Tax tallies

A June 3 headline (“Tax break passed quickly will cost $336 million a year”) implied that the Republican legislature should not have lowered business taxes because government could better use the money. I think The N&O should have had a more fair and balanced report by mentioning that North Carolina has the highest unemployment rate in the Southeast and one of the slowest-growing economies in the entire country.

I think N&O readers would have liked to have known that we also have the highest personal income tax rate, the highest corporate tax rate, the second-highest sales tax (behind Tennessee, which has no income tax) and the highest gasoline tax in the Southeast. The correlation between our slow growth/high unemployment rate and our high tax rates is hard to miss. More growth leads to more employment and tax revenues for government!

Neal Hunt

State Senate

Raleigh

The writer, a Republican, represents District 15.