Yesterday, the North Carolina General Assembly passed a $30 billion, 625-page bill that will cause harm to our state and its residents.
Working-class folks can and should celebrate the inclusion of Medicaid Expansion in the bill. This was a hard-fought win, brought by the tireless and serious organizing of our members and everyday North Carolinians who were fed up with being cut out of healthcare. But in this budget, this working-class win is pitted against other basic needs that our families have, such as public education. Until working people have power, they are going to use our needs as bargaining chips to push the agenda of the rich and powerful through.
The budget makes it pretty clear who this Supermajority answers to:
- The budget steals from our public schools. It expands the school voucher program, euphemistically called the “Opportunity Scholarship Program” from $133 million of spending to $500 million by the end of the decade and expands the program to wealthy families, meaning that rich people who can afford to pay for their child to attend private school will be sending their kids to school on your dime while taking that money away from your kid’s local school.
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No fucks given for state employees. Most state employees will get a 4% raise this year and a 3% raise next year, a far cry from the 18% pay raise recommended by Governor Cooper and desperately needed by workers. They say a budget is a moral document that shows your values, and this supermajority’s values are coming across loud and clear.
Shady stuff they snuck in:
- No longer interested in "draining the swamp," they are rolling back public record laws. Lawmakers, who have already exempted themselves from some parts of the state’s public records laws, will be allowed to refuse any records requests they don’t feel like complying with.
- Local control only if the wealthy profit. This bill forbids local governments from passing local ordinances that would raise the minimum wage in their towns.
- Election fraud is just a talking point, apparently. Even while joining in the MAGA hysteria about election fraud, this bill bans our State Board of Elections from joining a national anti-voter fraud program called ERIC, which has been a target of national election deniers.
One more not-so-fun fact:
- Gotta love a corporate lobby. In a transparent bow to big business, in the eleventh hour, some legislators tried to pull Medicaid Expansion out of the budget and attach it to a bill to get casinos passed. Public outcry from Down Home and our partners asking why Phil Berger, the Republican leader of the Senate, wanted to gamble with his constituents' health, caused that scheme to quickly crumble. Berger learned that just about no one anywhere thought this was a good idea.
While Speaker of the House Tim Moore (R-Cleveland), gloated that he “Could not be prouder” of a budget that is intent on destroying public education in our state and harms our children, Governor Cooper, explained his decision not to veto this bad budget:
“Health insurance for 600,000 more North Carolinians that brings more mental health and substance use disorder treatment, help for desperate rural hospitals and billions of dollars into our economy is a life-saving, monumental decision for our state. Make no mistake, overall this is a bad budget that seriously shortchanges our schools, prioritizes power grabs, keeps shady backroom deals secret and blatantly violates the constitution, and many of its provisions will face legal action. However, we must recognize this irresponsible legislature’s decade of refusal to expand Medicaid, which has caused life and death situations for so many North Carolinians and threatened the very existence of numerous rural hospitals. I will not allow people who are crying for help to wait any longer, so I am directing our Department of Health and Human Services to begin today the process for expanding Medicaid while allowing this budget to become law without my signature.”
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