NC Senate passes GOP’s constitutional changes on taxes, ID, plus term limits in Congress
Republican state lawmakers, who have a supermajority for another month, have brought back two proposed amendments to the state constitution they had set aside this summer — one addressing income tax and the other voter identification requirements.
Both would go to voters for their approval in 2026, and would go further than prior iterations of these amendments that were approved by voters but have been tied up in lawsuits.
Republicans also revived a bill calling for term limits for Congress, giving it final approval on Monday. It’s not subject to a veto by the governor.
Neither proposed amendment would immediately impact North Carolina residents, as the measures are already part of state law but not the constitution. Term limits would require backing by other states and would likely face a lengthy process to be enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.
All three bills resurfaced during a rules committee on Monday morning and were passed later that day by the Senate.
The House also would have to approve the constitutional amendments with a supermajority to put them on the ballot. Both the amendments are sponsored by Senate Republicans, with Senate leader Phil Berger as one of the primary sponsors of the income tax amendment.
The term limits bill had already passed the House in March. One of the bill’s primary sponsors was House Speaker Tim Moore.
If unofficial election results hold up, Republicans will keep their majorities in the legislature but lose their supermajority starting next year, meaning they will not have as much leeway to pass bills without Democratic backing.
Income tax amendment
The amendment on taxes seeks to modify the constitution to cap the maximum income tax rate at 5%.
Currently, the state constitution sets the cap at 7%, though the actual rate is lower. In 2023, the state income tax rate was 4.75%, and it is set to drop to 4.5% in 2024.
Further reductions are planned under the 2023 budget passed by the Republican-led legislature, which allows the income tax rate to decrease to 3.99% by 2025. The rate could decline even further if revenue collection targets are met.
Asked about revenue loss by Senate Democratic Whip Jay Chaudhuri, staff said that for every 1% of the personal income tax rate the state collects roughly $4 billion.
“It’s a costly loss of revenue” and “makes our state more unequal” by “continuing to lock in tax cuts for millionaires and shifting the tax load to people who live in rural areas and are not wealthy,” Heba Atwa with the North Carolina Budget & Tax Center told lawmakers in the committee meeting.
One of the bills sponsors pushed back against criticism. “The old saw — if you will — that this is devastating to the financial needs of our state to continue to reduce taxes is flat wrong. And the other thing that’s really, really important for us to keep in mind, (is that) this is not our money,” said Sen. Paul Newton, a Cabarrus County Republican, during the Senate vote.
Berger told reporters after the vote that he felt “very strongly” that the income tax should be capped. He referenced the tax rate already being lower than the proposed amendment.
Voter ID amendment
The other proposed amendment seeks to revise the constitution’s language regarding voter identification.
It would require all voters — not just those voting in person — to present photo identification before casting a ballot. Currently, voters must provide photo ID when voting in person during Election Day or early voting.
Those voting via absentee ballot must also include a copy of their photo ID with their ballot.
“This amendment would just conform the state constitution to current state law. This is a very highly popular measure,” Republican Sen. Warren Daniel of Morganton told fellow lawmakers in the meeting.
Lawsuits on amendments
In 2018, voters in the state approved a constitutional amendment requiring voter ID, with about 55% voting in favor, The News & Observer previously reported. However, the law faced litigation and only took effect last year after the Republican-controlled Supreme Court overturned a previous ruling that had declared it unconstitutional.
That same year, voters also approved a constitutional amendment capping the state income tax rate at 7%.
At the time, the North Carolina NAACP sued the state over both amendments, arguing that the legislature lacked the authority to put them on the ballot because it had been elected in racially gerrymandered districts. The case remains unresolved but could become irrelevant if new amendments are approved in the 2024 elections.
Term limits for Congress
As for term limits, the bill reintroduced on Monday would appeal to the U.S. Congress for a convention to propose an amendment to the U.S. Constitution imposing a limit on the number of terms to which members of Congress can be elected. The limit is not specified in the bill.
The U.S. Constitution provides two methods for proposing amendments:
- Amendments can be proposed by a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress.
- Alternatively, two-thirds (34) of state legislatures can request that Congress call a convention for proposing amendments.
If two-thirds of the states agree on the proposed amendments, they must then be ratified either by three-fourths of the state legislatures or three-fourths of conventions called in each state for ratification.
Republican Sen. Todd Johnson from Cabarrus County, one of the bills sponsor, said that so far eight states had passed this resolution.
“As history has proven, a convention on this issues, or any issue, is highly unlikely to ever actually happen,” he said.
But, he predicted, “as the number of states signed on approaches that required 34 states, Congress decides to take action — action to address the concerns of the states — because they ultimately want the control over the amendment,” he said.
“Lifelong career politicians lead to gridlock that we have seen in D.C. today,” he said.
President-elect Donald Trump has previously called for term limits on Congress.
Sen. Graig Meyer, a Democrat from Hillsborough, said during the floor debate that “opening the doors to a constitutional convention” is “an insane idea.”
“If it happens, I will work my butt off to be one of the delegates to that constitution,” he said.
This story was originally published December 2, 2024 at 12:34 PM with the headline "NC Senate passes GOP’s constitutional changes on taxes, ID, plus term limits in Congress."
