How much did the temporary sales tax raise?

Facing a budget shortfall in 2001, the legislature increased the sales tax by a half-cent. The taxes were extended in 2003 and 2005, then cut in half in 2006. In 2007, the remaining quarter-cent increase was made permanent.

The N.C. Department of Revenue recently calculated the total amount of money raised by the temporary sales tax hike in each budget year:

2001-02: $413 million
2002-03: $441 million
2003-04: $480 million
2004-05: $507 million
2005-06: $552 million
2006-07: $391 million

In total, the temporary sales tax hike raised about $2.8 billion over the last six years.

Previously: Democratic Senate candidate Kay Hagan under fire for temporary taxes.

The state cigarette tax has gone up only three times in the past 17 years.

According to research by the N.C. Department of Revenue, the state's cigarette excise tax increased from 2 cents a pack to 5 cents a pack on Aug. 1, 1991.

It increased to 30 cents a pack effective Sept. 1, 2005.

And it increased again to 35 cents a pack effective July 1, 2006.

Those last two increases occurred during Gov. Mike Easley's watch. Easley has proposed raising the cigarette tax another time to 55 cents a pack in his 2008-09 budget in order to pay for raises for public school teachers.

The state currently has the seventh-lowest cigarette tax in the country.

Bob Orr says the state should pressure the federal government on illegal immigration.

In a proposal released today, the Republican gubernatorial candidate calls for the state to establish an identification process for legal residents, track state spending on illegal immigrants, aggresively pursue reimbursement and possibly even sue the federal government.

"As governor, I'm going to do all I can to ensure that if the Federal Government continues to shirk its legal obligation to secure our borders and deport those here illegally, then at least our taxpayers are not going to continue paying for it," he said in a statement.

The plan was a major step for Orr on the issue of illegal immigration. At a January debate, he was the only Republican candidate to blame industry, not the government, for the problem, and he has been less vocal about immigration than some of his opponents. 

In the plan, Orr called for the state Division of Motor Vehicles to issue driver's licenses and state ID only to legal residents; the Department of Public Instruction, public hospitals and jails to document spending on illegal immigrants; the state Department of Revenue to estimate tax revenue from illegal immigrants and the federal government to reimburse those costs.

If that fails, he said he would direct the state attorney general to file a lawsuit against the federal government. 

Republican candidate for governor Bill Graham repeated his call to lower the gas tax.

Graham, a Salisbury lawyer who previously pushed for a cap on the tax, said in a statement Thursday that the tax is still too high.

"Our state government has failed the taxpayer; we pay one of the highest gas taxes in the nation, yet our roads are ranked among the worst. We pay more taxes than any state in the Southeast, yet we have the most congested roads," Graham said in a statement.

The tax cannot rise higher than 30.15 cents per gallon. The N.C. Department of Revenue would have set the rate at 33.68 cents without the cap. The tax is the state's primary source of paying for road improvements and other transportation needs. The tax is one of the highest in the nation.

Graham believes that through reform of the Department of Transportation and a revision of the highway funding formula, the state can meet its transportation needs with a lower gas tax.

Update: Mark Binker supplies a useful backgrounder here.

Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue's company had its license suspended because of $210 in unpaid state taxes.

As noted yesterday, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate's company, Quail Woods Village, had its business license suspended for five months in 2004.

Her deputy campaign manager, David Kochman, said today that the suspension came about because the real estate development company failed to pay $210 in state franchise taxes in 1996.

That year, Quail Woods Village did not have any income because it did not sell any land. Perdue and her co-owners did not file a tax return, but they still owed a small tax as a company.

They weren't notified about the problem until 2004, however.

"They got the notice, and a short time later, they paid it," he said.

Secretary of State spokesman George Jeter said that such delays, while not typical, have happened. Sometimes they are because of the Department of Revenue and sometimes the Secretary of State's office, he said.

"We hope there aren't that many delays for that long," he said.