The General Assembly leaders meeting to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions of the budget are working with two deeply flawed proposals. As our friend Chris Fitzsimon at NC Policy Watch explains, the plans range from spiteful to dishonest. He writes in part: Senate leaders included breathtakingly bad policy decisions in their budget including one provision taking food benefits fully funded by the federal government away from 133,000 people and another that bans wind farms in the state. The already bad Senate plan was made even worse in…
Now what? Staying Engaged and Grow the Interfaith Climate Movement
We were already living in a time of profound consequence. President Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement means that while the needs of our endangered climate are increasing, the response to global warming is diminishing at the national level. Our actions now, as climate conscious people of faith, matter more than ever. There are a few things you can do right now to help maximize our collective impact as North Carolina’s statewide multi-faith network committed to addressing climate change as a moral issue: Engage your interfaith climate conscious…
2018 Budget Proposal is the Antithesis of our Call
Plenty of analysis is already happening around the 2018 budget proposal out of the White House. The Washington Post provides two helpful graphics here and here. More is being written than most of us can fully absorb, but Politico offers a key observation: On close reading, the budget is less a credible attempt to eliminate, or even pay down, the U.S. debt and more an ideological policy agenda disguised as a program of fiscal responsibility. If the proposal is, as such plans are often described, a place to begin discussion…
Raleigh Report — May 10, 2017
By George Reed, Retired Executive Director [For more information on bills, including committee referrals and re-referrals, texts of bills, procedural histories, and recorded votes, go to the General Assembly website www.ncleg.net.] Newly Introduced Bills EDUCATION Three companion bills would impact food served in schools. H 891, Free Breakfast and Lunch in K-12 Public Schools, would provide funds ($200 million per year) to make free breakfast and free lunch available to all public school students who request it. It would also create a fund to which taxpayers could contribute through a…
The People’s Climate March — Called to Respond
Multi-faith pilgrims on a moral high road unified to honor God’s creation at the Peoples Climate March last month on the National Mall. The event, which came as a crescendo in a week of climate action, drew 200,000 people from every state, with broad support from more than 400 sister marches in the U.S. and around the world. Interfaith Power & Light was represented by more than 40 state affiliate groups. NCIPL led North Carolinians as part of the “Keepers of Faith” contingent. We expressed our deep concern from our…
Shepherds of Creation
Sermon preached on May 7, 2017 at Church of the Nativity, Raleigh. When I was in kindergarten, we memorized the 23rd Psalm. Of course, it was the King James Version, so different from what we read here today since we’ve all moved on to the modern translations that change so often we can’t keep up our memorization habits. Still, after all these years since kindergarten, I think if I had to do it, I could recite the 23rd Psalm for you in the King James Version. I also still recall…
Raleigh Report — April 26, 2017
By George Reed, Retired Executive Director [The deadlines for the introduction of most new bills have now passed, and we are in Crossover Week. By the end of the week, most non-money bills (i.e., not taxes, fees, or appropriations) must have passed one house in order to remain alive for this session. There are exceptions, and those exceptions can sometimes be used creatively by legislative leaders to keep bills alive. For more information on bills, including committee referrals and re-referrals, texts of bills, procedural histories, and recorded votes, go to…
Science Must Matter to People of Faith
Crowds are gathered on this Earth Day in Washington, D.C. and in cities across the country to march for science and protect the deeply held value of truth and facts. They are marching to defend the vital role science plays in our communities and our world. They are marching because science is not partisan; it is not liberal or conservative. And they are marching to demonstrate that our nation values the scientists and the scientific agencies working to make our world safer, cleaner, and healthier. Why should a science march…
Tax-Cut Fever Threatens Services
How many times do we have to say it? Well, it’s worth repeating – especially in the aftermath of recent income tax filing deadlines, when the subject becomes a sore point for many: None of us should have to pay more in taxes than our fair share in financing the necessary and desirable tasks of government. But what sounds like a clear-cut standard is of course complicated by a tangle of conflicting opinions and ideologies. What’s “fair,” “necessary” and “desirable”? Depends whom you ask. From the Council of Churches’ perspective,…
Raleigh Report — April 17, 2017
By George Reed, Retired Executive Director Newly Introduced Bills BUDGET AND TAXES H 540, Teachers & State Employees Pay Raise, would give annual raises of $2,400 to teachers and other state employees making less than $100,000/year. The bill would appropriate more than $700 million for the first year of these raises. Introduced by Reps. Malone (R-Wake Forest), Jordan (R-Jefferson), J. Bell (R-Goldsboro), and Hardister (R-Greensboro). Referred to House Appropriations. CHILDREN AND FAMILIES S 594/H 608, Family/Child Protection & Accountability Act, would require the state to develop a plan to divide…
Raleigh Report — April 10, 2017
By George Reed, Retired Executive Director Bills are being introduced at a rapid pace as the Senate’s deadline for new bills has passed and the House’s deadline on non-money approaches. This Raleigh Report and another one later in the week will try to catch up with the flood of bills. Newly Introduced Bills CHILDREN AND FAMILIES S 439, Eliminate NC Pre-K Waitlist Statewide, would appropriate $36 million over the next two fiscal years to eliminate the waiting list for the NC Pre-Kindergarten Program (formerly known as More at Four). Introduced…
Let NC Legislators Know You Care about Creation
NC Interfaith Power and Light’s lay and faith leader network is at the General Assembly on April 6 until 4 p.m. for their Advocating with Compassion Day. Even if you cannot be there to meet with your elected officials, please contact them to hear their visions for NC’s future and to express your support for new and existing clean, renewable, and energy efficient policies. Please call your elected leaders in the state legislature and let them know you are aware that NC Interfaith Power and Light is having this advocacy day…
Speak Out Against Anti-Climate Executive Order
This week, Donald Trump issued an executive order to turn back the clock on the climate progress we have made over the past decade. In addition to directing the EPA to dismantle the Clean Power Plan, this sweeping executive order also attempts to undo methane standards for oil and gas operations, stop federal agencies from considering the impact of climate change in their decisions, and open up federal lands for coal mining. The issues and impacts of climate change go to the heart of our spiritual values and our call to…
2017 Legislative Seminar — Thank You plus Worship and Awards Presentation Online
For those who could not be with us at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church in Raleigh, video from portions of the day is available on our Facebook page. The morning worship was led by the Revs. Jill and Rick Edens of United Church of Chapel Hill, and NCCC board member the Rev. Paula Dempsey provided music. Lisa Price and Congressman David Price received our Faith Active in Public Life Award, marking the first time the honor has been presented to a married couple. We hope those who joined us found…
Raleigh Report — March 26, 2017
By George Reed, Retired Executive Director Newly Introduced Bills BUDGET AND TAXATION H 356, Tax Reduction Act of 2017, would increase the standard deduction for state income taxes from $17,500 to $18,500 for married/filing jointly, and by comparable amounts for other tax statuses. Introduced by Reps. Szoka (R-Cumberland), Saine (R-Lincolnton), Brawley (R-Matthews), and S. Martin (R-Wilson). Referred to House Finance. S 325, Billion Dollar Middle Class Tax Cut. (Yes, that really is the bill’s short title.) Among the bill’s tax cuts: The personal income tax rate drops from 5.499% to…