Hello neighbors,
I know we are all busy, but I sincerely hope you will take fifteen minutes or so to read this. For the sake of our community and our state, and those we care about, I thank you, in advance, for your time.
My name is Steve Luking, and I am running for NC Senate District 26, the seat currently occupied by Phil Berger. In the coming months, I will spell out my positions on major issues of the day, as I seek to earn your vote.
BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION TO RUN
I am a family physician, not a politician. After earning my MD at the Univ. of Cincinnati, I did a residency in Family Medicine in Greenwood, SC from ‘84 to ‘87. In ‘88 and ’89, I took a year and did volunteer work through the United Methodist Church’s Volunteers in Mission program. I worked in three different countries, including a five month stint as the only physician running a hospital in rural Zimbabwe. I spent through my savings and then came back to the States, working in an emergency room in rural Tennessee as I considered settling into a family practice somewhere.
I knew I wanted to live in a rural area where my skills as a family doctor would be most helpful. And, there had to be good fishing close by! I also wanted to raise my kids in public schools, and I wanted to live in a state that had my back—one that valued the health of its citizens.
North Carolina had a good reputation back then with public education and public health. So, I went to work in a community health center and local hospital caring for the underserved in Roxboro. There I met my wife Sara, a public school teacher. Roxboro is where we had our first child, Melinda, currently a public school teacher herself. The last thirty years I’ve lived and worked in Reidsville. Here we had our son, Forrest, who is now a fishing captain plying the waters out of Homer, Alaska.
My brother Scott, also a family doctor, and I established Reidsville Family Medicine in 1993. With the help of a great nurse practitioner (thanks Carolyn!) and talented staff, we cared for five thousand patients. The first twenty years we were also very busy tending to our patients at Annie Penn Hospital. I eventually served as Chief of Staff and Chair Person of the Hospital Board. My patients called me “Dr. Steve,” and when I retired I had cared for up to four generations of many of my families. In my letter to my patients I told them: “The past 28 years at Reidsville Family Medicine, working with my brother and the whole team to deliver primary care to our community, has been the honor of a lifetime. Other than my marriage to Sara and raising our kids Melinda and Forrest, it has been the most important and rewarding commitment of my life.” And I meant it.
To spend a few decades in a community, caring for thousands of folks as their family doctor, is to take a master class in humanity. You see up close what helps families thrive. You see what hurts them: The thin ice of near poverty. The lack of medical insurance coverage. Not receiving a solid education. The shattering burden of addiction. Community shortages in primary care and mental health care. You see what helps: Good paying jobs. A safe and cohesive community. Committed educators. Volunteers donating time and energy. All the givers: nurses, caregivers, police, firefighters, emergency personnel. Supportive churches helping families through joys and sorrows. Leaders who tell the truth and truly lead.
For over a decade I’ve watched our legislators’ support for two of the issues I care most about—the health of our citizens and our communities, and a quality public education system—deteriorate considerably. And I have seen many of the people I care about treated with disrespect by some legislators in Raleigh, including Phil Berger, the leader of the Senate.
Berger is often referred to as “The most powerful politician in North Carolina” in print, and when interviewed—and he never seems to deny the title. If it fits, then I consider him one of the politicians most responsible for what has gone wrong.
I have my most fundamental disagreements with Senator Berger in three key areas: Healthcare, public education, and the critical importance of integrity when it comes to serving the citizens of Rockingham County and Guilford County—and our state. Every few weeks starting in March, I will post a focused essay on each issue, and then offer proposals for improvement. They will remain accessible here.
