Congregations across the state have been listening to each other — in house meetings, one-to-ones and listening events — about what is hurting us and the people we love: healthcare and housing costs, unsustainable utility bills, the lack of resources for our schools, fear in immigrant communities. That's why, at the first public meetings following county commission elections in November, we will tell them what we've been hearing, and ask for their leadership. 

We will show up together to tell our commissioners how the budget crisis manufactured in Raleigh is hitting our families, and to ask them to stand with us: call on the legislature to fund what our communities need by ending unprecedented corporate handouts, and join neighboring states in making sure they pay their share.