FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RALEIGH, NC – Funding a new Voter ID law is not as high of a priority for North Carolina voters as saving teacher assistants according to a Public Policy Polling poll commissioned by the Young Democrats of North Carolina.

63% of voters – including a 49% plurality of Republicans – would rather spend all of the money allocated for Voter ID on saving some teacher assistant positions. In addition, the poll finds voters would rather spend the money on maintaining early voting access (51%) than waste it on Voter ID (42%). That finding is interesting because the price tag for preserving early voting is less than that of Voter ID. Perhaps most importantly, the poll finds that 79% of Republicans oppose the proposed Senate revenue plan for upcoming budgets. Full results here.

“Republican proposals to spend money on Voter ID or shorten early voting to save money ignore the concerns of North Carolina voters,” said YDNC President Sam Spencer. “At this critical time in North Carolina history, voters would rather invest in North Carolina’s educators than waste money on problems invented by Republicans. General Assembly Republicans may have run on Voter ID and tax cuts for millionaires, but North Carolina voters care about maintaining our investment in education.”

Founded in 1928, the Young Democrats of North Carolina (YDNC) is an organization for all registered Democrats under 36, including College Democrats and Teen Democrats. YDNC is one of the oldest political organizations in our state, and is the founding chapter of the Young Democrats of America. YDNC is the official youth auxiliary of the North Carolina Democratic Party. The survey of 500 North Carolina voters was conducted May 17-20, 2013 by Public Policy Polling for YDNC. Margin of error is +/- 4.4%.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RALEIGH, NC – Only 10% of North Carolina voters surveyed support a tax plan before the North Carolina Senate according to a Public Policy Polling poll.

81% of voters – including 79% of Republicans – oppose tax reform that would lower state income taxes, the corporate tax, and business franchise tax rates while cutting state spending, raising the tax on groceries by 225%, taxing over 100 goods and services that are not currently taxed, and taxing prescription drugs like any other product. Full results here.

“An overwhelming majority of North Carolina voters are opposed to Senator Phil Berger’s working class tax hike,” said YDNC President Sam Spencer. “Senate Republicans need to take a long, hard look at whether they’re willing to pay the electoral price for supporting Berger’s plan. Voters have no appetite for a Republican grocery tax hike.”

“The people of North Carolina saw through the gimmicks of this tax reform plan and see it as the largest tax increase in North Carolina history on the middle class and working families,” said YDNC National Committeeman Justin Conley of Franklin, NC. Click here to read previous comments from Spencer and Conley on the Working Class Tax Hike.

Founded in 1928, the Young Democrats of North Carolina (YDNC) is an organization for all registered Democrats under 36, including College Democrats and Teen Democrats. YDNC is one of the oldest political organizations in our state, and is the founding chapter of the Young Democrats of America. YDNC is the official youth auxiliary of the North Carolina Democratic Party. The survey of 500 North Carolina voters was conducted May 17-20, 2013 by Public Policy Polling for YDNC. Margin of error is +/- 4.4%.

by Matthew Pepper, M.D.

The relationship between a primary care physician and a patient is special. As a pediatrician, I experience the joy of watching newborns grow into rambunctious toddlers, inquisitive children, headstrong teenagers, and then eventually mature into healthy adults. Through my years of taking care of families, I learn intimate details of their physical and emotional lives. It is my duty to use this information to keep my patients healthy and guide them through all the pitfalls of life. Unfortunately, North Carolina General Assembly House Bill 693 could form an unnecessary and potentially dangerous roadblock for physicians trying to care for their patients.

HB 693 is a proposal to amend North Carolina’s current law protecting minors who wish to seek treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, mental illness, and substance abuse. Under current law, any minor who wishes to seek treatment may do so confidentially. If this bill passes, patients would either need their parents physically there to consent or a letter signed and notarized that grants permission for the child to seek treatment.

