Haywood County Farm Bureau
I joined members of the Farm Bureau for a breakfast in Maggie Valley last Monday. I was pleased to speak about four important issues for Haywood County and all of rural WNC.
First, I highlighted my upcoming farm bill that I will file this week with my fellow mountain representatives, Kevin Corbin, John Ager, and Brian Turner. Our bill will provide
tax relief to beginning farmers, especially our small mountain farmers.
Second, I highlighted the importance of Governor Roy Cooper's
Invest NC Education Bond
for our Haywood County Schools and Community College. The Invest NC Bond would provide nearly
$14 million
for improvements to Haywood County Schools and an additional
$3 million
for Haywood Community College.
We will soon see how the House and Senate proposals compare to Governor Cooper's strong budget.
Third, I highlighted
how important Medicaid Expansion will be for rural NC,
especially here in the mountains. It means $20 million this year and $20 million next year in my district for healthcare, creating over 400 jobs here in Haywood, Jackson, and Swain Counties, and saving scores of lives.
It's time.
Fourth, I highlighted the importance of advancing our goal that
ALL of
rural NC has high speed broadband everywhere, for everyone, for everything.
Follow our strategy in the notes at the end of this newsletter.
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Small farmers are a pillar of our mountain communities, and I am working hard to provide them and their families with the support they need to succeed!
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Leadership in Public Education
I had a wonderful meeting with Julie Pittman, the WNC Regional Teacher of the Year, about the importance of quality public education for our children, the future of this state. Ms. Pittman told me just how important the
North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching (NCCAT)
is to the teachers in our state. This center, located in Jackson County, trains our brightest and best teachers to be
leaders in education,
which is exactly what we need in NC.
Leadership Matters!
We all agreed, the recipe for success is to have an excellent teacher in every classroom and a quality principal at the head of every school.
Congratulations to Ms. Pittman, our WNC Teacher of the year!
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I joined Julie Pittman and her colleagues Torrent Fairchild and Sara Bigley to discuss public education leadership in our state.
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Last Tuesday was the Land for Tomorrow Lobby Day at the General Assembly. Land for Tomorrow is a statewide coalition of conservation groups that have collectively preserved more than
460,000 acres of watershed.
The coalition has also
helped preserve more than
22,000 acres of farmland,
ensuring that it will remain in cultivation for generations to come.
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I had an informative conversation with Ben Laseter about the
Mainspring Conservation Trust.
His organization has worked to preserve many incredibly beautiful tracts of land in our mountains, including several important projects in Jackson and Swain Counties!
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I met with Jess Laggis, Hanni Mueder, Elsea Brown, Jay Leutze, Kevin Redding, and Bill Holman, who were in Raleigh representing the
Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy.
This organization has helped protect some of our most beautiful lands in WNC, including our own Balsam Mountain!
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It's always great to see Katherine Skinner, the NC director of
The North Carolina Nature Conservancy!
I had a great meeting with Ms. Skinner, TNC Lobbyist Will Robinson, and my Legislative Assistant Brady Blackburn, a former TNC intern!
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Legislative Update:
Our Broadband Strategy
Last week I filed
House Bill 897
with three of my Republican Colleagues, Representatives David Rogers, Wayne Sasser, and Larry Yarborough. This strong, bipartisan bill will allow the Utilities Commission to assist broadband expansion in North Carolina, a common sense step toward our goal that
everywhere we have electricity, we will have high-speed broadband.
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I'm proud to join Representatives Rogers, Sasser, and Yarborough on this important bill.
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I'm working with all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for
strong broadband strategy
for North Carolina this session.
Other key bills that are part of this strategy are:
House Bill 398
adds $30 million per session to the
Great Grant Program,
which
funds rural broadband projects across our state.
House Bill 431,
the FIBER NC Act,
allows local governments, our cities and counties, to engage in public-private partnerships to assist in providing broadband to their under-served communities.
House Bill 387
eases restrictions on
Electric Membership Cooperatives
so they can enter into public-private partnerships to provide broadband service to their members. Our co-ops
led the electrification of rural North Carolina,
and today they are
leaders in our state'e efforts to expand high-quality, high-speed internet to rural communities.
Our goal is everywhere we have electricity, we will have high-speed broadband internet.
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Please
share
this with your friends!
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P.S. check out our legislative web page at
www.joesamqueennc.com
. You can find all of my previous newsletters and more!
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