State budget: NC slashes corporate income tax rate at the expense of taxpayers

NC budget

With regard to the July 20 op-ed about CNBC ranking North Carolina as the top state for business in 2022... While bringing new businesses and industries to North Carolina brings more jobs and economic development, no one seems to remember that up until a few years ago, N.C. residents did not have to pay sales tax on services and labor. The typical income tax rate in the state used to be 7% and no sales tax on services. Now, we pay sales tax on services at a rate of 7.25% in addition to N.C. income tax currently at 5.25%.

So while the legislature is slashing corporate rates to zero, we consumers are taking up the slack by paying more sales tax. It would be interesting to see an accounting of how much money the sales tax on services has supplemented the reduced corporate income tax.

David Morris, Davidson

Clear backpacks

What is all of the fuss about concerning the clear backpacks for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools? In my opinion, this is “much ado about nothing” and we taxpayers are going to foot the bill for this latest CMS fiasco..

Doesn’t anyone realize that in order for these backpacks to be a danger to our children they would have to ingest or inhale the clear materials — quite a bit of it over a long period of time? Students would be in greater danger from a weapon hidden in any cloth backpack.

I can’t believe that CMS officials reversed the decision to use these backpacks. Makes no sense to me.

Donald Phillips, Charlotte

Biden and climate

President Biden stopped short of declaring a climate emergency in response to recent extreme temperatures. Declaring an official emergency would be pure green politics and an executive grab that would push us further into a recession and further restrict fossil fuel energy from rescuing Americans from high gas, natural gas, oil and transportation prices.

Climate change is real, and we must gradually restore our natural world, but the heat wave of 2022 is similar to the record heat-waves of 1936 and 2021. A climate emergency declaration by Biden would have hamstrung the economy.

Borden MacMillan, Charlotte

Senator Manchin

Let’s give Sen. Joe Manchin a lump of coal. He is refusing to support new spending on climate measures, in support of the special interest he represents. That’s not unlike now-deceased senators Jesse Helms and John East supporting the tobacco industry. These senators chose dollars over country even though the object of their financial protections are/were doomed industries. In both cases they mortgaged the well-being of their constituents to protect obsolete assets.

George Garcia, Rolesville

Abortion protest

I’m so proud of my representative in Congress, Alma Adams, who made front-page news July 20 for her arrest outside the U.S. Capitol during an abortion-rights protest.

Adams was one of 17 members of Congress arrested for “crowding, obstructing or incommoding.” Incommoding means “to inconvenience” or “to make uncomfortable.”

How terribly sad that we women have “inconvenienced” or made some folks “uncomfortable” while protesting against a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that will cost many women their lives and all of us our dignity. We have been branded as second-class citizens without constitutional protection over our right to control our own reproductive choices.

I hope many more women — and men — will engage in “incommoding” as we fight to maintain and win back everyone’s right to plan their families without the government in our bedrooms or doctors’ offices.

Amy Lefkof, Charlotte

Secret Service

Regarding “Secret Service says it’s seeking lost Jan. 6 texts,” (July 20) and related articles:

It is time for the “Reagan/air traffic controllers move” — get rid of all the Secret Serve agents and the Secret Service as a separate entity. Think of the money we taxpayers would save if the Secret Service were a specialized wing of the FBI or the armed services, both of which already have training and facilities in place.

The Secret Service has had scandal after scandal. There has been little to no accountability for their bad behavior for years. It’s time.

Suzanne Forbes, Charlotte

CMPD service

Regarding “Customer-service policing making an impact, but it’s no ‘overnight fix,’ CMPD chief says,” (July 17):

Charlotte police chief Johnny Jennings said he wanted his customer service initiative to make police interactions feel like Chick-fil-A. Well, the two Charlotte police officers who came to my house when my husband died of a massive heart attack were 10 times better than Chick-fil-A. They were awesome.

Karen Davis, Charlotte

Trump, and UFOs

Regarding “Trump ‘fell under malignant influence’?“ (July 17 Opinion):

I should probably expect to find Nessie from Loch Ness in our pool or a UFO landing in my backyard because I was more than halfway through Leonard Pitts’ op-ed about Donald Trump when I looked up, saw who the author was, and was surprised that I agreed with every word he said — an event more rare than either of the above. Maybe I’ll just buy a lottery ticket.

Tom Spencer, Waxhaw