Civitas reported that Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger’s office had requested a list of specific policy recommendations from William Barber, who has been championing the Moral Monday protests. Barber replied, and Civitas ran a preliminary estimate of costs, arriving at $10 billion for one year. After adding in data that was not available, actuals can only go higher. Since North Carolina only has four billionaires, Civitas suggested giving each man, woman, and child in the state an extra $1000 tax bill. Nobody wanted to sign the petition to do this at a June 23 Moral Monday protest.

Now, we could be reasonable and eliminate that request for providing free healthcare for every man, woman, and child in the state, regardless of citizenship. It was given a price tag of $6.8 billion a year, but we know what sick people in other states would do with that. So, we’ll just leave provision of free healthcare to the federal government, and then we need only bill every man, woman, and child for $300-ish. But that wouldn’t be fair to all the low-and middle-class people victimized by not having Barber’s amendments.

Other requests were for bringing teacher salaries up to national averages (This would cost just over $1 billion for the first year. With a population of about 10 million, and assuming an average family size of four, a teacher could write herself a check for $400 and save the administrative costs.), creating a Youth Environmental Service Corps, doubling the state’s affordable housing program, establishing a Department of Human Rights, and expanding Medicaid.

Asheville’s next Moral Monday protest is scheduled to take place at Pack Square from 5-6:30 p.m., August 4. “It must have been a Tuesday.”