Under the Dome: Gov. Stein announces bipartisan task force to expand access to child care
Good morning and welcome to the Under the Dome newsletter. I’m Emmy Martin. First up, a dispatch about a new task force the governor announced Monday from Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan, our Capitol bureau chief.
Democratic Gov. Josh Stein was in Durham on Monday morning to tour a child care center and announce a new bipartisan Task Force on Child Care and Early Education aimed at “expanding the supply of accessible, affordable, high quality child care and early education.”
Stein said the task force will produce a report with policy ideas by the end of the year. Chaired by Democratic Lt. Gov. Rachel Hunt and Republican Sen. Jim Burgin, it will also include child care providers, lawmakers, business leaders, parents, industry experts and community partners, Stein said.
Stein said in his budget proposal to the General Assembly later this month, he’ll be asking for “a substantial investment” in early childhood, including child care provider funding, raising child care subsidy rates, raising program quality and adding 1,000 new pre-K slots and summer programming before students start kindergarten.
“When we invest in child care, our entire society benefits. Parents can keep working and keep building their careers. We don’t see as many vacancies or help wanted signs on our small business doors, and most importantly, our kids get a safe, nurturing and supportive environment where they can learn and thrive during their formative years, one that will shape their entire educational trajectory,” Stein said.
Stein was joined on the tour by Hunt and other officials as they visited classrooms at Kate’s Korner Learning Center, a child care center in the American Tobacco Campus in downtown Durham. He also brought his daughter, Leah, a junior at Dartmouth College who also works at a child care center. Stein read the book “My Teacher for President” — by author Kay Winters and illustrator Denise Brunkus — to a class of 4-year-olds.
The governor will appoint all 25 task force members, who each serve for two years. A preliminary report is June 30, with the group’s final report due Dec. 31. You can read Stein’s full executive order here.
– Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan
MORE TAX RELIEF PROPOSED FOR DISABLED VETERANS
Democratic Reps. Carla Cunningham and Nasif Majeed and Republican Rep. Edward Goodwin filed a tax relief bill on Monday aimed at veterans with disabilities.
Their bill would expand a benefit that currently exempts the first $45,000 of a home’s value from property taxes.
Instead, House Bill 341 would exclude the appraised value of a primary residence from taxes based on a formula tied to the extent of a veteran’s disability.
There has been significant attention given to tax relief this legislative session. Republican Sens. Benton Sawrey, Michael Lazzara and Todd Johnson also introduced a bill to expand property tax relief for disabled veterans in North Carolina last month.
I wrote about Senate Bill 128 in a previous Under the Dome newsletter. That bill would raise the property tax homestead exclusion for disabled veterans from $45,000 to $76,500.
As for HB 341, it’s a little more complicated.
If a veteran’s disability is 70% or more, $100,000 would be excluded from taxation under the bill. If it is 50% or more but less than 70%, that amount would be $75,000. If it is 30% or more but less than 50%, that amount would be $50,000. And if it is 10% or more but less than 30%, that amount would be $25,000.
HB 341 also adds a clause to provide the exclusion benefit to the widowed spouse of a disabled veteran who died as a “result of a service-connected condition.”
They would either receive the amount excluded based on the veteran’s disability range or the first $45,000 of appraised residence value — depending on which amount is greater.
Other tax relief bills filed:
House Bill 59 would expand the Elderly and Disabled Homestead Exclusion program.
House Bill 181 would reenact the Earned Income Tax Credit, which ended in 2014.
House Bill 179 would create a tax deduction for labor organization membership dues.
GOP CALLS TO LIMIT GOVERNOR’S POWER AS RESPONSE TO CLEMENCY OF 15 ON NC DEATH ROW
Legislation filed last month in the state House proposes amending the state constitution to require that all reprieves, commutations and pardons granted by the governor be approved by majorities in both chambers.
The push comes after Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper commuted the sentences of 15 people on death row to life in prison without the possibility of parole on his last day in office in December, Avi Bajpai reports.
If the bill were to pass by the required three-fifths majority in the House and Senate, it would be placed on the ballot in November 2026 as a constitutional amendment for approval by North Carolina voters.
Read the rest of the story here.
WHAT ELSE WE’RE WORKING ON
Unionized federal workers and labor activists rallied Sunday against the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the federal workforce and cut the government’s size and scope. Union leaders representing workers at the Social Security Administration, Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Postal Service decried the efforts of the Elon Musk-run Department of Government Efficiency to identify federal spending that can be cut, saying the group’s actions so far have been haphazard and rash, Avi Bajpai reports.
Cuts instituted by DOGE may also shut down some federal offices across North Carolina, Mary Ramsey reports. Twenty federal offices in North Carolina are listed as terminated on the “wall of receipts” on DOGE’s website as of Friday.
Today’s newsletter was by Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan and Emmy Martin. Check your inbox tomorrow for more #ncpol.
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