STATEMENT: Harmful budget fails to invest in healthcare, education

RALEIGH (June 29, 2022) – The state budget bill released on Tuesday evening does not include several critical pieces of legislation needed to advance the health and wellbeing of all North Carolinians. Most notable among the excluded policies is Medicaid expansion, vital for over 600,000 people in North Carolina who cannot wait any longer for lifesaving health care.

While the proposed budget did include nominal increases to teacher salaries, those increases fail to keep pace with inflation. The budget fails to make the investments necessary to have a constitutional education system, funding barely half of the court-ordered Leandro Plan, while prioritizing multiple “pork” projects.

North Carolinians with low incomes, people of color, immigrant communities, and all who call our state home deserve a budget that prioritizes the resources they need to thrive. Therefore, we call on the General Assembly to vote no on this harmful and unconstitutional budget bill and, if necessary, for Governor Cooper to veto it.

We hope that in the coming weeks the House and Senate will reconsider their positions on the budget and work to bring Medicaid expansion and a fully-funded public education system to all people in North Carolina.

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