D-Day - 75 th Anniversary

Last Thursday the General Assembly commemorated the 75 th Anniversary of D-Day by convening a Special Session in the chamber of the Historic State Capitol. D-Day is still the largest amphibious invasion in the history of the world. We take time to commemorate and honor the 4,414 Americans and Allied Forces who lost their lives on D-Day in defense of the American values of Freedom and Democracy, in opposition to the radical white supremacy of the Nazi regime.

It was an honor to meet Paul Denson of Durham, NC, who was awarded the Bronze Star last Thursday for his service on D-Day in World War II.

I spoke on the Historic House Floor during our Special Session to honor the service of our beloved Jerry Wolfe. My friend Jerry Wolfe was one of the few men in history present at both D-Day and the signing of peace on the USS Missouri off the coast of Japan. Last year on behalf of Governor Roy Cooper, I had the honor of presenting Jerry with the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the highest award a civilian can receive in the State of North Carolina. Let us pause and remember Jerry and all of those in the Greatest Generation who served in WWII.

We will always remember Jerry Wolfe for the incredible man he was, and for the service he gave to this country in World War II.

Miss USA

I had a wonderful opportunity to meet Chelsie Kryst, Miss USA and North Carolina native, last week. Chelisie has her Law Degree and MBA from Wake Forest University. We spoke about her advocacy for criminal justice reform, which is incredibly important to our state and across the country. I told her I would help her in this regard. Chelsea is definitely making her home state proud!

Quick Draw

It was great to join Margaret Roberts at the Quick Draw event, where artists race to create a work of art in one hour. The proceeds from this event benefited Haywood County Schools.

Page Program

Reach out to my office if you, a friend, or a family member is interested in the Page Program. It is a wonderful program that provides high schoolers with great, hands-on experience in our state's political process.

It was great to meet Caraline Laffler, the granddaughter of Eddie and Joy Lail of Haywood County. She had the wonderful opportunity to serve during our special session in the historic State Capital last Thursday as a Page. I'm sure her grandparents are proud!

My Friend Rufus

It was great to join my friend Mike Carpenter at Rufus Edmisten's book signing here in Raleigh this past week. Check out his book, "That's Rufus: A Memoir of Tar Heel Politics, Watergate, and Public Life," for his story of growing up in the mountains of Western North Carolina, his service during the Watergate Scandal, and his political work in North Carolina. He's a great North Carolinian, and it is a great read!

Joe Sam's Notes

The Senate Budget Last month I sent you my analysis of the House Budget , which simply fails to meet the needs of our great state. There were Big Billion Dollar Differences between the House Budget and Governor Roy Cooper's Budget that would have real, negative consequences on North Carolina's healthcare and education. Now, the Senate has presented its version of the budget as well. Unfortunately, the Senate Budget also fails our state.

Healthcare The House Budget failed to expand Medicaid. The Senate Budget also fails to take this common-sense step in the right direction.

This means that these budgets, if passed, will: waste another $5 billion of our tax dollars for nothing in return. fail to provide insurance for 500,000 low-wage workers in our state. lose over 40,000 jobs in our state. not take the common-sense step that 37 other states and Washington D.C. have taken, reducing opioid deaths by 50% and cutting healthcare costs across the board by an average of 7%.

Keep in mind that if we were to put partisan politics aside and pass Medicaid Expansion today, we would achieve all of these positive outcomes without a single penny in new taxes. Medicaid expansion was the first bill I co-sponsored this session, on Day One. Our leadership has still failed to bring that bill to a vote, but we will continue to work hard to ensure that full expansion is in the final version of our state's budget. Medicaid Expansion is the  single best thing we can do this session  to insure more hard-working North Carolinians, make healthcare more affordable for ALL citizens, address the opioid crisis, and boost our rural economies. Governor Roy Cooper's budget would  expand Medicaid this year. I will continue to work with our Governor through the rest of this process to put Medicaid Expansion in the final budget.

Investing In Our Future The investments in our budget boil down to One Big Issue: will we have a timely, certain, transparent, and fair investment portfolio, or will we leave our future spending up in the air, for the Legislature's leadership to allocate in any way they please? The "SCIF SCAM" in the House and Senate budgets would skim 4% from the General Fund budget for the House and Senate leaderships' priority projects, thus handcuffing this and future budgets from adequately funding education and healthcare. Governor Cooper's Invest NC Bond would seek the citizens' approval for a bond package that is timely, certain, transparent, and fair, and it is the better way for North Carolina.

The Invest NC Bond would issue $3.9 billion in bonds this November, allocated as follows: $2 billion for public schools $800 million for water and sewer $500 million for the UNC System $500 million for the Community Colleges System $100 million for the Museum of History and the NC Zoo

Education The House Budget claims to give teachers a 4.5% raise, but the NC Justice Center estimates that raise to actually be around 3%. See my Report from May 6 th for an explanation of how the House leadership cooked the books to deceive our citizens on this raise. The Senate budget doesn't manipulate the numbers, but it's teacher pay raise is no better. It would only provide teachers with a 3.5% raise, split over two years, which is below the Federal Cost of Living Adjustment. The teacher raises in these budgets are simply not enough. Governor Cooper's budget guarantees ALL Teachers a 9.1% raise, which would pave a clear path for North Carolina to lead the Southeast.

Rural Needs All three budgets would triple the funding for GREAT Grants for rural broadband expansion. This is a very good provision, and I am glad that all three budgets are in bipartisan agreement on this point. Beyond the GREAT Grants, however, we see stark differences with funding to close the homework gap and programs for rural economic development. Governor Cooper’s Budget invests in rural North Carolina. Urban NC is thriving. It’s rural NC that needs help. Governor Cooper’s budget recognizes this reality and invests over $100 million more than either the House or Senate budgets in Rural Programs like $15 million in the rural RISE Program, $82.8 million in Rural infrastructure, and $25 million in the Housing Trust Fund.

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!