Gov. Pat McCrory spoke to the RNC’s meeting in Charlotte this week. The Washington Examiner’s Byron York writes that the GOP should look to McCrory for lessons in how to talk to voters and how to win. And now, writes York, now McCrory has to deliver.
Now he has to produce. North Carolina has a dismal 9.2 percent unemployment rate — fifth-worst in the nation. “People are hurting right now,” McCrory says. “I’m seeing it. You go to some small towns, they are shut down. They’re just boarded up. It’s tragic.”
In his economic plan, McCrory is emphasizing energy exploration, including offshore drilling. He’s pushing regulatory changes. And he wants to reform the state’s antiquated tax code, to stress taxes on consumption more than income.
When it comes to tax reform, the governor has an excellent roadmap for reform in this recommendation from the John Locke Foundation.
Replacing North Carolina’s existing income, corporate, sales, and estate taxes with a new consumed-income tax dubbed the USA Tax could generate 80,500 new jobs in the first year, while boosting the state’s economy by $11.76 billion.
Those numbers are based on an outside analysis of tax reform proposals included in the John Locke Foundation’s new book, First in Freedom: Transforming Ideas Into Consequences for North Carolina. JLF is set to release the book as new North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory and a Republican-led General Assembly turn their attention to potential tax reforms.
Even a scaled-back version of the USA Tax, combined with a slight lowering of the sales tax rate and elimination of income, corporate, and estate taxes, would lead to a $4 billion economic impact and 10,000 new jobs in the first year, according to the analysis from the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University in Boston.
“It is our belief, backed up by economic theory and quantitative analysis, that the proposals made here to transform North Carolina’s income tax into a consumption-based USA Tax, while abolishing the state’s corporate and estate taxes, has the potential to generate strong incentives for businesses in the state to expand while attracting and stimulating new investment, economic growth, and job creation,” writes Dr. Roy Cordato, JLF Vice President for Research and Resident Scholar.