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A Time for State Leadership in North Carolina
A perspective from Mark Royal
Mark Royal, 8th grade, Trinity School of Durham and Chapel Hill
On July 3rd, 2025, H.R. 1, the “Big Beautiful Bill”, passed the US House of Representatives. The next day, July 4th, the president signed the bill into law [1]. Many impoverished people who would otherwise be celebrating the independence of our great nation were instead riddled with anxiety about new stipulations added to qualify to receive SNAP benefits and medical coverage.
The federal Medical Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) program is facing a $16 Billion federal funding cut [2]. This change was neither inevitable nor necessary, but it will end up affecting thousands of Americans directly and millions of Americans indirectly throughout the next decade. These budget cuts will affect mental healthcare facilities significantly with many of them being projected to close their doors. This will, in the long run, have a net negative on society as mentally ill people will be unable to get the care that they need, which I predict will result in a rise in poverty, the homeless population, and crime rates [3].
I propose a solution to federal policy challenges. This solution is to turn to our state government for relief. Instead of being sectarian on the national scene, we should instead look to working together as a state to build institutions which will protect our citizens. Before 1932, most political changes weren’t decided in Washington, but in Raleigh or Columbia or Richmond. 1932 brought the “nationalization” of politics with Franklin Delano Roosevelt [4]. While some policies were beneficial, nationalization increased regional inequality. For example, this nationalization of politics has allowed companies to come into Appalachia and monopolize the coal industry, ultimately leading to widespread poverty and high wealth disparity [5].
But what could this mean for North Carolina? North Carolina is currently running a state surplus of, on paper, $330 million during FY 25-26 [6]. This is real money that the state has that we could use to help real Americans. But the potential is huge; over the last decade, North Carolina has cut the corporate income tax rate by 50% [7]. If we hadn’t cut this rate, then North Carolina could have had $1.6 Billion more annually to dedicate towards social programs or education betterment (based off of FY 23-34 State General Fund Revenues multiplied by two) [8]. In the same period, the total budget of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was $4.2 Billion. After all, based on fall 2023 data, North Carolina is the 43rd worst state in the nation for public school teachers [9].
After reading this, one might ask, what are the barriers to implementing these programs?
For one, North Carolina’s general assembly is yet to pass a budget for FY 2025-2026. Before we can work on new programs, we must fix our existing issues [10].
If there is a takeaway, it is to elect officials to fix our state who will implement social programs and increase corporate taxes to pre-pandemic levels to take up the role of the federal government.
[1]American Association of State Colleges and Universities. HR1 Approved by Congress and Signed Into Law by President Trump. 7 July 2025, aascu.org/news/hr1-approved-by-congress-and-signed-into-law-by-president-trump/. Accessed 2 Apr. 2026.
[2] National Association for Behavioral Healthcare. DSH Cuts. Sept. 2025. www.nabh.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/DSH-Cuts.pdf. Accessed 1 Apr. 2026.
[3] Jácome, Elisa. How Better Access to Mental Health Care Can Reduce Crime. Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, July 2021, siepr.stanford.edu/publications/policy-brief/how-better-access-mental-health-care-can-reduce-crime. Accessed 1 Apr. 2026.
[4] American High School. New Deal Combined. American High School, cdnend.americanhighschool.org/CourseContent_2/New%20Deal%20Combined.pdf. Accessed 1 Apr. 2026.
[5] Kanooz, Iman. King Coal’s Last Reign: How Corporate Greed Keeps Appalachia Underdeveloped. Columbia Political Review, 17 May 2025, www.cpreview.org/articles/2025/5/king-coals-last-reign-how-corporate-greed-keeps-appalachia-underdeveloped. Accessed 1 Apr. 2026.
[6] Vinueza McClellan, Hannah. NC Forecasts Budget Surplus, but Warns Tax Cuts Could Impact Future Revenue. EdNC, 24 Mar. 2026, www.ednc.org/3-24-2026-nc-forecasts-budget-surplus-over-next-two-years-warns-tax-cuts-could-impact-future-revenue/. Accessed 2 Apr. 2026.
[7] North Carolina Department of Revenue. Corporate Income and Franchise Tax Rates. www.ncdor.gov/taxes-forms/corporate-income-franchise-tax/corporate-income-and-franchise-tax-rates#CorporateIncomeTaxRates-12045. Accessed 2 Apr. 2026.
[8] North Carolina Department of Revenue. Statistical Abstract of North Carolina Taxes 2024. 8 May 2025, www.ncdor.gov/documents/reports/statistical-abstract-north-carolina-taxes-2024/open. Accessed 2 Apr. 2026.
[9] Schlemmer, Liz. NC Drops to 43rd in Nation for Teacher Pay, Falling Five Spots. WUNC, 29 Apr. 2025, www.wunc.org/education/2025-04-29/teacher-pay-ranking-drops. Accessed 2 Apr. 2026.
[10] Vaughan, Dawn Baumgartner. “State law keeps NC from DC-style shutdown, but lack of budget has consequences.” The News & Observer, 15 Oct. 2025, www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article312355474.html
“Viewpoints” on Chapelboro is a recurring series of community-submitted opinion columns. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work or reporting of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com.
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