*clap,clap,clap* Way to go guys! This budget really works out for guys exactly like us!! *clap,clap,clap*
In a new opinion piece in the Raleigh News & Observer by Gene Nichol, he points out how the North Carolina's income tax rate decline actually continues to squeeze lower income families. Small cuts to their income taxes will be quickly gobbled up by increases in taxes on repairs for automobiles and appliances. It makes no sense.
"The governor and the General Assembly just lowered, yet again, the state’s income tax rate. To help pay for it, they enacted a new sales tax on car and appliance repairs. The move continues an apparently defining project of shifting the tax burden from the wealthiest North Carolinians to the poorest."
Recently, our refrigerator died. It was a slow death, first the fridge went,...then the freezer. We couldn't afford a new fridge. We simply couldn't. So we had to get it repaired. So what makes our lawmakers think that if you can't afford a new fridge, you can afford higher taxes on getting your old one repaired? It makes no sense. I'd like to see our lawmakers go 3 weeks using ice and a cooler waiting for a part and hoping that you could afford it when it arrived.
It's as if our lawmakers have no contact with their actual constituents - you know, the ones that don't donate to their campaigns. Transportation is a key to life in our many rural communities without public transit systems. It means the difference between having a job and not having a job to many. Repairs to cars are not only necessary, but vital to entire households.
The wealthy not only have newer cars which need fewer repairs, but they can easily get loaner cars, may have multiple cars in their household, can even RENT cars to use if theirs is in the shop. But for those that are struggling, car repairs are a huge burden in keeping their older cars running. I've known many people that end up bartering with mechanics because they already struggle to make ends meet, and their car is essential to holding a job. Raising the financial burden on those already burdened is not a solution.
But that is precisely what our General Assembly chose to do. They blame the poor for being poor; for not being as smart as they are; for ultimately being failed millionaires. To empathize with the poor and needy means you have to accept that there may even be other paths to a happy life,...one that *what?* may not revolve around money or power. Our legislators need to simply stop making legislation that creates crisis after crisis in lives that they can't possibly relate to.
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article36473067.html#storylink=cpy
"The governor and the General Assembly just lowered, yet again, the state’s income tax rate. To help pay for it, they enacted a new sales tax on car and appliance repairs. The move continues an apparently defining project of shifting the tax burden from the wealthiest North Carolinians to the poorest."
Recently, our refrigerator died. It was a slow death, first the fridge went,...then the freezer. We couldn't afford a new fridge. We simply couldn't. So we had to get it repaired. So what makes our lawmakers think that if you can't afford a new fridge, you can afford higher taxes on getting your old one repaired? It makes no sense. I'd like to see our lawmakers go 3 weeks using ice and a cooler waiting for a part and hoping that you could afford it when it arrived.
It's as if our lawmakers have no contact with their actual constituents - you know, the ones that don't donate to their campaigns. Transportation is a key to life in our many rural communities without public transit systems. It means the difference between having a job and not having a job to many. Repairs to cars are not only necessary, but vital to entire households.
The wealthy not only have newer cars which need fewer repairs, but they can easily get loaner cars, may have multiple cars in their household, can even RENT cars to use if theirs is in the shop. But for those that are struggling, car repairs are a huge burden in keeping their older cars running. I've known many people that end up bartering with mechanics because they already struggle to make ends meet, and their car is essential to holding a job. Raising the financial burden on those already burdened is not a solution.
But that is precisely what our General Assembly chose to do. They blame the poor for being poor; for not being as smart as they are; for ultimately being failed millionaires. To empathize with the poor and needy means you have to accept that there may even be other paths to a happy life,...one that *what?* may not revolve around money or power. Our legislators need to simply stop making legislation that creates crisis after crisis in lives that they can't possibly relate to.
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article36473067.html#storylink=cpy