Thread by @NC_Governor

Updates from Gov. Cooper’s briefing:

https://twitter.com/NC_Governor/status/1395076403662577668

This pandemic brought us a once-in-a-generation challenge. And these funds from the American Rescue Plan have brought us a once-in-a-generation opportunity. Let’s use them to make transformational change for our state.

Simply put, we can revolutionize North Carolina. We can train workers, educate students, connect communities and improve health. We’re building a bridge from response to recovery.

The American Rescue Plan is injecting billions in federal funds to North Carolina, including $5.7 billion for investment by state government. It’s time to seize this opportunity as we emerge from this crisis and build back stronger.

These investments must be smart, equitable and effective. We are prioritizing assisting families most impacted by the pandemic, upgrading our infrastructure, preparing our workforce and promoting business development and innovation.

This pandemic upended everyone’s lives. But we must leverage these funds to support those who have been hardest hit, and this budget recommends funding for the most basic needs, such as affordable housing and food security.

This budget includes another round of Extra Credit grants, a program started by Republican leaders in the legislature. This will help a lot of parents with direct grants of up to five hundred dollars. And it recommends funds to strengthen our education system.

Every child in North Carolina deserves a sound, basic education. More than that, they have a constitutional right to it. As the court affirmed in the Leandro case, we must do more to make this a reality for children regardless of race, background or zip code.

This includes expanding NC Pre-K and investing in home-based early childhood literacy interventions. And an important part of having better educated kids is recruiting and retaining qualified and quality educators.

This budget recommends funding to hire literacy coaches and strengthen teacher training that will also help many of them teach reading in more effective ways, as recommended in recent legislation. We also propose scholarship support to teachers to help keep them in our schools.

Our most ambitious recommendation is to connect everyone in this state together, and with the world, with high-speed internet. Having access to high-speed internet is more important than ever to learn, to get a job, to see a doctor, to start a business and to stay connected.

More than a million households in NC lack affordable, reliable access to the internet. Our recommended budget invests $1.2 billion to help close the digital divide by building infrastructure, making connection affordable and ensuring people can get a device & learn to use it.

It’s a truly comprehensive, well-planned approach that will aggressively close the gaps. These investments will ensure that every home with a school-aged child will have access to high-speed internet.

Our goal is that by 2025, North Carolina will be a national leader, ranking in the top 5 states for high-speed internet adoption. This must be a priority as we cannot lose this chance to close the digital divide.

There are other immediate needs we must address. More than a hundred communities in our state have aging water systems they can’t afford to fix. Many of them are getting some money directly from the federal government through the American Rescue Plan.

We have a plan to match state and local American Rescue Plan funds to rebuild these systems in a smart, regional way so families can have clean water and these small communities can attract more economic growth. And that economic growth depends on a well-trained workforce.

In 2019, I stood with bipartisan legislative leaders, university, community college & business leaders to promise that by 2030, we’d have 2 million more adults with a college degree or trade credential. With the American Rescue Plan, we can invest in our future to make it happen.

Our university, community college and independent colleges have been working with each other, the legislature and my office on a plan to use federal funds to give a guaranteed scholarship to more than 200,000 North Carolinians each year.

We're seeing real success in recruiting good-paying jobs, with dozens of companies moving to or expanding in North Carolina in the last few months, with a lot more to come. But they need skilled workers to fill the positions.

We should match those great jobs with our own homegrown workers and with these guaranteed scholarships we can do it and reach our goal of 2 million better trained workers.

We also need to help businesses hurt by this pandemic to recover and thrive. Our hospitality industry was among the hardest hit. Many restaurants and hotels worked hard to protect their employees and customers by implementing strong safety protocols.

We responded last year with the Mortgage, Utility and Rent Relief program (MURR) to help these businesses, but we need to do even more. This budget proposes significant direct assistance to help our businesses recover from lost revenue in order to grow.

We implemented the ReTool program last year to provide direct support to historically underutilized businesses. We know that minority & women-owned businesses have suffered disproportionately, and this proposal includes support for these businesses.

We know that to grow we must innovate. This budget looks to the future by including funding for health research within the UNC System. UNC Chapel Hill is a worldwide leader in developing antiviral drugs that fight against diseases like COVID-19.

This proposal would take our university researchers to a new level by funding the Rapidly Emerging Antiviral Drug Development Initiative (READDI), which will attract more private and federal funding, create good-paying jobs and help discover lifesaving drugs.

It would also provide vital funding to Winston Salem State University’s Center for Excellence for Elimination of Health Disparities so that we can continue to combat the unequal impact of health outcomes on our communities of color.

Local governments have been on the frontlines of this pandemic. I’m grateful for local leaders across the state who’ve worked to keep their communities safe and economies moving. Cities, towns and counties are receiving over $3 billion directly from the ARP, which can do a lot.

Our recommendation includes funding to help these local governments build the necessary capacity to invest these dollars effectively and efficiently.

While every state, county, town & federally recognized American Indian tribe received direct funding, our state recognized tribes didn't. Our recommendation includes $18 million in direct assistance for the 7 American Indian tribes recognized by the state that've been overlooked.

I want to thank everyone across the state who has given us input on this, including legislators from both parties. A lot of people and businesses need help now, and this proposal provides that.

But permanent progress requires transformational change, and this proposal provides that too. We can make our communities more livable if we improve access to affordable housing. If we invest in our businesses with direct assistance.

If we strengthen our educator pipeline and expand our workforce education and training. If we upgrade our aging infrastructure and help every household and business get connected with high-speed internet access.

An unprecedented pandemic requires unprecedented investment. If we meet this moment, we will build a stronger and more equitable future that can help all North Carolinians thrive.