Joy Franklin: Amendments to NC constitution will cost most of us more

a tax cap that lets people keep more of their own money gets rebranded as a scheme to hurt everybody but the rich. Joy Franklin's column reads like it was written before the amendments were even finalized. The actual proposal caps how high income and property taxes can climb, which is not some exotic giveaway. It is a guardrail against future legislatures deciding they need more of your paycheck because a budget didn't balance.

The "cost most of us more" argument depends on a familiar trick: assume the state needs whatever revenue it currently collects, then treat any limit on future increases as a hidden tax hike on the middle class. Nobody is raising taxes here. Voters are being asked whether they want a ceiling on how much government can take, permanently, regardless of who's in the governor's mansion in 2030. That's not a rich man's loophole. That's a homeowner in Wilmington who doesn't want his property tax bill doubling because the county reassessed his neighborhood during a housing boom.

North Carolina Republicans aren't hiding the ball. They're putting it on the ballot and letting people vote. If Franklin thinks capped taxes are bad policy, fine, make that case on the merits. But dressing up a constitutional check on future tax increases as a plot against "the rest of us" assumes voters can't read a ballot measure for themselves. They can. And plenty of them will vote yes precisely because they've watched their bills climb for years while being told it's for their own good.