ACTION ALERT AND UPDATE: June 11, 2009

Budget update: For folks who follow the process of creating the states budget, this has been a more interesting year than most. This update will try to explain the recent changes to the state budget, the revenue package, and where the budget is headed next, but if you spot any mistakes, or have questions, please contact us. This week House Finance introduced bills to increase taxes and fees to raise 940 million though the final revenue package came to 784 million dollars in new taxes. As a result, Appropriations Committees made changes to the budget, to "restore" some of the cuts. In HHS Appropriations, 300 million was placed back in removing cuts including 4 million for Local Management Entities, 8 million for CAP MR/DD supplemental funds, 50 Million in state funded services, 7 million for direct payment processing to providers, 15 million in the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services continuation budget, 34 million for Medicaid personal care and 65 million to Medicaid provider rates (reducing the cut to around 3%). No funds were restored to group homes or community support. On Thursday, the House budget was debated for several hours and was amended to include the new revenue package. Second reading is at this point set to take place after midnight on Friday and third reading on Saturday.

Many of the recent budget documents can be found at http://www.ncleg.net/ on the left hand side of the page and at on the Fiscal Research page at http://www.ncleg.net/fiscalresearch/index.shtml

For a full list of restoration items go to http://www.stategovernmentradio.com/media/image/061109_Restoration_Package.doc (note that not all items in the final House budget be included here).

The House Budget report from June 10^th can be found here http://www.ncleg.net/sessions/2009/budget/2009/budgetreport06-09-094thEd.pdf

Legislators Listened to Your Plea to Raise Taxes.
Now Thank Them!

ACTION: Please thank these members of the House Finance Committee for voting in favor of a revenue package. This is especially important if you are a voter in their districts. They need to hear that they did the right thing.

Rep. Kelly Alexander, 107^th Mecklenburg 919-733-5778 This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Rep. Van Braxton, 10^th Greene, Lenoir, Wayne 919-715-3017

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Rep. Tricia Cotham, 100^th Mecklenburg, 919-715-0706

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Rep. Bill Faison, 50^th Orange, 919-715-3019

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Rep. Pryor Gibson, Anson, Union, 919-715-3007

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Rep. Larry Hall, 29^th Durham, 919-733-5872

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Rep. Dewey Hill, 20^th Columbus, 919-733-5830