Late today, Governor Bev Perdue took to the bully pulpit to encourage the General Assembly to hurry up and pass a budget because the state is "losing" $5 million a day in lost new tax revenue and spending cuts.
said Wednesday the state stands to lose $5 million a day because there
are no program cuts and no new revenue is being generated.
That's a great soundbite she's trying to hit on there, but she might actually want to check her facts.
If you read the budget passed by the House, the taxes don't go into effect until August 1 at the earliest. The vast majority are October 1. So the state is technically not losing out on any new tax revenue for another month.
And spending cuts are in effect now. The continuing resolution she signed yesterday cuts spending to 85 percent of last year's level. So again, the state isn't losing out on any cuts.
In fact, one could make a darn good argument that the people of North Carolina are actually benefiting from a budget not being passed. They get to keep more of their hard earned money in their own pockets instead of turning it over to the government. How many jobs are being saved by the devastating tax increases not being passed? It may be too late for Amazon, but not too late for everyone else.
the August and October dates (as well as some immediate fee increases) were based on how quickly many of the increases could be administratively handled, and based on the budget being enacted by June 30. At SOME point in July, those targets will have to be pushed back a month, and the immediate fee increases are lost on a daily basis. It is not as simple as you make it.
I think it really is as simple as Chris makes it. What about sales tax increases or increases on the alcohol tax is hard to administer? It’s very simple accounting; just create a new payable account. A corporation faced with having to relay information to all of its retail stores about sale prices or the such would have it done in a matter of days, if not hours. Why is it okay for Government to take weeks? Maybe efficiency is lost on the transfer from the private sector to the public sector.
Zach, it isn’t enough for Wal Mart to be able to comply, every merchant has to be up to speed.
Why is that the issue of the State? All the State needs to do for sales tax increases is tell merchants that their Sales Tax Payable will be increased. If the merchant doesn’t comply, they lose revenue. This is not something that should take the state more than a day. Sales Tax is a very simple accounting procedure.