Map of District 49

For Immediate Release -- August 6, 2007 One of the Best Sessions in Recent Memory Final approval was given on Thursday 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, ensures 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.

Areas of Accomplishment (Links to Information Below) Education   Health   Environment   Economy & Finance   Military   Security

Work wrapped up Thursday after we handled the last of the thousands of bills filed this year. 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 session was one of the best in recent memory and set a strong foundation for next year's short session. Education We allocated $11.5 billion - 56 percent of the total budget - to education. We enacted legislation to 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 plan. 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.   I am pleased to report the passage of HB 818, a patient safety bill, which was a priority of mine.  This legislation amends the Practice of Medicine Laws in ways that substantially improve physician oversight by the Medical Board, the process by which individuals are selected for the Medical Board, licensure requirements, and information available to the public (such as certain malpractice information not currently available in public records).  This is a vital and huge step towards the long over-due modernizing of our state's Medical Practices Act. 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 $8 million more for farmland preservation and $100 million to help municipalities improve their water and sewer systems.   We also 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 also gave local governments authorities to enact a quarter-cent sales tax or a land transfer tax of 4/10 of a penny with voter approval. This will help them build new schools to lessen the demands of increasing school populations and to make other infrastructure improvements without raising property taxes.   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.    We realize that people make mistakes and will give $3 million in tax breaks to help put released inmates back to work and help keep people from returning to prison.   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.