Fact check: Cunningham didn’t ‘defund the police’ in legislature, despite Tillis claim
The issue: U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis said Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham voted to cut the state’s law enforcement budget by 22% when he was a state senator in the early 2000s.
Tillis made the claim Sept. 22 during their U.S. Senate debate and repeated it twice during a radio appearance Thursday. His campaign sent emails and tweets that said Cunningham cut law enforcement funding or defunded the police as a state senator. Cunningham fiercely defended his record, saying he stood “shoulder to shoulder” with law enforcement officials.
Why we’re checking this: Defunding the police has become a national issue during the campaign cycle after police killed several unarmed Black people in incidents over the few years. Some of the people who have called for defunding the police have said they want to move part of law enforcement budgets to community services such as mental health programs.
Tillis and Cunningham have said they do not favor defunding the police. Cunningham released this summer a policing reform plan that calls for more spending on law enforcement.
What you need to know: Tillis’ statistic mischaracterizes what happened.
The Tillis claim is based on the state budget from the early 2000s when Cunningham was a state senator. Cunningham was elected in November 2000 and served one term in the General Assembly.
At that time, the Justice and Public Safety budget for North Carolina was divided into several line items: Corrections, Crime Control and Public Safety, the judicial branch and indigent defense, Justice, and Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
The final budget passed before Cunningham was in office included $35.7 million for the public safety department. The final budget passed when Cunningham was a member of the Senate included $27.7 million for the public safety depsome of thartment.
Those figures only include general-fund money and not other revenue sources for the department, including the state highway fund and federal sources.
That’s where Tillis is getting his 22% cut figure.
However, the vast majority of the budget “cut” comes from the transfer of the Community Service Work Program from the public safety budget to the Department of Corrections, where it was merged with the Division of Community Corrections.
The transfer resulted in a $5.8 million reduction in the public safety budget for the 2002-03 budget. Other moves associated with the transfer and merger also contributed savings — more than $1.1 million from “efficiency measures” that resulted in 27 jobs being cut and more than $430,000 from the elimination of vacant positions within the program.
The entire $5.8 million is reflected as an addition to the Corrections budget.
The next biggest change between the budget came from a $1 million reduction in National Guard pension fund payments “to reflect actuarial recommendations,” according to the budget overview.
The overall budget for Crime Control and Public Safety was more than $180 million in 2002-03, which includes $133 million from the state highway fund and more than $13 million in federal funds.
The 2001 and 2002 budgets include several other small changes — eliminating some vacant positions, one-time cuts to vehicle replacement, increases to victim’s assistance programs, and general reductions in operating expenses for travel, equipment, supplies and contracts.
A net of 218 positions were removed from the budget during the two-year period — 200 of which were associated with the Community Service Work Program.
Other divisions impacted under the Crime Control and Public Safety budget were in Alcohol Law Enforcement, Butner Public Safety, Emergency Management, the Governor’s Crime Commission, the National Guard and Victim & Justice Services.
The two-year budget passed on Sept. 21, 2001 with all Democrats who were present voting yes and all Republicans who were present voting no. The modifications for 2002-03 passed on Sept. 20, 2002 with all but one Democrat present supporting it and all Republicans present voting against it. Cunningham voted for both budgets.
The state was in a recession during this period, and Tillis has repeatedly criticized Cunningham for voting for a tax increase at the time.
When asked about the program transfer, the Tillis’s campaign provided a statement that criticized McClatchy for challenging the numbers but didn’t explain further.
“Cunningham defunded the police during his tenure in the state legislature, embraced protestors who want to defund the police, is backed by liberal special interest groups that want to defund the police, and he would defund the police if he were in the Senate,” Tillis campaign spokesman Andrew Romeo wrote in the statement.
Sources:
Tillis-Cunningham debate, Sept. 22
Tillis campaign email, Sept. 22
Tillis appearance on Talk of the Town, Sept. 24
2000 North Carolina state budget overview
2001 North Carolina state budget overview
2002 North Carolina state budget overview
This story was produced by The News & Observer Fact-Checking Project, which shares fact-checks with newsrooms statewide. It was edited by Politics Editor Jordan Schrader and Managing Editor Jane Elizabeth. Submit a suggestion for what we should check, or a comment or suggestion about our fact-checking, at bit.ly/nandofactcheck.
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