HEALTHCARE ISSUES
I think you deserve an initial understanding of where I stand on these issues. First healthcare. For nearly the entire past decade, Phil Berger spearheaded the effort to deny Medicaid access to over half a million of our working poor residents. Most of whom were women. Hundreds were our patients. I tried every way I know for ten years to get Berger and the other legislators to change their unforgivable stance. They muddled through weak, pathetic explanations for their partisan denial, but the truth is this past decade will go down as one of the most devastating lost opportunities in the history of our state. Thousands of lives were lost prematurely; billions of our federal tax dollars were sent elsewhere. The states who did not expand Medicaid, including NC, saw rural community hospitals declare bankruptcy at a rate nearly four times higher than those who had the good sense to expand access. We need look no further than Eden’s hospital to see an example of this.
And don’t for a minute think the funerals will stop on December 1st, when we finally expanded Medicaid access. Ten years of uninsured status set up half a million North Carolinians for a future of diminished health; we will all pay a price for this going forward. Rural hospitals crippled by a decade of red ink may still go under. Communities across the state who lost their hospitals will face permanently higher mortality rates, as demonstrated in scientific studies. I will call for a “truth and reconciliation” process, so that our state will never again commit such mass negligence upon a group of our fellow citizens.
Evaluating a Sick Patient Early in the Pandemic
I will also discuss the General Assembly’s evolving position regarding women’s health issues, and why I don’t trust them going forward to make wise and informed medical decisions on behalf of women. The fundamental role of science in medicine, and how we handled the pandemic deserves a discussion. As does the reality of climate change—since this will impact everyone’s health—and what our state can do about it.
PUBLIC EDUCATION MATTERS
From 2002-2022, North Carolina was the only state in the nation to actually cut the amount of funding, in inflation-adjusted dollars, budgeted per K-12 public school student. The only state. North Carolina. Let that sink in for a moment.
Probably the worst current example of twisted legislative priorities is the poor level of support that the General Assembly is providing to public education. Public schools teach over 90 per cent of our state’s students. Our public school system, the fundamental institution that we rely upon to teach our next generation, is overstretched and underfunded. Our kids feel neglected; families are worried; and teachers feel disrespected, underpaid and often overwhelmed—and for good reason. Phil Berger has tried to say essentially “nothing to see here.”
No lipstick on the pig can erase the sad fact that North Carolina as of 2022 bottomed out at dead last in the nation in spending per public school student as a measure of the GDP of a state. In fact was 48th in the nation in actual dollar funding. Teachers and parents and students I speak with are using phrases like “Five years from now, at this rate public education will be unrecognizable,” or “They took all the funding out and with it they took the learning,” or “My son last year in middle school had mostly substitute teachers the whole year,” or “My teachers are so busy they don’t seem to care about me,” or “We’ve lost so many good teachers who left the county and even the state for better pay.”
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A common theme I have heard from many: “It seems like we are being set up to fail.” The rotten funding is really starting to feel and look like an intentional descent that is diminishing the quality of our public schools—and you know, all these concerned citizens aren’t paranoid if they’re right.
2016 Press Conference for Medicaid Expansion
In a speech this past year, when addressing our worst-in-the-nation funding, Berger said “Success in education policy is more than about hitting some arbitrary funding goal.” Sounds slick, but to me, that’s kind of like the fella on a highway one summer day telling his spouse as he drives, “Sure hon, the gas tank's near empty, but, that’s just arbitrary! It’s more how I drive the car. Look, I’ve turned off the AC, I’m only going 45 mph, I’m coasting downhill, and I barely use the brakes!” Sure, our foolish driver can eke out a few more miles on the gas tank, he might even make it home. Or, he might not. Even if he does, I guarantee you, it won’t be a quality ride.
Hell-bent to cut corporate taxes to the lowest in the nation, it appears to me that Berger and Company are more than willing to run public education into the bargain basement. A generation of schoolkids in North Carolina is facing the serious likelihood of a substandard public education, all because of upside-down priorities. Folks, we have to fight this with everything we’ve got.
In my education piece coming in March, I will propose increasing the corporate tax back to 4%--the 2016 level. The difference would be applied to public education solely. If we do not achieve 25th in the nation--just average!--in funding for our public schools and teacher pay within two years, I will propose reverting the corporate tax back to 5%--the 2015 level.
