Spending & Taxes

A few years ago, the chief of staff for the governor of another state excitedly told his brother about the state’s new approach to contracting that made national news. “Our…

The Senate budget spends $22.9 billion, up 2.5 percent over the 2016-17 budget and 3.75 percent over actual spending.  Like Gov. Roy Cooper’s budget, it raises pay for teachers and…

Since North Carolina implemented sweeping tax reform in 2013, there has been interest in expanding North Carolina’s sales tax to include services. The idea is to transform the sales…

A criticism of Republicans at the national level has often been that they want the same thing as Democrats, just less of it. Who expected Senate President Pro Tem Phil…

In 2007, the North Carolina General Assembly approved a local option sales tax for counties.  Essentially, it allowed counties to impose an additional quarter-cent sales tax if it was approved…

State senators are still working on their budget bill this week, and it may take until the week of May 15 for them to make it public and vote on…

If you are a North Carolina taxpayer and you think something looks familiar about President Trump’s tax reform plan, you are right.  In the three big areas of tax policy…

You may have heard that the answer to life, the universe, and everything is 42, but nobody knows the question. In state government, people either have questions or they…

The N.C. Senate’s “Billion-Dollar Tax Plan” could be  even larger  once final figures for 2016 income taxes are known in the next couple weeks. (By the way, don’t forget to file…

How many times in life have you known the right thing to do and ended up doing the wrong thing? You ate the chocolate cake—the whole thing—instead of going to…