The North Carolina Senate has rolled out what they call a compromise sales tax and job incentives bill. This comes a day after the provisions were removed from the senate’s proposed budget.
The senate’s plans to redistribute sales tax by population and their frugal take on economic development funds were never greeted warmly by either the House or the Governor. They were removed from the budget in hopes that would help jumpstart budget negotiations which have been plodding along now for weeks.
But Senator Phil Berger said the measures weren’t dead and that they would be brought forward in a stand alone bill.
That bill went before the finance committee Thursday morning easily winning approval.
The measure still calls for revenue from the state’s sales tax be divvied up by population. But it changes how much of that revenue will be split. The original plan called for 80 percent of the money to be shared by the counties. This compromise moves that percentage down to 50. That still means a loss of revenue for Mecklenburg county and Charlotte. Both would see their share cut by an estimated 5 percent.
The finance committee also approved a measure that would create a so called taxpayer bill of rights, allows voters in the 2016 primaries to reduce the maximum income tax rate from 10 to 5 percent, and ties any increase in state spending to the rate of inflation and population growth.
