Governor Perdue puts out her budget

It's been a busy week! Governor Perdue announced her budget late in the morning on Thursday. To view the press release: http://www.governor.state.nc.us/eTownhall/Blog/post/2011/02/17/Gov-Perdue-announces-budget-proposal.aspx. Another post of interest on the Governor's blog: http://www.governor.state.nc.us/NewsItems/PressReleaseDetail.aspx?newsItemid=1656

To view the budget: http://www.osbm.state.nc.us/.

Some highlights from her budget:
- $75 million in the Mental Health Trust Fund to develop alternatives to institutional care.
- Division of Child Development ($25.256 million cut)
Smart Start - $9.415 million reduction for FY12 and FY13 (recurring). This is a 5% cut.
- Transportation Services - $1.001 million reduction for FY12 and FY13 (recurring). This line item prohibits the use of subsidy funds for transportation services.
Subsidy Payment for More at Four Portion of the Day - $1.305 million reduction for FY12 and FY13 (recurring).
- Reduce County Services Support - $6.12 million reduction for FY12 and FY13 (recurring). This one is a bit troubling – the Governor’s budget claims that the funding reduction will be offset by a new attendance and tracking system. (This same item was in the budget two years ago).
- Cuts to post-secondary child care services - $7.052 million for FY12 and FY13 (recurring). This is also troubling. The line item isn’t particularly specific, but this cut will mean that fewer parents can access child care subsidies to receive a post-secondary education.
- Early Intervention Branch - $3.5 million reduction for FY12 and FY13 (recurring). This line item cuts funding for Children’s Developmental Services Agencies.
- Cuts to Local Health Departments - $6.8 million for FY12 and FY13 (recurring). This item reducing funding for local health departments to 06-07 levels.
- Cut funding for local DSS - $5.473 million reduction for FY12 and FY13 (recurring). These cuts have been in place for the past two years, but as non-recurring cuts. This line item makes the cuts permanent.
- Residential Schools for the Deaf and Blind; ($1.7m); R; 5% reduction may eliminate 22 positions
- More at Four; ($4m); R; 5% reduction. Another $6m of the state appropriation will come instead from transfer of TANF block grant receipts from DHHS
- Juvenile Justice: Cuts $11m, or 7.3% of the base budget, for a total appropriation of $140.6m. Eliminates 60 positions.
(Parts of this were extracted from the Covenant for NC Children budget analysis).

Look for more budget break down this week!