STATEMENT: NCGA budget once again prioritizes tax cuts above communities, health, and classrooms

RALEIGH (May 29, 2018) – For yet another year, legislative leaders won’t invest in our classrooms, our health, and our communities at the levels needed to provide for the well-being of every North Carolinian. They won’t do so because they continue to keep in place $900 million in tax cuts scheduled for January 2019, building on a failed experiment that has already resulted in $2.6 billion in annual revenue loss.

Their commitment to tax cuts above communities will keep our state on track to fall farther behind our neighbors. North Carolina now invests less per student than South Carolina.

Their commitment to tax cuts above people’s well-being will keep North Carolina on track to lose ground in connecting more people to opportunity as the state’s population grows. Our state’s tax code will fail to meet current service needs as early as next year, according to official estimates.

Getting back on track will require listening to North Carolinians and what they need to thrive. A behind-closed doors budget process without any opportunity for changes in the legislative debate blocks out the concerns of teachers, parents, students, and community leaders.

A budget should be about how to ensure every North Carolinian can connect to opportunity. It shouldn’t be used to boost the wealth of the few at the expense of us all.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT Alexandra Sirota, alexandra@ncjustice.org, 919.861.1468; Julia Hawes, julia@ncjustice.org, 919.863.2406