This bill will cause an increase North Carolina’s sexually transmitted disease rate. This bill would make North Carolina the only state in the nation to require parental consent to treat a sexually transmitted disease. I can tell you from personal experience (and from scientific studies) that when they know a parent has to be involved, most teenage patients will instead deny any sexual activity. The problem is not just on the patient side; parents too will sometimes willfully ignore the possibility that their child is sexually active, even if such denial can cause serious medical consequences. According to the CDC, North Carolina ranked 14th in the nation in 2009 for rates of chlamydia. Almost half of these cases were in patients aged 15 – 24. The results of these illnesses can be devastating, ranging from hospitalization to infertility. Still, we cannot treat what we do not know about. We cannot be creating extra barriers to those who need care.

This bill will cause a rise in pre-term birth and medical complications from pregnancy. One of the best things we can do for women who are pregnant is get them set up with early and complete prenatal care. Lack of prenatal care can increase the risk for both the pregnant mother and the developing child. This can lead to a multitude of problems, including a risk of pre-term labor, birth defects, and even fetal demise. A patient who is concerned about pregnancy is going to be much less likely to be honest with her doctor if she knows she needs to talk to her parents first. This bill will only increase the rate of those who fail to seek proper care.

This bill will endanger the lives of those most vulnerable. Discussions about mental health, sexuality, and substance abuse are difficult to have. Although we always encourage our patients to have an open and supportive relationship with their parents, there are circumstances where such a relationship may not be possible. No legislation can change that.

I once treated a patient whose parents were going through an acrimonious divorce. The stress of his family situation was taking a psychological toll on my patient, leading to anxiety and depression. His father, still one of his legal guardians, forbade the patient from seeking any treatment for his psychiatric illness. Seeing a specialist was out of the question. Only because my patient was able to see me confidentially could he actually get help for this problem that was affecting almost all aspects of his life. Without such treatment, he could have ended up failing out school, spiraling into drug use, or worse, taking his own life.

Parents do not want this law passed. Although this is framed as an issue of parental rights, a recent survey commissioned by the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina actually talked to parents of school-age children in North Carolina and found that 83% of parents support the current consent law. This cuts across party lines. In the same study, even 76% of Republicans supported keeping the current law.

HB 693 is simply bad bill, “fixing” a problem in the system that does not exist. Please talk to your representative about why YOU oppose such a measure. You can find your representative here.

Being a medical professional can be a demanding job at times, but we choose this profession because we truly love to help those we can. We cannot let the state government get in between doctors and patients. The future of our state is too important for that.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Young Democrats of North Carolina released the following informational graphic opposing Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger’s working class tax hike:

“Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger’s Working Class Tax Hike is bad for young North Carolinians, the poor, and those on fixed incomes.” said YDNC President Sam Spencer. “With taxes going up 225% on groceries, hard-working North Carolina families are hurt a lot more than they’re helped by the other parts of Berger’s plan. With taxes going up 6.5 cents on the dollar on prescription drugs, seniors get hit twice. When you add the over 100 new taxes in the Tax Fairness Act, it becomes an attack on the working class. It’s appalling that Senator Berger and General Assembly Republicans would continue to threaten North Carolina families so they can give tax cuts to millionaires and corporations.”

Click here to read previous comments from YDNC on the Working Class Tax Hike. The tax calculations are based on a $.045/dollar increase on a moderate-cost food plan using USDA estimates for the Koch family of Charlotte, NC (pictured).

Founded in 1928, the Young Democrats of North Carolina (YDNC) is an organization for all registered Democrats under 36, including College Democrats and Teen Democrats. YDNC is one of the oldest political organizations in our state, and is the founding chapter of the Young Democrats of America. YDNC is the official youth auxiliary of the North Carolina Democratic Party.

by Emily Frazier Brown

Today is the last day of Teacher Appreciation Week, and it’s an important week for Young Democrats. Many of our members are undergraduates, grad students, and teachers, so we couldn’t be more thankful to the educators who built the foundation for our civic engagement today. The Young Democrats of North Carolina believe children and students embody our hopes and aspirations, but they’re also our most vulnerable citizens. Teachers know this, and Teacher Appreciation Week draws to a close, we feel a responsibility to talk about the grave danger facing our school system with this Republican General Assembly.

