Opinion

Editorial: When legislators say there isn't money, they mean corporate tax cuts are more important

Wednesday, July 10, 2019 -- The reason there are cuts and spending freezes, as legislators well know, isn't in vagaries of the economy or other external forces. It is a most conscious decision legislators made themselves. The TOP priority, ahead of any other need, is cutting corporate taxes. It has been a case of way too much, way too fast.

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CBC Editorial: Wednesday, July 10, 2019; Editorial #8442
The following is the opinion of Capitol Broadcasting Company

It was a stunning confession. It says far more than state Rep. Craig Horn probably intended when he recently talked to a New York Times reporter. It revealed a basic truth about the priorities of the leaders of North Carolina’s legislature.

We simply don’t have the money to provide a quality pre-K experience to every child in North Carolina, even though I absolutely agree that a face-to-face, high-quality pre-K is the best option,” Horn told the reporter.

What! North Carolina doesn’t have the money? How could that be? Just look at the bragging from the state’s top legislative leader about our economy.

“The financial and economic state of our state is the strongest it has ever been. North Carolina is booming,” said state Senate leader Phil Berger.

The truth is North Carolina DOES have the money. There are the funds to provide quality pre-K access; top quality public schools, community colleges and universities; basic health services for ALL those in need; along with new and properly maintained roads and other infrastructure.

But those are not the priorities of our state’s legislature leaders. All that money is being spent, but not on what North Carolinians need.

The reason there are cuts and spending freezes, as legislators well know, isn’t in vagaries of the economy or other external forces. It is a most conscious decision legislators made themselves.

Since 2014, the legislature has made its TOP priority, ahead of any other need, cutting corporate taxes. But it has been a case of way too much, way too fast – particularly given the needs of the state and considering the huge federal tax cuts businesses received a couple of years ago.

Corporate tax collections were nearly $1.33 billion in the 2014 budget year. This year collections will be about half that. If corporate tax revenues simply remained the same as they were in 2014, there would have been an additional $2.3 billion available for important needs over the last five years.

What does the $89 million less in corporate income taxes collected this year mean? It could have, for example, provided funding for 20,100 pre-k slots – putting a big dent into the estimated 33,000 kids in the state who lack access to those programs now.

But the kids, and other needs, STILL are not as important as cutting taxes. The pending budget plan includes another $387 million in cuts – about 88 percent for businesses.

While Rep. Horn observed: “We simply don’t have the money,” he’s not quite correct. The money is there.

It is just that Horn and most of his fellow legislators would rather not spend it on programs that, say help children get ready to learn when they start school.

It’s far more important to spend it on tax cuts for businesses. Don’t believe it? Just check with the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce.

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