Budget is about $95 million for Haywood, Jackson and Swain

Archived Opinion

Budget is about $95 million for Haywood, Jackson and Swain

By Rep. Joe Sam Queen • Guest Columnist

I will stand with our governor and uphold his budget veto because we can do better — we must do better — for Haywood, Jackson, and Swain Counties. $95 million better!

This year, we have a real opportunity to make smart investments in our communities. We can expand Medicaid today, covering 500,000 hard-working, low-wage workers across our state, all with no new taxes. We can put a forward-thinking bond package on the ballot for the citizens to vote on this November that will make critical investments in our public schools. Our current budget proposal does not accomplish either of these necessary goals.

With the current budget, we lose the opportunity to inject $95 million in Haywood, Jackson and Swain counties. Here’s how that breaks down.

When we expand Medicaid, we will bring $2.5 billion of our federal tax dollars back to North Carolina from Washington. We already pay these federal taxes, and we deserve to bring this money back to our state. In Haywood, Jackson and Swain counties, this means $40 million for quality healthcare for hard-working mountain citizens, hundreds of healthcare jobs to keep our rural hospital doors open and critical resources to fight the opioid crisis.

Gov. Roy Cooper’s Invest N.C. Bond would commit $55 million for Haywood, Jackson and Swain counties. This allocation is timely, transparent, and certain. It would be distributed as follows:

Related Items

$13.7 million for Haywood County Schools.
$12 million for Jackson County Schools.
$11.2 million for Swain County Schools.
$2.7 million for Haywood Community College.
$4.5 million for Southwestern Community College.
$10.9 million for Western Carolina University.

Last week on the floor of the House, I said, “There are 500,000 faces that are not included in this budget. There is $5 million over the next two years that we have already paid, but we are wasting away in this budget. There is only one direction to go with this budget. That is to vote it down, veto it, and start a genuine negotiation that includes everybody in North Carolina.”

I stand by those words, and I will continue to work to ensure that every single North Carolinian is represented in our state budget. We must stop the waste and give our citizens a true voice in our state government.

(Rep. Joe Sam Queen represents parts of Haywood and all of Jackson and Swain counties in the North Carolina General Assembly.)

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