RALEIGH, N.C.  – House and Senate Democrats in North Carolina have signed off on a plan that would raise nearly $1 billion in taxes and help them reach an agreement on the state budget very soon.

House Speaker Joe Hackney said Wednesday fellow Democrats in his chamber are ready to support the deal reached with Senate counterparts. Democrats in both chambers held separate caucus meetings to discuss the $982 million plan.

The deal would raise the sales tax rate by a penny, add an extra 2 percent onto income tax bills and increase the cost of a pack of cigarettes by 10 cents. Alcohol taxes also would go up.

Hackney said a family making between $30,000 to $60,000 would see their tax bill go up by $66 a year under the deal.

Gov. Beverly Perdue still isn’t satisfied with the state budget and suggested more money is needed for public schools. She said school starts back in about a month and education leaders still don’t know how much money to expect for their classrooms.

Perdue’s written statement didn’t specifically mention a plan hammered out by House and Senate Democrats to raise nearly $1 billion in new taxes. The governor has said she wants more revenue.

Perdue told legislators to “find a way to protect public schools and the core services of safety and public health, period.”

A look at $982M tax plan agreed to by NC Democrats
A glance at the tax package tentatively agreed to Wednesday by North Carolina House and Senate Democrats that would raise $982 million during the 2009-10 fiscal year, with the amount raised by each provision:

- 1 percentage point increase in sales tax, raising rate most consumers pay to 7.75 percent: $803.5 million.
- 2 percent surcharge on individual income tax bills: $197 million.
- 2 percent surcharge on corporate income tax bills: $15.4 million.
- Applying sales tax to digital items purchased online and
transactions involving other Internet sales: $8.4 million.

- Increasing beer excise tax by about 5 cents per six-pack: $12.6 million.
- Increasing liquor excise tax by 5 percent: $20.1 million.
- Increasing wine excise tax by 4 cents per bottle: $2.9 million.
- Raising cigarette tax by 10 cents per pack to 45 cents: $33.3million.
- Increasing excise tax on cigars, smokeless tobacco and other tobacco products by 2.8 percent: $5 million.

The state will lose $116.3 million as it conforms state revenue law to federal law that exempts the first $2,400 of unemployment benefits from state taxes during 2009 as well as other changes.

The same plan would generate $1.32 billion in the 2010-11 fiscal year.