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Local News
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Tuesday, May 13, 2008, 1:12 PM
Highlights of Easley's Budget Public Education * ABC teacher performance bonuses: $90 million. * Pay for rising school bus fuel costs: $13 million. * Reduce class-sizes in early primary grades beyond what is provided for by funding from the North Carolina Education Lottery: $11 million. * Remove inflationary increases for instructional supplies and textbooks: -$4.7 million. * Give subsidized More at Four slots to another 6,345 children, raising the total in the early childhood initiative to 35,000: $45 million. * Expand Learn and Earn high school initiative to another 13 schools next year, with planning grants for 16 others: $3.2 million. * Expand high-speed Internet and broadband services to more public schools: $6 million. UNC System * Across-the-board cuts of 0.8 percent across the UNC system with some exceptions, specific reductions determined by system and no cuts affecting negatively on classroom operations: -$18.5 million. * Remove inflationary increases for UNC system utilities, library books, campus equipment and vehicles: -$7.6 million. * Raise system enrollment growth over previous 2008-09 projections: $34.6 million. * Increase regional collaborations with community college system to help areas with no UNC campuses in Hickory, Rocky Mount and Jacksonville: $1 million. * Expand Easley's EARN Scholars Program, which helps students in low-income families graduate from UNC system schools debt-free, to provide grants to students in private and independent colleges. No additional funding needed. * Fund priority recommendations in University of North Carolina Campus Safety Task Report: $11 million. * Grant to build N.C. State University's Advanced Transportation Energy Center, which will research development of plug-in cars: $500,000. Community Colleges * Raise system enrollment growth for 2008-09: $23.8 million. * Hire 55 new faculty, purchase equipment for allied health and nursing programs: $6.9 million. * Fund 58 halftime information technology positions on campuses: $1.9 million. Health and Human Services * Remove 1,110 children from waiting list for subsidized child care: $9 million. * Implement new foster care reimbursement program designed to more equitably reimburse families and providers of services: $8.3 million. * Reduce Medicaid forecast due to reworking of state-federal formula and increase in drug rebate collections: -$65.5 million. * 75 percent reduction in inflationary increases for reimbursements to medical providers for services to Medicaid patients: -$42.2 million. * Reduce from 15 to eight the maximum number of hours a mental health patient can be served through the Community Support program: -$9.1 million. * Cost savings from statewide chronic care management of aged, blind and disabled: -$24.7 million. * Expand NC Health Choice program to provide subsidized health insurance to 10,683 more children in low-income families: $10.4 million. * Hire 132 people to develop more mobile crisis units, inpatient benefits and other community services for mentally ill: $36.2 million. * Hire 107 new psychiatrists, nurses, health care technicians and doctors at state's three psychiatric hospitals: $5.4 million. * Develop 36-bed overflow unit at Dorothea Dix Hospital during transition to new Central Regional Hospital, fill 175 positions: $5.2 million. * Provide mental health services to combat veterans and families: $2.2. million. Justice and Public Safety * Reduce various operational judicial branch budgets: -$4.2 million. * Create five-person team in Department of Justice to investigate fraud among community mental health service providers: $113,000. * Hire 37 new counselors, supervisors and cooks at nine juvenile justice detention centers: $2 million. * Restore funding for Juvenile Crime Prevention Council reviewed by Legislature during interim period: $22.7 million. * Eliminate inflationary increases for prisoner care in Department of Correction: -$9.7 million. * Hire 21 chief probation-parole officers and support staff to reduce caseload and supervision levels: $42.2 million. * Give more money to crime victims compensation services so that rape victims don't have to pay some costs associated with sexual assault forensic exam: $600,000. Natural and Economic Resources * Purchase more agricultural conservation easements on farm and forest land: $5 million. * Hire nine positions to establish planning services to assure stable water support and prepare the state to withstand droughts: $880,000. * Increase funding for One North Carolina Fund to provide incentives to keep state competitive with attracting companies: $10 million. * North Carolina Green Business fund expansion: $1 million. * Open trade office in Shanghai, China: $375,000. * Job Development Investment Grants: $17.7 million. Capital Improvements * Supplemental funding for North Carolina chronological history exhibit at N.C. Museum of History: $2.6 million. * Expand N.C. Museum of Art: $5.1 million. * Lake Mattamuskeet Lodge renovations: $15 million. * Creation of North Carolina Freedom Monument in downtown Raleigh: $1 million. * Planning, renovations and construction at N.C. Zoo in Asheboro: $6 million. * Issue $553 million in new debt to construct state government office buildings, prisons and University of North Carolina system buildings. * Construct 400-site campground at N.C. State Fairgrounds: $6.3 million. * N.C. National Guard armory improvements: $8.4 million. * USS North Carolina Battleship Memorial renovations: $2 million Other Government Agencies * Implement recommendations by Governor's Task Force on Preventing Pesticide Exposure: $714,000. * Reduce annual transfer from Highway Trust Fund to general operation fund: -$25 million. Salaries * Average 6.96 percent increase for public school teachers and 5.97 percent for principals; 1.5 percent raises plus $1,000 one-time bonus for other state employees, university and community college system workers: $594 million. * 1.2 percent cost-of-living increase for state retirees. No additional funding needed. Taxes * Tax increase on beer, wine and spirituous liquor: $66 million. * Increase tax on cigarettes from 35 cents a pack to 55 cents: $99 million. * Sales tax holiday for energy efficient appliances: -$1.5 million. * Extend tax credits for research and development and North Carolina Ports: -$4 million.
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