After fiasco, Congress fails to meet North Carolina’s hurricane recovery needs
Hurricane Helene victims in Western North Carolina have eagerly been awaiting an expected holiday gift in the form of federal aid since the Sept. 27 storm pounded the region, but after nearly three months of wholly insufficient action in the General Assembly and a last-minute House vote in Washington, the only gift under the Christmas tree this year was pink bunny pajamas.
Proposed state aid bill is an insult
The number is $53.6 billion. That’s the estimate from the N.C. Office of State Budget and Management for the damage Helene inflicted on Western North Carolina. Those are just dollars; in the bigger picture, lives have been lost, transformed and forever changed.
Veto override: Lawmakers expand funding for private school vouchers
Lawmakers in the North Carolina General Assembly voted last week to override Governor Roy Cooper’s veto and pass a mini budget bill that includes $463 million in funding for the Opportunity Scholarship Grant Program that provides voucher money for families with students attending private schools.
Too little, too late: After deadline, child care funding meets only a fraction of the need
A stopgap measure that will partially fund expired federal grants for child care providers finally found Gov. Roy Cooper’s pen, but advocates maintain that it’s too little, too late — and just kicks the can down the road for another five months.
We need to stop wasteful spending
To the Editor:
“The Convention of States” movement, in a race against time, strongly urges the N.C. Senate to pass a bill calling for the convening of a Convention of States as authorized under Article V of the Constitution.
