From WRAL.com:

“The reason that we’re in a recession is that people don’t have money. And every economist I know says the worst time to raise tax rates is when you’re in recession,” said House Minority Leader Paul Stam, R-Wake.

Approving new sales and income taxes again in 2009 would be rife with political land mines for Democrats they must try to avoid inside and outside the Legislative Building.

Only look at 2001 to see the political toll it may take.

House and Senate Democrats fought for months over whether to approve a sales tax increase alone, or to couple it with an income tax increase on the highest wage earners so the burden wouldn’t fall disproportionately on the poor. The House won by getting both, but only after the intraparty standoff caused hard feelings between the two chambers.

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