Thank you for your support and allowing me to share this information with you.  Please feel free to contact me if I can be of assistance.

Education

The General Assembly ratified and Gov. Easley signed into law a bill that will provide additional support to high-need schools.  Schools classified as high-need schools will be issued more National Board Certified Teachers to lower the student-teacher ratio and give children more individualized attention.  The bill (SB1479) gives these teachers and teachers who have received certain awards the freedom to used research based teaching techniques that go beyond the standard course of study.

Health

A bill that provides insurance parity to people who receive mental health services was signed into law this session.  Mental health parity has been debated in the North Carolina Legislature for 15 years.  36 other states already offer some form of mental health parity.  The bill is expected to save the state money spent by reducing the amount of money spent for public mental health services.

he General Assembly has agreed to take over the counties’ share of Medicaid expenses – estimated at $520 million this fiscal year -- over the next three years.  Rural counties are particularly burdened by the increasing costs of Medicaid.

Environment

North Carolina’s natural resources will be better protected as a result of a bill that was ratified this session.  The bill (SB1492) provides strict regulations for the construction of landfills including a statewide disposal tax and assurance of adequate funding to maintain, close, and provide post-closure maintenance for a landfill. Companies were attracted to North Carolina for landfill sites because of the inexpensive land, its location on the east coast, and no surcharge on garbage. The bill will protect the state’s ground water supply and plants and animals in surrounding areas.

Energy

North Carolina will be the first state in the South East to adopt a renewable energy standard if Gov. Easley signs the energy bill into law.  The bill (S3) requires North Carolina utility providers to obtain 12.5 percent of retail electricity from renewable energy. It also provides a phaseout of the tax on the sale of energy to farmers and manufacturers.  The bill is expected to help cut pollution, greenhouse gas levels, and our dependence on foreign oil.

Ethics

We have continued our efforts to improve ethical standards in government. Under a bill (SB1218) ratified by the General Assembly, Candidates who have been convicted of a felony would have to disclose that information when running for office. Another bill (SB659) forfeits the pensions of elected officials who are convicted of a violation involving public corruption or election law. We also made changes to the State Government Ethics Act (HB 1110 and HB 1111) to make government proceedings more transparent to the public.  The Governor signed both Thursday morning.

Public Safety

The General Assembly also ratified and Gov. Easley signed into law a bill to protect our children from Internet sexual predators.  The bill (HB29) will require recidivist sexually violent predators to enroll in a satellite-based monitoring system for life.  We also protected victims of domestic violence with a bill (HB46) that provides secure areas separated from the court room where victims can wait until their trial is heard.  Another bill (HB47) makes it a felony to violate a protective order related to a domestic violence case while in possession of a deadly weapon.

Next week’s column will begin a series of items that were included in this year’s budget.

The House and Senate gave final approval to a $20.7 billion budget that strengthens education, lifts the Medicaid burden from our counties and improves our health and economy. This budget addresses the needs of our students at all levels, will ensure efficient spending in government and moves North Carolina forward.

I am very proud of the work we have done to reach this budget and am certain that it will better the lives of everyone across the state. The budget was one of the last items we considered during the session.  I believe we had a successful session, continuing to address ethics reform, improving the lives of our military families and protecting the environment. We also found a way to offer tax cuts and tax relief to small businesses and thousands of people who earn less than $40,000 a year.

This week’s report will provide information on spending priorities on education and health care.

Thank you for allowing me to share this information with you.  Please feel free to contact me if I can be of assistance.

Education

We allocated $11.5 billion – 56 percent of the total budget – to education. House Democrats ensured that we will provide resources in public schools to those who need it most – poor people and those at risk of dropping out of high school. A panel will distribute $7 million in grants to help schools and groups working on dropout prevention. The Disadvantaged Student Supplemental Fund will be increased by $17.6 million and teachers will receive a 5 percent pay raise.  We also increased funding for academically gifted students by $1.75 million, gave an extra $5 million for children with disabilities, and allocated $5.7 million to hire 100 literacy coaches for middle schools.

Our students must be able to compete in today’s technological world.  To that end, we allocated $12 million to improve instructional technology in our schools and $3 million for pilot programs at eight high schools where each student and teacher will get a computer.

We will increase access to our universities and community colleges by providing $22 million for need-based grants in the University of North Carolina system. Both systems received all the money they requested for enrollment growth. We also allocated $127 million to the Education Access Rewards North Carolina (EARN) Scholars program to give 25,000 community college and UNC system students $4,000 need-based scholarships each year. Community colleges will get $15 million for a facilities and equipment grant program and $10 million for more equipment.  Learn & Earn has also been increased by $2.4 million so that more high school students can earn college credits and the online component of the program has increased by $11.5 million.

