TALKING POINTS UPDATE: Thursday, August 27, 2020

N.C. Republicans Step Forward to Fix DOT Finances

North Carolina Has Funds Available in Economic Crisis Thanks to Republican Budget Leadership

The Stellar NEA Rankings for North Carolina’s Education Spending Don’t Tell the Entire Story

Republicans fixing DOT by restructuring budget and board, building new reserve, and adding accountability after audit.
 
  • After a state audit identified financial mismanagement that led to $742M of overspending and worker furloughs, Republicans stepped up with H.B. 77.
 
  • Republican reforms for DOT will help avoid future worker furloughs and benefit the job creators who work across our transportation industry.
 
  • The legislature restructured the DOT board to include its own appointments and gave it ‘teeth’ to take oversight and ownership of department finances.
 
  • When DOT missed a window to issue bonds due to its own accounting problems, Republicans helped the department recapture bonding authority.
 
  • The legislature also appropriated hundreds of millions of additional dollars to DOT last Fall, including forgiving a $90 million loan.
 
  • Fixing other broken programs like Medicaid, and paying off massive debt of our unemployment system, helped protect our infrastructure funding.
 
  • Our reforms ensure the state can efficiently deliver critical transportation projects needed for North Carolina’s rapidly growing Republican economy.
 
Republicans warned N.C. should prepare for crisis by spending responsibly on budget priorities. They were right.
 
  • North Carolina has crisis funding available due to Republican budget leadership that allows us to invest President Trump’s CARES Act relief. 
 
  • North Carolinians are fortunate that Republicans made the tough decisions in good times to prepare for the bad, avoiding deficits and debt today.
 
  • The choice is not hypothetical, North Carolina tried different approaches in the 2000s and the 2010s. The results could not be more different.
 
  • Democrats let the state fall billions into debt, furloughed teachers and cut their pay after raising taxes every budget year and overspending in 2000s.
 
  • Republicans ensured we had AAA credit ratings, savings, and surpluses when crisis hit in 2020 through tax relief, better budgets, and growth.
 
  • Today the result of Republican leadership is powerful investments in an economic crisis, another promise kept to the people of North Carolina.
 
Ranking #1 in the region and top-10 in the nation for K-12 funding increases is just the beginning of North Carolina’s new era for education benefiting families statewide.
 
  • Left-leaning NEA ranks North Carolina #1 in the Southeast, top-10 in U.S. for salary, spending, and per-pupil funding increases. That’s just the beginning.
 
  • Opportunity Scholarships for low-income students, a growing charter school community, and Education Savings Accounts are powerful initiatives.
 
  • Republicans removed cost barriers to college credit. Since 2017 the legislature has paid for AP/IB exam fees, saving families hundreds.
 
 
  • North Carolina passed 18 states in teacher pay rankings since 2014.
 
  • Republicans also approved the ConnectNC education bond that is now completing brand new STEM facilities on campuses across North Carolina.
 
  • The Republican legislature tried to approve another $2 billion in K-12 capital projects in 2019, but the Governor and Democrats blocked them.
 
  • Facts from the National Education Association appear to contradict the conclusions of the Leandro court, a major development in the case.
 
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