Legislative Newsletters

June 20, 2008

Greetings again from Raleigh.

Last week the Senate passed a balanced budget that makes investments to strengthen the economy, to improve education, to increase access to affordable health care, and to make our state safer—all while remaining fiscally responsible. This budget is an investment in North Carolina’s future and I proudly supported it.

Here are some of the priorities we funded that may be of interest to you:

The budget strengthens our economy. The budget invests in critical economic-growth initiatives to help attract new jobs and employers and to help existing businesses grow and prosper, including small businesses. It invests in training our workforce to compete in the global economy with an emphasis on strengthening technology training at our community colleges and universities. The budget provides funds to help stabilize the housing market and help keep people from losing their homes to foreclosure and we are remaining fiscally responsible and not raising taxes.

The budget invests in education-from pre-kindergarten through college. The budget provides a 3% pay raise to teachers, reduces class sizes, funds initiatives to reduce the dropout rate and encourage students to stay in school, and expands More at Four high-quality pre-kindergarten education. It fully funds enrollment increases at state universities, allowing over 8,082 new students to attend this fall and funds building projects throughout the UNC System so that schools are equipped with the facilities to continue providing a world-class education.

The budget improves health care for children and for senior citizens. The budget helps uninsured children get access to medical care, providing free health care to low-income and uninsured patients, and provides in-home community health care for senior citizens. It also funds cutting-edge disease research to improve the health of the people of our state.

The budget will make our communities safer. It includes $10 million to help stop the spread of gangs in our state and restores funds for juvenile crime prevention. The budget starts a pilot technology program to help law enforcement agencies talk to each other to make sure offenders and probationers don’t fall through the cracks. It also provides funds to address illegal immigration and enforce sex offender laws, and assistance for victims of rape and domestic violence.

In a year of tight finances, I believe this budget is a sound blueprint for keeping North Carolina on the right track.

Additional information on the Senate budget can be found on the General Assembly’s website. Please feel free to review the budget report at the following link:

http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2007/Bills/House/PDF/H2436v7.pdf

As always, I welcome your feedback on the budget, or on any other issue that the General Assembly may consider. Thank you again for the opportunity to represent you in the Senate.

Yours very truly,

Joe Sam Queen

Representing the 47th Senate District of North Carolina

Avery, Haywood, Madison. McDowell, Mitchell, and Yancey

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Phone (919) 733-3460

Email: joeq@ncleg.net

Address: 16 West Jones Street

1117 Legislative Building

Raleigh, NC 27601-2808

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