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| June 18, 2004 |
Volume 4, Issue 5 |
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| The
Living Income Initiative is a special project of the NC Justice Center.
It is supported completely through contributions and foundation
support.
You can contribute directly by mail at
Living Income Initiative, P.O. Box 28068, Raleigh, NC 27611. Email
us at sorien@ncjustice.org |
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This week has been incredibly eventful at the legislature. The Senate has been hard at work putting together its budget – but not in public. Senator Jeanne Lucas (Durham), Education Subcommittee chair, and Senators Eric Reeves (Wake) and William Purcell (Scotland), the HHS Subcommittee co-chairs, have been receptive to concerns raised by advocates about cuts proposed in the House budget. Each has worked to restore funding for needed services while balancing the state’s needs and looking out for the best interests of children and other vulnerable populations. The chairs of the full Senate Appropriations Committee, Senators Linda Garrou (Forsyth), Kay Hagan (Guilford) and Walter Dalton (Rutherford) have also taken into consideration these priorities and have, along with Senate leadership, made an additional $22m available for HHS needs. While Appropriations chairs and subcommittee chairs labor to address numerous needs with inadequate funds, there is a spending spree emanating from both houses based upon handing out direct grants and tax cuts to business interests. The primary issues of concern at this point are: 1) NOT ENOUGH MONEY IS BEING ALLOCATED FOR SERVICES & INFRASTRUCTURE - Even with some additional money in HHS, there is not enough to meet the growing list of needs nor is there adequate funding allocated to address cuts and needs in public education, juvenile justice, and housing. 2) BILLS ARE ADVANCING THAT WOULD ALLOCATE EVEN MORE FUNDS TOWARD BUSINESS AND CORPORATE TAX CUTS - Completely outside of the budget process, bills have advanced in both houses that would spend millions of dollars on business and program expansion with no apparent consideration – or at least no public discussion – of other state needs. When it comes to capital projects – these are project for new or expanded buildings or facilities – there is no legislative committee publicly prioritizing state needs. Instead there has been piecemeal authorization of debt for whatever the most popular capital projects may be at the moment which has quickly bumped up against the state’s debt ceiling as specified by Treasurer Moore. (If the state has too much debt it could lower its bond rating which would mean the state may have to pay higher interest rates on its debt, among other things.) Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Secretary George Sweat has put forward a plan for building 13 new Youth Development Centers (YDCs) in response to an audit that found many of the current juvenile detention centers are physically unsafe for staff and children. The YDC plan has been unaddressed and unfunded while all or most of the remaining debt available to the state is being allocated to five UNC-system health centers, three of which were not approved or requested by the UNC Board of Governors. HERE IS A QUICK LIST OF KEY CHOICES LEGISLATORS WILL HAVE EFFECTIVELY MADE ABSENT A CHANGE IN DIRECTION IN THE COMING DAYS:
**IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY CALLED OR EMAILED YOUR STATE SENATOR ASKING THAT SERVICES BE FUNDED AND CITIZEN NEEDS ADDRESSED - NOW IS THE TIME TO DO IT. ** CLICK HERE and send an email to your Senator and five other Senate Leaders! It just takes five minutes to become a cyber-lobbyist on our easy web site. Or CALL SENATE LEADERS
FOR MORE DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THE HOUSE BUDGET SEE THE FOLLOWING BTC REPORTS: The House Budget: The Buck Passes to the Senate to Restore Public Programs This issue of BTC
Reports examines the House budget, compares it to the Governor’s
proposal, and highlights cuts that advocates will seek to restore
in the Senate. FOR MORE ABOUT ONE OF THE STATE'S BUSINESS INCENTIVE PROGRAMS CHECK OUT BTC TAX BRIEF: JDIG, an Economic Development Initiative, Is Not Good Public Policy This Tax Brief examines the Job Development Investment Grant Program and why this new program fails basic tests of good tax, budget, and economic development policy.
ANOTHER DEBATE ABOUT ATTRACTING JOBS SB 1063 Eliminate Industrial Revenue Bonds Wage Standards There was a lengthy debate on the floor of the House on Thursday, regarding whether to eliminate a requirement that an industry must pay an average wage equal to the average manufacturing wage in the county where it wants to locate BEFORE the Secretary of Commerce can approve the industry to receive a revenue bond. Wage standards are being stripped out of most of the state’s business incentive programs and this is an effort to do the same here. On the one side, some of the Representatives of rural communities argued that they need jobs and this wage standard is preventing companies from getting a bond so they will locate in a rural area and create new jobs. They argue that any job is better than no job, even if it pays a very low-wage. To my knowledge, no specific example has been given where the wage standard stopped a company from coming to an NC county. Rep. Daughtridge said removing the wage standard would open up the revenue bonds to more small businesses at no cost to the state.
The other side of the argument made by Representative Michaux and several others is that the State cannot afford to give away limited dollars to businesses paying less than a living wage. The result of subsidizing low-wage businesses is that the state subsidizes the business and then also has to help subsidize the workers – directly or indirectly – for basic necessities they cannot afford on their low-wages. It is these low-wage workers’ children that are currently waiting for child care subsidies and qualify for Health Choice health insurance coverage. It is growth in low-wage jobs that has led NC to have the fastest growing rate of uninsured in the US - North Carolina now has 1.3m uninsured. While the cost of allowing business to pay lower than a living wage may not hit the state immediately, it does hit the state eventually.
WHAT TO EXPECT THE WEEK OF JUNE 21: The Senate intends to pass its budget next week and begin negotiations with the House as soon as possible. I would expect the budget to go to a public meeting of Full Senate Appropriations committee on Tuesday, but nothing is set so far.
Monday, June 21st Senate Appropriations Subcommittees will each reveal their budgets Monday afternoon.
TUESDAY, JUNE 22nd
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