Senate Republican Leader
Senator Phil Berger
26th Senatorial District
Phone Number: (919) 733-5708
North Carolina Senate
Room 1026, Legislative Building
Raleigh, NC 27601 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
July 31, 2007

Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) and House Republican Leader Paul Stam (R-Wake) today held their weekly press conference and discussed a number of issues including the state budget, education and transportation.    

For years, the state’s elected Democrats repeatedly heap praise on their handiwork in crafting the state’s general fund budget.  We routinely hear about the great things for and improvements to the state’s public education system from their spending plans.  The speeches are so routine and consistent that they could use the same script year after year, just re-read prior comments.  In fact, it looks like what they do.  Governor Easley’s statements referring to Democrat budgets sound interchangeable from year to year:

• August 11, 2005:  “This may be the best education budget that I have seen in my tenure as governor.”

• August 13, 2005:  “It is one of the best education budgets I have seen. It reforms our high schools to improve the graduation rate, continues to invest in early childhood education, smaller class sizes and teacher pay.”

• June 30, 2006:  “This budget agreement clearly earmarks education as the No.1 priority in North Carolina. This plan is a reflection of our shared commitment to provide a top-notch, seamless education system at every level.”

• July 29, 2007:  “This is a gutsy and aggressive budget that finally fulfills our historic promise to all people that they can achieve their dream of going from pre-kindergarten through college debt free.  It is a truly transformational document that allows North Carolina to emerge as the nation's clear leader in facing the educational challenge of the 21st century.” 

Select any other elected Democrat from the past thirty (30) years and you will hear the same message:  “We have in this budget a solid plan to address the education needs of North Carolina’s students.  The money we have invested in public education will make North Carolina first in the nation in education and will make North Carolina competitive in the future.”  After all the rhetoric, after all the spending, after all the plans and programs, just where is North Carolina in terms of education quality compared with the rest of the nation, and, just as important, compared with the rest of the world?  The answer: not measurably better than we were thirty (30) years ago. 

“Democrats annually make big promises about our education system and their plans for our public schools, yet, year after year, that system fails to show any comparative improvement,” said Senator Berger.  “The recent disclosure of high school graduation rates showing that one-third of students drop-out of high school is painful proof that the Democrats’ ‘plan’ for education is a failure.  Their routine is to measure a successful education program through publication of the ever-increasing flow of money to that program.  It is past time for us to measure the quality of our public education system by student achievement, graduation rates, comparative performance of students on national tests, and the provision of a solid educational foundation for all.  We should be expanding vocational and career-technical options, emphasizing testing that provides a valid comparison with student peers in other states, and implementing a merit and incentive based program for teacher pay and bonuses instead of continuing, at greater expense, the same failed programs of the last three decades.  Sadly, with this budget, we stay on the same road, with the same rhetoric.” 

Democrats also did nothing to address North Carolina’s growing transportation problems.  Formerly known as “The Good Roads State,” North Carolina is fast losing ground with maintenance, congestion, and bridge safety becoming pressing issues despite the fact that North Carolinians pay some of the highest road taxes in the nation.  Republicans have repeatedly pointed to the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars in road taxes from the highway trust fund to the general fund as a primary reason for the state’s failure to keep up with transportation infrastructure needs. 

“With a growing number of roads in disrepair and new road construction projects at a standstill, we simply can’t afford to continue to ignore our transportation problems,” continued Berger.  “Our people are rightfully concerned about the state of our state’s road system.  However, at a time when the Democrats have a budget surplus of more than $1.5 billion dollars they have done nothing to stop the transfer of road dollars from the highway trust fund to the general fund.  They continue to take that money to spend, raise taxes so they can spend more, and offer nothing except toll roads while adding still more taxes and fees to be paid by our citizens.  Republicans offered a solid plan to put $1.25 billion dollars into transportation, with half of the money going to fund projects aimed at relieving congestion; that plan was ignored and the decline of our road system continues.” 

During the session Republicans provided education and transportation plans in an effort to work in a bipartisan manner on these important issues.  Neither of the plans was considered.

Copies of the Republican plans for education and transportation are available upon request.

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