LEGISLATIVE NEWSLETTER

July 3, 2014

THE LEFT’S MISCONCEPTIONS

They’re at it again. Liberals are parading the state, flooding our

inboxes, and taking to the airwaves to distort the record of the

Republican General Assembly. Just this week, I received a

fundraising email from Senator Josh Stein’s reelection campaign.

Why I receive emails from his campaign surely beats me, but I did

find it interesting to read how many fibs he shares with his email

subscribers.

In his email, Stein claims that the Senate Budget “cuts $390 million

from public education.” This is downright false. The Republican

General Assembly has actually spent more on education than our

Democratic predecessors.

Just look at the graph below. It shows the amount spent on public

education in North Carolina since 2009, including K-12, community

colleges, and the UNC system:

SENATOR NEAL HUNT

Proudly Representing Wake County in the North Carolina

Senate

15th District

LEGISLATIVE OFFICE

300 N. Salisbury Street,

Room 309

Raleigh, NC 27603

(919)733-5850

Neal.Hunt@ncleg.net

DISTRICT OFFICE

2600 Fairview Road

Raleigh, NC 27608

(919)781-3464 10,200,000,000

10,400,000,000

10,600,000,000

10,800,000,000

11,000,000,000

11,200,000,000

11,400,000,000

11,600,000,000

11,800,000,000

2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15

Total State Funding to Public Schools (K-12, Community Colleges, UNC)

Democratic General Assembly and a Democratic governor

Republican General Assembly and a Democratic governor

Republican General Assembly and a Republican Governor

If Sen. Stein’s email is specifically referring to “cuts” to public K-12

schools, here’s a graph that even refutes that claim:

Democratic General Assembly and a Democratic governor

Republican General Assembly and a Democratic governor

Republican General Assembly and a Republican Governor

As you can see in both of these graphs, it was the Democratic

majority that cut funding for public education. The Republican

majority increased public education spending at record levels. Even

though the continuation budget hasn’t been finalized yet, both the

House and Senate versions spend record levels on public education

this year.

In addition, both the House and Senate budgets provide raises for

our teachers and state employees, salaries which the Democrats

froze in 2009 when they were in the majority. Republicans gave

teachers a raise in 2012. This year, we plan to raise teacher

salaries again.

Further into his email, Stein claims that “tea party folks” created a

“$500 million hole…by granting tax giveaways to millionaires.” First

of all, Stein seems to forget about the holes the Democrats left

Republicans when we took the majority in 2011. It must be so easy

for Josh Stein and his fellow Democrats to forget they left us with a

$2.5 billion budget hole, a nearly bankrupt state health plan, an

underfunded state retirement system, and a $2 billion hole for

info@nealhunt.com

STANDING COMMITTEES

Appropriations, Co-Chair

Commerce

Finance

Health Care

Program Evaluation

Redistricting

Transportation

VOTING RECORD

BILLS INTRODUCED

6,600,000,000

6,800,000,000

7,000,000,000

7,200,000,000

7,400,000,000

7,600,000,000

7,800,000,000

8,000,000,000

8,200,000,000

2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15

Total State Funding to K-12 Public Schools

unemployment compensation.

Secondly, the tax cuts we passed last year don’t simply benefit one

subset of our state’s population like Stein would have you believe.

Rather, we cut taxes for all North Carolina citizens and businesses.

Our tax reform law reduced the state personal income tax rate from

7.75 percent to a flat 5.8 percent in 2014 and 5.75 percent in 2015.

The corporate tax is cut from 6.9 to 5.0 percent by 2015.

Thirdly, we believe the key to economic prosperity is to allow our

hardworking citizens to keep more of their hard-earned money

instead of forking it over to the government. When people have

disposable income, they spend it. When they spend it, our economy

gets moving. It generates revenue for large and small businesses, it

increases a company’s ability to hire more employees, it lowers our

unemployment rate, and it generates state revenue via our sales

tax.

We’ve been down the liberal’s big government route before. That

route leads to record unemployment rates, massive unemployment

compensation payments, outrageously high tax rates, less dollars in

our classrooms, frozen teacher salaries, and billions in state debt.

Giving an interview regarding the budget with NBC 17 after a Senate

Appropriations Committee meeting

COAL ASH BILL PASSES SENATE, BUDGET CONFEREES

MEETING

In other news, the Senate unanimously passed legislation to close

every coal ash pond in the state and to ensure North Carolina has

the strictest regulations on coal ash in the nation. The bill sets a firm

15-year deadline for dewatering and closing all unlined coal ash

ponds in North Carolina and designates four sites (Dan River,

Asheville, Riverbend, and Sutton) to be evacuated and closed as

quickly as practicable, yet no later than 2019.

I have been appointed to the conference committee to settle the

differences between the House and Senate budgets. Some

progress has been made, but until we can find the appropriate dollar

amount to fund Medicaid, it will take a while. This expensive

entitlement program continues to strain our state’s resources each

year and the Affordable Care Act’s implementation has only made it

worse as new people come out of the woodwork and enroll in

Medicaid.

THANK YOU

As always, thank you for the opportunity to let me serve you in the

North Carolina Senate! If you have any questions or concerns,

please feel free to contact my office for assistance.

I hope you and your family have a happy and safe Fourth of July!

Sincerely,

Neal Hunt

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