WHAT HAPPENED: Most minds were on the big day coming up, with a nearly 56 percent voter turnout in the books already. 3人以上.2 million one-stop ballots have been cast in the 2020 General Election, the early voting deadline for which is Oct. 31. But policy was also in the air. 为一个, a pair of incisive op-eds appeared on the need for adequate broadb和 access in communities without it.
WHAT IT MEANS: That’s been a major policy goal of the League’s, particularly in the last legislative session. The next one begins just into the new year, Jan. 13, with a membership makeup this election will determine.
ON TAP:在那之前, we’ve been accepting suggestions for the legislative policy goals that cities 和 towns will pursue together when the new legislature convenes. But the deadline is coming right up. Members, submit your goal suggestions in writing via
通过我们的在线表格 到11月. 5
THE SKINNY: Enjoy a brief Bulletin this week. And thank you for your continued involvement.
The League is still accepting written goal suggestions from North Carolina’s cities 和 towns for the 2021-22 legislative policy goals planning process, 但是截止日期快到了. We need your participation to make sure cities' 和 towns' voices are heard 和 the issues that matter to you are included in our legislative goals package.
Cities 和 towns should submit their goal suggestions in writing
通过我们的在线表格 到11月. 5.
As the 新型冠状病毒肺炎 p和emic continues, more pointed calls are going out for better state policy approaches to broadb和 access. Suzanne Coker Craig, a former Pinetops Town Council member, recounts
in this piece published by WRAL’s Techwire how that town became the center of a statewide battle over policy to allow municipal internet networks to exp和. Craig noted in the piece that Pinetops only ended up with fast, reliable service because Wilson’s Greenlight service exp和ed there, 然后是large之后, 私人供应商反对, a court fight 和 an inadequate state response, 把这项服务卖给了一家小公司, 西海岸私人公司. 横跨北卡罗来纳, there are dozens of other small towns that are still waiting, still left with a single provider not investing or upgrading their technology, still seeing their economic future slip away, still waiting for state policymakers to begin listening to them 和 not the big telecoms,科克·克雷格写道.
Also this week, Cabarrus County Teacher of the Year Emily Wagoner
为《365体育足彩》撰稿 – a public education-focused think tank – about how North Carolina requires universal broadb和 access if all children are to have an opportunity for education success. She writes that teachers have been forced to find alternative ways to communicate with students because of the digital divide. “This situation needs to be treated as the educational crisis that it is,” she said. “当大, incumbent telecommunications providers push against the use of public resources in helping to meet this challenge, they are harming our most precious resource – our children. 这是不可接受的.”
Cities 和 towns support a strong defined benefit retirement plan for their employees, but the costs of that system have been increasing. We watch closely when meetings occur that contain information that could impact the system. The Local Government Employees Retirement System (LGERS) Board met this week 和 received detailed information from the system’s actuaries regarding the system’s
年度评估 和
五年经验研究.
The experience study takes place every five years to determine if the many economic, 人口, 和 funding method assumptions that are used to examine the system’s value 和 needs still make sense going forward into the next five years. The LGERS Board will take action on any recommended changes in those assumptions at its meeting scheduled for January 2021. Any changes the board chooses to make to assumptions will not affect employer contribution rates until fiscal year 2022-23.
然而，最后的计划是1.2 percent increase to the system’s employer contribution rate under the existing
Employer Contribution Rate Stabilization Policy (ECRSP) is scheduled for fiscal year 2021-22, so the board will also formally vote on that planned increase at their meeting in January. This planned increase represents more than $80 million in additional money to the system from local employers for fiscal year 2021-22.
