OUR VIEW
History lesson such as it was, the gaps in it really were worth mentioning.
But state Sen. Phil Berger’s recollection for the Robeson County native who has spent more than half of his life working for the people of this state on Jones Street in Raleigh did have merit. And we agree with him in principle when it comes to the state budget we’re getting closer to seeing make its way to Gov. Roy Cooper.
State Sen. Dan Blue, a member of the House of Representatives from 1981-2003, 2006-09, and the Senate since 2009, says strong growth this century traces to when Democrats controlled the budget process. That would be the first decade, before Republicans gained control of both chambers for the first time in 140 years.
Since then, Berger explained, conservative fiscal policy has positioned North Carolina as a leader in many areas. Businesses and their people have come to the state, enough so that an additional seat in Congress is on the way. We’ve had the sixth-largest increase since the last census, rank 15th among the fastest-growing states, and are ninth-largest overall.
“It was uneven growth,” Berger said of the 2000s, the 10 years prior to the GOP seizing control it has yet to relinquish. “We have to remember where we were at the end of the decade. The state was $2.5 billion in the hole because of exactly your philosophy that we see here — just write the check — and we know how that turned out. Teacher pay was frozen. People got laid off. We’ve seen this philosophy before, and it just doesn’t work.”
Worth mentioning is the worst recession since the Great Depression three-quarters of a century earlier. It was global between late 2007 and middle 2009. And in the U.S., it was tied directly to the housing market; banking, the borrowing and spending by individuals or investing by corporations; and in trying to recover, the bailouts and stimulus packages.
“Too big to fail,” in the eyes of many, was a failure itself.
Now we’ve had 10 years of Republican policy on the budget. We’ve seen the chambers working with governors of both major political parties, including the power-hungry Cooper who simply vetoed the budget in 2019 to leave the state using the same spending measures that were already in place.
What were called mini budgets, to get some things done, passed after that and the state continued to operate. Right on up into COVID-19.
Now there’s over-collected tax money available, along with federal coronavirus relief dollars. And the arguments, as always, persist for what will be one-time expenditures or recurring spending.
Senators have moved a budget that will help Bladen County. The personal income tax rate is lowered; the per-child tax deduction is increased by $500; and the zero tax bracket, or standard deduction, is $25,500 for married couples. Middle- and low-income households stand to gain improvement.
Teachers do, too. Their 3 percent raise sure isn’t the whopping 10 percent proposed by a Guilford County Democrat, Michael Garrett, but who among us gets that kind of raise if any at all? The educators also get a $300 one-time bonus, plus between $1,000 and $1,500 bonuses from federal funds.
More than half of $5 billion in American Rescue Plan funds is for business grants, broadband, and water and sewer projects. All are items that can benefit us here.
We’re hopeful the House finds very common ground with the Senate’s work. And after that, a signature from Cooper.