𝑲𝒆𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑮! 𝑩𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒓

It was an honor to welcome Congressman Jim Clyburn of South Carolina. He discussed his new book, The First Eight, the story of South Carolina’s first eight Black congressmen who came into office during Reconstruction. This story reminds us that progress is not linear, easy, or even permanent. The hard work of winning progress falls to each generation, and now it’s our turn.

This is who invented Trans Day of Visibility.

No cheating, comment the year 🗣️

My Critical Needs Budget proposed to the General Assembly would: 🏫Increase starting teacher pay by 13%, putting us on path to have highest starting teacher pay in the southeast 📚Increase average teacher pay by nearly 6% 📓 Restore master’s degree pay ✏️Increase compensation for experienced teachers and school personnel

A major issue brewing in our state legislature today is over what to do about property taxes in North Carolina. Pretty much since forever, property taxes have always been decided on the local, county level. Local elected officials - each county’s Board of Commissioners - sets its own property tax rate based on whatever it is their local voters want and need. But now, that might change. The leaders of North Carolina’s state legislature are now considering whether to take away local counties’ ability to set their own property taxes based on local needs, and lock them into a formula - set and controlled, of course, by the state legislature. For almost 150 years, voters in North Carolina have decided their own local property tax rates through local elections. Don't like your property taxes? Go elect some different county commissioners. People do it all the time. After all, it just makes sense that the people of Polk, Cabarrus, Clay, Wake, Bladen or Gates counties choose different tax rates, since the counties are all very different themselves. Local elected officials, who are closest to their voters, are usually the best-informed about their needs. But the leaders of North Carolina's state legislature are no fans of local control. Many of them seem to be of the mind that they - not the local voters most affected - should decide the matter. Through some combination of levy limits and/or assessment caps, state lawmakers may soon end North Carolina’s 150-year tradition of local control over property taxation. Here’s something for everyone to consider, though: it’s easy for our centralized state government to take power away from local counties. It’s very hard to give it back, and it doesn’t often happen. Power flows from the pursestrings. When counties’ ability to raise revenue is limited, they’ll become more reliant on the state legislature. More and more counties will need to pay for lobbyists to prowl the halls of our legislature; county commissioners will need to spend more time in Raleigh pleading their cases. Local elections matter. Tomorrow, they may just matter a little less.