North Carolina’s business tax climate has improved to 11th best in the nation, according to new rankings released this week by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation.
The 2017 State Business Tax Climate Index ranks the state ahead of nearly all its southeastern neighbors and comes just two years after North Carolina achieved the most dramatic improvement in the Index’s history – catapulting from 44th to 15th in a single year.
Since 2011, lawmakers have passed over $3 billion in tax relief for North Carolina families and job creators. The historic tax reforms and reductions include lowering the state personal and corporate income tax rates, moving to calculate corporate income tax on the basis of a single sales factor, and, most recently, making the first $17,500 a family earns exempt from income tax over the next two years.
And the Tax Foundation ranking is only the latest indicator in a string of positive economic news for the state.
Last month, the unemployment rate dropped to 4.6 percent, below the national average and the lowest since 2007. Over the past four years, unemployment has decreased in all of North Carolina’s 100 counties. In fact, since Republicans assumed leadership of the General Assembly in 2011, the state’s economy has generated more than 400,000 new jobs. And Gov. Pat McCrory announced earlier this year that, since 2013, North Carolina has had one of the fastest growing economies in the nation – a fact later verified by Politifact.
“This new ranking is just the latest proof that Gov. McCrory and Republican state leaders are keeping our promises to build a business climate that will create more jobs, put more North Carolinians back to work, and return more money to the families and small businesses that earned it,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Bob Rucho