Yes, Republican tax policies are working in North Carolina
North Carolina has experienced an economic expansion over the past decade fueled in large part by significant reductions in tax rates. Our state’s economy has seen increases in employment, income, GDP, and population outpacing the region and nation.
Some would have you believe a growing economy is happenstance. At best, such thinking ignores reality; at worst, it’s purposefully deceitful.
When Democrats last controlled North Carolina’s government they gave us the highest individual and corporate tax rates in the Southeast, government spending that increased by near-double digits, and a regulatory environment that hamstrung private sector growth and job creation. When the Great Recession hit, our state was ill-prepared. After maxing out spending and taxes, Democrats whacked our state with even higher taxes and reduced spending on core obligations in response to the downturn.
In 2011 Republicans started transforming North Carolina’s tax and regulatory climate. We enacted historic tax reform in 2013 that doubled the zero-income tax bracket, cut the personal income tax rate to 5.25%, and slashed the corporate tax rate from the highest in the Southeast to the lowest in the country.
Republican tax reforms put more money in everybody’s pocket, particularly low-income earners. Liberals say tax cuts result in a loss for the state. But less money for government means more money in your pocket, fostering private sector growth.
Since 2014, North Carolina has seen more than 500,000 new jobs created and filled – among the highest in the Southeast.
Businesses move to North Carolina for a variety of reasons, including thinking they can be successful here. Taxes are a major factor in such decision-making. People follow those jobs: North Carolina’s population increased 4.5% since 2014 — one of the highest growth rates in the nation.
Even the Cooper administration regularly touts Republican tax policies as a driving factor in job growth. Last month, the Governor’s office praised “the nation’s lowest corporate income tax rate of 2.5%” as a reason “28 Fortune 500 manufacturers have established their headquarters in North Carolina.”
That high rate of job creation caused personal incomes to surge. Since 2014, personal income in North Carolina increased more than $6,000 per person, and GDP grew at 19%, better than the region and nation.
New jobs and wage growth generated additional state tax revenue. With that additional revenue, state spending on K-12 education increased to its highest level and teacher salaries have increased annually.
Since 2014, average teacher shot up by more than $9,000 and Republican-led budgets have raised teacher salaries at the third-highest rate in the country.
North Carolina’s success story hasn’t gone unnoticed. Forbes ranked us the best state in the country to do business for the last two years. CNBC ranked our economy No.1 in the nation.
Yet political adversaries pursue a return to failed policies advanced by Democrats. They propagate a vision of a progressive utopia where government spending increases annually, and only the “rich” foot the bill.
They ignore data exposing their high-tax liberal policies for what they are: abject failures. During the Great Recession, North Carolina was the only state in the Southeast where personal income declined. It was also the state where the bill for failed policies was handed to those who could least afford it through a significant sales tax hike.
Maxing out the state’s credit to feed big government sounds wonderful at liberal political fundraisers and parties, but in the real world it’s disastrous for regular folks like teachers, prison guards, and the middle class who suffered the most from Democrats’ recklessness.
Don’t be fooled. North Carolina’s current tax policies are working.