Alexandra Forter Sirota
Posts by Alexandra Forter Sirota
Public Comment: Work First TANF State Plan
To: Allison W. Smith, Deputy Director Division of Social Services Economic and Family Services NC Department of Health and Human Services 2420 Mail Service Center Raleigh, NC 27699-2420 From: NC Budget & Tax Center PO Box 25374 Durham, North Carolina, 27702 RE: Work First TANF State Plan Public Comments Dear Deputy Director Allison…
Connecting Historically Underutilized Businesses with public contracts
Who pays for transit? Why Mecklenburg’s sales tax referendum falls hardest on everyday people
Mecklenburg County will be asking voters to approve a sales tax referendum this fall to fund transportation infrastructure. Public investment in transit is essential to connect workers to employment, students to education and training, and communities to one another. The best way to maximize our collective investment in transportation is to make sure people with…
House Bill 87: The Educational Choice for Children Act
Download a PDF of this brief Opts NC into federal program benefitting wealthy HB 87 Summary: The Educational Choice for Children Act opts North Carolina in to the federal tax credit program for contributions to scholarship granting organizations and directs the State Education Assistance Authority to produce a list of eligible entities in North Carolina…
NC legislators are putting private schools over most of North Carolina’s K-12 students
North Carolinians want strong public schools where every child gets the education that they are owed in our state Constitution. Yet state lawmakers are once again choosing to use education policy to benefit the wealthy few instead of the well-being of us all. The first action by the N.C. General Assembly related to the harmful…
Congressional leaders raise costs of post-secondary education
North Carolinians want affordable, accessible higher education and skills training. The harmful Republican megabill signed by President Trump will raise costs in the post-secondary education arena of obtaining degrees, training, and certifications. As students return to campuses across North Carolina this fall, the shifting landscape for affording post-secondary education will make it harder to achieve…
Big Cuts, Big Costs for NC Factsheet
Note: Updated on July 2, 2025 to show estimates based on the federal budget bill (HR 1) passed by the US Senate on July 1, 2025. The bill was signed into law on July 4, 2025 with no changes, and so these estimates also apply to the final bill. Congress is rushing to pass a…
It’s time for a millionaires tax in North Carolina
For more than a decade, NC legislative leaders have handed out income tax breaks for the wealthiest few while neglecting the well-being of everyone in our state. Now, the US Congress plans to extend a 2017 federal tax law that would hand even more benefits to the richest few, while hundreds of thousands of…
Congress’s anti-immigrant budget threatens health care, food assistance for NC families
Note: The US House passed a budget bill in May 2025, and the US Senate is releasing their budget proposal currently, with a vote expected in June. The two budget proposals are extremely similar: both make massive cuts to health care and food assistance to fund tax cuts for the wealthy. This post includes the…
Work Reporting Requirements: Bad at Improving Employment Outcomes, Great at Making People Sick and Hungry
Updated with new information on Friday, June 27. Congress is proposing a massive expansion of so-called work requirements for SNAP and Medicaid benefits through their federal budget bill. These changes are designed to remove millions of people from critical programs in order to pay for tax cuts for millionaires and corporations. The proposals create arbitrary…