Resolving NC Corporate Tax Cases Could Generate $150 Million

NC Department of Revenue claimed the money could be available within six months

CLEVELAND COUNTY NEWS -- North Carolina House Representative Tim Moore of Cleveland County advises District 111 on various issues developing in the House of Representatives:

The budget process continues on at the Legislative as the House and Senate conference chairs continue to meet daily. The House leadership is still calling to increase the rate and scope of the sales tax and the Governor is calling for more taxes. The Senate wants to raise fees, but they do not like the idea of raising the sales and income taxes. I continue to oppose raising taxes in today's economy. We need more jobs and raising taxes hurts everyone. As I have said before, we need to fully fund education and our core services, and stop the spending on duplicate services and wasteful projects.

On Tuesday, the Senate passed a continuing resolution, Senate Bill 311. This bill will keep the state government operating at 85% of last year's budget should a new budget not be passed by June 30th. The House leadership still wants to have a budget passed before the start of the new fiscal year on July 1st, but this appears less likely with each passing day.

Also, the NC Department of Revenue said that by resolving some corporate tax cases, they could generate about $150 million for the state to work with. NC Revenue said they could have this money available within six months.

On Wednesday, the House passed Senate Bill 526, School Violence Prevention Act, by a vote of 58-57 with the Speaker breaking the tie. This bill, also known as the "Bullying Bill," claims to be aimed at preventing bullying in public schools. Instead, the bill only lays out the classifications on which one can be bullied, including sexual orientation. The bill does nothing to implement punishment against those who are bullying other students; in fact, the leadership shot down amendments to require punishment. Several proposals were also made to remove the classifications from the bill and simply prevent all bullying in schools, only to be rebuffed as well. Therefore, it is obvious that this bill is not meant to stop bullying; instead, it is just a not-so-subtle attempt to codify sexual orientation as a means of discrimination that can be punished. This is just the next step in the continued assault of family values waged by the leadership. I believe that it is important to protect traditional family values, and I voted against this bill. I believe that all school children should have a safe environment in which to learn, and that is why I co-sponsored House Bill 776, No Bullying Anyone at Public Schools. This bill would have created safer schools for our children by punishing all bullies, but it was never given a chance to be heard.

As always, please feel free to contact us with any concerns or comments you may have. We look forward to hearing from you. You can reach us at our Raleigh number at 919-733-4838 or you can e-mail us at timm@ncleg.net or Moorela@ncleg.net.

Best Wishes,
Representative Tim Moore
Serving Cleveland County

In closing, Representative Tim Moore is currently serving his fourth term in the North Carolina General Assembly. He was born and raised in Cleveland County and resides in Kings Mountain with his wife, Juli, and their two young sons. Read more of Republican NC House Representative Tim Moore's press at Cleveland County News.