Class sizes are rapidly increasing each year and teachers have less money to work with while budget cuts eliminate resources. The Republican General Assembly laid off hundreds of Teacher Assistants, and now legislation in front of the General Assembly proposes everything from eliminating restrictions on class size to kicking thousands of kids out of Pre-K. The job security of professional teachers has been threatened, and Republican proposals have gone as far as to suggest that the people who teach our children shouldn’t be vetted by a background check. Now, a new Republican tax plan is going to necessitate even more divestment from education or other essential services.

Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger is launching his US Senate Campaign on the backs of North Carolina’s working class – namely our teachers, our children, and the parents of our most vulnerable. Berger’s proposed tax code is one of the most regressive in the country. While the wealthy get huge tax breaks on income and inherited wealth, struggling families will have to pay more at the grocery store and the pharmacy. Taxes on haircuts will disproportionately affect women. The small business owners who provide essential services in our community will have to increase their rates to cover business lost to taxes on their services.

The Republicans seem to operate in an imaginary world where strong public education and sound infrastructure are no longer the way to incentivize new families to come to North Carolina. YDNC is asking everyone to do their part by telling their senators and representatives in the General Assembly that North Carolina’s students deserve better, North Carolina’s teachers are worth more, and North Carolina’s small businesses need customers who can afford services.

The assault on teachers has to stop. At a time when we desperately need new college graduates to work in North Carolina’s public schools, Governor Pat McCrory is insulting entire departments in the UNC System. This General Assembly is so concerned that they’ll spoil a teacher with things like job security or benefits that they are completely disregarding the quality of instruction in the classroom. Republicans should change their narrative. Like Adrian said on Tuesday, “taking a positive approach to teachers and public education in our state will lead to positive outcomes for our children.”

Our teachers take on the thankless job of building the educational foundation for professional studies in medicine, law, engineering, and business. They are the first line of defense when a student has an undiagnosed learning disability, faces danger at home, or needs an advocate who believes in them. Teachers are everyday heroes who deserve allies in the General Assembly, and for Teacher Appreciation Week we need to make sure Phil Berger and the GOP-led General Assembly have our backs, instead of balancing their budget on them.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Members of the Young Democrats of North Carolina released the following informational graphic describing Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger’s working class tax hike:

“Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger’s Working Class Tax Hike isn’t just bad for young North Carolinians, the poor, and those on fixed incomes – it will hurt North Carolina’s Main Streets,” said YDNC President Sam Spencer. “When taxes go up on services provided by North Carolina’s small businesses, consumers spend less. The North Carolina General Assembly already took one billion dollars of disposable income out of our economy by stopping medicaid expansion, so there’s even less money that can be spent at North Carolina businesses when our economy needs that spending most. It’s shocking that Senator Berger and General Assembly Republicans would continue to threaten North Carolina’s recovery so they can give tax cuts to millionaires and corporations.”

Click here to read previous comments from YDNC on the Working Class Tax Hike. The tax calculations are based on the calculator on Senator Berger’s http://nctaxcut.com/ website.

Founded in 1928, the Young Democrats of North Carolina (YDNC) is an organization for all registered Democrats under 36, including College Democrats and Teen Democrats. YDNC is one of the oldest political organizations in our state, and is the founding chapter of the Young Democrats of America. YDNC is the official youth auxiliary of the North Carolina Democratic Party.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Members of the Young Democrats of North Carolina released the following statements on Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger’s working class tax hike:

YDNC President Sam Spencer of Davidson: “President Pro Tem Phil Berger has introduced what amounts to a tax hike on youth, recent graduates, and the working poor. Berger’s plan makes taxes the most regressive for North Carolinians who need help most. It hurts North Carolina businesses by increasing the real cost of services when Main Streets across our state need local investment the most. Either Mr. Berger truly believes that the poor should pay for millionaire tax cuts, or he’s willing to launch his US Senate Campaign on the backs of North Carolina’s most vulnerable.”

