Budget Action Alert

Friends,

After nine hours of over 100 amendments to House Bill 200: Appropriations Act of 2011; the House will take this bill to the floor on Tuesday, May 3rd. Therefore, we have a small amount of time to address our issues. Below are some highlights that affect social work. PLEASE contact your legislatures and other members of the House to let them know how you will be impacted both professionally and personally.

Instructional Support staff cut by 4%: this means cuts to school social work positions.

Health and Wellness Trust Fund Eliminated: eliminate the Health and Wellness Trust Fund (HWTF) along with the Tobacco Trust Fund. The HWTF funds a wide variety of programs to prevent tobacco usage, obesity, aging services and infant mortality. The money from the HWTF is now redirected to debt service, agricultural projects, and $50 million for the University Cancer Research Fund.


Cuts to the Department of Juvenile Justice/Department of Corrections: Programs that help ex-offenders successfully integrate back into society were cut entirely.


Non-profit salaries capped: H200 caps salaries for all non-profits receiving state funds using a sliding scale based on the amount of state funding. For instance, if an organization receives more than $10 million, the salary cap is $100k; if it receives less than $1 million, the cap is $60k.

Tuition waivers eliminated: H200 would eliminate a variety of tuition waivers for NC community colleges, including waivers for:
-patients in state alcohol and drug rehab facilities
-any juveniles committed to DJJDP
-prison inmates
-students in HHS development programs

Early Childhood programs restructured
Smart Start
-No more than 8% of totals costs for all partnerships for admin costs
-Caps salaries at $80k for statewide partnership and $60K for local partnerships
-13% total match requirement (10% cash; 3% in-kind)
-No state funds on marketing campaigns
More at Four – H200 fundamentally changes More at Four from a pre-k program for low-income families to a child care subsidy program
-More at Four no longer under the Department of Public Instruction
-20% carve out for non-low income kids – this carve out means that 20% of the families served by More at Four funds will NOT be from low-income families
-H200 would also implement a co-pay on a rate scale the same as child care subsidies

Planned Parenthood funding cut: eliminate state funding and state-administered federal funds for Planned Parenthood. Cuts to this program are political in nature because it means cuts to breast and cervical cancer screening, family planning, sexually transmitted disease treatment, etc. Some legislators believe that these services can be provided by the Health Departments when in fact, the health departments are already overburdened and have significant wait times.

To access the Money Report, click here.
To access the Special Provisions, click here.

It is DIRE that you contact your legislators and let them know how devastating these cuts are. Take a look at the Money Report and see how you will be affect. The Money Report is the full report for Health and Human Services, Education, Adult Services, Child Services, Mental Health, etc.

If you need help contemplating what it all means and how to frame your message specific to you, please contact Kay Paksoy at the chapter office! Remember, this will be voted on on Tuesday!