Last week Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger announced that he plans to adjourn for the remainder of this year by the end of October
without passing a budget for our state.
Stay tuned.
North Carolina needs
a real, comprehensive, balanced budget
that meets all the needs of our state. Instead of reaching across the aisle and joining Governor Cooper and the House and Senate Democrats at the negotiating table,
as our North Carolina Constitution requires
, our Republican Legislative Leadership would rather resort to D.C.-style dysfunction, playing political games with the real needs, and real lives, of North Carolinians.
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Let me be absolutely clear about what this means. On partisan lines, our Republican Legislative Leadership is obstructing,
blocking North Carolina from receiving $8 billion for Medicaid Expansion.
These are our taxes that we have paid. They are giving up on the opportunity to provide our
teachers with good raises,
and while we have given raises to a meager 27% of our state employees,
they are still unwilling to see those raises extended to the remaining 73%.
They are refusing to provide
a reasonable cost of living adjustment
to our state retirees, and they are
blocking billions of dollars in local projects,
including critical funding for our schools, community colleges, and university here in Haywood, Jackson, and Swain Counties.
Medicaid Expansion is far from the only reason why we are standing with Governor Cooper on his budget veto, but it is an extremely important reason. Be sure to scroll down to my "Notes" section of this newsletter for my breakdown of the billions of dollars we are currently wasting, and the billions we could be adding to our economy, for no new taxes, by simply
accepting Medicaid Expansion for 500,000 North Carolinians.
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Visiting WCU's Chancellor
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Last week I had a wonderful meeting with Western Carolina University's new Chancellor Kelli Brown. We celebrated WCU reaching 12,000 enrolled students for the first time in history this year. I remember fondly celebrating WCU breaking 10,000 with former Chancellor David Belcher. WCU is thriving, and it has my full support! We're all expecting great things from these 12,000 bright students.
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I joined NCSEA's Ben Stockdale and Haywood County Native and CEO of EQ Research Miriam Makhyoun at the NC Sustainable Energy Association's gala last week. Miriam is Wanda Makhyoun of Haywood County's daughter. It is truly incredible how much business our renewable energy industry has created, and the energy future that these booming businesses are leading us toward is bright! Check out the impressive statistics on NCSEA's website,
https://energync.org/, and be sure to check out the organization's informative podcast, hosted by Ben Stockdale, at
https://energync.org/thesqueakycleanenergypodcast/.
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Let's all join hands in one big circle for justice! It was great to be the dance caller with hosts John and Annie Ager at Hickory Nut Gap Farm to extend a beautiful WNC welcome to the NC Justice Center. It was inspiring to hear an update on the Center's work from NC Justice Center Executive Director Rick Glazier and Justice Center Board Member Ray Rapp, both former Legislators. I am proud to support the Justice Center in their work to eliminate poverty across North Carolina by ensuring that every household can access resources, services, and fair treatment to achieve economic security. Check out their website at
https://www.ncjustice.org
.
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I joined a great crowd over the weekend to support AWAKE, a fantastic organization that coordinates child services for those in need in Jackson County. Craig Smith, to my left, was our host and owner the Lake Club at Bear Lake, where this event was held. Renee Coward is the Executive Director of AWAKE, and Kathy Farmer is AWAKE's treasurer. You can find out more about the important work AWAKE does at
https://awakecacenter.org/.
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In
last week's newsletter
I briefly summarized Dr. Ku's testimony at our joint House and Senate Medicaid Expansion Hearing. His research into the economic impacts of Medicaid Expansion in North Carolina deserves a more in-depth analysis, because what he has found, the real economic benefits we could have by simply expanding Medicaid, are astounding.
First, our Legislature's refusal to expand Medicaid on completely ideological grounds has already cost North Carolina taxpayers
$8.3 billion
since 2014. The waste has been incredible. That is $8.3 billion drained from our economy,
costing us tens of thousands of jobs and thousands of lives.
This year, North Carolina will
lose another $1.9 billion
of our citizens' taxes
if we do not expand Medicaid.
If, on the other hand, North Carolina were to take the smart approach and expand Medicaid, like 37 other states have already done, we would receive
$4 billion of our federal taxes back in North Carolina in 2019 alone, and between 2020 and 2022 we would receive another $11.7 billion.
According to Dr. Ku, those billions of dollars would help North Carolina create
37,200 new jobs by 2022.
Dr. Ku also points out that our state revenue would
increase
by
$500 million
annually, and local revenue by
$100 million
annually, because we would cut the cost of uncompensated care and increase our tax base.
Medicaid Expansion does not cost us one additional dime, and we gain at every level.
We must also consider the flip side:
what happens if we refuse yet again to expand Medicaid? Jobs follow the money, so when we waste another $1.9 billion,
we will lose, at $100,000 a job, 19,000 jobs this year.
Those are jobs we currently have in North Carolina that we will lose.
We have got to stop the hemorrhage of state and local jobs and resources while our rural hospitals are suffering, or we will continue to see our economy lag behind the rest of the country.
This kind of waste is not acceptable for North Carolina any longer.
Expanding Medicaid is not only the morally right thing to do, providing healthcare for 500,000+ low-wage workers and saving thousands of lives along the way.
Medicaid Expansion is also absolutely the
fiscally responsible
path for North Carolina to take.
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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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