Spencer added, “The ‘Tax Fairness Act’ is an Algebra I plan for a Multivariable Calculus economy.”

Young Democrats of Guilford County President Emily Brown of Greensboro: “The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy published a study this year demonstrating that states with ‘high’ income taxes are outperforming no-tax states. President Pro Tem Berger is trying to justify asking a college graduate, a single mother, or the owner of a small landscaping company to pay more out of pocket every day for their basic needs. North Carolina deserves better than Berger’s Senate. Economic development happens when people start businesses, when college graduates build their lives here, and when people across the nation decide to make North Carolina their home. Making haircuts more expensive isn’t the way to do that, and it certainly won’t happen by making it harder for a new family to afford a gallon of milk. Strong public education is North Carolina’s calling card, but our Senate is increasing class sizes and slashing resources for teachers. Senator Berger shouldn’t kick off his campaign for the US Senate by joining the rest of the South in a race to the bottom.” Emily Brown is a 2013 Graduate of UNC Greensboro with degrees in Education and Political Science.

YDNC National Committeeman Justin Conley of Franklin: “It’s scary how radical the party of Reagan has become. President Reagan called the Earned Income Tax Credit ‘the best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress’ and now NC Republicans are cutting the EITC and replacing it with a tax system that discourages work. Their legislation shows their priorities aren’t jobs, working families, or students. The states that take this path have some of the highest unemployment, highest rates of poverty, and slowest job growth in the country.”

Founded in 1928, the Young Democrats of North Carolina (YDNC) is an organization for all registered Democrats under 36, including College Democrats and Teen Democrats. YDNC is one of the oldest political organizations in our state, and is the founding chapter of the Young Democrats of America. YDNC is the official youth auxiliary of the North Carolina Democratic Party.

by Adrian Singerman

For the past five years, I have taught in North Carolina’s public schools. I have had the good fortune of teaching in communities where children and parents regularly express their appreciation to teachers. Whether it is in the form of a kind word, a box of chocolates before the winter holidays, or a PTO-organized teacher luncheon, these kind gestures are not lost on us, and they provide a welcome morale boost over the course of a long and arduous school year. We teachers do all we can to prepare the next generation to have full and fulfilling lives, and we appreciate it when someone notices.

While many communities are doing their best to build up teacher morale, it appears that politicians are doing their darnedest to demoralize us. From salary freezes and policies aimed at eliminating teacher protections, to efforts promoting charter schools and voucher systems, politicians are shifting teachers’, parents’ and public schools’ attention out of the classroom and into their pocketbooks. Instead of allocating money to improve instructional services, teacher pay, and teacher training, an education bill currently under consideration in the North Carolina General Assembly would slash $90 million out of the public school budget and place that money in a school voucher program that would actually make education more expensive for participants in the program. Specifically, the bill would give some low-income students grants of up to $4,000 to pay for private school tuition, far less than is necessary to actually afford a private school.

These are the kinds of policies that are leading to low teacher morale, moonlighting (72% of North Carolina teachers have a second job to make ends meet), and high turnover. Luckily, North Carolinians are not falling for it. A recent public opinion poll shows strong opposition to voucher schemes, and opposition to a move that would end Pre-Kindergarten for 38,000 North Carolina Children. A majority of those polled support job security for public school teachers, and the vast majority oppose lifting limits on class size. North Carolina has always been a state that supports public education from Pre-Kindergarten to graduate studies, and by the looks of it North Carolinians want to continue our historic investment in education.

