Let's ALL Join Hands...

Dancing with Friends of the Smokies After a long day of town halls across Haywood, Jackson, and Swain, I joined my good friends and fellow Legislators John Ager, Brian Turner, and Terry Van Duyn for a great square dance at John's Hickory Nut Gap Farm to benefit the Friends of the Smokies. We had a great evening of fellowship and fundraising for this incredible organization that protects and preserves our beautiful Great Smoky Mountains National Park!

Folkmoot's Rollin' This past week kicked off the 37th annual Folkmoot Festival in Waynesville with a Gala Under the Stars on Thursday evening. I called a great square dance for the kids at Camp Folkmoot on Friday, and we had a wonderful Parade of Nations down Main Street on Saturday morning.

Thank you Vicki Hyatt for the great picture from the Folkmoot Parade, Main Street Waynesville.

I enjoyed calling a dance for Camp Folkmoot! Thank you to Natalie Ruth Ballard for taking this photo for Camp Folkmoot.

Folkmoot has a great lineup of events all week long, including the Cherokee World Games, with eight countries from around the world meeting at the Cherokee Fairgrounds in Swain County for a day of cultural demonstrations and traditional sport. Be sure to check out the opportunities, including International Festival Day on Waynesville's Main Street this Saturday.

Cherokee was well represented in the Folkmoot Parade. Can you find me in the crowd? Thank you to Stephen Wenzel for being our photographer!

Join Our Friday Street Dance Join us this Friday, July 26 th, for our next Downtown Waynesville Street Dance! We'll go from 6:30 - 9 p.m. right in front of the Historic Haywood County Courthouse. This Friday's dance is a special Folkmoot Edition featuring dancers from Egypt at the beginning, kicking us off at 6:30 p.m. Mark your calendars for our very last dance of the summer on August 9 th .

Join us this Friday the 26 th , 6:30 - 9 p.m. for our special Folkmoot Edition of our Street Dance.

Town Hall Recap

Thanks to everyone who joined me for a series of town halls this past weekend in Haywood, Jackson, and Swain. We had great conversation about the state budget priorities, the current budget proposals, and where we stand in our negotiations. Here are the highlights: Tax Cuts The Cooper Compromise includes raising the standard deduction, a good tax cut for hard-working North Carolinians from the Conference Budget. The Cooper Compromise removes the Corporate Tax Break, however, that would have been paid for on the backs of North Carolina citizens, making room for a stronger, more comprehensive budget.

We had great conversation with an engaged crowd at the Haywood County Courthouse Town Hall .

Medicaid Expansion The Cooper Compromise expands Medicaid this year, stopping the waste of our tax dollars and starting to provide healthcare for 500,000 hard-working, low-wage workers in NC. This is the most important goal we can accomplish in this budget to benefit ALL North Carolinians by driving down healthcare costs for everyone, by fighting the opioid crisis everywhere, and by creating good jobs for more than 40,000 healthcare workers in every community across our state.

Workforce Development The Cooper Compromise budget re-introduces $95 million to create the NC GROW Program for workforce training and community college scholarships. These are essential investments to develop a competitive workforce for a growing state and a changing economy.

Thank you to everyone who came out to the Marianna Black Library. We had great conversation about the current budgets and what they mean for our friends and neighbors in Swain County!

Invest NC Bond and SCIF The Cooper Compromise merges SCIF and the Invest NC Bond, and it includes every single capital project in the Republican Conference Budget. The Invest NC Bond is simply a Better way forward for North Carolina, but this is a reasonable compromise that will benefit ALL North Carolinians, across our state.

School Funding and Teacher Pay The Cooper Compromise reaches a middle ground in between the teacher pay proposal in Governor Cooper's original budget and the Republican Conference Budget. The Cooper Compromise also includes many provisions that will help restore our respect for public school teachers and provide our children with the resources and tools they need to be successful, productive students. As part of the compromise, it would maintain but not expand the current Republican voucher program.

For the past few weeks, the Republican leadership has been trying to bribe legislators for their votes on the Conference Budget. It's clear that they do not have the votes to override Governor Cooper's veto because we are standing strong in support of a BETTER BUDGET. It's time for legislative Republicans to stop playing political power games and join the Governor at the negotiating table. Instead of working across the aisle with Governor Cooper, legislative leadership has focused on bribing Democrats into overriding the veto. This is not responsible governing and our priorities are NOT FOR SALE. .

Joe Sam's Notes

Supporting our State Employees Last week I joined many of our WNC state employees and retirees for a BBQ reception at the Governor's Western Residence. It was a great opportunity to have positive conversations about our state budget, the ongoing negotiations, and the importance of funding to benefit our state employees and retirees. We want to sustain our state employees with appropriate benefits, appropriate retirement, and appropriate pay. They do incredibly important work and provide critical services for our state, and they deserve our respect and support!

Our state employees and retirees are two important reasons why I am standing by Governor Cooper to uphold his budget veto. We won't capitulate for peanuts, giving raises to only 27% of our State Employees. ALL State Employees deserve a raise! We can do better! Governor Cooper's Compromise Budget invests $667 million more for state employees, giving raises to tens of thousands more, compared the Republican Conference Budget. Across the board, it includes bigger raises for state employees and a better cost-of-living adjustment for our retirees. It is simply a Better Way.

Countless constituents have contacted me or my office to voice their support for state employees, state teachers, and state retirees. I agree: we must respect ALL of our public servants! We must support their salaries and benefits, which are essential to recruiting and retaining quality people where we need them to serve our state. As we move forward with our ongoing budget negotiations, this will remain one of my top priorities.

Sincerely,

Please share this with your friends! 

P.S. check out our legislative web page at www.joesamqueennc.com . You can find all of my previous newsletters and more!