Editor’s Note: Going back to school has me more discombobulated than usual, and I managed to miss the usual Tuesday run date for this piece. I offer apologies to anyone who believes that apologies are due.
In this week’s newsletter, we will be discussing last month’s town hall meeting, and the budget passed by the General Assembly last week. Also I wanted to make you aware of another Town Hall meeting that will be held in Granville County for those of you that were unable to attend out last town hall.
UPCOMING TOWN HALL MEETING
On August 31, 2009, the State Employees Association of North Carolina (SEANC) will be hosting a Health Care Town Hall Meeting. The meeting will be held in Creedmoor, NC at the Vance Granville Community College Southern Campus. SEANC is committed to protecting and enhancing the rights and benefits of current, retired and future state employees. Health care coverage is an important benefit for state employees, who are often underpaid, compared to their counterparts in the private sector. Therefore, SEANC has worked hard to maintain premium-free health care for state employees. In recent years, SEANC also achieved an employee-spouse only coverage option and launched North Carolinians for Affordable Health Care.
At this town hall meeting you will learn a lot about the proposed public option healthcare plan. I have been invited along with other public officials to speak at this meeting. This event will be held in Seminar Room 133 on the South Campus of Vance Granville Community College. The meeting will begin at 6:30 P.M. The physical address for the South Campus is 1547 South Campus Drive, Creedmoor, NC, 27522.
Your personal stories concerning the impact of the current healthcare system are welcome. We need your input and your opinions on how we can effectively advocate to the US Congress to expand healthcare coverage. I would like to encourage citizens from Franklin, Granville, Vance, and Warren counties to attend the town hall meeting. This event is FREE and open to the public. For additional details, please contact Mr. Fred Foster, Jr. either through email or phone at (919) 616-8634.
JULY DISTRICT TOWN HALL MEETING
On July 23, 2009, I hosted a Health Care Town Hall meeting in Henderson at the County Administration Building (Old Courthouse). Approximately, 200 citizens from 7th Senatorial District came out to get involved in the health care discussion. The guest speaker at this event was Mr. Adam Searing, Project Director of N.C. Justice Center’s Health Access Coalition. You can read about the town hall here, and view of a video of the town hall in its entirety here.
NC STATE BUDGET UPDATE
This week, the Senate and House both passed the state budget. The budget was then sent to Governor Perdue, who signed it into law.
First, let me say that this budget was a difficult vote. No one wants to cut services or raise taxes. But there are times when we must rise to the occasion and do difficult work in the best interest of the people we are sent to Raleigh to represent.
We all know that North Carolina, like the rest of the country, has been going through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We must come together and look to the future, especially in tough times. In the face of a $4.5 billion budget shortfall, this budget keeps our state moving forward and competitive for the economic recovery.
CUTTING SPENDING
This year’s budget is $2.3 billion less than last year’s–that’s the largest budget reduction in state history. We are extremely thankful for the federal recovery funds that helped minimize cuts to education and health care, but we still were forced to make close to 600 cuts to programs. Every part of state government has been cut and we made almost $2 billion in real, tangible cuts to programs–roughly 8 percent across the board.
Programs affect people–while we eliminated a lot of waste and duplication, we also made cuts that will impact the lives of everyday North Carolinians. The cuts in health and human services were especially difficult.
PROTECTING EDUCATION
Our school children are the future and we owed it to them to do everything we could to protect education spending and minimize impacts on the classroom. We are maintaining per-pupil spending and protecting all teachers and class sizes in kindergarten through third grade. This budget gives local school districts the maximum flexibility to keep as many teachers as possible and directs them to do whatever is necessary to protect the classrooms in grades 4-12. As for mandatory testing, we’ve heard teachers and parents loud and clear. We are eliminating state-mandated tests not required by the federal government and saving $3 million by doing it. We are fully funding enrollment increases at our community colleges and universities and are improving job training initiatives at community colleges that are so necessary right now, particularly vocational and technical education.
PROTECTING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
We also protected critical job creation and protection tools that will help us come out of this recession and have funding to help small businesses stay open and to create jobs on the Main Streets of our state’s small towns. We are investing in economic development for rural North Carolina and are continuing our efforts to create jobs in alternative energy and biotechnology.
PROTECTING THE PEOPLE OF OUR STATE
This budget also helps people, including providing health care for 9,000 more children of working families, and expands access to care and prescription drugs for the poor. In public safety, there is funding for cracking down on gangs, improving emergency communications, and reforming the probation system.
TAX PLAN
We’ve cut spending versus raising revenue by a 2-1 margin. It is my belief that we cannot cut to the bone and do permanent damage to our state. Cutting another billion dollars from the budget would have done irreparable harm to our education system, which makes up over half of the budget. For instance, that’s equivalent to the cost of 18,000 teachers.
The budget raises the sales tax by 1 cent, something I have strong reservations about, but will have a minimal impact on consumer spending and working families’ bottom line. It also imposes an income tax surcharge on the total year-end tax bill for individuals earning over $60,000 and married couples earning over $100,000. The 2% surcharge is less than $100.00 for these tax filers. The surcharge increases to 3% for individuals making over $150,000 and for married couples over $250,000. It will expire after 2 years. We also raised tobacco and alcohol taxes and are closing an online tax loophole.
As I’ve said, these decisions were not easy. My Senate colleagues and I are committed to reforming the whole tax system by broadening the base and lowering the rates–and hopefully it will replace this finance package. The budget calls for a further study on that issue and I am hopeful that the House will join us in this worthwhile effort to ensure overall tax fairness.
I believe, under the circumstances, we have done the best we could for the people of our state and for our future. If you would like to review the budget in its entirety, you can view it here. If you would like a summary of all the spending and reductions set out in the budget you can view that here.
As always I welcome your comments on this newsletter or anything else that concerns you. My office is here to help in whatever manner we can. It is an honor to serve as your Senator and I will do everything in my power to live up to that honor.
Sincerely,
Doug Berger