We need your help in thwarting religious giveaways in the Tar Heel State budget.
North Carolina lawmakers are finalizing a two-year budget that Gov. Roy Cooper will review. Past budgets have included unconstitutional religious handouts. Please take a moment to contact Cooper and urge him to ensure the final budget will not include any religious funding.
Two months late on a two year-budget, Republican representatives still have not sent anything to Cooper for approval. Once this happens, the budget could swiftly be put into place. The budget has gone through myriad amendments and revisions but proposed versions have included grants to religious entities such as $1 million to the Brunswick Christian Recovery Center, and $1.5 million reportedly to First Contact Ministries, for faith-based recovery programs.
This religious funding is nothing new. In 2018, FFRF partnered with the Center For Inquiry to challenge items in the North Carolina budget that disbursed $250,000 to Cross Trail Outfitters, a Christian ministry that proselytizes through outdoor activities. The Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution prohibits states from granting discretionary funds for religious purposes, but once the money has been awarded, it is difficult to retrieve.
Before the budget is passed and it becomes unlikely that we could stop an unconstitutional appropriation of the budget, use our automated system to urge Gov. Cooper to make certain the final budget does not include any funding of religion, including faith-based programs or funds to build or repair houses of worship. The time to stop this impending constitutional violation is now.
TALKING POINTS
As a secular North Carolinian taxpayer, I urge you to protect my constitutional right not to have my tax dollars fund religious missions.
Please ensure that the state’s final two-year budget does not contain any unconstitutional religious funding, including any grants to faith-based recovery programs, funding to build or repair houses of worship and other such purposes. Granting money to any organization for religious purposes goes against the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution and takes funding away from important state programs.
