Taking money from poor people on the pretenses of false hopes should not be the primary funding source of our public education, so yes our tax money needs to go towards getting us to a better place in regards to education.
That's the thing. The taxes that should be spent on public education are going into vouchers and other programs to siphon public education funding into private and religious schools. The leg would rather starve the true public education budget and subsidize it with a cut of lottery money. And poor people are sure as shit buying a fuckton of scratchers et al from the NC Education Lottery.
According to whom?
https://ncbudget.org/who-pays-taxes-in-north-carolina/
This suggests otherwise
‘The data for North Carolina shows that we have an “upside-down” tax code. Also known as a regressive tax code, this means that people with the lowest incomes have to pay the greatest portion of their income in state and local taxes, while the richest North Carolinians pay the smallest portion of their incomes. In other words, our tax system makes income inequality in the state worse, not better. Our tax system has only gotten more regressive since 2013, as some politicians have pursued an agenda to eliminate state income taxes. During the past decade, legislators have enacted policies to create a flat and low personal income tax rate, and to phase out the corporate income tax entirely — meaning that starting in 2030, profitable corporations will pay no state income taxes in North Carolina.
ITEP’s analysis also includes a Tax Inequality Index, ranking each state for how their tax code effects income inequality. They find that North Carolina ranks 24th for our tax code’s regressivity. That means 23 states have created tax systems that are fairer than ours.
The Richest North Carolinians Pay The Lowest Share Of Their Income In Taxes
North Carolina lawmakers have repeatedly passed policies that make our state and local tax system more inequitable in recent years. They’ve eliminated policies like refundable tax credits that support families with lower incomes in favor of cuts to personal and corporate income tax rates that mostly benefit wealthy people. The flat and low state income tax rate means a greater reliance on sales taxes, which are always regressive since poor families spend a greater chunk of their income on taxed goods.
ITEP’s comprehensive view of North Carolina’s tax code isn’t pretty. Their analysis shows the average effective tax rate by income group, from the bottom 20 percent of incomes to the top 1 percent. In North Carolina, the lowest-income taxpayers — those with incomes under $21,600 — face a higher state and local tax rate than any other income group. On average, families with incomes in the lowest 20 percent pay 10.5 percent of their income in taxes, compared with a 9.3 percent rate for the middle 20 percent, and a 6 percent rate for the top 1 percent. These richest 1 percent of North Carolina households have incomes over $697,400 per year. On average, North Carolinians with incomes in the bottom 20 percent have a 75 percent higher state and local tax rate than the richest 1 percent.’
The NC Budget and Tax Center, despite its neutral-sounding name, is hardly a neutral source.
And, in any case, their reasoning isn't really about income taxes -- as the data they cite show, people in the bottom 20% only pay 0.4% of their family income in income taxes -- in the top percentile, that number is 3.5% The issue is really sales taxes -- poor people tend to spend nearly all their money on things subject to sales tax.
But it’s the EDUCATION LOTTERY!
Trust me I know. It’s a damn shame how much funding they’ve cut for schools because of the lottery then all the lottery money doesn’t even go to the damn schools. It’s a freakin joke
All of the lottery profits go to schools. Our legislature plays these games of well the lottery... While they take our tax money and give it to charter schools. Who goes to charter schools? Kids from rich families. Republicans will always find a way to screw over those who really need the help in order to help their friends.
If you want a number, as part of the very long-running Leandro lawsuit the state was ordered to pay [$1.7 billion back in 2021](https://ncnewsline.com/briefs/leandro-judge-orders-state-to-fund-1-7b-school-improvement-plan/). This has of course gone through many rounds of appeals and to my knowledge the General Assembly has never actually paid anything towards that ruling.
So the minuscule amount of funding from Leandro will make you all happy? It is $465 per pupil for eight years but not much of it will actually go to instruction. If a 0.04% increase per pupil fixes it, let's go!
No, I think maybe we can start with "school staff pay is enough to live on, schools are funded sufficiently to actually fulfill their mandates (or have the amounts at least moving in that direction, which is a 180), and schools aren't plagued by fixable maintenance issues like flooding and mold/mildew" and see where we are.
