Several speakers at a town-hall meeting in Winston-Salem said last night that proposed cuts to the state budget would hurt children and adults and increase the number of homeless people.
Some speakers called for legislators to raise taxes and fees to generate the money to save programs and services.
"I'm willing to pay higher taxes so services would not be cut," said Teresa Carter of Winston-Salem, the president of NuDay Case Management Inc. "I am sure everyone in this room is willing to do that, too."
Her agency helps children and adults with developmental disabilities and mental-health issues.
Carter spoke to more than 50 people who attended the meeting at The Children's Home in Winston-Salem. Together NC -- which consists of about 80 nonprofit organizations, service providers and professional associations -- sponsored the meeting.
Organizers urged the audience to call legislators and ask them not to cut money from the state budget. On Tuesday, the coalition asked legislators to raise taxes next year to save what it called vital services for people.
At an anti-tax rally yesterday in Raleigh, however, Samuel Wurzelbacher, also known as "Joe the Plumber" told a crowd of at least 1,500 people that adding taxes on services such as plumbing is not the right approach in North Carolina because such taxes would hurt consumers.
"It's the wrong way of doing things," said Wurzelbacher, who became a hero to some Republicans during the 2008 presidential campaign when he challenged Barack Obama on taxes. "You can't keep taking away from the people."
The "Take Back Our State" rally was held on the Halifax Mall behind the Legislative Building.
Senate Democrats this spring rolled out a tax package that would raise $1 billion in additional money over the next two years by increasing the number of services that would be taxed but lowering overall rates.
Reworking the state's tax code is one of many ways being discussed, including other taxes and deep spending cuts, to narrow a $4.6 billion budget gap for the coming year. Gov. Bev Perdue's budget proposal sought higher cigarette and alcohol taxes.
The proposed state budget for 2009-10 is $17.6 billion, said Elaine Mejia, the director of the budget and tax center for the N.C. Justice Center in Raleigh.
House Democrats have agreed to consider a two-year budget plan with no additional taxes that cuts about $2 billion from education and heath and human services along when federal stimulus money is taken into account.
That got the attention of local educators at several schools, who staged a protest to proposed cuts to state's education budget by wearing red at school yesterday.
Schools with protesting teachers included Ashley, Lewisville, Kernersville and Sherwood Forest elementary schools, and Meadowlark and Mineral Springs middle schools.
"We have been seeing red for months over the legislature's proposed cuts to schools, so we decided to wear red too," said Tripp Jeffers, the president of the Forsyth County Association of Educators.
"We are trying to raise awareness of the hemorrhaging in the public-education budget. It has to stop before it hurts kids and drives good people from this profession."
At the Children's Home, Peggy Yale of Winston-Salem said that budget cuts would devastate many families.
"With these budget cuts, we are going to have people on the streets," said Yale, the president of The Enrichment Center that helps adults with disabilities. "We can't serve the people without the money."
■ John Hinton can be reached at 727-7299 or at jhinton@wsjournal.com.
■ Journal reporter Kim Underwood contributed to this article.
■ The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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