Op-ed: North Carolina’s Tax Cuts Are a Model for the Nation

Dec 18, 2017 by AFP

“By cutting taxes and restraining spending, my state jumpstarted its economy. Others should follow suit.”

Americans for Prosperity-North Carolina State Director Donald Bryson wrote an op-ed in National Review describing the economic success of comprehensive tax reform in North Carolina.

Five years ago, North Carolina’s economy was “floundering,” with unemployment near 10 percent.

After a number of tax reform efforts, the state has surpassed has fully recovered—and then some.

In his op-ed, Bryson details how North Carolina’s reforms led to dramatic growth:

Since 2013, our corporate income-tax rate has dropped from 6.9 percent to just 3 percent — the lowest rate nationwide in states with a corporate tax. It will fall again to 2.5 percent in two years.

Our personal income-tax rate, which was close to 8 percent, is now 5.5 percent and will drop to 5.25 percent in 2019, delivering $2.8 billion in tax relief to North Carolinians over the next five years. And the standard deduction, which has already doubled, will have more than tripled by 2019.

Not only is business booming, but our state budget is in great shape as well. Since the tax cuts passed, we’ve repeatedly experienced revenue and budget surpluses. Today’s rainy-day fund is at a record $1.8 billion and lawmakers recently boosted performance pay for North Carolina teachers.

Bryson suggests tax reform is an economic solution not only for North Carolina, but for the nation as well.

North Carolina’s economy is growing, prosperity and opportunity are expanding, and lives are getting better across the state. That’s what I see every day. It’s my hope that Washington will follow North Carolina’s blueprint, not Kansas’s folly, and couple historic tax cuts with efforts to restrain spending.

To continue reading Bryson’s op-ed, please click here.