NASW-NC Legislative Session Update: NC needs a budget and Voting Rights Information

North Carolina legislators are still meeting about the state budget and are holding very few committee meetings. To recap where our state is on a budget, House and Senate members have already passed their budget proposals in their respective chambers through SB 105 2021 Appropriations Act. These proposals varied in what to spend money on so they appointed a Conference Committee to work out the differences in August.

See NASW-NC's Senate Budget details write up and NASW-NC's House Budget details write up for specific details that were included in each proposal. 
 

The NASW-NC Legislative Committee has been making calls and emails to legislators appointed to the conference committee with priorities that are important to social workers.
 

Now, we need your help! If you haven't reached out to your legislators, now is a great time to advocate and relay issues that are important to you and that you would like to see in the budget.
 

Click here to take action! Please edit the letter to include issues important to you. You may choose from our seven talking points provided on the left hand side of the letter before you send it. These include restoring master's pay for school social workers, providing flexibility for telehealth, expanding Medicaid, funding for housing, and more. 
 

As a social worker, you are in a unique position to see the needs in the community and know how to help your patients and families get access to services. You are also in a unique position to relay what services are needed in your community that your patients can't access. This is why your voice is so important.

NASW Action Alert

NASW-NC is sharing this update from our National office for advocacy on a federal bill: Ensuring access to the ballot is a key NASW social justice priority. This is why we support the Freedom to Vote Act (S. 2747). Over 400 bills have been introduced at the state level to suppress the right to vote, with sweeping impacts on communities of color, students, veterans, people with disabilities, and older adults. These bills would limit or eliminate common sense mechanisms now in place to ensure access for all Americans to the ballot box such as: mail-in voting, Election Day registration, early voting days, polling place availability, and availability of mail ballot drop boxes.

Learn more from NASW and how you can take action at the Federal level.

NC Voter ID Law Unconstitutional 

On Friday, September 17, a panel of three Superior Court judges ruled North Carolina's Voter ID law unconstitutional. 

In their ruling, they stated, "In reaching this conclusion, we do not find that any member of the General Assembly who voted in favor of (voter ID) harbors any racial animus or hatred towards African American voters, but rather ... that the Republican majority 'target[ed] voters who, based on race, were unlikely to vote for the majority party. Even if done for partisan ends, that constitute[s] racial discrimination.'"

Learn more about the ruling and the history of our state's voter ID law from this News and Observer article.