LEGISLATIVE NEWSLETTER

July 3, 2014
THE LEFTS MISCONCEPTIONS
Theyre at it again. Liberals are parading the state, flooding our
inboxes, and taking to the airwaves to distort the record of the
Republican General Assembly. Just this week, I received a
fundraising email from Senator Josh Steins reelection campaign.
Why I receive emails from his campaign surely beats me, but I did
find it interesting to read how many fibs he shares with his email
subscribers.
In his email, Stein claims that the Senate Budget cuts $390 million
from public education. This is downright false. The Republican
General Assembly has actually spent more on education than our
Democratic predecessors.
Just look at the graph below. It shows the amount spent on public
education in North Carolina since 2009, including K-12, community
colleges, and the UNC system:


SENATOR NEAL HUNT
Proudly Representing Wake
County in the North Carolina
Senate
15
th
District

LEGISLATIVE OFFICE
300 N. Salisbury Street,
Room 309
Raleigh, NC 27603
(919)733-5850
Neal.Hunt@ncleg.net

DISTRICT OFFICE
2600 Fairview Road
Raleigh, NC 27608
(919)781-3464
10,200,000,000
10,400,000,000
10,600,000,000
10,800,000,000
11,000,000,000
11,200,000,000
11,400,000,000
11,600,000,000
11,800,000,000
2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15
Total State Funding to Public Schools
(K-12, Community Colleges, UNC)
Democratic General Assembly and a Democratic governor
Republican General Assembly and a Democratic governor
Republican General Assembly and a Republican Governor
If Sen. Steins email is specifically referring to cuts to public K-12
schools, heres a graph that even refutes that claim:

Democratic General Assembly and a Democratic governor
Republican General Assembly and a Democratic governor
Republican General Assembly and a Republican Governor
As you can see in both of these graphs, it was the Democratic
majority that cut funding for public education. The Republican
majority increased public education spending at record levels. Even
though the continuation budget hasnt been finalized yet, both the
House and Senate versions spend record levels on public education
this year.
In addition, both the House and Senate budgets provide raises for
our teachers and state employees, salaries which the Democrats
froze in 2009 when they were in the majority. Republicans gave
teachers a raise in 2012. This year, we plan to raise teacher
salaries again.
Further into his email, Stein claims that tea party folks created a
$500 million holeby granting tax giveaways to millionaires. First
of all, Stein seems to forget about the holes the Democrats left
Republicans when we took the majority in 2011. It must be so easy
for Josh Stein and his fellow Democrats to forget they left us with a
$2.5 billion budget hole, a nearly bankrupt state health plan, an
underfunded state retirement system, and a $2 billion hole for
info@nealhunt.com



STANDING COMMITTEES
Appropriations, Co-Chair
Commerce
Finance
Health Care
Program Evaluation
Redistricting
Transportation

VOTING RECORD

BILLS INTRODUCED


6,600,000,000
6,800,000,000
7,000,000,000
7,200,000,000
7,400,000,000
7,600,000,000
7,800,000,000
8,000,000,000
8,200,000,000
2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15
Total State Funding to K-12 Public Schools
unemployment compensation.
Secondly, the tax cuts we passed last year dont simply benefit one
subset of our states population like Stein would have you believe.
Rather, we cut taxes for all North Carolina citizens and businesses.
Our tax reform law reduced the state personal income tax rate from
7.75 percent to a flat 5.8 percent in 2014 and 5.75 percent in 2015.
The corporate tax is cut from 6.9 to 5.0 percent by 2015.
Thirdly, we believe the key to economic prosperity is to allow our
hardworking citizens to keep more of their hard-earned money
instead of forking it over to the government. When people have
disposable income, they spend it. When they spend it, our economy
gets moving. It generates revenue for large and small businesses, it
increases a companys ability to hire more employees, it lowers our
unemployment rate, and it generates state revenue via our sales
tax.
Weve been down the liberals big government route before. That
route leads to record unemployment rates, massive unemployment
compensation payments, outrageously high tax rates, less dollars in
our classrooms, frozen teacher salaries, and billions in state debt.

Giving an interview regarding the budget with NBC 17 after a Senate
Appropriations Committee meeting
COAL ASH BILL PASSES SENATE, BUDGET CONFEREES
MEETING
In other news, the Senate unanimously passed legislation to close
every coal ash pond in the state and to ensure North Carolina has
the strictest regulations on coal ash in the nation. The bill sets a firm
15-year deadline for dewatering and closing all unlined coal ash
ponds in North Carolina and designates four sites (Dan River,
Asheville, Riverbend, and Sutton) to be evacuated and closed as
quickly as practicable, yet no later than 2019.
I have been appointed to the conference committee to settle the
differences between the House and Senate budgets. Some
progress has been made, but until we can find the appropriate dollar
amount to fund Medicaid, it will take a while. This expensive
entitlement program continues to strain our states resources each
year and the Affordable Care Acts implementation has only made it
worse as new people come out of the woodwork and enroll in
Medicaid.
THANK YOU
As always, thank you for the opportunity to let me serve you in the
North Carolina Senate! If you have any questions or concerns,
please feel free to contact my office for assistance.
I hope you and your family have a happy and safe Fourth of July!
Sincerely,

Neal Hunt

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