Report: NC among states most tied to income tax

EMERY P. DALESIO
AP Business Writer

RALEIGH, NC (AP) — A new report by the investment rating agency Standard & Poor’s says the income gap is undermining public treasuries in North Carolina and other states.

The S&P report released Monday says North Carolina is among the 10 states most reliant on income tax revenues. The report says the increasing flow of wealth to top earners is forcing policy-makers to choose between raising taxes on the rich or cutting spending for education, medical care and other services.

The report says North Carolina’s annual tax revenues in the 2000s grew on average by about half the rate of the 1990s and grew by only a slightly faster pace since recession-scarred 2009. North Carolina’s tax revenues in recent years grew more slowly than the average of similar states heavily dependent on income tax revenues.

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