At Tax Day round table, North Carolinians raise concerns over cuts to health and education

Yahoo

16-04-2025

North Carolina Legislative Building (Photo: Clayton Henkel)
Democratic lawmakers held a Tax Day round table with North Carolina residents to hear their thoughts on budget priorities, with constituents singling out cuts to education, health coverage, and other social services as top concerns.
The panel, organized by Sen. Graig Meyer (D-Orange) and Sen. Natalie Murdock (D-Durham), brought together residents from around the state on Tuesday who largely focused on state and federal cuts to government support as the top issues in their lives, raising fears that basic necessities would become unaffordable for families struggling to make ends meet.
The gathering came a day after state Senate Republicans unveiled a budget aimed at cutting taxes and eradicating perceived government 'waste,' amid congressional and Trump administration efforts to strip federal agencies of large chunks of funding.
Debbie McMillan, a social services worker from Columbus County, said even before the ongoing cuts to government aid, her community did not receive enough support — and that as grocery prices continue to rise, families are finding it more difficult to survive.
'Most people, if they have a family, they cannot go to work and receive $7.25 an hour and sustain a family,' McMillan said. '[Lawmakers] want to cut food stamps, they want to cut Medicaid, they want to cut all these programs, but the people need these programs to live.'
Ellie O'Connor and Judy Colwell, both residents of Wilmington, said the same cost of living issues were hitting vulnerable people in their city as well. O'Connor said the influx of wealthy retirees to New Hanover County in recent years was pricing out longtime residents who can no longer afford the region's rising housing prices.
'We've got a lot of people who are coming to the county with money, which kind of edges [out] the people who have lived there for a long time, but are not making a wage that can support their family,' O'Connor said. 'The housing is a real issue.'
Colwell said North Carolina needs to raise the minimum wage to help families keep up with rising prices. A resident of an independent living facility, she said staff members have told her it is 'impossible to raise their children' while working minimum wage jobs — an obstacle to improving the quality of life for North Carolinians and investing in communities.
'The powers that be, I think they just don't understand. You hear the phrase all the time, investing in people,' Colwell said. 'I don't think they understand that taking care of people is to their benefit, because people have more money to buy things and a good education will make people able to supply the jobs that corporations need for their labor force.'
Other speakers raised concerns about cuts to public schools and child care, raising concerns that North Carolina is sabotaging its future by failing to properly teach and care for the next generation. Brittany Newton, a member of the Columbus County Deciders, said teachers are quitting their jobs in her community due to insufficient pay.
'So, the classroom sizes are getting bigger and they're not actually able to do one-on-one teaching with kids,' Newton said. 'Some child is being left behind, even though they have a no left behind rule that they're supposed to be doing.'
Residents also said the state hadn't done enough to help communities and industries recover from the major disasters of recent years. Katy Rosenbaum, a mother of a young child, said daycares in the state were now being forced to lay off employees because COVID-19 relief funds had stopped before the industry fully recovered.
Jen Hampton, a member of Just Economics, said counties in western North Carolina were forced to cut millions of dollars from their school systems in the wake of the disaster, adding that the lack of tax revenue from the disaster would also devastate local health care facilities and other critical public services. She said rental assistance was also a critical need for the region.
'We are advocating for revenue replacement, unrestricted, so that we don't have to cut any more public services,' Hampton said. 'People have lost their jobs or are underemployed if they can find a job, so we really need a lot more help.'
After the round table concluded, Meyer thanked residents for sharing their concerns and said he and Murdock would be reviewing the issues they'd raised. He added that they planned to write up and circulate what they'd heard in hopes of helping their colleagues better understand the issues facing everyday North Carolinians.
'It shows that the budget really should reflect the people and the interests of the people — and that every piece of this budget, if you knew what was in it, you would have questions about it, you would have ideas for it,' Meyer said. 'We will certainly continue to advocate as best we can for you.'