NC Newsline - Republicans in North Carolina’s legislature are rapidly advancing a pair of proposed constitutional amendments that would cap the state’s income tax rate and require photo ID for those voting by mail.
The Senate voted to approve both proposals Monday, sending them to the House for consideration. If approved by both chambers, they would be placed on the 2026 ballot for voter approval; they cannot be vetoed by the governor.
Senate Bill 920 would cap North Carolina’s maximum income tax rate at five percent under the state constitution. Current language sets the cap at seven percent; however, the rate currently sits at 4.5%, and GOP lawmakers have approved a series of further gradual cuts. The amendment would block any future rate increases.
And Senate Bill 921 would require all North Carolina voters to present photo ID — including those voting by mail. Current state law requires ID for all forms of voting.
Both passed the Senate on party-line votes, 30-19.
The amendments represent longtime priorities for Republican lawmakers, having passed previous versions of them in 2018 (both received majority support from voters). Both of those prior amendments are currently tied up in court; if new versions are passed, it could render that lawsuit moot.
GOP proponents touted the policies as popular among voters, cementing Republican-led legislative changes in the constitution.
“This is not our money,” said Sen. Paul Newton (R-Cabarrus). “They should have a right to decide the amount that we should be taxed.”
And the photo ID requirement “will just conform our state constitution to current state law,” Sen. Warren Daniel (R-Buncombe) said.
Democrats and advocacy groups strongly criticized the proposals when they were first filed earlier this year.
The president of the North Carolina NAACP, which challenged the 2018 amendments, said in June that the 2024 amendments represented “new tactics” in Republicans’ “ongoing assault on voting rights.”
And Sen. Graig Meyer (D-Orange) warned that the income tax rate cap would be “dooming the people of North Carolina to lie in a state that cannot meet their basic needs” during economic downturns.
The argument against the 2018 amendments was that the General Assembly was elected in illegally gerrymandered districts, and thus did not have the authority to amend the constitution.
A Wake County judge — and later the Supreme Court — sided with the NAACP in the case, but sent it back down to trial for further examination.
It was dormant for almost two years, until a hearing in front of a panel of Wake County judges in October. The panel has yet to make a decision, and has not announced a timeline for when one may come.
