Editorial: Rainy day's here. Roof's collapsed. It's time the legislature cleaned its mess

Tuesday, March 24, 2020 -- A decade of large corporate tax cuts, penny-pinching and cuts to education, basic health and other social service programs along with the failure to keep up with basic infrastructure needs (school construction and highway building) and maintenance has left North Carolina the poster child for seeing what under investment can do to a state. A rainy day fund won't even be enough. Legislators need to get together with the governor to agree upon and pass a budget that expands Medicaid and makes the necessary investments to address the BIG list of items that have been neglected for too long.

Posted 9:00 a.m. Mar 24, 2020 — Updated 12:04 p.m. Mar 24, 2020

CBC Editorial: Tuesday, March 24, 2020; Editorial #8524

The following is the opinion of Capitol Broadcasting Company.

North Carolina’s legislative leaders have been crowing about the state’s “rainy day” fund. Well, it is raining.

We are glad we have a rainy day fund. The unfortunate reality is that our rainy day fund will hardly begin to make up for the 10 years of neglect that has left the state and its people more vulnerable in this crisis. To complete the metaphor, our rainy day can’t undo the damage after the roof has caved-in and everything’s left in ruins.

A decade of large corporate tax cuts, penny-pinching and cuts to education, basic health and other social service programs along with the failure to keep up with basic infrastructure needs (school construction and highway building) and maintenance has left North Carolina the poster child for seeing what under investment can do to a state.

Legislators need to get together with the governor to agree upon and pass a budget that expands Medicaid and makes the necessary investments to address the BIG list of items that have been neglected for too long.

We’re glad to see the large balance in the state’s unemployment trust fund. It’s time to put it to work. Tens of thousands of workers, forced out of their jobs due to the very real life-and-death threat from the spread of COVID-19, are flooding an under-staffed and overly bureaucratic state unemployment system. More than 122,000 new unemployment claims were filed in a week – even with long wait times and technical glitches.

Before last week, a typical week was about 3,000 applications. Benefits need to be expanded and extended. Gov. Roy Cooper’s executive order is just a start. The legislature needs to work with the governor on changes that will assure workers they’ll get through this crisis and, in addition, develop a program to make sure employers – particularly small businesses – are in a position to get those employees back to work and on the payroll.

In this health crisis, the legislature’s stubborn refusal to expand Medicaid is even more nonsensical. The entire state is begging for this important aid to its citizens and healthcare facilities. Because this expansion wasn’t in place for all the years it could have been, it is likely there are many people with untreated chronic conditions that make them more susceptible to COVID-19.

Throughout the state North Carolinians are stepping up and speaking out with their actions. They’re following directives to keep their social distances; they’re keeping their school kids busy; they’re feeding neighbors and strangers who might otherwise be going hungry; they’re going out of their way to support businesses that have been forced to curtail their operations.

Is it too much to ask our legislators to stop stonewalling and start working with the governor to fix the unemployment system, expand Medicaid, invest in infrastructure and provide resources to our health care providers?

Hello? Anybody listening?

It’s raining out there.