BandwidthHog's Journal: How Often Does THIS Happen?

Currently, of the 7 cents tax on every dollar, 4.5 cents goes to the state
and 2.5 cents goes to the county (note that Mecklenburg County requires an
additional .5 cents). Beginning tomorrow, North Carolina will reduce the
state tax rate to 4.25%, lowering the total tax per dollar to 6.75 cents. On
July 1, 2007, North Carolina will further reduce the state tax rate to 4%,
lowering the total tax per dollar to 6.5 cents. For more information, read
the following Department of Revenue notice:
www.dor.state.nc.us/taxes/sales/ImpNoticeTaxDecrease1106.pdf

Well, color me impressed. Once in a while North Carolina makes me proud to live here.

I grew up in Hawai‘i, where every year the previous year’s budget surplus is divided by the number of taxpayers and checks are mailed out. That always seemed to me a sign of solid fiscal management, as does this current tax decrease.

Hey cool

[Mantorp]

I just moved here, perfect excuse to buy more crap.

Heh

[Iamthefallen]

Didn't know you were a southerner as well.

Went from Hawaii to NC huh? You in a witness protection program and had to go into hiding or something?

Re:

[BandwidthHog]

You’d think, right?

Other than “Really? Do you surf?” that’s the question I’ve been asked most frequently over the years. I used to give a variety of smartass answers such as, “It was the only way I could vote against Jesse Helms” or “I suffered a significant head injury and asked the doctors to send me some place where I’d fit in better.” But the real answer is that when I decided to leave Hawai‘i, I moved to the place I’d never heard o

Re:

[Iamthefallen]

Good stuff, and I imagine that NC is just a tad cheaper than HI.

My sister in law bought a small house in Hawaii last year, $500.000 for less than 1500sqft. Down here it'd buy a small mansion.

Re:

[BandwidthHog]

That and the isolation were what drove me from Hawai‘i. Once that decision had been made, it was just a matter of deciding where to go. And at the time (1992), this place had a thriving movie industry. Now, not so much, but it’s a pretty nice place to live anyway. I still go back every two or three years, though. I just did a pilgrimage this past summer [flickr.com], as a matter of fact.

In Oregon

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Our Kicker Checks are in danger. The reason why? Because it prevented the state from creating a rainy day fund- and meant school closures in bad years. Of course, we don't have a sales tax at all....

Would that Virginia

[smittyoneeach]

wasn't exhibiting signs of leftward creep.

I'm guessing that you're referring to...

[benhocking]

I'm guessing that you're referring to Mark Warner's (fmr Democratic governor) 1.5% reduction of the sales tax on food. ;) What do you have against it?

OTOH, I'm not sure you can really say that Virginia is creeping leftward. After all, during the last Govenor's race, the Democratic governor was replaced by the Democratic lieutenant governor, who was in turn replaced by a Republican. The fact that George Allen lost to Jim Webb (both of whom were conservative, but only one of which enjoyed displaying the Con

Re:

[smittyoneeach]

It's good news/other news, I suppose.
The Civil Rights movement, and Women's Suffrage are two examples of things that now appear obvious, but were bought at great personal cost.
Environmental concerns certainly need more backing.
Much of the rest of (what I think is) the progressive agenda falls short of exciting me.

Then we mostly agree...

[benhocking]

In fact, perhaps the only disagreement is how important we think those things are. I'm no fan of big government (although I doubt you'll find any "progressive" who thinks they are), and I'm decidely anti-drugs and anti-abortion, although I'm not really pro-government sticking their noses in (see "big government" comment). Nobody wants taxes for the sake of taxes, but I'm definitely in favor of fiscal responsibility rather than the "cut and spend" mentality that seems to recently dominate Washington.

Re:

[smittyoneeach]

I would like to see the US pursue a "separation of bedroom and state".
If the culture could somehow re-direct itself away from its voyeurism (and there are plenty of cultures that succeed) we'd be better off.

Slightly offtopic comment on refunds

[smooth wombat]

While it's nice that Hawaii refunds money back to the people based on how much the surplus is, did they also give interest with that money?

It's a similar situation to when people get money back from the IRS. They think, "Oh cool, found money!" when in reality it's money they overpaid to the government and which was used interest free for a year before being given back.

I'm not knocking Hawaii's way of doing things. It's a nice difference from the way most states operate. Just a point of interest.