Melvin Watt: “in North Carolina our State legislature is still in legislative session in the longest legislative session in the…”

“in North Carolina our State legislature is still in legislative session in the longest legislative session in the history of North Carolina. It started the year with a budget deficit of over $300 million and a constitutional requirement of a balanced budget. After September 11, and after the State legislature had found a way to balance the budget, September 11 hit and they had to face another set of projections that threw the budget out of balance again. They are still there trying to solve this problem. Now we are told that the poor people, the unemployed people of North Carolina, are going to be taxed an additional $54 million out of their unemployment benefits for the purposes of New York. The people of North Carolina do not mind supporting the people of New York. People who have income would readily do that. I talk to them all the time, but it is patently unfair to ask unemployed people to give $54 million from North Carolina, unemployed people in North Carolina, when we have suffered the same impact from the same set of events. U.S. Air has a hub in Charlotte. It flies out of Reagan National to Charlotte. It laid off thousands of people after September 11. Those people need the unemployment benefits just like New York needs these funds. We should adopt the Miller amendment.”