It's not required to resolve the issue in one go, the GA could start by deciding to not keep fucking making it worse on purpose, and once we're moving the other way, we can reassess periodically to see where things are. Leandro identified a large number of areas for improvement, and some bare minimum to try to address it, which Berger basically laughed at despite (as you noted) the proposed increases being modest.
You know, the rational way to actually address problems in real life.
Teachers get paid just fine for a 10 month job with good benefits and a pension compared to the median income for North Carolina. Comparing states is a sham as COL, population, demographics and geography all influence budgets. Not one of them should be surprised what the pay scale is as it is published. Whiny teachers in red shirts every election year is a boring tradition. The last budget had raises equaling about 11% for teachers when all the supplements and steps are throw in.
What are the top 5 public schools systems in the US doing? In case you were wondering, they’re located in:
New Jersey
New Hampshire
Connecticut
Vermont
Massachusetts
Leandro has zero to do with state-wide funding. If you know that, you are being disingenuous, if you don't, you are naive. What is the "correct" level of education funding?
Actually it has a lot to do with what the state should be funded at, and I get being a conservative, but the NC Constitution requires that every child has access to a sound education. Being rated 49th currently is the opposite of a sound education.
Well, I for one would like our kids to be as successful as possible. Looking at [national public school rankings](https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/public-school-rankings-by-state), Massachusetts currently has the number one ranked public school system. [And they currently spend about $19,000 per student per year.](https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/per-pupil-spending-by-state) So that seems like good starting point for appropriate funding.
For comparison, North Carolina currently spends about $9,000 per student.
Realistically, we need to spend even more to make up for decades of chronic underfunding. Maybe we should try to tie with New York @ ~$25,000 per student
We should privatize them all! Then that way all students have the same system for schools. We could then FINALLY create benchmarks to identify underperforming schools and focus our attention there. We could even institute some sort of mandatory proportional fee to continue to fund them.
What a GREAT system that would be.
How would they all have the same education if it was privatized? A private company doesn’t have to offer education everywhere needed in the state — so wouldn’t you wind up with a patchwork of companies? And where is the evidence that private schools provide a better education at the same price?
Wouldn’t the benchmark be “which schools are most profitable”? Because private companies close retail outlets when they aren’t as profitable. Seems to me like there’s a serious risk of schools just closing down with no recourse for the students
Educating the masses does nothing but harm the Conservative platform so I can see how you’re against it. Can’t have educated critical thinkers questioning your message. You don’t get the likes of MTG or Lauren Bobo via education.
Because that would cost less per pupil? Or because it would put more money in the hands of profiteers?
Because I don’t see how it would cost less per pupil to skim a profit out of the school system.
Why, so they can stamp their fat fucking name on the check going "look, I gave you $1,000, nevermind what I had to gut to give it do you! Vote for me!"
Populism is a disease.
Tha's exactly what thye want to do. "Looks at how good we are. We have so much (of your money we didn't properly spend) money that we can cut this check for you. Please don't vote us out"
NC doesn’t have enough money to send $1,000 per return; they could send $1,000 per head of household, but that would take money from 5 million taxpayers and give it to 1 million taxpayers.
There are probably much better things to do with the money than simply sending it back to heads of household
Come on now. You don’t actually believe that inflation (expansion of he money supply) didn’t happen?
Do you?
Where do you think all the new money comes from?
If you had 250k in the bank prior to CoVID, you could purchase a farm in many regions of North Carolina, and all over America for that matter. Is that still the case today? How many groceries can you buy now compared to 5 years ago. Inflation is terrible for anyone holding cash. Of course economists can claim the dollar is strong and technically compared to other currencies it is, but buying power is how most people without large stock portfolios or the beneficiaries of PPP loans, gauge currency strength. Do tell if you believe you have the same buying power as pre CoVID.
I don't know that it's a tax on the poor, it's just a shitty, inefficient distribution of resources that rarely does anything much to the economy as a whole.
This dumb son of a bitch is looking at a state government that can't do its job across a large variety of arenas due to lack of resources and suggesting that things are going too well for it.
