Trust in major news outlets is at historic lows, with Gallup’s most recent survey on the matter finding only 34% of Americans trust mass media to “fully, accurately and fairly” report the news. Recent weeks have produced multiple examples showing why the public is justified in being more suspicious of the news today, with correspondents and columnists from major media outlets reporting without rebuttal the false claim that Florida’s public school curriculum portrays slavery as a good thing.

That claim, first spread by Vice President Kamala Harris during her visit to the Sunshine State on July 21, has since been widely reported in the media and also promoted by prominent supporters of former-President Donald Trump’s campaign. Recent reporting of false information, however, hasn’t been limited to the topic of school curriculum, nor has it been the exclusive domain of national journalists and pundits.

In North Carolina, for example, New & Observer columnist Ned Barnett’s July 28 column lambasting the income tax relief under consideration as part of state budget negotiations was centered around a false claim. Barnett wrote that the Republicans who hold supermajorities in both chambers of the North Carolina General Assembly “still cling to the idea that cutting taxes somehow increases tax revenue.”

That statement from Barnett, like many claims that have been made about Florida’s public school curriculum in the weeks since Vice President Harris’s visit, is verifiably false. In fact, Barnett himself acknowledged it to be such later in that same column when he referenced the authorization of new casinos, something that is also under consideration as part of ongoing budget talks between the House and Senate.

Contrary to Barnett’s assertion, GOP legislators in Raleigh are well aware that enacting further income tax relief will lead to a reduction in state tax revenue, just not as large of a drop as Democrats and static scoring models suggest. The reason approval of more casinos is on the table in budget talks is because many Republican lawmakers see the new tax revenue generated by that expansion of commerce as a way to facilitate and help make up the revenue lost from further income tax relief.

Research published in March by the Spectrum Gaming Group, “a non-partisan consultancy that specializes in the economics, regulation and policy of legalized gambling worldwide,” estimated the authorization of a limited number of new casinos in North Carolina could create anywhere from 1,500 to 3,000 jobs at each new location, generating between $20 million and $30 million in increased annual local tax collections for every new site allowed. The March report projects new casinos, along with associated entertainment venues and retail, would increase annual state tax collections in North Carolina by approximately $100 million per site.

When asked how he squares his contention that Republican lawmakers think tax cuts will not reduce tax revenue with the fact that Republicans are looking for ways to replace the revenue lost from income tax cuts, Barnett ignored the contradiction and focused on revenue projections from expanded gaming.

“The proposed NC casinos, when fully operational, are expected to generate $589 million annually in new state revenue,” Barnett wrote in response to questions from this author. “The personal income tax cuts proposed by state Senate Republicans would cost the state $13 billion annually by 2030-2031. So we're still $12.4 billion short of tax revenue. Meanwhile, I doubt casinos will generate anything close to that tax revenue projection. So it's cut taxes and hope tax revenue comes from somewhere.”

Though Barnett’s response did not include the considerable revenue boost that could be produced by legalization of iGaming and video lottery games, he is correct that expanded gaming would not cover the full cost of proposed income tax relief. But no one is claiming it would, only that it would help make up some of the difference in revenue lost from income tax relief.

Legislative leadership in the North Carolina General Assembly is also looking to offset the revenue lost from income tax rate reduction through spending restraint and various revenue-raising provisions that, if voted on as stand alone measures, would be considered a tax hike but are not in the context of an income tax-cutting budget that reduces taxes on net. Legislative leaders say a final budget deal is expected to be announced sometime in mid-August. No matter what shape the final budget deal takes, however, these efforts prove Barnett’s claim, that Republican lawmakers “still cling to the idea that cutting taxes somehow increases tax revenue,” is simply not true.

Beyond the tax revenue derived from new casinos, it’s estimated that allowing video lottery games in local restaurants, convenience stores, and bars could generate another $500 million annually for state coffers. In addition to video lottery games, authorization of iGaming in North Carolina — which is now allowed in West Virginia, Nevada, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Michigan, and Connecticut — would also increase state tax collections by more than $400 million annually according to estimates.

North Carolina legislators are looking to pay for more income tax rate reduction through expanded commerce rather than rely on sales tax base broadening and other offsetting tax hikes. Progressives, meanwhile, are urging opposition to more income tax relief. Should Governor Roy Cooper (D) reject a new income tax-cutting budget when it hits his desk, however, Republicans could still enact it with a veto override thanks to their supermajorities in both chambers of the legislature.

“The trickle-down tax cutting for the rich agenda that we’ve seen pushed in the states has only three potential outcomes,” Aiden Davis, who works for the left-leaning Institute for Tax and Economic Policy (ITEP) and is opposed to the income tax relief proposed by North Carolina legislators, told Barnett. “You’re going to see drastic cuts in state and local services, or it’s going to be higher taxes on poor or middle-income families or, more often than not, it’s going to be a mix of those two things.”

“Some folks on the left complain that tax competition produces a race to the bottom, depriving governments of revenue,” noted a July 30 Bloomberg Tax article by Dan Mitchell, a Washington-based economist. “International evidence, however, casts doubt on that concern.”

“According to OECD data, receipts from taxes on personal and corporate income, measured as a share of economic output, are significantly higher today than they were back in 1980,” Mitchell added. As Mitchell points out, that occurred over the same period in which the average top tax income tax rate in industrialized nations dropped by nearly 25 percentage points.

What Barnett, ITEP, and other progressive groups neglect to mention is how state income tax cuts benefit small businesses by increasing their job-creating and sustaining-capacity. That’s because most small business owners file under the individual income tax system.

Would another round of income tax relief in North Carolina mean upper-income households keep more of their earnings, as progressives argue? Sure, but so would taxpayers at the lower end of the income scale. What’s more, if another budget is enacted in North Carolina that cuts the income tax rate again, that will mean more resources for small businesses to hire new workers and give existing employees raises.

Gallup found only 7% of Americans have “a great deal” of confidence and trust in the media, with 27% having “a fair amount.” 28% of U.S. adults say they don’t have very much confidence in the media, while 38% have none at all. That Gallup poll, released in October 2022, was the first time the percentage of Americans with no trust at all in the media exceeded the share with a fair or great deal of trust. Recent coverage of public school curriculum in Florida and tax cuts in North Carolina are the latest evidence that those low marks continue to be earned.