Alexandra Forter Sirota
Posts by Alexandra Forter Sirota
NC Budget & Tax Center is proud to be Family Forward NC certified
Employers across North Carolina want to attract and retain the best employees, and they want those employees to be happy and healthy. At the Budget & Tax Center, we advocate for public policies that support safe working conditions, living wages, and protections for workers so everyone can balance life and work. I have experienced firsthand and…
Root of school problems in Durham and state is years of underfunding
Public schools across the state, including in Durham, continue to be harmed by an ideology that sacrifices adequate investment in our children’s education in order to divert public money to special interests and corporate welfare. As the parent of three children in Durham Public Schools, it would be easy to, like many, lay the blame…
Who pays taxes in North Carolina?
As North Carolinians, we pay taxes to build communities that ensure everyone — Black, brown, and white — can thrive in every corner of our state. But policymakers in North Carolina have created a tax code that asks more of people with the lowest incomes. The latest edition of Who Pays?, released today by the…
NC leaders are shirking their responsibilities to our children, our state by revisiting Leandro lawsuit
The announcement that the NC Supreme Court will rehear the court case that affirmed children’s constitutional right to a sound, basic education is just another way in which North Carolina’s legislative leaders are attempting to rewrite the rules to further their agenda rather than the well-being of children.
NC leaders’ tax cuts for wealthy mean we will lose more than $13 billion for NC needs
Combined with the personal and corporate income tax cuts that had already been scheduled, new cuts in the recent North Carolina budget are estimated to lead to a loss of over $13.5 billion in revenue per year when fully implemented. (This is a low estimate; the higher estimate is $15.2 billion.)
NC leaders are still gambling with North Carolina’s future
Now it appears that legislative leaders’ plan for tax cuts relies on the claim that scant gambling revenue should justify deeper income tax cuts for the richest North Carolinians.
For Labor Day: A state budget worthy of NC workers and their families
This Labor Day, we need to come together to demand our elected leaders put forward a budget for workers and their families.
NC Senate bill to limit access to absentee mail-in voting
Senate Bill 747 will sharply limit access to absentee mail-in voting and seeks to pilot costly and discriminatory signature verification for mail-in voting, while creating more channels for the intimidation of voters and election volunteers as well as challenges to ballots cast.
Photo ID requirements for voting will cost North Carolinians and our state
Recent proposal would block access to the voting booth for North Carolinians with low incomes – Black, white, and brown – and shift election administration costs to the county level
Tax triggers are trouble: NC leaders’ latest design for tax cuts won’t improve our lives
The leadership of the General Assembly has spent a lot of time — not just this summer but for more than a decade — planning to get to zero income tax. Meanwhile, they have spent no time planning to get to zero poverty and zero hardship for the people of North Carolina. The latest development around tax triggers is a distraction from the reality that leaders choose time and again to divert our wealth to the richest North Carolinians rather than developing policies that make childcare more affordable for working families, ensure every family has a roof over their heads, or reduce hardship.