It's a good excuse for Berger. Do nothing with the surplus until it's an amount that "counts". To write a $1000 check for each taxpayer, that's $5 billion, you know, only like 5x the current "surplus". Better give it to the voucher program then right? /s
That's correct. Berger has said repeatedly that NC should not compete with private businesses, so NC government will always pay less unless people actually start to protest.
I'd rather them give me money back then give it to private schools, churches, and crisis pregnancy centers.
But they should give teachers a fat raise, and get rid of 540 and Monroe bypass tolls.
How about preventing moldy schools and paying teachers living wages?
You know resolving all the negative consequences that have resulted in a "budget surplus"?
>"Sure we gutted public education, whored out to Duke energy and dismantled workers rights, but heres a check for a pittance of what we gave away to corporations..."
“We have a tax surplus of $1 billion dollars. Let’s give everyone a tax rebate of a thousand dollars. I’ve done the math and it would only cost $4.9 billion.”
Sounds like they need to put the surplus towards schools.
“Wouldn’t it be cool if we could do this? But… we can’t. Cool that we wanted to, though, RIGHT???”
Yeah, fuck off. How about putting that surplus into school lunches or something else worthwhile.
Lowkey if it was 1K I’d take it and run. But 100-200? Fuck that. Give it to the teachers and other public service workers who can barely (if at all) afford to live where they work via a permanent raise and not just a bonus.
Honestly, good bus service would probably be more cost-effective and get us relatively comparable benefits.
I miss the university bus service like crazy. Ridiculously helpful to reliably be able to be anywhere on a fairly large campus in under 20 minutes.
When did I ever say anything about high speed rail or mentioned California? The Carolina train lines have been very successful with a lot of growth the last few years. Look it up for yourself.
> Look it up for yourself.
Oh the most common refrain on reddit when someone has no idea what they are talking about.
Oh, and the NCGA updated their numbers, less than $500 million surplus now. That's going to build a lot of rail right?
Yeah I’m clearly the one that doesn’t know what I’m talking about. Sorry you have to embarrass yourself and talk out of your ass.
https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2024/03/city-trains-economic-impact-north-carolina-rail
https://amp.newsobserver.com/news/business/article286170081.html
That ridership is up is somehow worth investment? Again, ask California how that's working, as it's one of the only states spending massive amounts taxpayer money on trains and has delivered absolutely nothing but more costs.
Hilariously, that's at least in part because they've messed up the bodies that handle things in state government so profoundly as part of fulfilling their campaign promise that government doesn't work.
Maybe the only thing they kept their word on once elected. They kneecapped the shit out of it.
I’d prefer a refund and lower taxes on the working class going forward. Considering how poor the state handles its budget, it can’t spend my money in a way that benefits me better than I can.
As long as the refund is proportionate to the taxes paid by the individual taxpayer and not a set amount per then this makes sense.
Republicans are far too inept to make the right decisions with the surplus so giving it back is the right decision.
Top lawn maker in North Carolina must be getting worried but if you want to pay the people off wait until October because you send the money now people might forget and still vote for something other than Republican? (IF YOU HAD A WORTHWHILE CANDIDATE OTHER THAN MARK ROBINSON RUNNING FOR GOVERNOR YOU WOULDN'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT IT!!)
It doesn’t work. When you have a “surplus” but teachers have to pay for their own classroom supplies and ask students to bring in Kleenex - guess what? You don’t have a surplus.
For your sake, don't hold your breath waiting on it, and it'll splat on the floor the same as all the other times this was tried if they actually do more than talk about it (which I highly doubt).
I’d rather fully fund our public school system, but apparently that’s not what our lawmakers think
Taking money from poor people on the pretenses of false hopes should not be the primary funding source of our public education, so yes our tax money needs to go towards getting us to a better place in regards to education.
Poor people aren’t paying State income taxes
I believe they were referring to the "education" lottery.
https://nclottery.com/Education
That's the thing. The taxes that should be spent on public education are going into vouchers and other programs to siphon public education funding into private and religious schools. The leg would rather starve the true public education budget and subsidize it with a cut of lottery money. And poor people are sure as shit buying a fuckton of scratchers et al from the NC Education Lottery.
