Skip to content
The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen
Menu
  • Home
  • News
  • Community
  • Schools
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Obituaries
  • Sports
  • Mill
  • Flora
  • Print Archive
  • About
Menu

Balanced effort needed for NC’s children

Posted on February 19, 2009 by Staff

By Rob Thompson

North Carolina’s children are in a tough spot.

With a massive budget shortfall this year and an even larger shortfall projected for the next fiscal year, all public programs are on the chopping block – including vital public programs that ensure our children grow up safe, healthy and well educated.

Child advocates tend to criticize those in power for not doing enough to ensure the well-being of our children, and I think we’re usually right. However, North Carolina has made positive investments in families and children over past decades – public schools, early childhood care, abuse prevention, children’s health care and many others. In short, we have been at our best when we’ve pulled together to build for the common good. We have created and protected these assets over many years, because they are the programs that provide all children with the opportunity to thrive now and in the future.

We must bring that community spirit to bear once again. North Carolina is currently faced with new economic pressures from the global economy, which, coupled with an outdated state revenue system, threaten our past progress. Absent assertive action to build upon our investments in children and families, North Carolina risks losing much of what it has gained.

Unfortunately, the rhetoric of many of our state’s leaders suggests that we simply need to “trim the fat” off of supposedly bloated state programs to solve the budget crisis we confront. If we pursue that course of action in the face of a potential $3 billion budget shortfall, we’ll tear apart the fabric that supports all of North Carolina’s children and families.

We need a balanced solution. While we must make wise, cost-saving budget choices, the fundamental root of North Carolina’s fiscal troubles lies in how it collects revenue. For instance, large, multi-state corporations often pay little or no taxes on their income by taking advantage of loopholes in our tax code (these loopholes also put small businesses at a competitive disadvantage). Furthermore, we don’t collect revenues on services, even though they account for the majority of our state’s consumption.

The state’s antiquated, inefficient and volatile revenue system plays an enormous role in the current fiscal crisis and, in turn, our ability to maintain the continuum of public systems and infrastructure that support our communities.

In the end, we must find a way to preserve permanently the collective investments we’ve made in our families and children. By combining wise choices on the spending side with a modernized revenue system, we can build upon the programs that make North Carolina a great place to raise a family. It is our responsibility to make wise decisions now, so that our next generation has the opportunity to grow to enjoy shared prosperity in the future.

Rob Thompson is the executive director of the Covenant with North Carolina’s Children.

Web Archive

© 2025 The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme