GOP’s corporate tax cuts declared an abysmal and self-destructive failure in scathing North Carolina editorial

In an op-ed published this Tuesday, the Editorial Board of a North Carolina newspaper wrote that the verdict is in: President Trump's 2017 corporate tax cuts didn't work.

"This umpteenth example of the false promise of trickle-down economics raises anew questions about North Carolina’s aggressive cutting of corporate taxes," writes the Editorial Board for the News & Observer. "The Republican-led General Assembly started phasing in tax cuts in 2013 that now cost about $3.6 billion a year in lost revenue. The estate tax was eliminated and the progressive income tax was reduced to a flat tax, but the most dramatic cut was a reduction in the corporate tax rate. Since 2013 it has been reduced from a high of 6.9 percent — then the highest in the Southeast — to 2.5 percent today. Among 44 states that have a corporate tax, North Carolina’s is the lowest."

The boom that was supposed to come with making the state more "business friendly" hasn't happened, and teachers and other state services have taken a hit from the lost revenue, according to the Board, adding that North Carolina's "mix of tax cuts and spending austerity has produced more pain than gain."

"...North Carolina’s across-the-board giveaway to corporations during a period of economic growth is not that kind of tax cut," the Board continued. "It’s a mistake that’s holding back North Carolina. Republican lawmakers won’t admit the mistake — that’s why they keep making it. But next November, voters should correct it."

Read the full op-ed over at the News & Observer.