LOL - sad but true. Slowly but surely, NC is becoming a backwater state again because EMPLOYERS do NOT want to do business here where the tax rates only go UP on businesses and on peeople.
These employers close down or move overseas or move to more attractively sane states who have figured that if you lower corporate and business taxes, the employers the corporations BRING their businesses and their JOBS and their taxes they do pay to the state and help reduce the deficit and the jobless rate.
What part of NC did you visit?
Durham, my hometown where I grew up and lived for 30 years.