Legislature Approves State Budget

Posted on June 23, 2017 by admin in Agriculture, Appropriations, Budget, Economy, Education, Environment, Government Reform, Health, Law Enforcement, Medicaid, Public Assistance, Public Safety, Technology, Transportation, UNC, Veterans

Great Seal of the State of North Carolina The North Carolina General Assembly gave its overwhelming approval yesterday to a $23 billion state budget that, among other things, increases education investments by more than $700 million, raises teacher pay for the fourth consecutive year, provides needed disaster relief to communities affected by Hurricane Matthew, helps lower-income people by further expanding the state’s zero-tax bracket, and adds $363.9 million to the state’s savings reserve account.

The bipartisan budget bill received unanimous support from the legislature’s Republicans, with more than a quarter of Senate Democrats and more than one in ten House Democrats present also voting for the measure.

“We’ve passed along serious tax relief in this budget,” commented House Speaker Tim Moore. “Roughly 95,000 North Carolinians who today pay income taxes, won’t anymore — that’s helping those who are working to try to get by.”

The General Assembly’s final tax relief and spending agreement is consistent with budgets passed since 2011 that have produced record savings and revenue surpluses in North Carolina since voters elected Republicans to the majority in 2010. This contrasts a string of tax increases under Democrat control that produced massive deficits and nearly $2 billion in debt.

The 2017 budget fully funds the rapid enrollment growth in North Carolina’s public schools with an additional $700 million in education spending over the next two years, while maintaining the General Assembly’s ongoing commitment to dramatically increase teacher pay after salaries lagged last decade and were cut under Democrats in 2009.

The bipartisan budget bill now awaits Governor Cooper’s signature. For more information on this year’s state budget, click here.

Exempting Money from State Sales Tax

Posted on June 21, 2017 by admin in Business, Economy, Tax Reform, Taxes

Legislation passed the House overwhelmingly last month that will help stimulate commerce and job creation for coin dealers and those in the Precious Metals trade.

House Bill 434 updates current sales tax laws to allow for the exemption from sales taxes for the commercial sales of gold and silver bullion and coins. Included in the exemption is the commercial sale of legal tender, typically in the form of misprinted coins and paper money, also known as error currency. Error currency tends to have a greater market value than its face value.

Sponsors of HB 434 say that exempting these types of sales from taxation will attract business activity in this industry and that the tax exemption would amount to a negligible loss in tax revenue for the state. With about 117 professional numismatists (coin dealers) in North Carolina in fiscal year 2017-18, and a state sales tax rate of 4.7 percent, the tax revenue lost in that year amounted to about $600,000 or less. Experts estimate sales tax collection could be as low as $150,000 annually.

In past years, coin and currency chows would do business in North Carolina, but that business has taken a sudden downturn. Dealers say the collection and remittance of the sale tax is just becoming more trouble than the amount of the tax is worth.

North Carolina is surrounded by states that have a complete or partial sales tax exemption on the retail sale of precious metal numismatic and bullion items. Thirty-four states have a complete or partial sales tax exemption on the retail sale of precious metal numismatic and bullion items: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Washington.

During floor debate, Representative Larry Yarborough said in support of the bill, “I have a friend that considers gold to be a good investment as part of a diverse portfolio and he buys all of his gold from Texas because he can avoid the sales tax on it. So we’re not really gaining anything by taxing investment gold.”

Data from the Industry Council for Tangible Assets suggests that retailers in the jewelry, watches, precious stones and precious metals business see an increase in the sale of both exempt and non-exempt merchandise wherever there is a sales tax exemption.

Removing the state sales tax imposed on these items promises to stimulate economic activity at little cost to the state, and the benefits of this tax relief can be passed on to the consumer for spending on other taxable merchandise.

If House Bill 434 is passed by the Senate and becomes law, the sales tax exemptions would begin on July 1, 2017.

Legislative Leaders Craft Budget Deal

Posted on June 19, 2017 by admin in Agriculture, Appropriations, Budget, Economy, Education, Environment, Government Reform, Health, Law Enforcement, Medicaid, Public Assistance, Public Safety, Technology, Transportation, UNC, Veterans

Grat Seal of the State of North Carolina Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) and House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) held a joint press conference Monday to announce details of the roughly $23 billion budget and tax relief agreement reached between the state House and Senate.

As a result of responsible budgeting decisions, millions of middle-class families and job-creating small businesses will keep more of their earnings under this plan. The 2017 state budget delivers $530 million in tax relief, with 99 percent of taxpayers either paying less or paying no state personal income taxes at all.