Health

We must take measures to keep our people strong and healthy.  My colleagues and I agree Medicaid costs –an estimated $500 million this fiscal year- are a huge burden for counties to bear.  The state will take over the counties’ share of Medicaid costs in a three-year phase out. Counties will have extra money for school construction and other local needs without raising property taxes. This method protects our small counties and rural counties with a large number of people on Medicaid. We are very proud of this Medicaid swap. Every county will end up with at least $500,000 more than they would have had otherwise.

Small businesses that provide health insurance to their employees will receive a tax credit that will both lower employers’ costs of providing insurance and increase the number of insured people. We also gave North Carolina’s Health Choice (SCHIP) $59 million to provide healthcare to the 264,000 uninsured children in this state and gave the NC Kids’ Care program for poor children $7 million. We added $2.7 million to hire 54 more school nurses and allocated $250,000 for pediatric diabetes prevention and education.

We appreciate the hard work of our senior citizens to build a strong foundation for this state and worked to show them our thanks through this budget. We set aside $7 million to provide a tax credit for families that purchase long-term care insurance and $250,000 in grants for community groups that help seniors enrolling in state and federal prescription drug plans. We established a rating system for adult care homes so families will have a better way to judge and compare these facilities. We also allocated $2 million to expand the state Health Care Personnel Registry, which will now include information on unlicensed personnel who work with patients.

This budget includes $4.6 million to improve and expand community-based treatment and support services for those with mental illnesses, developmental disabilities and substance abuse disorders. We appropriated $2 million for HIV prevention programs in local health departments and historically black colleges and universities, $2 million for screenings for breast and cervical cancer, $8.3 million to purchase and store 635,000 doses of flu vaccines, and $500,000 to reduce health disparities among whites and minority groups.  The Healthy Carolinians initiative will receive $1 million to help local health departments lower rates of diabetes, cancer, heart disease, obesity, and infant mortality. The University of North Carolina system will receive $25 million for cancer research, growing to $50 million in three years, and $8 million will be used to construct a cancer center at UNC- Chapel Hill.

The next legislative update will continue to provide overall details of government spending plans.






This edition of our report continues to provide you with detailed spending information that was approved by the General Assembly.  These are your tax dollars and I feel it is very important for you to know how the money is being spent.

Thank you for allowing me to share this information with you.  Please feel free to contact me if I can be of assistance by calling my office at (919) 715-3029 or sending an email to tims@ncleg.net.

Environment

North Carolina has some of the most beautiful natural habitats in the nation. We have set aside $120 million for the Land for Tomorrow program to protect our forests, parks and greenways, historic areas, wildlife sanctuaries, and land bordering streams.  We will spend $20 million to preserve and protect our working waterfronts and provide waterfront access for our citizens.  We will also spend $8 million more for farmland preservation and $100 million to help municipalities improve their water and sewer systems. We continue to study better ways to improve the treatment of swine waste and put $2 million toward that this year.

We gave the State Energy Office $2.7 million for operating costs and $5 million to start a reserve fund to pay for energy efficiency programs.  The Center for Bioenergy Technologies will receive $1.5 million to develop technologies for efficient and clean use of traditional energy sources, alternative and renewable energy sources, and researching energy technologies and their impact on the environment and North Carolina’s economy.


Economy and Finance

We have managed to make the budget fiscally sound and have set aside $175 million for our reserve fund and $145 million for repair and renovation of state owned buildings.  We now have over $750 million in our “rainy day fund” to help protect North Carolina during an economic slowdown.

We know that our citizens work hard to provide for their families and pushed for a 3.5 percent refundable earned income tax credit to help working families, small businesses, and people who earn about $40,000 or less. We also appropriated $3 million to the North Carolina Minority Support Center and $1.5 million to the North Carolina Institute of Minority Economic Development to support businesses owned by minorities and women.  To stimulate job growth, we gave the One North Carolina Fund $14 million and appropriated $12.4 million for Job Development Investment Grants. These investments will stimulate our economy, create more jobs, and put more money in North Carolinians’ pockets.

Military

In support of our troops, the General Assembly approved business tax credits for employing reservists or National Guardsmen who are called to active duty. We have also set aside $420,000 to run three assistance centers to help families of deployed National Guardsmen. We will use $240,000 to hire four additional school counselors for largely military communities.

We will spend $1 million for morale, recreation, and welfare on our five military bases; $1.25 million for the North Carolina Military Business Center, which develops business in our military bases; and $1.5 million on the Defense and Security Technology Accelerator, which develops businesses related to homeland security and national defense.  We have also created a $750,000 grant program to train sheriff’s departments in immigration enforcement. 

Security

Just like you, we are passionate about protecting our children. We approved $4.8 million in grants for government agencies and groups working on gang violence prevention, intervention, and suppression efforts. We will continue efforts to protect our children from sexual predators by spending $237,000 to hire full-time investigators to handle child exploitation and sexual predator cases and $217,000 to operate a sex offender registry.

