RALEIGH — Gov. Mike Easley and the state legislature have approved a revised budget for the current fiscal year that will likely result in hundreds of millions of dollars in new taxes on North Carolina businesses and families, further damaging an already weakened state economy, according to a preliminary analysis by the John Locke Foundation. John Hood, chairman and president of the Raleigh-based think tank, observed that the new budget directly raises the state tax burden by approximately $157 million, largely through changes in business taxes and the elimination of previously scheduled tax cuts that had been designed to help...