Logan Rockefeller Harris
Posts by Logan Rockefeller Harris
With sweeping abortion restrictions, NC Senate Bill 20 will harm poor people and families, limit economic opportunity
Our communities thrive when we all have the right to choose if and when we want to have children, and have everything we need for our families to be safe and healthy. We can’t have true economic security without reproductive justice, including accessible and affordable abortion care. Senate Bill 20, which was vetoed by Gov….
NC can choose good property tax policies that support affordable housing
Property taxes are one of the ways that we come together to fund local services that we all rely on: things like school buildings for our children, health and fire departments, and parks. Homeowners and renters all contribute to property taxes; homeowners pay taxes directly while renters pay them indirectly through rent payments.
But our current property tax system in North Carolina can lead to housing displacement and perpetuate inequities, especially when a shortage of affordable housing is driving rapid increases in housing prices. Fortunately, North Carolina can adopt good policies to make the system fairer and support housing affordability without jeopardizing our public services. While we advocate for effective policies, we also need to watch out for some politicians and anti-government extremists who try to use property taxes as a wedge to push damaging property tax caps as part of an agenda to make government less effective.
Refundable family tax credits would make NC’s tax system fairer
Across North Carolina, no matter where we live or what we look like, we want our families to be safe and healthy with a roof over our heads and food on the table. State tax credits for people and families with low and moderate incomes are a proven way to boost economic stability and advance…
Our union and management ratified a new Collective Bargaining Agreement!
This January, BTC reached an important milestone for our organization: We ratified the first Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiated between our staff union and BTC’s management. As we shared on our blog last year, having a unionized workplace is one of the ways that BTC puts our values into action inside our organization.
NC continues to gain jobs, but is losing state employees over pay that isn’t keeping up with inflation
Amid this relatively sunny topline news is a dark cloud created by our state legislature: a failure to ensure that public servants’ pay keeps up with inflation, which means that North Carolina has continued losing state employees that provide the key services our communities need.
Federal COVID-19 aid averted financial disaster for many North Carolina families
New data released last week from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey and American Community Survey (ACS) point to the critical impact that federal relief had on the well-being of children and families in 2021.
New poverty data: Federal COVID-19 aid averted financial disaster for many North Carolina families
Poverty data for 2021 show some of the impacts of federal aid during COVID-19. (Sept. 15, 2022) — Poverty statistics released today from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey show some of the vital help that federal COVID aid delivered to North Carolina families. Instead of seeing financial hardship explode due to economic disruptions caused…
This Labor Day, workers feel the pinch of inflation as corporations rake in record profits
The purchasing power of the federal minimum wage has fallen significantly due to inaction on the part of policymakers. As the Economic Policy Institute reports, its value has fallen to the lowest point in 66 years. State lawmakers in North Carolina have not taken action to adjust the state minimum wage — unlike lawmakers in 26 states who have done so in 2022 alone. North Carolina’s workforce faces a pay penalty for working in this state. Meanwhile, corporate profits are rising.
North Carolina’s job growth continued in June, but wages aren’t keeping up with rising costs
Statewide job growth North Carolina is continuing at a fast clip, with nearly 26,000 jobs added in June. The latest data show that the state now has over 130,000 more jobs than at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, keeping North Carolina ahead of the U.S. by this measure of economic recovery. The percentage of residents working in the state remains stubbornly 1.5 percentage points lower than in the U.S. as whole, a gap that hasn’t shifted much since the Great Recession.
Economic County Snapshots 2022
The NC Budget & Tax Center publishes Economic County Snapshots every year that include indicators for each county in NC on employment, poverty and income, housing, health, education, and supports for working families — all of which come from a variety of sources.