2024 Senate Budget Statement
Statement From Alexandra Sirota, Executive Director Of The NC Budget & Tax Center
Senate budget writers have rejected the opportunity to fund community priorities, giving us a glimpse into the problems caused by a tax code that can’t keep up with the rising costs of delivering crucial services in a growing state.
Child care centers on the brink of closing will have to deal with a 25 percent reduction in funds for staff compensation grants, with no plan for committing state dollars to affordable child care in the long term. Teachers and workers across the public sector will see no increase in the woefully inadequate wages that keep vacancies high across our state’s agencies.
We would have hoped that the Senate would take the fiscally responsible step of pausing the income tax rate reductions scheduled for 2025 and beyond to ensure the state can meet its current commitments.
Instead, budget writers continue these tax cuts that primarily benefit the wealthy few and profitable corporations and will reduce public money by at least $13 billion each year when in full effect.
They double down on sending public money to the wealthy by putting the majority of available state funds into private school vouchers for North Carolinians with incomes in the top 20 percent of households.
The details of the Senate and House proposals may differ enough in their approach that our state sees no new budget this year. But in broad strokes, it is clear that for leaders in both chambers, fiscally irresponsible tax cuts for the wealthiest North Carolinians are more important than a vision for our future where everyone has what they need.
We need a better vision. Our state budget should reflect people’s priorities for their families and communities, like opportunity, security, and well-being. North Carolinians deserve a budget that makes enduring, publicly funded commitments to building the institutions and systems that deliver fair treatment and services to everyone in our state.
Beyond our preliminary take from our Executive Director above, the team at NC Budget & Tax Center is reading and analyzing this budget proposal with people in communities across North Carolina to understand its implications on areas including but not limited to revenue, democracy, education, and health with an eye to equity.
We look forward to publishing our findings in the coming days on our blog. In addition, we will be closely monitoring how this proposal moves through the budget process with the expectation that the final budget reflects a transparent and inclusive process and advances well-being in this great state.
