North Carolina state Sen. Rick Gunn (R-Alamance) is calling out Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper for taking a bow for legislation he did all he could to keep from becoming law.
“Gov. Cooper's office put out a release proclaiming Sept. 29-Oct. 5 [as] North Carolina Manufacturing Week,” Gunn said in a press release posted to Facebook. The release discusses the importance of manufacturing to the North Carolina's economy, and how manufacturers have benefited from "... an excellent business climate with low costs and the nation’s lowest corporate income tax rate of 2.5%."
Gunn added, “The problem is, Gov. Cooper vetoed the very corporate tax rate that he is now attempting to take credit for.”
North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper
| North Carolina Attorney General's Office
Republican lawmakers point out that under Democratic Party leadership, the state corporate tax rate soared to as high as 6.9 percent before coming down upon Republicans taking power in 2011. As recently as in 2017, the rate tumbled to as low as 2.5 percent.
Gunn’s news release details how Cooper vetoed that very budget, even going as far as to cite the reduced corporate rate as one of his primary reasons for doing so.
“In 2018 he vetoed the budget because it, ‘values tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy,’ and earlier this year he once again vetoed the annual budget because it contained "more corporate tax cuts,’" Gunn added. “Even Cooper's most ardent supporters must be confused by the governor's mixed messages and his habit of publicly embracing Republican economic policies when it is politically convenient for him to do so.”
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