Latest news with #DebButler
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
North Carolina representatives debate $65B+ budget
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — On Wednesday, debate continues in the General Assembly over how to spend more than $65 billion in your tax money. Democrats attempted to make dozens of amendments to the Republican-drafted budget, including a failed amendment to only lower the corporate tax rate if and when the personal income rate is lower. 'Under this budget, the corporate rate continues to raise unbridled toward zero, and that is just fundamentally unfair,' Representative Deb Butler said. Republicans, who hold a majority in the House and Senate, also rejected an amendment to keep money in a fund for Medicaid recipients, something Democrats pushed to do because of uncertainty about what the federal government will do with Medicaid. 'We'll deal with them once we know what those federal issues are,' Representative Donny Lambeth said. In a statement, Governor Josh Stein says the budget isn't perfect, but, 'Importantly, the House budget cuts taxes for working families while recognizing that North Carolina is a growing state and reduces personal income tax rates after this year only when the economy is growing.' After being passed, the budget will head back to the Senate and then go into conference meetings to draft a final version for the Governor. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
House Dems, advocates for transparency blast NC Senate's ‘broken' budget
Rep. Deb Butler and advocates call for a more transparent budget process as the Senate prepares to pass its budget blueprint. (Screengrab from NCGA video stream) As the North Carolina Senate fast tracks a newly released two-year budget proposal through the chamber this week, members of the state's Progressive House Caucus held a press conference Tuesday to call out what they say is the lack of public input and accountability in the budgeting process. Rep. Deb Butler (D-New Hanover) said the Senate budget that earmarks $32.6 billion in 2025-26 and $33.3 billion the year after was crafted with no collaboration from Democrats or real public input. '[Billion of dollars] are rolled into a last-minute conference report, dumped on our desk, and shoved through with an up or down vote. That is not just a procedural complaint. It's a democratic crisis,' said Butler at a Tuesday legislative press conference. Butler is advocating for two bills she sponsored earlier in the session to improve the budget process. House Bill 178, the 'Budgeting Accountability and Transparency Act,' would require that any conference committee report (the document that spells out the final version of a bill that has been agreed to by House and Senate leaders) on the budget be publicly available for at least 72 hours before a vote can occur. It would give lawmakers, stakeholders and the public time to read the hundreds of pages that make up the budget bill. House Bill 180, 'Fiscally Responsible & Sustainable Budgeting,' would require a multi-year look back and look forward based on performance rather than relying on one-time money. HB 180 also requires that any tax cut or spending increase over a certain threshold include an offset so future legislatures are not saddled with obligations the state cannot afford. 'These bills do not favor Democrats or Republicans. They favor the people of North Carolina who deserve to see how their money is being spent,' said Butler. Rep. Marcia Morey (D-Durham) said legislative leaders would also be wise to embrace House Bill 303 ('Make Corporations Pay What They Owe') that would halt the ongoing gradual repeal of the corporate income tax. 'We don't need to cut the corporate income tax to zero by 2030. This state will lose $2 billion that can be used for our priorities of helping people, helping school children, the necessities we need to make the state stronger,' Morey urged. 'It must be reinstated so this state can be fiscally responsible.' Alexandra Sirota of the North Carolina Budget and Tax Center cautioned that North Carolina is experiencing the ripple effects of federal funding chaos, program freezes, and a looming congressional budget that threatens to push even more costs onto the states. 'Unless our legislative leaders change course, we know that North Carolina's future budget picture will get worse, not better. We cannot afford to trust empty promises,' Sirota warned. Charles Owens, a healthcare technician at Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro, said that with rising housing costs and living expenses, state workers deserve better than the meager increases being put forth in the budget proposal unveiled by Senate leaders Monday night. 'The workers at Cherry Hospital, along with all the other DHHS facilities, work with the most vulnerable, exploited, and sometimes the most dangerous people in North Carolina, meaning the mentally ill, the abused, and sometimes criminals shipped to us from the prisons,' Owens explained. 'We take care of them with some of the best treatment this state can offer. But yet, as public workers, we aren't being taken care of by our lawmakers.' Most state workers would see a 1.25% raise next year, as well as a $3,000 bonus over the next two years in the Senate proposal. Owens said that as budget writers advance another round of corporate tax cuts, state employees are being told to expect to pay higher costs for participating in the State Health Plan next year. 'Imagine public workers that provide health care, being told that the state can afford tax cuts, but they can't afford to continue making investments in our health.' Sam Stites, the living wage program coordinator with the group Just Economics, traveled to Raleigh from Transylvania County on Tuesday to urge lawmakers to craft a better budget. Stites said for western North Carolina it's been a year of rude awakenings since Helene, with relief dollars slow to materialize for many working-class individuals. 'Wealthy individuals and corporations should not be getting tax cuts when working western North Carolinians are being evicted and small businesses are shuttering. That is why I came here.' Stites said in addition to rebuilding infrastructure, lawmakers need to help the hundreds of Helene survivors who are facing eviction. 'I'm talking about the $10 million you were asked for in rental assistance and said 'no' to, and the small business grants that you were asked for and aid 'No' to,' said Stites. 'To me it is simple, if you do not have enough money for working people and small businesses, then you do not have enough money for tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations.' Abby Lublin, executive director of Carolina Jews for Justice, said the state budget is truly a statement about North Carolina's values. 'Cutting the corporate income tax does not fill a child's stomach. It doesn't raise teacher pay. It doesn't heal our rural hospitals or fix our crumbling roads.' Lublin said simply pausing the corporate tax rate at its current level would provide revenue for services that are desperately needed at a time of sweeping federal cuts. 'To the lawmakers who are enacting a budget process without transparency, I'm looking right at you,' said Lublin. 'A budget that pits people and communities against each other to fight for crumbs is only due to a lack of moral courage.' The Senate is expected to have floor votes on the budget Wednesday and Thursday.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
