1. United States
2. N.C.
3. Letter

I'm writing to urge you to vote NO on the proposed amendment to eliminate 3,000 vacant state positions. Let’s be clear: these positions may be “vacant,” but they’re far from useless. They’re critical roles that are currently unfilled because we’re already drowning in a retention crisis. Cutting them permanently means giving up on fixing that—leaving the rest of us to pick up the slack indefinitely. I work for UNC, and we are already stretched way too thin. Every time one of these positions gets eliminated, someone else absorbs the load. Spoiler: it’s never management. It's the people doing the real work. Morale is in the gutter, and burnout isn’t some buzzword—it’s the daily reality. We’re not asking for miracles, just support. This amendment tries to disguise itself as a raise. But if the cost of that 2.5% bump is sacrificing the workforce needed to make the system function, it’s not a raise—it’s a trap. This doesn’t just hurt state employees. It directly impacts the quality of services North Carolinians rely on and pay for. And if we gut the infrastructure behind those services, we’re failing the public. Vote no. Protect the people doing the work. Stop pretending we can run a state with smoke, mirrors, and skeleton crews.