Rucho resigned his co-chairmanship of the finance committee in protest of Berger's plan, which passed the Senate Thursday.
Regardless of what ultimately passes, Jessica Jones, WUNC Capitol Bureau Chief, said on the State of Things that the implications could be far reaching.
"Politically, I think it's going to be very interesting what happens in the next year or two," she said.
Meanwhile, the House approved their budget, which opponents say, shortchanges education. Alexandra Sirota, director of the budget and tax center at the NC Justice Center, said it's a bad idea to cut taxes while not fully funding our education priorities.
"The cost of delivering education is growing," she said. "Our investments are not keeping pace with that."
Brent Lane, director of the Carolina Center for Competitive Economies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said education is a necessary priority, particularly when the tax plan could negatively impact the poor. However, he said that even when the state had a tax system meant to favor the poor over the rich, it didn't quite work that way.
"Even when it was progressive, the result for our citizens in income was regressive," he said.
