The N.C. legislature is still attracting attention for all the wrong reasons last week, it was stealth Senate approval just before July 4th of unnecessary and likely health-endangering restrictions on abortions. But lawmakers have time to get notice and praise for an action that has bipartisan support as the right thing to do.
They can include money in this years budget to compensate victims of the states disgraceful and long-running eugenics program. The N.C. House and N.C. Senate are still butting heads over the budget. As they work through their differences this week, they should reach agreement that the state own up to this responsibility this year. That shameful episode wont be laid to rest until they do.
Back in March, we gave kudos to Republican Gov. Pat McCrory for including compensation money in his budget plan. Weve praised GOP House Speaker Thom Tillis for supporting compensation both this year and in the previous legislative session. The House budget this year includes $10 million for sterilization victims. That pot of money would enable the state to pay living victims $50,000. Thats small recompense for what happened to them.
The details have been documented in extensive research over the last several years, and more recently in the testimony of some of the surviving victims, of which there are at least 150. Many told their stories to a state task force that was charged with figuring out what the state should do.
Tearful victims told of being cajoled, tricked and too often threatened to gain their consent to have their tubes tied or undergo some other sterilization procedure. (State officials reportedly said they would take their children or take away state food and other benefits if they refused). Some victims were mentally impaired and didnt know what was going on. State officials would carry out the procedure sometimes on the basis of a single comment or complaint about a victim.
The program was one of the longest and most aggressive in the country running from 1929 through 1974. It lasted far longer than any other program in the nation. It aimed to save the state welfare system money. Its victims included whites, blacks and Native Americans.
Ironically, saving the state money is the reason the N.C. Senate has balked at compensation efforts. It has included no money for restitution, with some Senate leaders saying the state cant afford it.
That sounds a bit disingenuous, given that the Senate budget contains several tax breaks for businesses and wealthy residents. And lawmakers found a way to aggressively repay money the federal government loaned to bolster the states unemployment insurance program, which bad policies and a deep recession left with insufficient revenues. Of course, their fix was to unwisely slash state benefits, a move that resulted in more than 70,000 N.C. residents losing federal benefits last week.
The state owes a debt to the victims of their misguided eugenics program, too. And the debt should be paid as expeditiously as lawmakers have decided to repay the one to the feds. Theres still time this legislative session. McCrory and Tillis should push for it. Repaying this debt will be something all North Carolinians could point to with pride.
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