Help me make this NC budget math make sense | Opinion

I fail to understand how the state budget makes sense. Apparently correctional institutions are short 20-60 officers and 33% of the nursing staff. So officers will get raises of about 27%. But the state is eliminating 574 vacant positions to fund the increases. So how does this solve the staffing shortages?

Robert D. Brown, Cary

Social Security and compassion

The Social Security shortfall that is predicted to occur in a few years’ time could lead to a 22% across-the-board reduction in retirement benefits. Let’s hope this does not come to pass, but if it does, we should ensure that it does not fall hardest on those who can least afford it. Some 10 million retirees rely on SS for 90% or more of their income. For some it is *all* of their income. And these people’s benefits tend to be low because they had a low income during their working years.

In contrast, an estimated 2-4% of retirees have non-SS annual income above $100,000 from pensions and investments.These are also the people with the highest SS benefits due to their high lifetime earnings. Yes, these folks earned their benefits by paying into the system, no doubt of that. But if we have to decide whose benefits are cut, we should do it from a place of compassion and humanity.

Peter Aitken, Chapel Hill

Retirees and the NC budget

Once again, state retirees were slighted in the new budget with a 2.5% one-time bonus, and not a permanent Cost Of Living Adjustment. State retirees haven’t had a measurable COLA in 25 years, and eight of those years we had no COLA, or one-time bonus. Our illustrious legislature may not know, actually, I don’t think they care, but retirees are currently, and have been, paying the same high prices as everyone else for groceries, gas, insurance, and everything else going up in cost.

I’m sure lawmakers are slapping themselves on the back today, saying, look what we did, we passed a budget, albeit a year overdue, giving everyone working in state government a little piece of the pie. But I’d like to remind them, state retirees hardly got a piece of the crust, let alone, the filling.

Partha Howell, Beaufort

PFAS hypocrisy

As reported on 6/26, the Environmental Protection Agency recently publicized the results of their settlement with chemical company Chemours, who dumped toxic PFAS into the Cape Fear River for decades. The EPA framed the roughly $2M per year payout to North Carolina for PFAS pollution remediation as a win for holding corporate polluters accountable.

This is hypocritical, since at the same time, EPA is proposing to roll back federal PFAS drinking water standards for four kinds of PFAS, including the chemical involved in the settlement. This rollback will have catastrophic health effects. It is clear that Trump’s EPA would rather serve corporate interests than protect the health of the American people.

Victoria Gualario, Durham

TPS and Haiti

On June 25, the Supreme Court of the United States announced its TPS decision regarding Haitian and Syrian immigrants, giving the Executive Branch the authority to terminate these TPS programs.

There is an ongoing armed conflict in Haiti which also has suffered an earthquake. SCOTUS also ignores the racial animus behind the TPS decisions made by the Executive Branch by simply ignoring terrible comments made by the executive branch, such as Haitians are eating the dogs, poisoning the blood of our country, etc.

Finally, to my white brothers and sisters who applaud the decision, this is a diversion tactic by the rich and powerful. Do you really think they feel any brotherhood towards you, the poor?

Reginald Mombrun, Durham

Thumbs up for the small stuff

A recent post on the Nextdoor app for Wood’s Edge in Durham struck a nerve: 190 responses and counting.

The topic was simple: the small acts of inconsideration we see every day. A cart left in a parking space. A car blocking an accessible space. A driver texting. A person who does not move over, hold the door, return the cart, or take the few extra seconds to make life easier for someone else.

The point was not that these shortcuts are dramatic or malicious. It was that they shift the burden. What saves one person a little time can cost someone else effort, safety, patience, or peace of mind. The comments mostly agreed. But some also asked a useful question: What about the positive side? Someone lets you go ahead in line because you only have a few items. Thumbs up. Someone returns a stray cart. Thumbs up. Someone who pauses to let you cross safely, moves over on the sidewalk, holds the door, waits patiently, picks up what someone else dropped, or takes the extra few seconds to make life easier for the next person. Thumbs up.

We notice inconsideration all the time. Maybe we should make a habit of noticing consideration, too. A thumbs-up is a simple way to say, “I noticed. Thank you.”

Beth Andrachick Hauptle, Durham