Tax cuts in NC are a power grab that benefits the rich, hurts the state

No matter what we look like or which North Carolina zip code we call home, most of us believe that everyone should have a say in electing leaders who care for us and act in our interests.

But for too long, the powerful few in North Carolina have been rigging the economic rules, and these same people increasingly seek to limit who can participate in our democracy.

The result is an unequal distribution of power that has let a handful of politicians and wealthy corporations redirect resources from our communities to build their own wealth instead of providing a sound, basic education to every child, safe, affordable housing to every family, job training and protections to every worker that can help all of us thrive — Black, white, Latinx, or Indigenous.

And the reality is that people’s experience in our state varies based on who we are and where we live. Children of color in North Carolina are more likely to face overcrowded classrooms. Rural communities are less likely to have access to broadband infrastructure. Rural Black communities are more likely to have toxins in their water supply and less likely to have access to water and sewer infrastructure. Latinx workers are most likely to endure unsafe work conditions. White parents and parents of color struggling to get out of poverty can’t afford, and are less likely to have access to, quality child care.

If we don’t eliminate these inequities, North Carolina will never become the state we know it can be.

Even as more and more North Carolinians demand open and responsive institutions that meet the needs of people and the priorities that they have for their families and communities, politicians protected by gerrymandered districts continue to erect barriers to public input, interfere with the freedom to vote, and pack and crack voters in ways that let politicians pick their constituents.

The tax cuts that passed in 2021, like the ones before them, do just that. For the next decade, North Carolina will now lack the collective resources necessary to respond to people’s priorities. Future policymakers and future generations will inevitably pay the price.

It is no mistake that the push to bring income taxes to zero in North Carolina came with limits on accessing the ballot and successive maps that consolidate partisan advantage in the legislature. We should expect that the resulting limits on revenue collections will be the excuse given for why the state can’t address hardship in our communities or plan for future threats and opportunities.

It will be the reason we are continually asked to celebrate modest movement in the face of a maelstrom of needs.

We live in a state of abundance with the capacity to provide our state’s residents with the resources they need and the opportunity to fully participate in our democracy.

In our travels across the state with partners like Southern Coalition for Social Justice and Democracy NC, we have heard from residents in Halifax and Watauga, Brunswick and Johnston about the priorities they have for ensuring their communities can thrive and the pride they have for the work they are doing to ensure North Carolina fulfills the promise of a multiracial democracy.

It has never been clearer to me the great possibilities we are missing after these conversations with North Carolinians. North Carolina can provide everyone the freedom to thrive, but our leaders must share more power with people in communities — power to set the agenda, power to implement solutions.

We can’t separate economic policy choices from the practice of democracy.

When we go to the ballot box this year, we not only have the chance to take one step in the practice of our democracy but also a step toward the resources we deserve. Together, we can demand our lawmakers rewrite the rules so nothing stands in the way of our vote or in the way of us providing a great life for our families.