What we were up to in March 2022

The days are getting longer, and I am quite enjoying the days of good weather and sunshine we’ve been having. I hope you all have been able to get outside, too!

In case you missed it, here are some highlights of what we’ve been up to in March at the Budget & Tax Center, as well as some upcoming stuff.

First partner conversation a success; sign up for our next one!

BTC partner conversations are back! We held our first one of the year on March 30 to give a preview of the upcoming legislative session, and we were thrilled to see so many of your faces!

It’s not too late to sign up for the rest of our Partner Conversations this year, including our next one at noon on Wednesday, April 27, to discuss how local budgets can support equity and inclusion and deliver better outcomes in communities across the state.

We will be joined by policy experts in election administration, policing and community safety, early childhood, and disaster recovery and resiliency. We will also share tools and tips that will support your engagement in your own communities budget process this year and beyond.

Register for Partner Conversations

Labor Market analysis will return soon

COVID-19 has complicated the process of generating reliable economic data, which certainly includes employment and unemployment figures. As such, it is important to recognize that labor market data are often subject to revision which can change the picture of the employment landscape. We will start updating our Labor Market page once the county Local Area Unemployment Statistics data is updated, which is likely to happen around Easter. Questions? Email Research Manager Patrick McHugh at [email protected].

BetterNC Fellows chosen!

This month we selected our 2022 cohort of BetterNC fellows!  Next month, we will announce their names and share more information about how they engage in their communities. Thank you for providing us with nominations and helping us spread the word about the applications!

Summer Policy Institute application deadline extended

Due to BTC’s transition, we started our NC Summer Policy Institute application cycle much later than usual. To accommodate potential conflicts with mid-terms and spring break, we are extending our application cycle for an additional week. Applications for SPI 2022 will remain open until Sunday, April 17. NCSPI is a week-long event for college juniors, seniors, and recent graduates to get a deep dive into what public policy looks like in North Carolina. Visit our website  for more information on NCSPI, the program dates, and what applicants can expect out of the week. If you know someone who is considered a rising undergraduate junior, a rising undergraduate senior, or a recent graduate, please share this information and encourage them to apply!

Blog posts and publications

• We worked with La’Meshia Whittington and the NC Black Alliance to get her opinion piece, “This year, NC must put Black communities first as it spends taxpayer dollars”, placed in the News & Observer, Charlotte Observer, and the Durham Herald-Sun. It’s a must-read and a clear call to action for NC’s opportunity to move forward with a different approach this budget cycle tofocus first on what Black families and communities need to rebuild after disproportionate harm from COVID-19.
• Did you miss our email last month about what we were up to in February? You can always visit our blog, where we post the content of these emails, if you need to catch up. Here’s February.

What you may have missed

We’re on LinkedIn now! And make sure you are following us on Facebook  or Twitter! In case you missed it, we retweeted this great state-by-state data dashboard tool last month.

Where we’ve been

Here are few places you might have seen some of our staff show up this month.

• Research Manager Patrick McHugh was quoted in a WCNC article: “Patrick McHugh, a research manager for the nonprofit NC Budget & Tax Center, said more than $6 billion of the state’s revenue comes from fines and fees. “You see where we are using fines and fees to essentially pay for what we had previously been paying for with tax revenue,” he said.
• Engagement assistant Calissa Andersen spoke at NC Child’s #2022Kids event as part of the panel “”Our Shared Future: GenZ-Powered Change.”

What we’ve been reading

Here are a few of the articles and resources that we want to make sure you saw.

• WUNC: Extra SNAP benefits set to expire on April 15 in North Carolina
• Tweet Thread from Wesley Tharpe about a tax giveaway signed by the Iowa governor, where he references NC as one of the biggest tax-cutters in the 2010s that mostly saw *slower* growth in jobs & income following the cuts.
• CBPP: State and Local Child Tax Credit Outreach Needed to Help Lift Hardest-to-Reach Children Out of Poverty
• Charlotte struggles to measure economic mobility progress
• CBPP: States With Temporary Budget Surpluses Should Invest in People, Not Enact Permanent Tax Cuts
• EPI: Equal Pay Day: There has been little progress in closing the gender wage gap
• ITEP: State Tax Watch, a regularly updated page about tax proposals in each state

Do you have an article you think we should share? Send it to me at [email protected].

How to contact us

We’ve put the contact information for each of our team members on our website at NCBudget.org/our-team/, or you can always email us at [email protected] if you’re not sure who to talk to.

P.S. If you’d like to support the work that we do, please consider making a gift today!