The Young Democrats of North Carolina believe “under our state constitution, North Carolinians have a right to a high quality education. Our state must have an outstanding education system in order to produce an informed community, to promote economic development, and to build for an economic future characterized by high-skill and high-wage employment.” Taking a positive approach to teachers and public education in our state will lead to positive outcomes for our children.

Today, please take a minute to #ThankATeacher by talking to your elected representatives and asking them to join with YDNC to oppose “any and all policies that seek to undermine the long-term value of public education for short-term political gains.” My community and communities around North Carolina have been steadfast in their efforts to make educators feel valued. It’s time for the government to start showing us some love too.

Dustin Ingalls

This past weekend, groups of YDNC members – including three Wake County YDs – descended on Beaufort and Charleston Counties in South Carolina to push Elizabeth Colbert-Busch over the edge in her bid for Congress. Between Saturday and Sunday, we knocked on over 1000 doors and made 200 calls. On Saturday, YDNC knocked more than half of the total doors knocked out of the Beaufort, SC office on a day the campaign made over 14,000 knocks district-wide. I’m proud YDNC was part of this huge effort that will hopefully result in victory on Tuesday, May 7.

The latest polls show a tight race, so this is when Get Out the Vote efforts really matter. Young Democrats across the country are helping Elizabeth Colbert-Busch in the field. If you have time between now and tomorrow night, please help us keep up the momentum – volunteer to make calls today!

(l to r) Jeff DeLuca, Sam Spencer, Emily Callen, Anna Gilbert, Dustin Ingalls

YDNC also ran across many Democratic luminaries over the course of the trip. On Friday, Sam Spencer attended the 20th Annual Clyburn Fish Fry and got a chance to talk with Congressman Jim Clyburn, the number three Democrat in the House. Sunday afternoon, we got the chance to meet civil rights legend Congressman John Lewis at the historic Penn Center, where Martin Luther King drafted part of his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. Also on Sunday, YDNC Women’s Caucus Chair Toria Boldware met up with Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee in between phone calls.

(l to r) Dustin Ingalls, Rep. John Lewis, Jeff DeLuca

(l to r) Toria Boldware, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee

We thank the Colbert Busch campaign for inviting us to be a part of this effort and their supporters for graciously volunteering to host us. I’d also like to give a special shout-out to rockstar volunteers Anna Gilbert and Emily Callen who knocked on a combined 225 doors over the course of the weekend. Finally, if you have time between now and tomorrow night, don’t let our efforts be in vain – please join us in volunteering to make calls today!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Young Democrats of North Carolina Board was sworn in on Sunday April 28 at the Goodwin House in Raleigh by North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Sarah Parker. Sam Spencer of Davidson will continue as President of the organization. Erica Palmer of Asheville was sworn in as Vice President, Rebekah Whilden of Asheville was sworn in as Secretary, and Akilah Ensley of Greenville was sworn in as National Committeewoman for a two-year term. Justin Conley of Franklin was sworn in to complete Andy Ball’s unexpired term as National Committeeman, and Taylor Callicutt of Asheboro was sworn in as the appointed Treasurer of the board.

(l to r) Taylor Callicutt, Justin Conley, Erica Palmer, Sam Spencer, Sarah Parker, Akilah Ensley, Rebekah Whilden

Also at the ceremony, Wake County Young Democrats President Dustin Ingalls awarded YDNC’s Legislator of the Year award to the Honorable Grier Martin, who won the award for a career of service to both the United States and the State of North Carolina.

(l to r) Taylor Callicutt, Erica Palmer, Justin Conley, Dustin Ingalls, Sam Spencer, Grier Martin, Akilah Ensley, Rebekah Whilden

Founded in 1928, the Young Democrats of North Carolina (YDNC) is an organization for all registered Democrats under 36, including College Democrats and Teen Democrats. YDNC is one of the oldest political organizations in our state, and is the founding chapter of the Young Democrats of America. YDNC is the official youth auxiliary of the North Carolina Democratic Party.