Statement from Alexandra Forter Sirota: Senate’s proposal does not deliver on promoting shared economic prosperity

RALEIGH (March 18, 2015) — North Carolina’s economy needs growth and prosperity that extends to all North Carolinians. The proposal introduced by Senate leadership today does not deliver on this vision of shared economic prosperity. Instead, the Senate continues an approach of tax cuts and ineffective economic policy that have proven to not deliver on creating good paying jobs and raising the wages of hardworking North Carolinians.

“The corporate tax cuts in the Senate’s proposal would further reduce revenue for investments in our public schools and universities and other building blocks that help drive the success of businesses,” said Alexandra Sirota of the Budget & Tax Center. “Businesses need an educated workforce and modern infrastructure to be successful. Cuts to the tax rates for profitable corporations or changes to the way corporate income is considered for purposes of taxation also won’t address falling wages for the average North Carolinian. Furthermore, the Senate proposal changes to taxes paid by profitable multi-state corporations would not guarantee reinvest in our state and be at the expense of small, home-grown North Carolina businesses.”

“The best way to create jobs and grow an economy that benefits every community in North Carolina is to provide companies with the skilled workforce and infrastructure they need to compete in the global marketplace,” said Allan Freyer of the NC Justice Center’s Workers’ Rights Project. “Unfortunately, the proposed changes to the JDIG program ignore these time-tested strategies for robust economic development in favor of tax incentives that have proved to be more expensive and less effective than advertised.”

In fact, 60 percent of JDIG projects have failed to live up to their promises of job creation or investment since the program began in 2002, and JDIG is out of money because the state spent more than half the available funds on a single project in Charlotte. At a time when we need to create at 400,000 new jobs to meet the needs of growing population, now is not the time to double down on ineffective economic development.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Alexandra Forter Sirota, alexandra@ncjustice.org; Allan Freyer, allan@ncjustice.org, 919.856.2151; Jeff Shaw, jeff@ncjustice.org, 503.551.3615 (cell).