Lowering NC’s tax cap would be a mistake

From some of the same lawmakers who brought North Carolina the now-infamous HB2 come equally brilliant ideas about constitutional amendments. If passed by the House (they’ve already passed the Senate) and approved by the people, the amendments could damage the state in the foreseeable future, at least until a change in leadership made it possible for the state to go through the arduous process of reversing course.

One amendment limits government’s use of eminent domain to taking private property for “public use.” The change would prohibit condemnations in which property is taken to make way for a private project that a local government considers to be generally beneficial “economic development.”

Another proposed amendment is a frivolous misuse of the process. State Sen. Andrew Brock of Mocksville wants to establish a constitutional right “to hunt, fish and harvest wildlife.” The on-target and appropriately sarcastic reading by NC Policy Watch was to wonder whether Brock “sees this as a means of providing physical sustenance to the people of the state after conservative ideologues get through with the economy.” If the senator has nothing better to do, maybe he should hang the “gone fishing” sign on the door.

If only the rest of the Republicans had done the same before agreeing to two other potentially disastrous provisions in another amendment.

That one’s a doozie. It has been floated before in some forms, but one proposed change would cap, permanently through the state constitution, the state income tax at 5.5 percent. That cap is now at 10 percent, which is where it should stay. Putting a limit in the constitution would make it virtually impossible to change it expeditiously should the state hit a prolonged financial crisis and need money to provide basic services. There is also no logical reason to do this beyond political showmanship.

And then there’s the proposal in that amendment to require that the General Assembly would have to put an amount equal to 2 percent of the state budget into an emergency savings fund, or rainy day fund, each year. It’s entirely appropriate to have a rainy day fund, but it’s wrong for a legislature in 2016 to dictate how much money needs to go into that fund in the future.

And while that money is building up the rainy day fund, it’s not building up money for teacher pay, or state employees, or programs for children and the mentally ill, and a host of other programs to help the average citizens of North Carolina. They’re the ones who’ve taken the biggest hits from GOP legislators interested mainly in helping business and the wealthy, and they’re the ones who will continue to hold the short end of the government stick.

This story was originally published June 30, 2016 at 6:53 PM with the headline "Lowering NC’s tax cap would be a mistake."