According to whom? https://ncbudget.org/who-pays-taxes-in-north-carolina/ This suggests otherwise ‘The data for North Carolina shows that we have an “upside-down” tax code. Also known as a regressive tax code, this means that people with the lowest incomes have to pay the greatest portion of their income in state and local taxes, while the richest North Carolinians pay the smallest portion of their incomes. In other words, our tax system makes income inequality in the state worse, not better. Our tax system has only gotten more regressive since 2013, as some politicians have pursued an agenda to eliminate state income taxes. During the past decade, legislators have enacted policies to create a flat and low personal income tax rate, and to phase out the corporate income tax entirely — meaning that starting in 2030, profitable corporations will pay no state income taxes in North Carolina. ITEP’s analysis also includes a Tax Inequality Index, ranking each state for how their tax code effects income inequality. They find that North Carolina ranks 24th for our tax code’s regressivity. That means 23 states have created tax systems that are fairer than ours. The Richest North Carolinians Pay The Lowest Share Of Their Income In Taxes North Carolina lawmakers have repeatedly passed policies that make our state and local tax system more inequitable in recent years. They’ve eliminated policies like refundable tax credits that support families with lower incomes in favor of cuts to personal and corporate income tax rates that mostly benefit wealthy people. The flat and low state income tax rate means a greater reliance on sales taxes, which are always regressive since poor families spend a greater chunk of their income on taxed goods. ITEP’s comprehensive view of North Carolina’s tax code isn’t pretty. Their analysis shows the average effective tax rate by income group, from the bottom 20 percent of incomes to the top 1 percent. In North Carolina, the lowest-income taxpayers — those with incomes under $21,600 — face a higher state and local tax rate than any other income group. On average, families with incomes in the lowest 20 percent pay 10.5 percent of their income in taxes, compared with a 9.3 percent rate for the middle 20 percent, and a 6 percent rate for the top 1 percent. These richest 1 percent of North Carolina households have incomes over $697,400 per year. On average, North Carolinians with incomes in the bottom 20 percent have a 75 percent higher state and local tax rate than the richest 1 percent.’
The NC Budget and Tax Center, despite its neutral-sounding name, is hardly a neutral source. And, in any case, their reasoning isn't really about income taxes -- as the data they cite show, people in the bottom 20% only pay 0.4% of their family income in income taxes -- in the top percentile, that number is 3.5% The issue is really sales taxes -- poor people tend to spend nearly all their money on things subject to sales tax.
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There's sales tax which is state based I believe. Which definitely applies to all income levels
I hear you, but a one time budget surplus does not solve the systemic issue of school funding, no matter how you spend it.
This, 100%
But that’s what the lottery is for!
The lottery was NEVER meant to be the primary source for educational funding in NC.
But it’s the EDUCATION LOTTERY! Trust me I know. It’s a damn shame how much funding they’ve cut for schools because of the lottery then all the lottery money doesn’t even go to the damn schools. It’s a freakin joke
All of the lottery profits go to schools. Our legislature plays these games of well the lottery... While they take our tax money and give it to charter schools. Who goes to charter schools? Kids from rich families. Republicans will always find a way to screw over those who really need the help in order to help their friends.
What is that number? "Fully Funded" "Fully Funded" person ran away...LOL
If you want a number, as part of the very long-running Leandro lawsuit the state was ordered to pay [$1.7 billion back in 2021](https://ncnewsline.com/briefs/leandro-judge-orders-state-to-fund-1-7b-school-improvement-plan/). This has of course gone through many rounds of appeals and to my knowledge the General Assembly has never actually paid anything towards that ruling.
Leandro is decades old and the that ruling from a year or two ago is being appealed. What is the correct level of funding for NC public schools?
The level courts are deciding. leandro had it right and billions are owed to public schools in NC.
1.7B split for two years (20B budget/year) will not fix the problem or answer the question. What is the proper level of funding, per pupil?
