State finances and policies will be discussed through different agencies associated with the North Carolina Justice Center are headed west in the coming week. One examines the state’s economy and current budget. The other features veteran journalist Chris Fitzsimon and researcher Rob Schofield in a series of “Crucial Conversations” on this year’s Legislature. The center is a non-profit, anti-poverty advocacy and research organization based in Raleigh.
Tuesday, Dec. 6: United Way of Asheville hosts a team from the N.C. Budget & Tax Center, a non-partisan project of the N.C. Justice Center, for a review of the North Carolina’s economy and the state budget. The interactive presentation, “Building a Stronger North Carolina,” takes place at A-B Tech’s Enka campus in Candler from 8:30 to10:30 a.m. Reservations are requested (no charge); call United Way at 255-0696.
Topics on the program’s agenda include:
• State budget and the economy’s impacts on communities
• Developing budget trends
• How to impact issues
• State status in such areas as education and public health
Multiple presentations of this program are planned around the state, including Hickory on Dec. 7, 8:30-11 a.m., at Catawba Community College, East Wing Auditorium. For the organization’s written analysis of the 2011-2013 state budget, click here.
Monday, Dec. 12: N.C. Policy Watch, an independent project of the N.C. Justice Center, offers two “Crucial Conversations” in Western North Carolina. Commentary producer Chris Fitzsimon, the Policy Watch director, and staffer Rob Schofield, director of research, are addressing the topic “What a year of conservative control has meant to the N.C. General Assembly.” They’ll be present at a lunch event in Asheville at noon (box lunch available at 11:45 a.m.) at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Asheville, One Edwin Place. Admission is $10, including box lunch. Pre-registration is required (click here for the web page for registration, or call 929-861-2065).
Fitzsimon and Schofield will take their “Conversations” to Boone that evening at 7 p.m. in the Cooperative Extension Agricultural Conference Center, 252 Poplar Grove Road. Admission is free, but due to space limitations, pre-registration is also required (see above).
by Nelda Holder, contributing editor
(Disclosure: Holder serves as secretary of the League of Women Voters of Asheville-Buncombe County, a non-partisan, non-profit organization. The LWV-ABC is a co-sponsor of the United Way presentation on budget issues.)
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