North Carolina Is the Latest State To Try To Restrict Lab-Grown Meat
A handful of states around the nation have moved to ban or restrict the sale of lab-grown meat. Now a new measure in North Carolina aims to place onerous labeling requirements on cultivated meat products. House Bill 134 requires products containing lab-grown meat to "clearly disclose to a reasonable purchaser of meat food products that a food product is a cell-cultured meat product" by labeling it with terms like "cell-cultured," "fake," "lab-grown," or "grown in a lab." The bill also requires companies to place this disclaimer in 20-point font, or the size of the surrounding font, whichever is larger. The bill passed the state House in a 106–11 vote. The proposal is far from the first attempt by state lawmakers to limit the sale of lab-grown meat. Iowa passed a similar labeling law last year. Florida and Alabama have banned the sale or production of cultivated meat entirely. Other states, including Tennessee, Arizona, and Texas, all considered similar bills banning lab-grown meat, though they ultimately did not pass. While North Carolina's labeling law passed the state House with overwhelming support, it wasn't without its detractors. "Everybody loves a North Carolina farmer, let's say that first, but we cannot, and we must not try to stifle competition with this font, this labeling," state Rep. Deb Butler (D–New Hanover) argued. "It stigmatizes the product. And I just think that this kind of technology has the potential to really reduce greenhouse emissions moving forward." That lab-grown meat is facing so much regulatory pushback is strange, considering that cultivated meat products aren't currently sold anywhere in the United States and were only available in a few restaurants for a brief period starting in 2023. While lab-grown meat isn't going to be challenging regular slaughtered meat anytime soon, the fact that so many lawmakers seem bent on curbing its potential shows just how afraid of competition many meat producers are. "It's important to recognize that at present the cultivated meat industry has exciting long-term potential, but right now it's just potential. This is a tiny industry," Glenn Hurowitz, the founder and CEO of Mighty Earth, a climate-focused advocacy group, told Reason in November. "There's nothing that made me more excited about the potential for cultivated protein to get to scale than how afraid the meat industry seems to be of it…they seem to be taking it seriously." The post North Carolina Is the Latest State To Try To Restrict Lab-Grown Meat appeared first on
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Rep. Deb Butler on NC's economy and legislation to protect schools, hospitals from immigration raids
Rep. Deb Butler (D-New Hanover) North Carolina Republicans have enjoyed large majorities in the General Assembly for nearly 15 years, and during that period, Democrats have often done a poor job of crafting and communicating a coherent alternative vision to the GOP's hard right policy agenda. Recently, however, progressive Democratic legislators have come together to change that situation. This year, as state lawmakers gather in Raleigh, Democrats are not merely opposing Republican priorities on everything from taxes and education to immigration and reproductive freedom, they're introducing an ambitious slate of proposals of their own that they believe point the state in a better direction, and recently NC Newsline caught up with one of the leaders of this new, more assertive approach, New Hanover County State Rep. Deb Butler. Click here to listen to the full interview with Rep. Deb Butler.
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democratic representatives form new caucus, focus on limiting immigration enforcement
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — House Democrats pushing two bills this week, all focused on undocumented people living in North Carolina. The first, House Bill 78, would ban law enforcement from any immigration raids at schools, places of worship, or hospitals. 'Imagine a woman in a Temple praying for a peaceful and better life when unexpectedly, individuals armed with deadly weapons take her away without notice to her family,' Democratic Representative Renee Price said. Sponsors of the bill say they're already expecting no more movement on the bill. It's the same story for House Bill 80. 'This bill would prohibit local law enforcement from engaging in immigration enforcement at work sites, ensuring that our farms and constructions remain places of productivity,' Democratic Representative Deb Butler said. Research shows around 325,000 undocumented people live in North Carolina. Supporters of these bills say without them, the state's economy will crumble. 'Of the total number of undocumented people, at least 220,000 are workers and are equivalent to 4.3% of the total workforce in North Carolina,' Mario Alfaro with El Pueblo said. The vast majority of those undocumented workers work in construction. About 35% of construction workers are undocumented. Sponsors of House Bill 80 say if those workers are scared of being targeted at work, they simply won't work. 'North Carolina's economy depends on agriculture and construction, those are industries that rely on a steady, dedicated workforce,' Representative Butler said. While there's little to no confidence in either bill progressing, House Democrats are forming a new caucus called Progress Now, where they say the fight continues. 'Our name comes from two needs, the needs for progressive policy, and the needs for urgency and timeliness,' Democratic Representative Marcia Morey said. 'There are people in our state who need help now. Not tomorrow, not next week.' This week Senator Phil Berger introduced a bill that directs local law enforcement to comply completely with any ICE regulations. Democrats today say they're hopeful the Senate will abandon that bill. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
