PRESS RELEASE | FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THE OFFICE OF SENATOR KIRK DEVIERE
THE NORTH CAROLINA SENATE
Contact: Lorenzo Pedro | DeVIereLA@ncleg.net or (828) 390-9413
RALEIGH, NC – On Thursday, May 30th, Senator Kirk deViere continued fighting for access to affordable health care, investing in our teacher and public education system, and clean water and air by voting against the Senate’s version of HB-966 “2019 Appropriations Act”. “This budget doesn’t Expand Medicaid which would provide 500,000 citizens and over 23,000 veterans access to affordable healthcare, it continues to disrespect our teachers, retirees and students, provides yet another tax break for the big corporations and the well connected, and doesn’t fund DEQ to battle our GenX issue as well as other emerging contaminants” said deViere. The Senator believes in investing in our state at this critical time when we see our rural communities hurting, our poverty rate continuing to grow, and our wage growth for working families stagnant. This 400+ page, 24 billion dollar budget was released on Tuesday, May 28th at 1:30PM and less than 24 hours was given for input by members of the senate or the public. Senate Democratic members offered several amendments to try to make this budget better for working families but Republican leaders stalled all these efforts. “This is not how government should work” said deViere. He believes that North Carolinians deserve a transparent, open, and citizen driven government and this budget process once again shows that the Senate Republican leadership continues their political gamesmanship with a short sided approach to address the real problems facing families across our state. Senator deViere stands with Governor Cooper as he continues to fight for a budget that works for all North Carolinians, not just a few.
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