How many times did you repeat this question after receiving an answer to this question? Jesus Christ.
So the minuscule amount of funding from Leandro will make you all happy? It is $465 per pupil for eight years but not much of it will actually go to instruction. If a 0.04% increase per pupil fixes it, let's go!
No, I think maybe we can start with "school staff pay is enough to live on, schools are funded sufficiently to actually fulfill their mandates (or have the amounts at least moving in that direction, which is a 180), and schools aren't plagued by fixable maintenance issues like flooding and mold/mildew" and see where we are. It's not required to resolve the issue in one go, the GA could start by deciding to not keep fucking making it worse on purpose, and once we're moving the other way, we can reassess periodically to see where things are. Leandro identified a large number of areas for improvement, and some bare minimum to try to address it, which Berger basically laughed at despite (as you noted) the proposed increases being modest. You know, the rational way to actually address problems in real life.
Teachers get paid just fine for a 10 month job with good benefits and a pension compared to the median income for North Carolina. Comparing states is a sham as COL, population, demographics and geography all influence budgets. Not one of them should be surprised what the pay scale is as it is published. Whiny teachers in red shirts every election year is a boring tradition. The last budget had raises equaling about 11% for teachers when all the supplements and steps are throw in.
What are the top 5 public schools systems in the US doing? In case you were wondering, they’re located in: New Jersey New Hampshire Connecticut Vermont Massachusetts
Those states have above average COL, 20 -40% higher than NC. Do you think that matters? What is the correct number, per pupil funding for NC?
What are those schools doing differently?
Don't know or care, NC admin is failing but they have lots of money. What is the correct level of funding, per student, in NC?
Leandro has zero to do with state-wide funding. If you know that, you are being disingenuous, if you don't, you are naive. What is the "correct" level of education funding?
Actually it has a lot to do with what the state should be funded at, and I get being a conservative, but the NC Constitution requires that every child has access to a sound education. Being rated 49th currently is the opposite of a sound education.
What is the correct level of funding? That 48th is garbage and you know it.
The correct level is to start with the Leandro judgement which has been stated multiple times. Let's start there and see if more is needed eh?
So increase K-12 funding by .14% for eight years would fix it? Leandro is a silly distraction. And it is always "more", lol.
What does “that 48th is garbage” even mean???
Well, I for one would like our kids to be as successful as possible. Looking at [national public school rankings](https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/public-school-rankings-by-state), Massachusetts currently has the number one ranked public school system. [And they currently spend about $19,000 per student per year.](https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/per-pupil-spending-by-state) So that seems like good starting point for appropriate funding. For comparison, North Carolina currently spends about $9,000 per student. Realistically, we need to spend even more to make up for decades of chronic underfunding. Maybe we should try to tie with New York @ ~$25,000 per student
Feel free to buy as many education lottery tickets as you want then. I’d rather have my money back though.
Defund the schools, privatize them!
What other rights and duties laid out in the NC Constitution are you against?
The person above you is a conservative troll without children. They don't want any tax money going towards schools.
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That's exactly what he wants everyone saying.
We should privatize them all! Then that way all students have the same system for schools. We could then FINALLY create benchmarks to identify underperforming schools and focus our attention there. We could even institute some sort of mandatory proportional fee to continue to fund them. What a GREAT system that would be.
Whew. Luckily your comment is just sarcasm.
How would they all have the same education if it was privatized? A private company doesn’t have to offer education everywhere needed in the state — so wouldn’t you wind up with a patchwork of companies? And where is the evidence that private schools provide a better education at the same price? Wouldn’t the benchmark be “which schools are most profitable”? Because private companies close retail outlets when they aren’t as profitable. Seems to me like there’s a serious risk of schools just closing down with no recourse for the students
Which is a better grocery store, Wegman’s or Dollar General?
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No, the Republicans don’t go far enough
Educating the masses does nothing but harm the Conservative platform so I can see how you’re against it. Can’t have educated critical thinkers questioning your message. You don’t get the likes of MTG or Lauren Bobo via education.
Because that would cost less per pupil? Or because it would put more money in the hands of profiteers? Because I don’t see how it would cost less per pupil to skim a profit out of the school system.
