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The fact of so many fine people being behind me and lending their financial support gives me a good feeling and means so much for the job I do for our community and state. As I begin this campaign and as we gear up for the race ahead, I am so very pleased to have such a great crowd of supporters and friends! Once again --THANK YOU!

About Van

Graduate
Grainger High School 1969

Graduate
East Carolina University 1973

Small business owner
Eastern United Tires Inc. / Kinston
Goodyear Tire Center franchise

Currently
Independent Insurance agent specializing in Long Term Care and Medicare Supplement Insurance

Past Finance Chairman and
Administrative Board Chairman
Queen Street Methodist Church

Kinston City Councilman
1995-2006

Mayor Pro Tem
City of Kinston 1999-2001

Kinston/Lenoir County
Parks and Recreation
Past Member

North Carolina House of Representatives
2007-current

East Carolina University Public Health Community Advisory Board
Member

North Carolina Interagency
Coordinating Council for Children with Disabilities
Member

Married to:
Sandra Stanley Braxton
a retired guidance counselor
Kinston High School

CAMPAIGN 2010

Now that the legislative session has ended, Van will begin a new phase of his campaign. Watch for notices of speaking engagements. If you would like to put up a yard sign please call Van at 919 715-3017 or write to: rep@vanbraxton.org

We can use the valuable help friends of the Representative can offer. Please let Van know soon if you would like to assist in any way to help him win this election.

Most Recent Note from Van

Thursday, 13 May 2010 00:00 |

Dear Friends;

Our legislative session ended at 4:50 Saturday morning, July 10. It was unusually fast and short. All things considered, I think we did about as good as we possibly could with the limited revenues. We balanced our budget even though we had a revenue shortfall of approximately $750 million. We did not lay off any teachers and very few other state employees. We did freeze many unfilled positions. We also cut programs that we felt were no longer needed. This was on top of the 50 programs we cut out of last year's budget. The per capita spending is lower than it was in 2006-2007. The state budget is about the same as it was that year but our population has increased approximately 8%. The University of North Carolina system and the NC Community College system have seen growth rates of 12% and 25% respectively. Our K-12 public schools have grown approximately five percent.

Our focus was on creating jobs, keeping our education system strong, and holding the line on state spending. We created some tax breaks for small businesses, continued the tax incentives for major corporations, and worked with the Department of Commerce to continue promoting the good business climate of North Carolina across the country and abroad.

On education, we shifted some lottery revenues in order to save 1600 teaching positions. We fully funded enrollment growth for the University system and the Community Colleges. The Community Colleges are especially important in this era of worker retraining.

Locally, we continued funding the Global Transpark and moved a sunset date out two years on Inter-Basin transfers of water that will save the regional WASA approximately $2,000,000 --savings that will lead to more stable water rates for their water customers.

In closing, it has been my pleasure to serve as your representative in the General Assembly for the past four years. I look forward to helping our area continue to grow with better paying jobs and a better quality of life as I seek re-election to a third term. --VB

The Short Session

Thursday, 13 May 2010 00:00 |

Friends,

The short session for 2009-2010 began Wednesday at noon. No one was excited about returning. Our state and our nation are still recovering from the worst recession in my life time. The state faced a $4.6 billion shortfall last year and we are facing another $750 million shortfall this year. Over 250,000 North Carolina workers lost their jobs during this slowdown. Since the state's largest revenues come from income tax, both corporate and individual, and sales tax, our revenue picture continues to struggle.

We will once again be looking at our three largest departments, education, justice & public safety, and health & human services, to make cuts in their respective budgets. I do not believe these cuts will need to be more than about 3%. However, deep cuts were made last year. The cuts that might be made now will greatly affect programs, services, and instructions.

I am hopeful that this will be the last year for such cuts. There is always a little good in tough times and the good is that we have and will continue to do away with outdated or obsolete programs. We canceled over 50 such programs last year and will continue to look for more this year.

As you can see this will not be an easy session. It is a time for the legislature to make responsible and balanced decisions to get us through these tough times and be in the right position when things pick up. I feel we are doing this and I will keep you informed of what is going on. As always, know that you can contact me with your concerns or thoughts. --VB

The NC State Budget

The 2009-2010 state budget was one of the toughest budget exercises done in many years. When the legislature convened in January of 2009, our revenues were running around $2 billion short of expectations. We felt like we could cut that much out of the budget and get by. As the year went along the shortfall kept growing larger and larger. By April it was $3 billion and by June it was more than $4 billion.

To balance the budget with cuts only would mean laying off 10,000 teachers across the state. It would also mean laying off 2500 law enforcement, probation/parole officers, and department of correction officers. It would also include massive cuts in Health and Human Services.

We took a balanced approach to this challenge. We cut $2.4 billion from the existing budget. We raised $950 thousand in new revenues, and we used $1.3 billion in federal stimulus to balance our budget.

The $2.4 billion in cuts included 2400 teacher and teacher assistants in the class rooms. It also included over 500 positions from the different departments of Justice and Public Safety, and cut over $1 billion in programs for our citizens with mental and physical challenges.

Much has been said about this year's budget. Some say we cut too much. Others say we did not cut enough. We took a balanced approach to hold down revenue increases while funding the services we felt were key to keeping our state fiscally sound.

We are all hoping, praying, and working hard that the economy in our state and nation will improve over the next year. --VB

During the Interim

Sunday, 21 February 2010 00:00 |

Our 2009 session ended in mid August of last year. Our short session will start the second week of May 2010. During the interim, committees are meeting and much planning is going on in order to be ready for this year's legislative session. In these uncertain times we are doing all we can to make our state run more efficiently.

I am pleased to be serving on five committees.

Finance Committee: The Finance Committee is looking at tax modernization. Are there ways to make our tax system more fair and reduce individual and corporate income taxes.

State Health Plan Committee: The state health plan was $250 million in the red at the end of the 2008 session. We had to raise deductibles and co-pays to keep the plan going. This committee is looking into HRA's and HSA's as well as better management of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and asthma related diseases as a way to control our cost.

JOBS Committee: This committee is looking into how we can best link our businesses and schools to train our work force. Such programs as STEM and Early College are being used as models to help us develop more models that will benefit more students.

Small Business Committee: This committee is trying to find ways to help small businesses in these tough times. Tax credits for health insurance, a reimbursement for collecting sales tax, and sales tax credit on equipment purchased for the small business use are just a few of the ideas being discussed.

Mental Health Oversight Committee: We continue to look for ways to provide the services to our most vulnerable citizens while stopping the waste and abuse that has gone along with some to these services. This department took the largest hit last year. Its budget was cut by more than $1.4 billion.

Legislators are working harder than ever to help our state recover from one of the worst economic slow downs in our life time. Although the answers are not easy, I am hopeful that we will come up with good plans to move us forward with more jobs as well as cutting programs that we no longer need. --VB