Tuesday, July 24, 2012

This Is What Soucek & Jordan Accomplished


The Real Impacts of the Republican Budget Passed in the NC General Assembly (hattip: Sen. Josh Stein and BlueNC)
To Education:
K-12
· Fails to repair the damage last year’s budget did to schools, which resulted in 6,000 cut K-12 positions, including 3,000 teachers and teacher assistants.
· Cuts an additional $190 million, which represents an additional 3,400 teachers, at the same time student enrollment is increasing.
· Brings the two-year cut for K-12 to nearly $650 million.
· Eliminates funding for programs with proven success, such as the Teaching Fellows, Teacher Cadet Programs, Tarheel Challenge, and Communities in Schools.
· Cuts funding for textbooks, technology in the classroom, PTAs and counselors for children in military families.
Higher Education
· Imposes the largest cuts in the history of the state to the UNC system, totaling $414 million.
· Reduces access to higher education for middle class students by reducing need-based financial aid funding $22 million for the UNC system.
· Imposes the largest cuts in the history of the state to the community college system.
· Closes the door to community college for some students by increasing tuition by 23% and restricting access to low cost federal loans.
Early Childhood
· Walks away from state’s commitment to educate our young children so they are ready to learn when they start elementary school by slashing early childhood education by 20%.
To Healthcare:
· Singles out and defunds Planned Parenthood, which provides critical health services for women, such as cancer screenings and family planning.
· Fails to reverse cuts to programs for victims of rape and domestic violence enacted in 2011.
· Cuts mental health services by $20 million.
· Eliminates drug treatment court services.
To Transportation:
· Eliminates public transportation funds for the state with the exception of the Charlotte Rail System.
· Cuts maintenance funding for primary and secondary roads by $60 million.
Other:
· Continues the tax break for equity partners in law firms, doctors’ offices and financial firms from last year’s budget, even for those earning millions, while further cutting our schools.
· Eliminates the money to compensate victims of forced sterilization from the House budget.
· Cuts State Board of Elections budget by $120,000 and sets aside no money to leverage the Help America Vote Act federal grant to help our elections run more efficiently this November.
· Cuts the Clean Water Management Trust Fund by 90%.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The amount of damage this legislature has done to our state is astounding. My only consolation is that it's likely the balance will shift again this fall and some of these turkeys will be voted out.

Richard Tidyman said...

My mom always said "If you don't have anything nice to say about a person (Soucek and Jordan), then don't say anything at all. So I'll just be quiet, 'cuz there is nothing I can say that would be nice or appropriate.

Anonymous said...

Thank God for legislators that represent the majority of their constituents, as do Jordan and Soucek.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, the latest news is that Soucek and Jordan support rich developers and of course a lot of bigots.

Anonymous said...

No, that is not news. It;s propaganda from the left. For instance Boone spent a quarter million dollars to influence the legislature to let it continue its abuses.

Anonymous said...

Everything is propaganda from the left and the right. But there are grains of truth within. It seems things could be accomplished by compromising. Just doing something positive would be nice.