State Coffers Runneth Over

RALEIGH – Each time the Republican majorities on Jones Street did the good people of North Carolina a solid by cutting their income tax rates, the Democrats would kick and scream about *gasp* losing government revenues.

There will be shortfalls, they say. The State won’t have enough to cover essential services, they whine. How will the State survive those dastardly tax-cutting Republicans?!

But every time, despite one of the most aggressive tax reforms in the country since Republicans came to power in the General Assembly, the state treasury has ended up collecting more money than government spends. Imagine that.

And here we are, yet again. This time around the warnings about revenue shortfalls were not so loud as, say, when a Republican governor is in office. However, the end result is the same. State government has another surplus.

ICYMI: North Carolina’s projected revenue surplus has once again been revised upward, according to the #ncga’s non-partisan Fiscal Research Division. It now stands at $265.8 million, up $75.2 million from just a month ago. pic.twitter.com/aBFsw5Rlk1

— Rep. Chuck McGrady (@ChuckMcGrady) April 3, 2018

That’s great. Making matters better, while tax rates were being slashed Republicans did a pretty good job of exercising fiscal sanity – putting billions in s rainy-day fund, paying off billions in federal debt, strategically raising teacher pay.

Still, as good as Republican budget and tax reforms have been when contrasted against hypothetical Democrat policies, it could still be better. North Carolina still spends ever more money, and on a bevy of programs that amount to redistribution of wealth.

So, we have a projected surplus of $250 million. That’s great. Just in time for the legislators to come back to session in May and give it back to the people who earned the money in the first place.