Stein touts tax-free holiday, fends criticism from the right

WINTERVILLE — N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein promoted education proposals including a tax-free weekend at Pitt Community College this week while fending off criticism from his Republican rival in North Carolina’s gubernatorial race that Stein is soft on crime.

The Democratic candidate vying to replace term-limited Gov. Roy Cooper visited the community college campus Wednesday afternoon to discuss his Ready, Set, Save initiative, which he said would ease burdens on students, parents and educators by reinstituting the tax-free weekend that gave North Carolinians a two-day break on sales taxes on school supplies. The plan also would offer stipends to teachers and grant free school meals to all public school students.

The visit preceded a fundraising event in Greenville on Wednesday evening where supporters gave $150 for tickets and hosts gave between $300-$6,400. In about four and a half months ending June 30, Stein’s campaign reported raising $13.8 million while Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s reported raising $5.1 million, the Associated Press said last month.

Stein estimated a tax-free weekend would cost the state about $20 million. He said when those holidays on sales and use taxes during the first weekend in August were repealed in 2014, the program cost $13 million. He said reinstating weekends would save families about $50 from the $600 they annually spend on back-to-school needs.

Stein also called for a $300 stipend for teachers to purchase school supplies, cutting into the $1,300 they spend out of pocket annually, he said. He added that free lunches would improve learning outcomes by improving student health.

Implementing the plan would require cooperation from the N.C. General Assembly, which is currently controlled by Republicans. But Stein said he has successfully worked with Republican lawmakers in the past and expressed optimism he could work with the legislature no matter which party controlled it.

“We don’t know the outcome of the election, all 170 seats are up this November,” Stein said. “I hope that there’s a legislature I can work with, but if there’s a Republican legislature, we work together to modernize our laws, protect our kids from child sex abuse, to attack the fentanyl crisis, to help people struggling with opioids, to eliminate what is the largest backlog of untested rape kits in the whole country. So we can work together, we just have to have conversations, and I’m willing to talk with whoever’s in power.”

Stein referenced a video from a private event in July where his opponent told supporters he would opt the state out of federal funding for education and stated “there should be no federal department of education.”

Stein said slashing federal funds would reduce public school dollars by $1.6 billion, which he said accounts for 11 percent to 12 percent of total funding for public schools and goes toward career and technical education, school lunches, special education and other programs that benefit low-income students.

He said the cuts would make for fewer teachers, larger class sizes and worse learning outcomes for students.

Robinson’s campaign website says the Republican’s platform is for increased teacher pay and providing more educational options. It also advocates for career and technical education. Robinson’s campaign did not respond to a request to discuss the candidate’s education platform or Stein’s proposals.

While Stein was in Winterville, however, Robinson stood with 30 county sheriffs in Stateville to announce a public safety plan that promised to build up police, fight violence and drugs and keep criminals behind bars if he is elected.

The plan in part attempts to fight what Robinson labels as left-leaning efforts to scale back police funding and reduce cash bail for people accused of violent crime so they can more easily be released while awaiting trial, the Associated Press reported.

Robinson said he rejects such left-leaning proposals and links a “pro-criminal, anti-law-enforcement agenda” to Stein and to Vice President Kamala Harris, who is the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.

“We stand behind law enforcement and law and order in this state,” Robinson said.

Robinson’s proposal says he would “prioritize raises for law enforcement officers in state budgets” and “reinstate the death penalty for those that kill police and corrections officers.”

The death penalty remains a potential punishment for people convicted of first-degree murder in North Carolina. An execution hasn’t been carried out since 2006, however, as legal challenges over the use of lethal injection drugs and a doctor’s presence at executions have in part delayed action.

Robinson also said he wants to work with the General Assembly to enact a measure that would require law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration authorities and honor their requests to hold jail inmates thought to be in the country unlawfully. Stein and Harris have made North Carolina and the U.S. “a magnet for violent crime and dangerous drugs,” Robinson said.

In Winterville, Stein said he does not favor defunding the police but has instead been “urging the General Assembly for years” to invest more in law enforcement, citing a recruitment and retention package to address officer shortages, bring in young talent and keep veteran officers in service.

In May, Stein released a series of legislative proposals that in part would seek to help fill vacancies in police departments and jails. They would include pay bonuses for law enforcement training program graduates and financial benefits to attract out-of-state or military police.

Stein told reporters that when Robinson was elected lieutenant governor in 2020, that voters did not “have full information about his extremism.”

Stein said Robinson was too extreme to lead the state in more than just his position on issues, noting that how he talks and thinks about people is also controversial.

“I am confident that if voters know who he is and what he’s about, and they know who I am and what I’ve been about — what he would do as governor and what I will do as governor — I believe the voters will make the right choice,” Stein said.