If you’re a parent or a grandparent, or just a caring relative or neighbor or fellow church member of a schoolkid; if you’re a small business owner or a corporate executive with a vested interest in a well-educated workforce into the future; if someday you expect to depend upon an excellent nurse or therapist or skilled worker; well, this has to be a major concern for you. If you’re somehow not in any of these categories, the high likelihood is that you grew up going to public schools. You benefitted from a solid education, doesn’t the next generation deserve the same?
INTEGRITY AND GOOD GOVERNANCE MATTERS
The importance of integrity in our leaders is crucial because without it we have lost more than you can imagine. And this applies to our current leadership in Senate District 26. The citizens of Guilford County and Rockingham County deserve better leadership. To me, integrity in governance means making good decisions on behalf of and in consultation with your constituents. And making certain those decisions are free of unethical influence—where matters are decided upon merits alone and what it means to the citizens of your district.
I think the casino proposal for Rockingham County really stinks. It was tainted by many thousands of dollars in campaign donations given to Berger and other legislators prior to crucial votes both locally and in Raleigh. (This does not even count the prospect of even more pro-gambling "dark money" flowing towards the General Assembly.)
The casino is a bad fit for such a beautiful agrarian area of our state; it preys on those with gambling problems; it invites troublesome sorts and troublesome influences to a rural community ill prepared for it; and it is taxation by the state upon those who often can least afford it. And of course our residents must be allowed to have major input on such a wrenching proposal involving our county. (Not just a short period of public comments given before the deciding vote.)
2019 Press Conference for Medicaid Expansion
My biggest concern with it, though, is its complete failure to provide smart economic growth: most of the jobs at these casinos are low-paying service industry positions. The average gaming industry pay is far less than the average North Carolina wage. This casino as proposed would be our county’s largest employer. Our residents are industrious and hard-working—and they have families to feed. Certainly, development is coming and even necessary in order to remain competitive, but why on earth would we sell our citizens short with permanently low paying jobs?
Another example of ignoring one’s constituents is Summerfield, where the Town Council repeatedly voted against a developer's plan for a high-density housing project. After accepting over twenty-five thousand dollars in campaign contributions from the developer, Berger directed the General Assembly to threaten to de-annex the proposed site. The Town Council was forced to give in to Berger's intimidation.
Last summer, the state budget was delayed as Berger and his allies tried to insert casino expansion into the budget. This led to delays in raises to state employees, and further delay in access to healthcare insurance for over half a million North Carolinians. The pro-casino group then tried to tie approval of the casinos solely to Medicaid expansion. That scheme could have meant another year of no Medicaid expansion if the Assembly had failed to pass it. Rural hospitals such as Eden's— still struggling to earn a profit six years after declaring bankruptcy— would have lost millions of dollars each in urgently needed revenue.
Berger was gambling with people’s lives. And after claiming for a year that his support for Medicaid expansion was sincere! How insincere.
Berger has a gerrymandered district—now even more so when he moved the folks of Summerfield out of his Guilford County district in October. Another clear example of a politician choosing the voters rather than the other way around. So the citizens of Summerfield may not be happy with their current state senator, but they won't have a chance to express that with their vote. Welcome to North Carolina democracy in 2024. Any run against Berger is an uphill battle—which raises the question: Why does the most powerful politician in NC need to stack the deck when it comes to his elections? Can’t he simply win solidly on his record and his ideas?
We need a senator who values the health of our residents, the education of our school kids, and the input of our citizens, more than he values corporate tax cuts and campaign donations. If elected, I would be that senator.
North Carolina still has so much going for it, and so much yet to lose. I always told my patients to “Fight the good fight.” This, folks, is the good fight. I'm in it to win it. Come join me in our campaign. We will lean into the wind together. Remember: the most powerful person in state politics come November 5th won’t be Phil Berger—it will be the individual voter.
Sincerely,
Steve Luking