Research & Data
Types
Featured
Topics
Fact Sheet: Tax ballot measures are bad for local business
North Carolina voters will see two tax measures on their ballots in November that will limit state and local government revenue options and lock in outsized tax breaks for big business. These measures would lower the maximum allowable personal and corporate income tax rates to 3.5 percent and impose a limit on property tax revenue…
New report: Data center subsidies are a bad deal for North Carolinians
As data centers rapidly expand across North Carolina, a new report from the NC Budget & Tax Center finds that taxpayers are subsidizing one of the world’s most profitable industries while receiving little in return. The report concludes that data center tax subsidies cost the state and local governments hundreds of millions — and eventually…
North Carolina’s data center subsidy problem
Big tech is investing billions of dollars into data centers and the infrastructure needed to support the buildout. Meanwhile, instead of regulating this highly extractive industry and making corporations pay what they owe, some North Carolina lawmakers continue to slash away at income tax rates and barrel ahead to eliminate the corporate income tax entirely…
North Carolina’s tax cuts will cost $900 million. Here is what families lose.
After leaving North Carolina without a comprehensive operating budget for a year, state lawmakers finally approved a spending plan for FY 2026-27. Yet, despite having ample time – and broad public support across party lines – to address affordability concerns, lawmakers made only modest changes to the scheduled personal income tax while preserving the continued…
Fact Sheet: Limiting property tax revenue in the state constitution is a bad deal for North Carolinians
The NC General Assembly has placed a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that, if approved by voters, would require lawmakers to limit annual growth in local property tax revenue. This is not a direct limit on property tax rates but a “levy limit” on the total property tax revenue local governments can collect. If revenue exceeds the limit, tax rates…
State Tax Cuts Are Leaving Counties to Cover New SNAP Costs
In 2025, the federal government passed the harmful mega bill, H.R. 1, making deep funding cuts to SNAP while shifting new costs onto the state. At the same time, more than a decade of state income tax cuts have left North Carolina losing almost $18 billion in revenue each year, just as the state is required to take on these new costs. H.R….
We built America by coming together. Our tax code should reflect that.
Neighbor by neighbor, town by town, city by city. Every great change in our country has started the same way: People came together to find a way forward. North Carolina’s fight against poverty in the 1960s and our response to disasters in both eastern and western parts of the state show what is possible when we work together across our differences to meet shared challenges. One way we come together is by pooling our resources. Taxes are how we invest in the things none of us can build…
1 Year After H.R. 1, North Carolina Budget Leaves Families and Counties to Pay the Price
Budget approved by state lawmakers fails to fund new SNAP costs while continuing tax cuts that primarily benefit wealthy households and profitable corporations RALEIGH, N.C. — One year after H.R. 1 was signed into law, North Carolina lawmakers have approved a state budget that compounds the federal law’s harm. H.R. 1 made historic cuts to…
Final Budget Preserves Tax Cuts While Shifting Costs to Counties and Families
On Tuesday morning, North Carolina lawmakers released their final budget for FY 2026-27 after leaving the state operating without a budget since July 2025. As previously reported, the budget makes only slight changes to scheduled personal income tax cuts and leaves untouched the continued reduction – and eventual elimination – of the corporate income tax….
Statement on Legislative Budget by Alexandra Sirota, Executive Director of the NC Budget & Tax Center
A budget that continues tax cuts primarily benefiting the richest North Carolinians alongside highly profitable corporations and their out-of-state shareholders is a bad budget for North Carolina. After a full year without a state budget — and the real harm caused by delaying planning, disrupting contracts, and reducing services for families, businesses, and communities across…