Stein gives his first State of the State address to NC General Assembly

North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein gave his first State of the State address before the General Assembly Wednesday night expanding on many of the same points he talked about in his inauguration speech in January.

Keeping with the theme of “North Carolina Strong,” the recovery in western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene remained one of his focal points.

“Hurricane Helene and its horrific aftermath tested our state and our people in unprecedented ways,” he said. “The storm flooded western North Carolina, stealing too many lives from us and devastating too many communities, but in the days, weeks, and months that followed, I have seen, we have all seen that the state of our state is strong. North Carolina Strong and that’s because our people are strong.”

Stein, a Democrat, mentioned people like Ashley Cook of Minneapolis, Avery County, and her cousin Freddie Carpenter, who went to work clearing roads and then spent weeks hauling propane food tanks heaters, and anything that people needed despite suffering damage to her own home and changing her life.

He cited different examples of what he and his office have done to help speed along the recovery, including issuing his first two executive orders on his first day in office to cut red tape that focused on providing temporary housing units and repairing private bridges and roads.

Stein also gave an update on the North Carolina Department of Transporation’s efforts to reopen roads, including the stretch of I-40 that borders Tennessee, the hard work that organizations like Baptists on Mission and Habitat for Humanity have done to get people back into their homes and giving them a $6 million grant for their efforts.

He touched on a sobering statistic that after a major disaster, more than 40% of all affected small businesses never reopened their doors, and within two years, 60% had permanently closed.

“Folks, we cannot let that be our story here in North Carolina,” Stein said. “Small business is the beating heart of the economy of western North Carolina.”

He mentioned the state’s partnership with Dogwood Health Trust and the Duke Endowment to offer $35 million in grants to impacted small businesses.

With the $60 billion in damages, the costliest storm the Tar Heel State has ever seen, Stein said he is working with President Donald Trump in asking for billions more in federal funding and urged the General Assembly to pass the $535 million Helene Recovery bill, which he also said included funding for survivors of Hurricanes Matthew and Florence, almost a decade later who still do not have a home, in part due the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency’s (NCORR) botched efforts.

Former Gov. Roy Cooper created NCORR.

House Bill 47 stalled in the House Tuesday after the Senate sent back an amended version. Stein had asked the legislature for $1.1 billion.

Pivoting to other issues, he cited a need for skilled workers, including doubling the number of apprentices over the next four years. He proposed free community college for those seeking careers in high-demand sectors such as advanced manufacturing, healthcare, and IT.

In addition, Stein said he is also creating a council on workforce and apprenticeships.

He touched on the need for more housing, citing that North Carolina is the third fastest-growing state in the country after Texas and Florida, but the housing supply has not kept up to keep prices down, and the need for more affordable childcare, noting the Task Force for Child Care and Early Education that he created early this week.

Most of the address was fairly cordial until the subject of corporate income tax cuts came up, with Stein stating that the state is facing a ‘self-inflicted fiscal cliff.’

“We’re at a fork in the road when it comes to our budget,” he said. “We can go ahead with the nearly $10 billion in tax giveaways over the next four years mainly to the wealthy and to corporate shareholders, and by the way, very few of those shareholders are North Carolinians. Most of them aren’t even American, or we can help our neighbors recover from Hurricane Helene, invest in our public safety, and public schools, provide targeted tax cuts to support our working families, and keep up with the needs of our fast-growing population.”

Stein added that he had directed his budget office to set up an Impact Center to ensure people know how their taxpayer dollars are being spent.

Turning to education, he pointed out that North Carolina has the second-lowest starting salary for teachers in the southeast. He believes it should be the highest and that experienced teachers should also receive a pay raise.

Continuing on the same track as his predecessor Cooper, Stein took a jab at the Republican-led General Assembly’s passage of Opportunity Scholarships.

“We need to put public dollars toward our public schools,” he said. “North Carolina is 48th in the nation in per-pupil investment. Let that sink in, 48. We should not be taking money from our public school kids to pay wealthy parents sending their kids to unaccountable private schools to the tune of seven and a half billion dollars over the next decade.”

Opportunity Scholarships are awarded to families on a sliding scale based on household income, with the lowest-income families served first.

Stein also proposed:

• Free school breakfasts in schools across the state.
• A $4 billion public school bond for school buildings.
• More support staff, such as social workers, counselors, and psychologists, are also needed for students to improve their mental health.
• Banning cell phones in classrooms because they distract students with things like social media and disrupt teachers.

He said he was glad to see the bipartisan support for a Senate bill that would ban cell phone use during classroom time.

On the subject of public safety, Stein proposed salary increases and sign-on bonuses for law enforcement to combat the growing vacancies across the state.

He also called on the General Assembly to fund a Fentanyl Control Unit, something that he proposed for years when he was attorney general.

Stein said the issues that he addressed tonight weren’t red or blue issues, but are North Carolina issues, and although there may be differences of opinion, they can work together, as was seen two years ago when Republicans and Democrats came together on the subject of Medicaid Expansion and now, more than 640,000 people in the state now have healthcare. He called again for people, regardless of party, to stick together against the proposed Medicaid cuts being discussed in Washington D.C.

He wrapped up his speech by stating that when Republicans and Democrats come together, they have made big things happen and make a difference for the people of the state, and they can do it again by helping western North Carolina recover from the most damaging storm in the state’s history, grow the economy, make sure that the workforce meets the needs of the people and the businesses,  keep the communities safe, and put the state’s children first every time because the state of our state is strong.

“North Carolina Strong,” Stein said. “Our teachers make us strong. Our law enforcement officers make us strong. Our small business owners, farmers, vets, childcare workers, and community college students make us strong. You, the people of North Carolina make us strong. So, let’s come together and keep North Carolina strong.”

The Republican response by House Speaker Destin Hall will be in a forthcoming article.

The post Stein gives his first State of the State address to NC General Assembly first appeared on Carolina Journal.