The Raleigh Report

From the Office of Cullie Tarleton

July 6, 2009

I hope you and your family had a wonderful 4th of July weekend and celebration. Sylvia and I did. We had all our children and grandchildren visiting us. All of us should be grateful for what the 4th of July means and stands for. We continued last week to work on a budget proposal. I’d like to say a lot of progress was made but in all candor that’s not true. Hopefully this week will prove differently. The Continuing Resolution passed by both Houses has directed state agencies to operate at a 15 percent reduction until a final plan is approved.

As I’ve said before, this is an extraordinarily difficult year to craft a budget. We are cutting more than $2 billion in spending and would have to scale back even more if not for some one-time federal stimulus money the state will receive. We are making these cuts as strategically as we can and in ways that will do the least harm. Having said that, there will still be deep cuts all across state government.

While we have remained busy working on the state’s budget, we have also worked hard to pass legislation that we hope will improve your lives. The following information highlights some of the legislation that has made it through the House this week.

I hope you will contact me if you have questions, or if I can be of service. You can email me at culliet@ncleg.net or call me at 919-733-7727. Thank you as always for your support and your interest in our state.

Improving Government

State facilities that provide mental health, developmental disabilities, and substance abuse services will now be required to disclose certain information about death reports, facility police reports, and incident reports (SB 799). The intent of the legislation is to improve transparency. The bill now goes to Gov. Perdue to be signed into law.

Legislative drafting offices and state agencies will now be directed to use certain respectful references to people with disabilities in the preparation of legislation and rules. The legislation, known as “People First,” has passed both bodies of the legislature and will now be sent to Gov. Perdue to be signed into law (SB 208).

Jobs/Economy

On Tuesday, members of the House voted to extend the sunset of the Job Development Investment Grant Program, commonly known as JDIG (HB 1516). The intent of the program is to foster job creation and investment in the economy of this state. In the years that JDIG has been in effect, the state of North Carolina has taken in significantly more money than has been expended on the program. JDIG has proven to be a valuable asset to the state, especially during these uncertain economic times. Job Development Investment Grants are awarded only to new and expanding businesses and industrial projects whose benefits exceed the costs to the state and which would not be undertaken in North Carolina without the grant.  Since the first grant was awarded in 2003, the program has been responsible for creating commitments for more than 30,000 jobs and $5 billion in investment in North Carolina.

Miscellaneous

Legislation that would assist owners in recovering lost pets, relieve overcrowding at animal shelters, and facilitate adoptions of animals from shelters has now passed both bodies of the legislature (SB 467). Among other things, the bill will establish procedures for animal control officers to scan animals for owner information on microchips; require that euthanasia be conducted according to rules approved by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, if such rules exist; and require that, before animals are sold or put to death, they be made available for adoption under procedures that allow the public to inspect them, unless they are found to be unadoptable due to injury or defects of health or temperament.

The NC Board of Medicine will now be required to publish certain judgments, awards, payments, and settlements involving physicians. The legislation, which has passed both bodies of the legislature and been signed into law, requires disclosure of medical malpractice lawsuits that were settled for a total of $75,000 or more (HB 703).

Probation officers would be allowed to transfer low-risk misdemeanants with no special conditions to unsupervised probation under a bill that has now passed both bodies of the legislature (SB 1089). Such a transfer to unsupervised probation will not relieve the misdemeanant of the obligation to continue making court-ordered payments under the terms of the misdemeanant's probation. The bill will now go to Gov. Perdue to be signed into law.

Notes

Last Monday night, members of the House officially honored the 75th anniversary of the Blue Ridge Parkway with a House Joint Resolution (HB 1655). I was one of the sponsors of the resolution and spoke during floor debate. The Blue Ridge Parkway is a national treasure and certainly brings lots of tourist to the high country. The parkway continues to be the most visited of all the 391 units in the National Park System, attracting over 20 million visitors annually and contributing more than $2.3 billion annually to the region's economy.

On July 1, 2009, a number of new state laws went into effect. The newly effective laws include:

• State government will completely absorb financial responsibility for Medicaid cost-sharing payments, which was the responsibility of county governments for decades.

• The $675 million plan to maintain the solvency of the health insurance plan for teachers and state employees takes effect.

• The state has expanded property tax breaks for completely disabled veterans, the elderly and people with "working waterfront" property.

• Active military member’s home on leave can now hunt or fish without a license.

Cullie Tarleton