Six weeks after the Senate passed its version of a state budget, the North Carolina House has come out with a spending plan of its own.
After two days of committee work and two days of debate and amendments on the floor, the House plan passed with a bipartisan, veto-proof majority of 72-41.
House members introduced dozens of proposed amendments to the budget, but only 17 passed. The $25.7 billion budget bill — which, at 671 pages, is the longest in state history — differs vastly from both the Senate bill and the Governor’s proposed budget. It now goes to a conference committee, which will try to work out the differences.
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.
While there are many budgetary and policy changes in the budget, these provisions will have the most impact on the business community. NFIB State Director Gregg Thompson says it probably will take three to four weeks for lawmakers to reach a compromise. Once the final bill passes the General Assembly, it will be sent to Governor Cooper.
