public investments
Reaping what anti-government policies have sown: North Carolina’s chronic public employee shortage wasn’t an accident
The much-faster-than-expected economic recovery that’s followed the easing of the COVID-19 pandemic has produced several encouraging developments in the United States: low unemployment, rising wages, strong corporate profits, flattened or even falling poverty rates – just to name a few. And while the global spike in inflation that resulted from supply chain issues, CEO wealth grabs, and Russia’s war on Ukraine has taken a big toll on most households, that phenomenon has, thankfully, slowed significantly of late.
States that limit business with banks that ‘boycott’ fossil fuels could pay high cost, study says
Republican state policymakers’ efforts to boost fossil fuels by prohibiting their governments from doing business with companies that take sustainability into consideration has the potential to cost states millions, according to a study released Thursday. Researchers looked specifically at the possible effects on Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and West Virginia if they passed Texas-like legislation limiting investment options on municipal bonds and found it could cost them between $264 and $708 million...
NC Treasurer puts politics ahead of humanity’s future
Can morality play a role in capitalism? Should it? Human society has, of course, wrestled with this dilemma for centuries. For some market fundamentalists on the ideological right, all morality – at least when it comes to the roles of investors and consumers – is to be found in profits and bargains.
Republicans have no inflation policy, but they’re loving inflation politics
“Sky-high inflation,” said (Nevada U.S. Senate candidate) Adam Laxalt, while rattling off “failures of Joe Biden’s agenda” in a statement to CNN. Citing “historically bad inflation” while hammering the Democrats’ Build Back Better agenda, the National Republican Senatorial Committee says “vulnerable Democrats like … Catherine Cortez Masto have already made clear where they stand: they’re […]
Several days late and billions of dollars short: Another untimely and inadequate budget takes shape at the General Assembly
The North Carolina House finally approved a proposed budget bill last week for the fiscal year that began six weeks ago. Now comes a period of negotiation with the Senate, which passed its version a few weeks before, and after that one hopes, some measure of legitimate give and take with Gov. Cooper.
Disaster in Texas is a reminder of the greatest threat to our freedom
Americans have always been, in many respects, an optimistic and forward-looking people. Ours, happily, is not a nation overly obsessed with settling old international scores and grudges or constantly addressing perceived slights from past adversaries. One flip side to this admirable tendency, however, is what frequently amounts to a short collective memory.
N.C.’s public health investments lag behind population growth
This past Saturday concluded National Public Health Week 2019, which makes this a good time to revisit the level of investments that North Carolina leaders have made in public health and other areas that are known to affect health. Last September, we highlighted the ways that public investments are tied to improved health outcomes. A […]
Berger-Moore spending target locks in current, failed path
House and Senate leaders have agreed to a spending target that will guide the development of both chambers’ two-year budget proposals this year before they have fully catalogued the needs in communities and discussed the smart public investments that help communities thrive. While the proposed target of $24 billion dollars represents a year-over-year increase, it […]