To the Editor:

Your income went down, but your N.C. income tax went up. Is this possible? You bet. If you do your own taxes, read the What’s New section at the beginning of the instructions and you will find out why. Ever since Sen. Jim Davis, R-Franklin, and the Republican majority passed HB-998 in July of 2013, your tax benefits (that still exist in most other states) have been disappearing.

Do you work hard for each dollar you earn? No longer can you claim a tax credit for earned income.

Are you retired? Gone is the $2,000 or $4,000 (married) deduction from your taxable income. Nor is there any longer a deduction for being blind or over 65.

Do you have to put your children in daycare so that you can work a job to make ends meet? That credit has also vanished.

Are you hoping that your children can afford a college education? It just got harder with the elimination of the College Savings Program deduction by the N.C. legislature. And the list goes on.

Sure, Davis likes to tout the increased standard deduction, but when you figure in the vanished personal exemptions and missing credits, you don’t come out a winner.

And the flat rate tax ushered in by HB 998? Those of us with $30,000 of taxable income went from a 6 percent rate to a 5.75 percent rate, a $75 benefit. However, those with $200,000 of taxable income saw their rate drop from 7.75 percent to 5.75 percent, putting $4,000 right into their wallets.

And the sales tax additions are too numerous to mention in a single letter, but it is obvious to all of us that they hit the lower income group the hardest, that group carrying the wealthy on their backs. 

Sen. Davis’ negative tax changes are bad enough, but the spin that appears in our mailboxes is even worse.

Jane Hipps, through her long career in public service, has shown that she cares, and will work for, our quality of life. We will all be better off when she goes to Raleigh as Sen. Hipps.

Doug Woodward

Franklin