North Carolina Voters Chose Not to Play Politics at Midterm Elections and Are Better Off For It

Nov 9, 2018 by AFP

Principled policy should always take precedence over politics. When opportunities to improve our lives and our communities are at stake, that’s more important than any game. North Carolina voters were presented with the opportunity to choose principled policy over playing politics — and they made sure not to waste it.

Americans for Prosperity – North Carolina urged voters to support an income tax cap amendment and to oppose a judicial vacancy amendment at the voting booth during the midterm election. Activists with AFP-NC made 88,630 calls, knocked on 1,631 doors and sent 168,653 texts for the tax cap amendment alone.

The tax cap amendment caps the state, personal and corporate income tax rate at 7 percent, while the latter would have opened the door to more special-interest influence over the courts.

Voters understood what was at stake. They passed the tax cap amendment and rejected the judicial vacancy amendment.

Capping the income tax rate ensures that North Carolinians will continue to keep more of their hard-earned money. It also makes it so politicians will have to consider other ways to control spending, rather than simply raising taxes when they have budget shortfalls.

Because voters rejected the judicial vacancy amendment, North Carolinians protected their right to choose our state’s appeals, superior and district court judges. If the Judicial Selection Amendment had passed, it would have created an unelected and unaccountable commission and charged it with picking the state’s judges for interim vacancies.

“The Income Tax Cap will ensure that economic barriers to opportunity remain low and citizens and companies will keep more of their hard-earned money,” said AFP-NC State Director Chris McCoy. “The Judicial Vacancy amendment has been called many things by many folks, but we’ve never called it principled policy. AFP-NC is ready to work with all legislators to ensure that cronyism is kept out of our courts in the future.”