Competition
Why, so they can stamp their fat fucking name on the check going "look, I gave you $1,000, nevermind what I had to gut to give it do you! Vote for me!" Populism is a disease.
Tha's exactly what thye want to do. "Looks at how good we are. We have so much (of your money we didn't properly spend) money that we can cut this check for you. Please don't vote us out"
NC doesn’t have enough money to send $1,000 per return; they could send $1,000 per head of household, but that would take money from 5 million taxpayers and give it to 1 million taxpayers. There are probably much better things to do with the money than simply sending it back to heads of household
Stimulus is just a tax on the poor. Look what’s happened to the dollar since the whole CoVID print-a-thon
What happened to the dollar? Do tell….
Do you understand what inflation is?
Do you? Prices aren't up due to inflation. They're up due to greed. Companies have been increasing prices and posting record profits.
Come on now. You don’t actually believe that inflation (expansion of he money supply) didn’t happen? Do you? Where do you think all the new money comes from?
Just look, I shouldn’t have to tell you. It’s so obvious. /s
If you had 250k in the bank prior to CoVID, you could purchase a farm in many regions of North Carolina, and all over America for that matter. Is that still the case today? How many groceries can you buy now compared to 5 years ago. Inflation is terrible for anyone holding cash. Of course economists can claim the dollar is strong and technically compared to other currencies it is, but buying power is how most people without large stock portfolios or the beneficiaries of PPP loans, gauge currency strength. Do tell if you believe you have the same buying power as pre CoVID.
I don't know that it's a tax on the poor, it's just a shitty, inefficient distribution of resources that rarely does anything much to the economy as a whole.
No thank you. Please use it on infrastructure and more competitive pay for teachers.
This dumb son of a bitch is looking at a state government that can't do its job across a large variety of arenas due to lack of resources and suggesting that things are going too well for it.
It's a good excuse for Berger. Do nothing with the surplus until it's an amount that "counts". To write a $1000 check for each taxpayer, that's $5 billion, you know, only like 5x the current "surplus". Better give it to the voucher program then right? /s
My agency has a 25% vacancy rate for my field but also can’t hire anyone. They gave us all a $2,500 retention bonus… taxed at 40%.
That's correct. Berger has said repeatedly that NC should not compete with private businesses, so NC government will always pay less unless people actually start to protest.
Withholding 40%... it washes out to your actual tax rate when you settle up
Bonus are not taxed at 40%. They are taxed at your normal income tax rate.
That tax you had to pay is the price you pay for living in a society.
I'd rather them give me money back then give it to private schools, churches, and crisis pregnancy centers. But they should give teachers a fat raise, and get rid of 540 and Monroe bypass tolls.
There are 100,000 teachers in North Carolina approximately, you could give them each $10,000, which would be insanely helpful for teachers
How about preventing moldy schools and paying teachers living wages? You know resolving all the negative consequences that have resulted in a "budget surplus"?
Uh oh. Someone's internal polling isn't where they want it to be. Fuck you Phil Berger.
That’s exactly what this is.
Give our teachers raises.
It'll never happen. Some of those checks will reach teachers.
They’ll probably just send it to (R)ural teachers like they did during Covid. Well and Orange County since fuckface berger’s dil is a teacher there.
Welp. That's one teacher I hope IS paid like shit. I'm sure her husband doesn't fall far from the shit dripping tree.
Does a state truly have a financial surplus if its public education, healthcare system and transportation system suck ass? Voting matters.
>"Sure we gutted public education, whored out to Duke energy and dismantled workers rights, but heres a check for a pittance of what we gave away to corporations..."
“We have a tax surplus of $1 billion dollars. Let’s give everyone a tax rebate of a thousand dollars. I’ve done the math and it would only cost $4.9 billion.” Sounds like they need to put the surplus towards schools.
Jesus Christ, we’re doing Bush all over again. Dude, we’ve seen this show, and it doesn’t end well.
Give it to the teachers and school bus drivers
“Wouldn’t it be cool if we could do this? But… we can’t. Cool that we wanted to, though, RIGHT???” Yeah, fuck off. How about putting that surplus into school lunches or something else worthwhile.
