Representative Paul Tine Votes Against The Budget and Issues the Following Statement | Eastern North Carolina Now

News Release:

    Representative Paul Tine Votes Against The Budget and Issues the Following Statement

    This week I voted against a budget that would set North Carolina and the northeast back. The budget was a statement about priorities. The priorities dictated by this budget do not match up with what is best for our District or the people of North Carolina. While there are many areas of concern, the two main issues center on education and economic development in rural communities.

    Specifically, on education, there were major policy decisions that used the budget as a vehicle for implementation. Vouchers, a program that will take public money to fund private schools, is a policy decision. In our rural communities there is limited access to private accredited schools and I do not see how moving money out of public schools, at a time when we need to reinvent our education system, helps make us the best in the world at educating our children. Other negative provisions include the increase of class sizes, the defunding of teacher assistants and undercutting teachers who are currently in the process of getting their masters at their own expense who will no longer receive a pay raise.

    Instead of investing in retooling our education system and empowering our teachers, we made cuts and abdicated our state's constitutional responsibility to provide an education to private schools.

    This budget does not support job growth in our region. A well trained workforce, ready for jobs in the 21st century, cannot be achieved unless we focus on and actively support modernizing our education system. Investment in transportation infrastructure which is necessary to move the northeast forward is curtailed when we remove $166 million from our regional transportation budget to make room for statewide prioritized projects. As a result of these changes the funding for Currituck Bridge was also eliminated. The budget removes funding from the Golden Leaf, meant for rural economic development, and puts it in the general fund. In short, resources for infrastructure and investment in our rural communities are being redirected to our urban areas.

    I am pleased to let you know that the budget contains some corrections that I was able to negotiate. Ferry tolls will not see new tolls or an increase. Decision making will be brought out of Raleigh and put in the hands of our local officials. The NC Academy of Teachers in Ocracoke will stay open for at least one more year and the Roanoke Island Festival Park will maintain some funding. Finally the small county schools will keep their funding for 1 year while we work out a new formula. This saved Hyde County from a million dollars in cuts having to lay off 20% of their staff. These positives do not outweigh, however, the devastating affects to education and jobs development in our rural communities.

    Recently I and other legislators voted for a tax decrease in the state. This obviously puts additional strain on the budget. Creating balance between a healthy business environment and providing the necessary services for growth is the goal that I was seeking with this vote. When our revenue is reduced, however, we have choices in which programs we will treat as priorities. This budget still has the room to make the right choices but instead rural North Carolina's education and infrastructure were unfairly attacked. Again, this budget is about priorities and they simply did not match with our region's needs.


Office of Representative Paul Tine

District 6- Beaufort, Dare Hyde, Washington Counties
(919) 733-5906

Contact: Paul Tine (252) 305-5133    paul.tine@ncleg.net