RALEIGH, N.C. -- While estimates vary from $750 million to $863 million, there's no disagreement that the tax increase proposed today by Governor Beverly Perdue would generate substantial new revenue for North Carolina -- funds Perdue, a Democrat, says are needed to hire teachers and teaching assistants and to reduce class sizes.

 

Republicans, who last year took control of both the State House and State Senate for the first time in more than a century, countered with criticism over the timing of the increase, which they said would raise taxes on some food and grocery items at a time when the state's unemployment rate hovers around 10 percent.

 

They also pointed to the bipartisan budget passed in July which they say included 99.5 percent of the education funding requested by Perdue.

 

“Governor Perdue['s] proposal would make it harder for working families to purchase prepared food, clothing, medical supplies and other basic necessities to support an extreme agenda for larger government," said House Speaker Thom Tillis (R - Mecklenburg). "Now is not the time to raise taxes, especially in light of the fact that the General Assembly’s education budget was only 0.5 percent different than the Governor’s.”

 

But Perdue said the spending was necessary because the state lags behind most other states in the amount it spend on each student from kindergarten through 12th grade.

 

“North Carolina has fallen to 49th in the nation in per-pupil funding,” Perdue said, before adding that the legislature’s 2011 budget “has led to higher class sizes and the loss of thousands of teacher and teaching assistant positions.”

 

Perdue vetoed the 2011 budget bill after criticizing it for cuts in spending, but her veto was overridden by both the House and Senate.

 

After the veto override, Tillis issued a statement saying: "This budget is fiscally responsible and economically sustainable. It reverses a decades-long trend of state government spending beyond its means and puts over a billion dollars back into the hands of North Carolinians."