Op-Ed: State Senator Steve Jarvis

The following op-ed was submitted by State Senator Steve Jarvis (R). Davidson Local values his continued transparency. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Davidson Local.

Raleigh, N.C. — I don’t recommend doing this at home, but I picked up some of the big city newspapers not that long ago to see what they were fussing about this time. I figured I’d see complaints about not enough men in women’s sports or the need for more books about “gender fluidity” in the elementary school library.

There was some of that, sure, but to my surprise, the liberal editorial writers also had the nerve to talk about “affordability,” as if their Green New Deal policies and giveaways — funded by your tax dollars — hadn’t created the very “affordability crisis” they’re now complaining about.

So, I wanted to sit down and write my own editorial about what I’ve done in the state Senate this past year and what I plan to do this coming year to keep North Carolina the envy of the country or, as I like to call it, the land of the sane. After all, there’s a reason we’re the No. 1 state people come to when fleeing blue states like New York and California.

First, you won’t be hearing about boys in girls’ sports in North Carolina anytime soon because of a bill that I helped pass called the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act.” It’s now the law of this state that only biological girls can compete in girls’ sports. I think it’s crazy we had to pass a law about that, but here we are.

Putting gender insanity aside, what really protects us from becoming New York or California is our state’s tax policy. When Republicans took control of the General Assembly in 2011 for the first time in more than a century, North Carolina had the highest income tax rate in the Southeast. The top bracket paid nearly 8% of their income to state government, and that doesn’t even include local property taxes or federal taxes.

Today, we have the lowest income tax rate in the Southeast at 3.99% (excluding Tennessee and Florida, which have no income tax but higher property or sales taxes).

And the tax rate is dropping lower still. With my backing, the General Assembly set into law scheduled income tax cuts through the rest of the decade. I ran for office on the promise that I would lower your tax burden, and that’s a promise I intend to keep.

For a decade, the liberal editorial writers and bureaucrats have predicted that North Carolina’s tax cuts would bankrupt the state. Former Gov. Roy Cooper’s budget director, for example, predicted the state was falling behind on revenue targets and the Republican-led tax cuts were draining revenue growth. The actual result was a cumulative surplus of $16.98 billion between FY15-16 and FY24-25.

I also realize that income tax cuts aren’t as impactful if local governments turn around and raise your property taxes. You’re just handing your savings from state government over to hikes from local government.

Just this month, I was appointed to a special legislative group to examine property taxes across North Carolina. Why do they keep going up? How is the money spent? And most importantly, what policies can the legislature adopt to rein them in?

I think about the elderly woman sitting on a farm that’s been passed down through the generations that she can’t afford to keep because of the property taxes. Everyone knows an example of this — “land rich, cash poor.” Because government keeps coming to take a bigger piece of what’s rightfully hers, she must sell out to a developer just to get by.

That’s not right.

So sure, the big city editorial writers can whine all they want about the affordability crisis their own high-tax, high-spending policies helped bring about. North Carolina has shown for the past 15 years of Republican rule in the legislature that low taxes and responsible spending is the right formula.

In the coming year, I’ll keep doing exactly what I promised when I ran for office: fighting to lower your tax burden, pushing back against runaway government costs and making sure that affordability in North Carolina means more than just a talking point for editorial pages written hundreds of miles away. That includes taking a hard look at property taxes and ensuring longtime North Carolinians aren’t priced out of the land and homes they worked their entire lives to build.

Steve Jarvis represents Davidson and Davie counties in the North Carolina Senate. He is serving his third term. Senator Jarvis previously served one term in the North Carolina House of Representatives and was a Davidson County commissioner.