News-Record.com

Today was a busy day on Jones Street and frankly, I don't have time to do justice to everything. So here's a little wrap of things I haven’t had a chance to blog yet.

• * The House Education Committee passed a bill that would let schools start as soon as Aug. 8.

  The measure, H 593, would reverse a change made only a few years ago that made Aug. 25 the earliest start date possible.

  It next goes to the House Commerce Committee.

  Click here for debate from the committee, including education lobbyists arguing for earlier starts and one student arguing against.

• * The House passed H120, a municipal campaign finance bill, on a 60-56 vote.

  I've written about this before (here and here)

  The measure was changed on the floor today to exclude towns with fewer than 50,000 people. Sponsors made the change to keep the heat off rural Democrats. Americans for Prosperity, a conservative anti-tax group, had targeted "about a dozen" members of the House, according to its leader, Dallas Woodhouse.

  According to Woodhouse, the group used robo-calls and member phone calls to convince some members who were on the fence to side against the bill.

  Click here to listen to the end of the debate from the House floor.

• * The House also passed H148, a bill to allow local governments to raise sales taxes to help fund transit systems on a 77-40 vote. The House must vote again Wednesday to confirm the vote.

  The bill would allow Guilford and Forsyth Counties to raise taxes to help fund PART.

  Part Director Brent McKinney said his agency would need more money by 2012 to sustain its planning and operational activities.

  "It gives the citizens the option to decide their future transportation choices and how they want to see their region developed," McKinney said.

The breaking news of the late day comes from the Associated Press' Gary Robertson. Senators seemed to have been of two minds all day over whether they would run their tax package Wednesday or not. Gary says we'll see it tomorrow:

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - North Carolina's Senate Democrats are set to consider a plan Wednesday that would change the state's tax system by reducing overall rates but adding taxes to many services for the first time.

The Senate Finance Committee is expected to receive a proposal that would lower the sales tax rate people pay in most counties from 6.75 percent to 6 percent and reduce corporate and individual income tax rates, according to a document highlighting the potential changes obtained by The Associated Press. The 2 percent tax on food at grocery stores and other retailer also would be repealed, the document said.

But the proposal, which will serve as a template for Senate leaders seeking to reform the tax system this year, also would place the sales tax on a host of services, including building repairs, warranties, information technology, moving expenses and sales of downloaded music and software.

[snip]

Under the plan, the individual income tax rate would be reduced from 7.75 percent to 7.5 percent, while the lowest rate would drop from 6 percent to 5.25 percent, according to the document.

There also would be a new bracket in which income earners would pay no new taxes - for example, married couples filing jointly and making up to $10,000. Right now, people must pay 6 percent even if they earned only a few hundred dollars.

Individual income tax rates would be simplified by basing payments on a taxpayer's adjusted gross income as calculated on federal tax returns, instead of having to change the amount to compute state taxes. There would be some credits for charitable donations and home mortgages, while the per-child tax credit would increase from $100 to $125, the document said.

The corporate income tax would be reduced from 6.9 percent - one of the highest in the Southeast - to 4.5 percent over two years, but limited liability companies would have to pay franchise taxes while state and local privilege license taxes would be repealed.

A host of business tax credits started in the mid-1990s to reward companies that created jobs or invested capital would be eliminated.