In a joint press release, Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, renewed their call for a public debate with Gov. Bev Perdue over budget cuts:
As Gov. Bev Perdue launches a statewide push to raise taxes again on working families by more than $800 million, Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger and House Speaker Thom Tillis on Tuesday renewed their call for a public debate on taxes and public education.
Legislative leaders believe Perdue’s proposal to raise taxes on struggling North Carolina citizens and businesses will kill jobs and halt economic recovery. They also disagree with the governor’s misinformation campaign on public education spending. The bipartisan budget the General Assembly passed last summer restored more than 2,000 of the state-funded teaching positions cut under Perdue’s leadership. The governor and left-wing organizations have exhausted their credibility predicting doomsday education scenarios that never happen.
“Even Gov. Perdue’s spin machine can’t change the fact that our budget funds more teachers at the state level than any of the budgets she signed – and it does so without raising taxes,” said Berger. “Instead of crossing the state reciting false talking points to TV cameras, Gov. Perdue owes it to her constituents to engage in a substantive, open dialogue with the leaders of the legislature. If she’s really serious about working across the aisle to do what’s best for our children, then she will agree to a public debate on this very important issue.”
