Even though summer has just begun, many families are already looking towards the upcoming school year, wanting to ensure their children...

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Hi there,

Even though summer has just begun, many families are already looking towards the upcoming school year, wanting to ensure their children have everything they need: new supplies, clothes that fit, and the ability to start the year off on the right foot.

But for thousands of North Carolina families, they are only focused on one thing: “Where is the promised Opportunity Scholarship?”

This year, a record 72,000 families applied for Opportunity Scholarships ([link removed]) . But nearly 40,000 of these families don’t know where their children will go to school this fall, because lawmakers in the House are kicking the can down the road andwaiting until the end of the summer to fund this essential program ([link removed]) .

At this point you probably want to know what Opportunity Scholarships are. They’re astatewide ([link removed]) educational program that “provid[es] state-funded vouchers worth up to nearly $7,500 in 2024-25 to help cover the cost of tuition and fees at participating private schools.” (And fortunately last year, North Carolina lawmakers expanded ([link removed]) the program. They made every family eligible for this potentially life-changing program!)

That seems great, right? So what’s the holdup?
* Well, a lot of North Carolina families applied for the program, and like we said, it isn’t fully funded yet…
+ That means that families who applied might not get a scholarship for their kid(s)
* And even worse, Governor Cooper continuously attacks Opportunity Scholarships.
+ He falsely claimed they rob public schools of money
+ And many believe the governor would veto funding
+ This would not give the program enough money to go on… let alone expand in order to meet its growing demand

Is the governor right? Or is he putting teachers unions first?
* Polling ([link removed]) consistently shows high support for school choice programs.

But for some reason the State House hasn’t fully funded a program ⅔ of North Carolinians support! ([link removed])
* So despite the fact that school is only a little over a month away, thousands of families’ plans for the next school year are still in flux
+ And that creates a lot of additional stress for moms, dads, grandparents, and family members that provide support
* On top of hurting our families, that delay also hurts our schools
+ Right now school administrators and teachers don’t know:
o How many new students they’ll get (i.e. how big will classrooms be)
o How many students they lost
o How many teachers they need
* There’s also a political point to be made here: not funding the Opportunity Scholarships is bad for state legislators.
+ Last fall, the House and Senate both basked in the praise they received for standing with ⅔ of North Carolina voters and expanding educational options for parents.
+ But promising voters access to better schools, then not following through, is not going to make North Carolina parents happy!

So what needs to happen?

The House needs to make a decision on funding the Opportunity Scholarship Program and not wait to simply include it in the budget.

They need to pass the funding now, and be ready to override a veto from the Governor’s office if he chooses to go against the people of North Carolina and not support families in need.

If you’d like, you can learn more about Opportunity Scholarships here ([link removed]) , and you can join us and tell your legislator to fully fund Opportunity Scholarships by going here. ([link removed])

Esse quam videri,
Brooke Medina


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** More from Locke
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1. 🎰🎰🎰Tax Revenue from Online Sports Betting Exceeds Expectations: Where Will the Money Go? ([link removed])

What’s Going?
* Earlier this year, North Carolina became the 30th state to legalize online sports betting
* From March to May, sports betting companies licensed in the state earned approximately $234.8 million ([link removed]) in gross revenue.
+ This figure was a lot more than $8.5 million projected

What’s this mean for our tax revenue?
* Well the 2024-2025 year expected NC would get about $36.1 million in tax revenue
* And it turns out that we’ve already exceeded what we thought NC would get in the next two years combined
* In fact, if things keep going the way they are, we can expect to get approximately $188 million in tax revenue next year… that’s a lot of money

So what’s going to happen with all of that money?
* Well that means $8.4 million will help:
+ The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) support gambling addiction education and treatment programs
+ The North Carolina Amateur Sports to expand youth sports opportunities
+ The North Carolina Outdoor Heritage Advisory Council
+ The athletic departments in the UNC system (No comment on which school I think should get more)

Any tax revenue collected exceeding $8.4 million will be apportioned to the following domains:
* 20 percent goes to each of the UNC athletic departments
* another 30 percent goes to the NC Major Events, Games, & Attractions Fund
* 50 percent goes into the state’s general fund

Based on the current state law outlined above, this would provide nearly $90 million to the state’s General Fund. Get a more detailed breakdown here! ([link removed])
2. 💸💸💸North Carolina Voters Should Get the Opportunity to Lower the Cap on their Taxes ([link removed])

What’s going on?
* During the 2018 election, voters made their voices heard when they approved an amendment on the ballot that decreased the income cap tax to 7 percent
* This didn’t cut taxes… instead it created a ceiling for your income taxes (they can’t go higher than 7%)
* Recently, leaders in the NC Senate proposed lowering the maximum from 7 to 5 percent

So why don’t (some) people want to guarantee their taxes can’t spike?
* Some left-wing legislators and activists claim the tax favors the wealthy
* On top of that, some of the same people think tax paying citizens (like you) should not be allowed to vote for lower maximum taxes, implying that you don't know what's in your best interest

So what are the facts?
* Look at the facts. In 2021, North Carolina households earning more than $200,000 per year only represented 8.4 percent of all taxpayers
* They paid 50.6 percent of all income tax revenue collected by the state
* So that kind of debunks the attacks on the “wealthy”
* The real problem is that opponents of the tax cuts think this $13 billion is theirs
* They think that letting you keep more of the money you earned through your own hard work is taking the government’s $13 billion
* They don’t get that it’s just letting people like you and I keep a little bit more of the money we worked so hard to get
* The proposed reduction in the maximum income tax from 7 percent to 5 percent is supported by common sense economics, aligns with the state’s Constitution, and benefits all taxpayers, regardless of identity or income

Get a full breakdown here ([link removed]) .
3. 🗳️🗳️🗳️Pull Back the Curtain on North Carolina’s Campaign Finances ([link removed])

What’s going on?
* Campaign finance law changes in the HB237 conference report got a lot of attention from the media and the public.
* Democrats and Gov. Roy Cooper opposed these changes
+ They said they create a loophole for “secret, unlimited campaign money”
+ They think it keeps voters ignorant about some campaign donations

Why is this important?
* Well, a lot of the people criticizing this legislation don’t really understand what’s going on today…
+ While Democrats attacked the changes, claiming that they would reduce voter transparency, they benefit from the current system
o In fact Gov. Cooper received $12.7 from the Democratic Leadership Committee in 2020
* Billionaires (including Democrat billionaires) already put unlimited amounts of money into elections through political parties and the status quo has a lot of problems that we need to fix
+ One obvious problem that everyone should fix is requiring that people submit actual data instead of an non-searchable image file…that simple unobtrusive (and reasonable step) would comply with our first amendment rights AND encourage transparency

See our full breakdown of the proposed bill here ([link removed])


** Defining Digit
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40%
The amount of state debt retired by conservative leadership ([link removed])

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