Mel Umbarger
Posts by Mel Umbarger
Statement on HB10 and NC’s broken budget process from Alexandra Sirota, Executive Director of the NC Budget & Tax Center
NC’s legislative leaders are once again bypassing transparent budgeting processes by slipping key budget items, such as private school vouchers for wealthy families, into unrelated bills that have already passed through both the NC House and Senate. But while the harmful anti-immigrant HB10 includes critical spending adjustments, it’s not a budget bill — it’s a…
Reflections on a summer internship with the NC Budget & Tax Center
This summer, we’ve been lucky enough to have two great interns, Jennifer Nguyen and Selene Santiago-Lopez. Jennifer is a Master of Public Policy candidate at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, and she worked with us as a Policy Analyst Intern. Selene is a UNCG alum with a bachelor’s in International and…
National Study: Undocumented Immigrants Contribute $692,200,000 in North Carolina Taxes a Year
Immigration policies have taken center stage in public debates this year, but much of the conversation has been driven by emotion, not data. A new in-depth national study from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy aims to help change that by quantifying how much undocumented immigrants pay in taxes – both nationally and in…
Lowering the income tax limit in the state constitution would lock future North Carolinians into today’s bad tax policy
The NC General Assembly is considering a constitutional amendment on the ballot that, if approved by voters in a statewide election, would lower the maximum allowable income tax rate to 5 percent. The state constitution already limits the maximum income tax rate, and enshrining a lower income tax limit would be both unnecessary and harmful…
Moore plans rushed budget process for House, part of a troubling pattern
Once again, NC legislative leaders seem to be prioritizing political gamesmanship over the people. While Senate leadership is threatening to walk away from the state budget process entirely, House leadership put forward a plan to rush through it – with little time for input from other lawmakers, let alone the people of NC. “House Speaker…
North Carolinians deserve a voice in how our public dollars are spent
Taxes are how North Carolinians come together to fund the public institutions we all care about, and the state budget is where we make shared decisions about where our tax dollars will go. The state budget affects us all. All of us should be included in crafting it. In recent years, the budget process has…
A refundable Child Tax Credit would help NC children thrive
No matter where we come from or what we look like, we all want to provide for our children and give them every opportunity to thrive. In 14 states across the country, legislatures have adopted child tax credits that reduce child poverty, improve wellbeing, and make state tax codes fairer. North Carolina should follow suit….
North Carolina should keep the income tax on corporate profits
No matter what we look like or where we live, North Carolinians want to care for our families and leave things better for those to come. But as our work has made the state prosper, a handful of politicians have rigged the rules to redirect resources from our communities to wealthy corporations who benefit from…