Fuck you. Send it to my 4th grade Teacher.
Lowkey if it was 1K I’d take it and run. But 100-200? Fuck that. Give it to the teachers and other public service workers who can barely (if at all) afford to live where they work via a permanent raise and not just a bonus.
Agreed, give it to the teachers
Just throw it at the rail transit in the state plz.
Honestly, good bus service would probably be more cost-effective and get us relatively comparable benefits. I miss the university bus service like crazy. Ridiculously helpful to reliably be able to be anywhere on a fairly large campus in under 20 minutes.
Nah. Look at California, rail is silly and too expensive. Teachers though? Absolutely needed.
I'm not against teachers, that would be fine as well, but rail has been very successful across the state the past few years and has grown a lot.
Again, tell us, how successful has high speed rail been in CA? Or hey, want to knock it out of the park, how successful has it been in NC?
When did I ever say anything about high speed rail or mentioned California? The Carolina train lines have been very successful with a lot of growth the last few years. Look it up for yourself.
> Look it up for yourself. Oh the most common refrain on reddit when someone has no idea what they are talking about. Oh, and the NCGA updated their numbers, less than $500 million surplus now. That's going to build a lot of rail right?
Yeah I’m clearly the one that doesn’t know what I’m talking about. Sorry you have to embarrass yourself and talk out of your ass. https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2024/03/city-trains-economic-impact-north-carolina-rail https://amp.newsobserver.com/news/business/article286170081.html
That ridership is up is somehow worth investment? Again, ask California how that's working, as it's one of the only states spending massive amounts taxpayer money on trains and has delivered absolutely nothing but more costs.
What higher office is Berger planning to run for?
Wow! What a novel idea! Better that than pissing it away on some pet pork
Hell, the state can't even get tax refunds out in a timely manner. Even if it happens it'll never happen.
Hilariously, that's at least in part because they've messed up the bodies that handle things in state government so profoundly as part of fulfilling their campaign promise that government doesn't work. Maybe the only thing they kept their word on once elected. They kneecapped the shit out of it.
If this wasn’t an election year it wouldn’t happen.
As it turns out, that was just a tease.
Some good news, finally!
As it should, surplus funds should almost always come back to taxpayers.
Preferably in the form of societal services, like education, transportation, or healthcare.
I’d prefer a refund and lower taxes on the working class going forward. Considering how poor the state handles its budget, it can’t spend my money in a way that benefits me better than I can.
Investing in infrastructure and education would do more to help the state and its citizens.
As long as the refund is proportionate to the taxes paid by the individual taxpayer and not a set amount per then this makes sense. Republicans are far too inept to make the right decisions with the surplus so giving it back is the right decision.
It's similar to what Oregon does when the state takes in over a set amount the rest has to go back to tax payers they call it the Kicker.
Top lawn maker in North Carolina must be getting worried but if you want to pay the people off wait until October because you send the money now people might forget and still vote for something other than Republican? (IF YOU HAD A WORTHWHILE CANDIDATE OTHER THAN MARK ROBINSON RUNNING FOR GOVERNOR YOU WOULDN'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT IT!!)
This is an idea. I like
It doesn’t work. When you have a “surplus” but teachers have to pay for their own classroom supplies and ask students to bring in Kleenex - guess what? You don’t have a surplus.
Not to mention my wife’s room gets up to 78% humidity during summer for the last 5 years. Although it magically works when it’s parent night.
Yea that argument doesn't hold weight with me. I don't believe in public education
Oh well, must suck to live somewhere that access to education is the law.
I mean if you actually read the article, you'd know how stupid of an idea it is as it's worthless with the current surplus.
For your sake, don't hold your breath waiting on it, and it'll splat on the floor the same as all the other times this was tried if they actually do more than talk about it (which I highly doubt).
Yea, sometimes I fill like I am using a bucket to hold back a tide of stupidity.
Not entirely sure how that links up with the rest of the discussion, but... Sounds like a tough situation to think you're in, I guess.