Now is the time to make your voice heard for young children and families in North Carolina! Legislation is advancing in our Senate that would limit all future spending on early education and other vital services for children and families. The bill, SB 817, is scheduled for a vote this Saturday, June 25th, so please take action today!
Our communities thrive when they have schools with great teachers, safe streets, and access to high-quality health care. To make these basic components of our communities a reality, we need to raise adequate revenue to pay for them. But SB 817 would put a permanent, constitutional cap on the state’s income tax. This would reduce state revenues and cause cuts to the state budget that would be harmful to early education and other important health, education and social services for children and families.
Only one state, Colorado, has ever implemented a policy like this, and the consequences were devastating. Tim Hoover with the Colorado Fiscal Institute says his state’s experience with this type of amendment should stand as a cautionary tale for others. “It has been a complete and unmitigated disaster for the state of Colorado,” he says. “The only good news to come out of it is that Colorado has served as an example of what not to do.”
This poorly conceived proposal must be defeated here in NC in order to keep our children healthy, educated, and safe in the future.
Please take action today by contacting your own state legislator via the Coalition’s Action Center. There you can use a prewritten message or craft your own. You can also contact legislators directly at the NC General Assembly’s website.
There are thousands of young children on waiting lists for early education services, early education teachers are woefully underpaid, and the current early education system is seriously underfunded. We need adequate revenue sources to make sure every child has high quality early care and education and strong families and communities that support them.
Be a champion for young children and help us stop SB 817!
