North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue just thumbed her nose at the Republican legislature's punitive budget proposal. See, they've been holding unemployment benefits for a bunch of North Carolinians hostage in the budget negotations. Today, Gov. Bev freed those hostages by executive order.
I just got a statement about this moment of strong executive leadership in my e-mail from the NC Democrats, and I have to say, good on you, Governor. I don't know how this will all play out in terms of the budget, but I am glad to see that Bev Perdue is willing to take a stand against the GOP's nasty agenda:
Bev Perdue stunned the GOP leadership today by issuing an Executive Order for the immediate release of federal unemployment benefits to 47,000 out of work North Carolinians.
The order ends nearly two months of deadlock during which Republican legislators employed the jobless as pawns in budget negotiations with her office.
The nasty agenda includes massive cuts for public education including K-12 (already struggling) and the public university system of which NC is justifiably proud. This state has been one of the most forward-thinking in the south in terms of investment in higher education (and in business development in my favorite science sector, biotechnology). Since the 1980s NC has been deliberately building research excellence while keeping in state tuition costs at its universities relatively low. The budget that the GOP proposes could screw us pretty badly. This is what the GOP workforce training and job creation plan for North Carolina might look like:
-- Long-term permanent structural damage to the university system.
-- Long-term adverse impact on North Carolina’s economic development.
-- Eliminates at least 3,200 positions including 1,500 faculty.
-- These cuts will likely lead to the elimination of faculty and staff positions, the closure of programs and higher waiting lists for critical workforce training programs.
-- Middle income families send their children to schools in the UNC system.
-- We are taxing those families and making higher education harder to come by.
-- Approximately 9,000 fewer course sections would be offered (240,000 Class Seats).
Some of the carnage would be averted by what Gov. Perdue has proposed -- extending an existing sales tax. Now, I know such taxes are regressive as all get-out, but it's a tax we're already used to paying, and cutting it at the expense of damaging the educational system? Not sure that's a good trade-off.
We'll see what happens now that the GOP's hostages have been freed:
In a statement moments ago, the Governor explained that she had finally had enough of the GOP's petty political games and the very real suffering they were causing:
"Just yesterday, they voted down a measure to separate this issue from their budget. Enough is enough. They continue to use desperate people as leverage to extort my support for an ideologically-driven budget that needlessly cuts millions from our public schools and inflicts millions of dollars more in damage to our universities, pre-school programs, community colleges, job creation efforts and vital health care services. I will not stand for it and I will not sit by idly as the legislature continues to play these games and deny the jobless the unemployment benefits they need."