Paul Dreyer: Tax shocks for the elderly

Each year I help my mom with her taxes. She is 96 and lives in Cary on Social Security and the dividends from her lifetime savings. There were no surprises on the federal taxes, but I wish I could say that for North Carolina taxes.

Last year she paid $98 in state taxes. This year, with the elimination of the itemized medical deduction, she owed over $1,000! I did the taxes over again because I thought that I must have made some major mistake, but I am sad to say there was no error on my part.

So the tax savings now offered to corporations to bring jobs to the state (have they come yet?) and those savings for the most wealthy are now being borne by my 96-year-old mother?

Since Nelson Dollar is the state representative from Cary, I am going to slightly alter a phrase from his March 3 letter to the editor “Nothing to show.” This Republican idea of reducing corporate taxes and taxes on the wealthy so the elderly and poor can pay more taxes comes from someone who “is nothing more than a strident right-winger with no fresh ideas.”

This story was originally published March 21, 2015 at 4:00 PM with the headline "Paul Dreyer: Tax shocks for the elderly."