Alexandra Forter Sirota
Posts by Alexandra Forter Sirota
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…
The Economic and Fiscal Impacts of Mass Deportation: What’s at Risk in North Carolina
Immigration Research Initiative and NC Budget & Tax Center The authors would like to thank Emily Eisner, Andrew Perry, and Nathan Gusdorf of the Fiscal Policy Institute, who with David Dyssegaard Kallick co-authored a similar report in New York State that was jointly published by the Fiscal Policy Institute and Immigration Research Initiative. Key Findings…
US House plan: Hurting North Carolinians’ wallets and well-being
North Carolinians want their policymakers to keep rising costs in check and make their lives better — not worse. Yet some policymakers continue to rig the rules so that the rich get richer, leaving the rest of us without the supports we all need in hard times — like help getting to the doctor or…
Senate Bill 608: Revise Various Laws / Work First Cash Assistance
Download a PDF of this Brief Improves the state’s Work First benefits SB 608 Summary: Changes the state’s Work First program to provide more adequate income support, reach pregnant women, remove limits on assets that families need to stay connected to work, and align the program’s time limits with federal law. Connecting income support to…
House Bill 564: Public Safety Through Food Access
Download a PDF of this Brief Reducing recidivism by expanding access to benefits SB 564 Summary: Ensures that all people eligible for Food & Nutrition Services and Work First benefits who have been convicted of a drug felony are no longer denied benefits if they complete a substance abuse treatment program. Repealing the drug felony…
House Bill 491 / Senate Bill 403: Medicaid work requirements
Download a PDF of this Brief Putting people’s health care at risk SB 403/HB 491 Summary: Requires the NC Department of Health and Human Services to begin the process of establishing work requirements for Medicaid once there is any indication that the federal program is considering authorizing work requirements as a condition of participation in…
House Bill 180: Fiscally Responsible & Sustainable Budgeting
Download a PDF of this Brief A better way to budget for NC’s future HB 180 Summary: Directs the Office of State Budget & Management and Fiscal Research Division to collaborate on long-term assessments of revenue and required spending that take into account changes to the cost of delivering services over at least a five-year…
House Bill 48: Increase UI Max Benefit / 2025 UI Tax Credit
Download a PDF of this Brief Modest but inadequate increase to unemployment benefits HB 48 Summary (Edition 2): Increases the state’s maximum Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefit from $350 per week to $450 per week, provides a fully refundable tax credit for UI payments made by employers in the last quarter of 2024, and removes the…
House Bill 14: Gambling Losses Tax Deduction
Download a PDF of this Brief Benefits people with higher incomes and subsidizes gambling HB 14 Summary: Provides an itemized deduction for gambling losses that reduces a person’s taxable income by the amount of those losses. Tax deductions for gambling losses are another tax giveaway to North Carolinians with high incomes Very few North Carolinians…
House Bill 459: Income Tax Rate Reduction Trigger Mods
Download a PDF of this Brief Delays tax cuts to bring in needed state revenue HB 459 Summary: Modifies cuts to the personal income tax rate by keeping the rate at 4.25 percent until 2028 and moving the start date of revenue triggers for further rate cuts from Fiscal Year 2027 to Fiscal Year 2029….