The Civitas Review blog has been inactive this week due to technical difficulties. Fortunately, we are now back up and running. We apologize for the lack of content.
This week was pretty eventful in NC politics. The Senate introduced its budget proposal for the coming fiscal year, with the major initiative being an 11% pay raise for teachers who forego their tenure status. You can read an overview of the main highlights of the Senate budget plan here.
Yesterday, Gov. McCrory signed into law an omnibus tax bill. The new law largely makes technical adjustments to last year’s tax reform law, but does include a couple significant changes. Specifically, it would end the local privilege tax municipalities levy on businesses. The tax has been criticized as both onerous and applied very inconsistently. Estimates say this move will save businesses roughly $62 million per year statewide.
The law also creates a new excise tax on the liquid used in e-cigarettes of 5 cents per millilitre. This is a new tax and represents a unnessesary tax hike on consumers of this product. The liquid is already taxed by the standard sales tax. North Carolina approves this tax that has failed in about a dozen other states.
Lack of content? I didn’t notice any difference.