses: A Plan for Fiscal Balance and Economic Growth

by Joseph Coletti

Senior Fellow, Fiscal Studies, John Locke Foundation

February 20, 2011

Key facts:

Between December 2007 and December 2010, private-sector employment shrank 9.1 percent, while state and local government payrolls grew 4.2 percent.
North Carolina’s per-capita personal income climbed in the 1990s and nearly equaled the national average in 1998. Incomes in North Carolina have fallen compared with the nation as a whole in the dozen years since then.
Educational achievement also accelerated in the 1990s with growth unmatched since then.
Higher spending since then has not translated into better returns on investment for North Carolina taxpayers.
This budget proposal would spend $18.4 billion and return spending to the same levels, adjusted for population and inflation, as in the mid-1990s.
In addition to ending the temporary sales tax and income tax surcharges, this budget would reduce the tax rates on personal and corporate income, setting the stage for future tax reform.
A detailed spreadsheet of the recommendations offered here is available at http://tinyurl.com/JLF2012NCBudget.