South By North Strategies, Ltd.

The NC Budget & Tax Center explains how the state’s inadequate revenue system has contributed to the current budget shortfall. From the center’s recent research brief …

During the twenty years preceding the Great Recession, state tax revenues averaged 5.8 percent of all North Carolina residents’ incomes put together. Once the2009 tax package expires at the end of June, state tax collections will likely amount to only 4.8 percent of residents’ incomes next year—almost one-sixth less than the average of the past two decades …. If next year were instead an “average”year for tax collections as a share of residents’ incomes, the $3.7 billion shortfall would drop to less than $400 million.