Read This Archive

After Labor Day, Congress will return to Capitol Hill to try once again to pass legislation that will help to move the economy forward. One piece of unfinished business is the extension of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Emergency Fund. The TANF Emergency Fund was included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and provided $5 billion to help states serve families seeking employment and requiring additional work supports during these difficult economic times. The fund will expire on September 30th if Congress doesn’t act before then to extend it.

When Congress returns from its August recess in September, one of the most important issues facing members will be how to address the coming expiration of several major tax policy changes implemented over the course of the last decade. The choice of which tax policies to extend, change or eliminate will have far-reachingconsequences here in North Carolina and across the country.

Social Security marks its 75th anniversary this weekend. On Aug. 14, 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law, and since then the program has had a vital role in reducing poverty. According to analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, without Social Security 19.8 million more Americans would be poor.

A recent report by Action for Children North Carolina finds that too many Latino children in North Carolina are denied access to health care, high quality education, safety, and family economic security. The report compares the well-being of Latino children with the general child population of the state and considers whether individual indicators of child well-being have worsened or improved for Latino children over the past few years.

What Americans Want From Their Federal Government

Public confidence in government is at an all-time low, according to a major new survey commissioned by the Center for American Progress. And yet clear majorities of Americans of all ages want and expect more federal involvement in priority areas such as energy, poverty, and education, the poll found.

The Great Recession has increased demand for services at the same time that it has reduced available revenue, putting pressure on our public systems at the exact time when their rapid response is critical to the state’s economic recovery. Heading into this year’s budget process, policymakers in North Carolina were facing a budget shortfall of $1.2 billion, $703 million due to a downward revision of the revenue forecast and $539 million due to increased costs to maintain state services.

Polls may indicate that voters are in a mood to toss out members of Congress, but early results from the all-important money race show that political donors - especially special-interest PACs -still heavily favor the candidate in office, not the challenger.

The expiration of the special unemployment compensation provisions enacted earlier in the recession has brought the problems of long-term unemployment and the role of unemployment compensation to the fore. The June unemployment rate was 9.5%, and 45.5% of the unemployed have been seeking work for more than six months. Roughly a quarter of the unemployed have been jobless for more than a year.

While nearly two-thirds of all school districts have used the federal stimulus money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to save or create teaching jobs in the 2009-10 school year, as many as three-quarters of the nation’s school districts expect to cut teaching jobs in 2010-11 due to budget decreases, according to a new survey of districts released this week by the Center on Education Policy (CEP).

Conservative lawmakers and Wall Street lobbyists are waging a last-ditch effort to convince a few wavering senators to vote against the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the financial regulatory reform bill, when it comes up for a vote later this week. The legislation, which emerged from a congressional conference committee last month, was already approved by the House of Representatives. This means that there is just one more vote left before the bill reaches President Barack Obama’s desk.

FY 2010-11 State Budget Sets Spending at Its Lowest Level in 14 Years

State spending has fallen to its lowest level in 14 years, a new report from the NC Justice Center’s Budget & Tax Center finds. The report says that passage of the new budget reflects the gradual erosion of the state’s tax base and a deep, prolonged recession.

Those who are blaming states for their severe budget shortfalls and arguing that Congress shouldn’t provide much-needed assistance until states “clean up their act” are wrong on both counts.

For two whole weeks, three brave young women have shared their stories with thousands of people.

National reform will not upend the way North Carolinians obtain insurance or health care. Most
people will still receive coverage through work or purchase a policy from a private insurer on the individual market. Seniors will still get their guaranteed Medicare benefits. Nevertheless, reform is a revolutionary shift in how we think about health care. No longer will we focus on whether or not a particular person qualifies for a public program or is eligible for private insurance. Instead, we will work to find where different individuals fit into the system. It will be assumed that every one qualifies for coverage.

Gutting North Carolina’s ability to collect from corporations that deliberately underreport their in-state earnings would hurt small businesses and drain revenue from the state, according to a new report by the NC Budget & Tax Center.