We will protect children and victims of domestic violence by increasing spending on rape crisis and sexual assault services by nearly $900,000. We will help residents with lower incomes afford safe and affordable housing by increasing the North Carolina Housing Trust Fund to $5 million.

September 20, 2007

 

I returned to Raleigh last week along with many of my colleagues for a special session to reconsider an economic incentives bill that Governor Easley vetoed in August.  We reached a compromise that encourages large businesses that pay well to stay in North Carolina.

The compromise bill (House Bill 4 for the extra session) requires the companies to be in one of the state’s poorest counties, to invest $200 million at the site within a six-year period, to employ at least 2,000 full-time employees, to pay 50 percent of the cost of health insurance for all full-time employees’ and provide wages 40 percent higher than the county average. The incentives would help us keep jobs in these regions, and develop and stimulate the economy.

In a fast growing state, we must make decisions that improve the economic security of our citizens and promote continued prosperity for our children.  Since we know that increased educational attainment leads to higher salaries and a thriving economy, this session we focused on preparing our young people for the workforce. To do this, we strengthened our higher education system by including more money for scholarships, adding programs to encourage high school students to attend college and building facilities that will make sure our institutions of higher learning continue to be among the best in the world.

Financial Aid

_This session my colleagues and I helped create the Education Access Rewards North Carolina, or EARN, Scholars program by setting aside $127 million for it over the next two years. This program will give more North Carolinians access to higher education by providing $4,000 grants each year to the 25,000 community college and University of North Carolina system students with the greatest financial need. All North Carolinians with family incomes of less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level are eligible for the program. We are extremely proud of this program because if makes the dream of attending school, from pre-kindergarten all the way through college, a reality for all of our citizens. Students can now focus on their studies without worrying about finding money to pay for college and will be able to graduate with a bachelor’s degree without any debt.

_We increased access to our world-class universities by increasing financial aid in the UNC system by nearly $28 million and setting aside another $8.6 million for state scholarships and grants. We also enhanced our “529” college savings fund by allowing more people to contribute more money each year to the tax-free accounts.

Learn & Earn

_We set aside $2.4 million to expand the Learn & Earn program and increased funding for the online component of the program by $11.5 million. Learn & Earn allows high school students to earn college credits while they are still in high school. High school students can even earn an associate’s degree online, from their high school, or at a local community college. The program is free and allows students to prepare for college or work with no more than an extra year of high school – at no additional cost.

Salaries

_We gave university and community college faculty and professional staff a 5 percent pay raise so that we can attract the best educators for our students. 

Facilities

As our state and our university system continue to grow, we need more buildings and new programs to provide the level of service expected of one of the nation’s premier institutions of higher learning. Below are some of the highlights of our expansion of the 16-campus university system.

East Carolina University

_We appropriated $25 million to plan and operate a new dental school at ECU, which will have up to 10 clinics serving patients in underserved areas of eastern North Carolina. ECU plans to heavily recruit students from rural areas and will encourage students to practice in those areas.  The dental school is set to open by 2010 at the earliest.

Elizabeth City State University

_ECSU will receive $2 million for the new 45,000-square-foot School of Education Building. Another $500,000 has been set aside for the new School of Aviation Complex.

North Carolina Central University

_We gave the law school at NCCU $2.5 million to help them comply with American Bar Association recommendations. The school is seeing a rapid enrollment increase and ABA officials worried that the school may have to cut support staff jobs if it lost federal grant money. Last year the school depended on federal grants for about 30 percent of its budget. This money will help the school handle the enrollment increase, protect employees, and make sure students get the services they need.  NCCU also received $2.5 million for the 65,000-square-foot School of Nursing building.

North Carolina State University

_NCSU received $17 million to plan and build the James B. Hunt Library on Centennial Campus.

University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

_UNC-Chapel Hill received $25 million for a 215,000-square-foot addition to the School of Dentistry.  An additional $8 million has been set aside for the 275,000-square-foot Biomedical Research Imaging Center.

 

University of North Carolina - Charlotte

_Making North Carolina a leader in energy efficiency was one of our main goals this session. We set aside $19 million to plan and build the Energy Production Infrastructure Center at UNC-Charlotte. Students at the center will learn how to make better and more efficient power plants.

 

Winston Salem State University

_WSSU will receive $3.3 million to plan a new Science and General Office Building.

 

Nanoscience and Nanoengineering Building

_We appropriated $5 million for the Joint Graduate School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering Building at the Millennium Campus in Greensboro. The 95,000-square- foot facility will be jointly operated by North Carolina A&T State University and the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. N.C. A&T will also receive $5.3 million for a new classroom and instructional building. UNCG will receive $2.5 million for a new education building.