As North Carolina legislative leaders negotiate a spending plan for the next two years, they’ll have less money to work with than expected.
WRAL reports economic forecasters who work in state government have revised their budget projections downward for the next two years. The budget forecast released in February projected the state would collect over half a billion dollars more in taxes than expected this fiscal year, but after tax season. Now, they expect collections total to be about $364 million. The state’s budget is about $32 billion. Forecasters say business tax collections are down slightly because rising costs are cutting into taxable revenues. Forecasters also predicted slower growth in sales taxes due to lagging wage growth, tariffs and heightened economic uncertainty.