Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger told NC Insider this week that the North Carolina House and Senate remain “very, very far apart” on the state budget.
The Senate passed its version of the state’s two-year spending plan in June; the House, in August. The fiscal biennium began on July 1, but there’s no deadline for lawmakers to agree to a budget.
NFIB State Director Gregg Thompson said, “There are some important differences in the House bill and the Senate bill, and both bills are a lot different than the budget Governor Cooper came up with.
“Until the House and Senate conference committee sends a compromise to the governor, we won’t know how it could affect small businesses,” Thompson said.
NFIB is following the budget process closely. Items of interest to the business community include:
- A reduction of the corporate income tax.
- Reducing the personal income tax from 5.25% to 4.99%.
- A reduction in the franchise tax but not elimination.
- Increase in the personal deduction helping the lowest-paid workers.
- A policy change to allow small businesses to provide an avenue to begin a retirement IRA through payroll deduction.
- Allowing businesses to take a business deduction on the PPP money received in the 2020 business closure during the pandemic as the federal government did.
