Per WRAL:

The agreement includes a one-cent increase in the state sales tax, raising it to 7.75 cents in most counties.

It would impose a 2 to 3 percent surcharge on the income tax liability owed by individuals with a state taxable income of $60,000 or more and couples with a state taxable income of $100,000 or more. Those taxpayers would either owe more in April or get a smaller refund.

Consumers would also pay higher taxes on tobacco and alcohol, while the state would claim a bigger share of alcohol taxes, holding onto some money previously distributed to municipalities.

Taxpayers will also continue to pick up the freight for UNC-Chapel Hill (and to a lesser extent, for legislators’ purposes) to give out-of-state athletes “in-state” scholarships. Remember, anything that isn’t cut from a budget, even if it’s said to be “not important,” is still more important to politicians than saving your family any money. And just look at all those regressive taxes in this budget agreement. But hey, poor people who neither drink nor smoke — nor shop for groceries — will “get a break.”

As for me, I just wish our legislators could figure out a way to channel the ingenuity behind the taxing you for paying income tax and giving it the euphemism “surcharge,” so they could apply it toward finding ways to cut the state budget to a manageable, responsible size. As JLF has proven year after year, it can be done. It just takes legislators with more than just one idea.