Civitas, Carolina Rising Want to Know Who Supports Barber’s Expensive Radical Agenda

Will Lawmakers Sign Up on Monday?

North Carolina lawmakers and “Moral Monday” leaders will be offered on Monday the opportunity to endorse NAACP President William Barber’s call for a 50 percent increase in state spending.

During Monday’s protest (4:30 – 6:30 p.m.) lawmakers, “Moral Monday” protest leaders, and protesters will be able to sign a large, poster-board petition supporting Barber’s demands for dramatically higher spending and the enormous tax increases to support it.

The Civitas Institute and Carolina Rising are asking state legislators if they support the “people’s agenda” offered up by Barber and his “Moral Monday” followers – along with its price tag estimated as high as $10 billion.

According to research by nonpartisan General Assembly staff and the Civitas Institute, estimates of the cost to taxpayers of a partial list of the protesters’ demands now reach an eye-popping $7- $10 billion dollars every year. That would mark a whopping 50 percent increase in the state budget.

“To fund the ‘Moral Monday’ demands every man, woman and child in North Carolina would face roughly an additional $1,000 in taxes every year,” said Civitas President Francis De Luca. “That amounts to adding another $4,000 in taxes to the tax bill of each family of four.”

Up until now, Barber and his followers have freely voiced demands for growing state government programs. Now, however, there is a rough estimate of what these demands would actually cost North Carolina taxpayers.

“It’s easy to make demands that others will pay for,” said Carolina Rising President Dallas Woodhouse. “But now that we have a price tag, how many ‘Moral Monday’ leaders and state legislators will still support this costly agenda?”

Barber and protest leaders have yet to indicate any plan for how their demands would be paid for.

“Adopting such a massive increase in spending would require tax increases that would cripple North Carolina’s economy and cost thousands of jobs,” added De Luca.

“It’s time legislators step up and clarify for the voters who supports Barber’s radical ‘people’s agenda’ and who does not,” concluded Woodhouse.

Demand	Cost to Taxpayers (Increased Spending)
Bring NC teachers’ average salary up to national average	$1.05B in 1st yr.
Accept Medicaid expansion under Obamacare	$3.1B over ten years
Revoke Unemployment Insurance reform	$3.6B over five years ($405 million in 2014)
Fully fund all programs designed to aid at-risk, disadvantaged students	$142 million/yr.
Hire special leadership teams of 3-5 experts in each school found “in violation of the Constitution” to re-engage young people and their parents in the educational process	$7.6 million/yr.
Continue to increase the state earned income tax credit	$108 million/yr
Construct a monument honoring African-Americans on the grounds of the State Capitol	$400,000
Double need-based financial aid for historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs)	$39 million/yr
Appropriate $50 million to the N.C. Housing Trust Fund	$50 million
Health care for all North Carolinians, regardless of immigration status	$6.8B/yr
Medicaid expansion under Obamacare	$14 million (this is first year net impact, long-term impact will be about $3.1B cost over 10 years – see above)
Expand Pre-K program to meet Leandro requirements	$173 million/yr.
Triple funding for Office of Minority Health	$9.6 million/yr.
Establish Department of Human Rights	$4.7 million/yr.
Double funding for state’s nonprofit minority, community economic development “package”	$32 million/yr.
Increase funding for worker training and education programs by 50%	$360 million/yr.
Double affordable housing program	$14 million/yr.
Equalize per student funding for HBCU students to all other UNC institutions	$46 million/yr.
Subsidize child care for families on waiting list	$225 million/yr.
Create Youth Environmental Service Corps	$10.8 million/yr.
Establish 1898 Wilmington Race Riots and 1979 Greensboro massacre reparations commission	$20 million
TOTAL IMPACT	$9.48 Billion
Repeal 2013 Tax Reform	Cost taxpayers additional $500 million in 1st year ($2.4B over 5 years)