Governor McCrory Helps Tar Heel State By Signing Unemployment Bill

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Lili Kiefer, Writer
February 23, 2013
Filed under Politics

New Governor Pat  McCrory  signed an unemployment insurance overhaul bill into law. This bill is designed  to repay $2.5 billion of our state debt to the federal government. The bill will do this by cutting weekly unemployment job benefits by at least one-third and by raising business taxes.

McCrory claimed during his State of the State Address on Monday that, “The bill will protect small businesses from ongoing over-taxation within the state and protect the unemployment safety net.”  It is well known that North Carolina is not only a state currently with high employment but also has a large state debt. The state, as of right now, owes the federal government over two billion dollars.

According to Dr. Michael Bitzer, who is a political science professor at Catawba College, “The biggest issue during McCrory’s term is going to be the tax reform issue. He campaigned very strongly on that.”   While the state tax system is also another priority on the Governor’s agenda, several Republicans have already urged that he eliminate the income tax. Dr. Bitzer suggests here that: “If that is shifted to a sales state tax, that may hurt lower income people just as hard if not harder.”

The Governor also stated in his Monday night State of the State address that this bill “will help the state to stop taking federal money, and focus on paying it back.”

McCrory also  claimed during his address that while in office he was going to focus  in areas such as education and better efficiency in state governmental services. He claimed that, when it comes to education, “North Carolina has good efficiency on higher education, but that efficiency of education lacks within the lower grades.”

McCrory continued to urge the need for improvement of education in lower grades by claiming, “Unfortunately, last year at least 14,000 kids dropped out of North Carolina high schools.”

The Governor, at this point, appears to have a lot on his plate, but seems to be more than willing to make positive change in the Tar Heel State.