Whatley Campaigns With First Responders And Factory Workers Highlighting Benefit Of No Tax On Overtime

Last week, Chairman Michael Whatley, the Republican Nominee For U.S. Senate For North Carolina, held a campaign stop in Greensboro. The roundtable discussion featured first responders, manufacturers, and factory workers who all discussed the positive impact of the no tax on tips policy passed in the Working Families Tax Cut legislation. In his role as Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Whatley worked with President Trump and his team to help pass this legislation, while former Governor Roy Cooper announced his campaign opposing this legislation.  

Whatley opened up the roundtable, saying, “I want to thank Gordon Hunt and Illumination Technologies for hosting us here today. It's a really good backdrop because this is what it is we're trying to talk about with no tax on overtime. We all know that making things work at the end of the month is the number one challenge for a lot of people across North Carolina. 

In fact, I would say for most people across North Carolina. When things get tight, people want leaders who are going to be able to get things done and to make things easier for them. Simply put, my economic plan is for people to make more and keep more.” 

Whatley continued drawing the contrast between him and his opponent, saying, “We've got a really big divide in this election when it comes to taxes. Roy Cooper has never met a tax he didn't want to hike. And I have never met a tax I didn't want to cut. Roy Cooper, who voted to raise taxes when he was in the state legislature, vetoed six different tax cuts as a governor. And when he announced that he was running for Senate, proudly stated that he would have voted against the Working Families Tax Cut Act, which provided every household in North Carolina with a $5,700 tax cut. Simply put, if Roy Cooper got his way, every household in this state would have paid $5,700 more on Tax Day, April 15th, than they had to. And he's proud of that. That bill also contained provisions, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security. Roy Cooper wants you to pay taxes on those as well.” 

After Whatley concluded his opening remarks, fire fighters, manufactures, state lawmakers, and factory workers described the benefit of no tax of tips for their respective industry. No tax on overtime is particularly impactful for firefighters and police officers who often work overtime simply to make ends meet at the end of the month.  

Bradford Muller with Charlotte Pipe and Foundry said that no tax on overtime greatly benefited their factory workers, encouraging employee retention because they get to keep more of their own money. Additionally, factory workers described how no tax on overtime helped them pay for their upcoming wedding and provide money to take care of their kids. 

In the availability after the roundtable, The Blue Ridge Times asked Whatley about what else he would do to support law enforcement and first responders in the Senate in addition to no tax on overtime.  

Whatley responded, “Well, what I would say is when we talk about taxes and we heard today about how important it is for these guys who do not make a lot of money, who are serving the community, every single dollar that we can reduce on their tax bill is going to be very, very, very important. My opponent has made it very clear throughout the course of his career that he supports higher taxes. He voted for higher taxes when he was in the State House and the State Senate. He vetoed tax cuts when he was the governor, and he announced his campaign by saying that he would have voted against this particular piece, the Working Families Tax Cut Act, and would want to work to roll those taxes back up. I think also that we have a duty when we're talking about protecting our community. We talk about keeping our kids and our community safe, of making sure that we back the blue, whatever it is that they need in terms of public support from the federal government that we can do, whether that's working with the Department of Justice, working with other federal agencies to make sure that they're getting the training that they need or that they can get grants or they can get supplies or any other part of that conversation. I want the law enforcement folks in North Carolina to know I'm going to be there for them. I'm very honored to have the support of sheriffs from all across the state, as well as the State Highway Patrol Troopers Association and the Police Benevolent Association. So I'm very excited about having the blue backing me because I'm always going to back the blue.”  

In response to media questions from other reporters, Whatley pointed out that Biden drove inflation to historic highs, and he committed to implementing policies that would bring inflation down. And that we needed to make sure that it is easy to vote and hard to cheat.  

In response to a question about Iran, Whatley firmly said that he supported President Trump’s goal of making sure Iran never obtained a nuclear weapon.  

The Blue Ridge Times asked a second question about Whatley’s plans to boost domestic manufacturing. Whatley responded, “Yeah, look, I think it's absolutely huge, and we heard today from Charlotte Pipe & Foundry and other manufacturing companies who talk about the impact that this provision is going to have on their workforce, and for them to be able to have workers who are going to be able to keep more of their money, they're going to be able to do better, means that they're more likely to stay, and they're going to stay in the workforce, which is very, very good, and those dollars are going to get reinvested back into the economy overall. Look, I think you go back to manufacturing, right? What are the trade policies? What are the tax policies? What are the regulatory policies that we need to put in place to bring advanced manufacturing here to North Carolina? We can talk about the trade issues around NAFTA and what that meant as a negative for North Carolina USMCA putting a better framework in place. Talk about how lower taxes. In the Working Families Tax Cut Act, one of the key provisions was immediate expensing for manufacturers. That allows them to go ahead and expand. It allows them to make investments and get those tax burden cuts right away. Absolutely essential, and we need to do more.”