Under Republican legislative leadership, the state has seen hundreds of millions of dollars in budget surpluses – and billions in savings reserves – through tax relief and balanced budgeting that helped spur economic growth. Under previous leadership, North Carolina faced teacher pay cuts and furloughs, as well as historic budget deficits, despite Democrats raising sales tax rates in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009.

The 2017 compromise budget increases spending by three percent over last year’s budget and focuses that increase in key areas, like providing nearly $700 million more for public education. The budget continues implementing a plan announced last year to dramatically increase teacher pay – providing teachers an average 3.3 percent raise this year and 9.6 percent raise over two years, while also ensuring they earn far more over the course of their careers.

Along with substantially increasing school principal pay, it also directs more than $180 million in the first year alone toward compensation increases to state employees, providing them a $1,000 across-the-board raise. And it provides a permanent cost-of-living adjustment to state retirees.

It provides $100 million in disaster relief assistance to victims of Hurricane Matthew and adds $363 million to the state’s rainy day fund – bringing the savings reserve to its highest total ever.

And it includes provisions to fund public school construction in economically struggling, rural counties, add thousands of slots to the pre-K program, offer opioid and substance abuse treatment statewide and create a program for local communities to improve public infrastructure to help attract major industrial employers.

“I commend my Senate and House colleagues for their commitment to delivering substantial tax relief to the middle class, continuing our multiple-year effort to dramatically increase teacher pay and improve education outcomes, and helping rebuild communities devastated by Hurricane Matthew – while saving for a rainy day,” said Berger. “Gov. Roy Cooper should support this plan that achieves what he has said are important priorities for our state.”

“Gov. Cooper will sign this budget if he cares about increasing the zero-tax bracket for low-income North Carolinians, keeping a long-term commitment to increasing teacher pay, providing disaster relief to hurricane-hit regions and protecting the state from future emergencies through smart savings and responsible spending,” said Moore.

Additional key provisions of the budget include:

Salaries and Benefits

Keeps the plan to dramatically increase average teacher pay from last year’s budget, investing more than $100 million in the first year alone.
This is in addition to the substantial teacher pay raises legislators passed in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
Incorporates a new plan to let highly-qualified new teachers begin at a higher pay grade on the salary schedule, providing financial incentive to those who accept positions in low-performing schools, are licensed in special education or STEM classes or meet other criteria.
Includes roughly $25 million to expand a performance-based bonus program to top-performing 4th and 5th grade reading teachers and 4th-8th grade math teachers, based on EVAAS growth scores.
Allocates $10 million over two years for a bonus program for veteran teachers with more than 25 years of experience.
Provides more than $35 million to substantially increase principal and assistant principal pay, including funds for performance bonuses for principals.
Includes $10 million in additional compensation for community college employees.
Provides a $1,000 salary increase to state employees.
Offers experienced-based step increases to teachers, State Highway Patrol troopers, clerks and magistrates.
Provides $10 million in the biennium toward hard-to-hire positions across state government, such as health care technicians and nurses.
Designates roughly $4 million to allow Gov. Cooper to increase the base salary ranges for many state workers.

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And to the Republic for which it Stands

Posted on June 14, 2017 by admin in Celebration, Civics, Tribute

Today we celebrate Flag Day, marking the adoption of the national flag of the United States of America by the Second Continental Congress on June 14, 1777. The official journal for that day reads:

“Resolved, that the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes alternate red and white: that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”

The thirteen stars and stripes represented the thirteen colonies that declared independence the year before from the Kingdom of Great Britain. These thirteen colonies, including North Carolina, went on to become the first states of our new nation.

North Carolina’s delegates voting that Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia were Thomas Burke (for whom Burke County is named), Cornelius Harnett (for whom Harnett County is named), William Hooper, and John Penn (for whom the USS John Penn was named and the first historical highway marker erected by the State of North Carolina was dedicated). Tradition holds that the nation’s new flag was first hoisted in June 1777 by the Continental Army at the Middlebrook encampment in New Jersey during the Revolutionary War; the event is commemorated each year, and by special order of Congress, a traditional thirteen star flag is flown 24 hours a day at the site.

The Continental Congress’s resolution, which had been initially drafted and referred by the Marine Committee, gave no specific instruction as to how many points the stars should have, nor how the stars should be arranged. This led to varying designs at the time: some flags had stars scattered on the blue field, some had the stars arranged in rows, and some in a circle. Some stars had five or six points, while others had eight.

No federal law or executive order exists which provides an official meaning for the flag’s colors. The closest thing we have is the contemporary account of Charles Thomson (the recording secretary of the Continental Congress) who describes the colors, the same that were being used in the design of the the Great Seal of the United States: “White signifies purity and innocence. Red hardiness and valour and Blue . . . signifies vigilance, perseverance and justice.”

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