Advocacy Update: First Week of Session
Monday, May 2, 2016
By Kay Castillo, Director of Advocacy, Policy, and Legislation
Legislators are back in town! The first week back was marked by protests for and against House Bill 2 as legislators mostly spent the week filing budget related bills, discussing the Governor’s budget, and caucusing with their respective parties. Since this is a short session, legislators will mostly work on bills that passed the House or Senate chamber last session (bills that met crossover) and work on budget related items.
Bills filed this week
- HB-946/SB-784 Repeal HB2/Fund Human Relations Comm: Completely repeals House Bill 2 in its entirety and appropriates $545,407 in funds to the Department of Administration, Human Relations Commission.
- HB-949/SB-744 Occupational Licensing Board Contact Info: requires Occupational Licensing Boards to update any changes to contact information within thirty days to the Joint Legislative Administrative Procedure Oversight Committee.
- HB-955 Changes Special Ed./Opportunity Scholarships: Makes several technical changes to North Carolina’s school voucher program, including a change that allows the state to allocate a greater percentage of voucher funds to Kindergarten and 1st grade children who have never attended public schools. Additionally, children of active service members are added to the list of eligible children for the program.
- HB-967 Prepaid Health Plans Licensing by DOI: This bill requires all Prepaid Health Plans (PHPs), which will be the managed care companies administering Medicaid under the new Medicaid Reform plan, to be licensed by the state Department of Insurance to ensure financial solvency.
- HB-968 Medicaid Transformation Reporting: This would require that by October 1, 2016 the Legislative Oversight Committee gets a full report on the progress of the 1115 Waiver (Medicaid Reform).
- HB-987/SB-788 Opioid Abuse and Incapacity to Proceed/Study: This bill directs the Governor’s Task Force on Mental Health and Substance Abuse to continue studying the resurgence of opioid and heroin use. Further, it allows reports received by the court on incapacity to proceed to be shared with treatment providers.
- HB-1007/SB-783 Amend Occupational Licensing Board Statutes: This bill directs new rules for training occupational licensing board members and requires licensing boards to adopt rules for handling complaints, enforcing action on licensees, monitoring unlicensed activities, and more.
- SB-731 Restore Funding To Drug Court: Appropriates $3,185,088 in recurring funds to operate local Drug Treatment Courts.
- SB-734/HB-1000 Statewide Standing Order/Opioid Antagonist: Adds State Health Director as someone who can prescribe opioid antagonist without criminal liability.
- SB-735/HB-1001 Appropriate Funds/Dementia Caregiver Programs: Appropriates $500,000 to the Division of Aging and Adult Services. $300,000 of this money will go to Project CARE and $200,000 to creating positions to develop and oversee the implementation of the No Wrong Door to Accessing Benefits initiative related to care for Alzheimer’s. Further, the bill directs the Department of Health and Human Services to report on options for expanding CAP/DA and CAP/Choice waiver slots.
- SB-736/HB- 999 Study Suicide Prevention: Appoints a subcommittee to study the role of health care providers and key gatekeepers in suicide prevention for people under age 25, veterans, active duty military personnel, firefighters, law enforcement officers, and emergency medical services personnel. The bill directs the subcommittee to study which licensed providers would need suicide assessment, treatment, and management training as part of their continuing education requirements.
- SB-740 Collaboration Of State Agencies/Early Educ: Directs certain state agencies to develop and implement a statewide vision for early childhood education.
- SB-742/HB-969 Opp. Scholarship Military Child Eligibility: Adds for a child whose parent or guardian is on full-time duty status as an eligible student for the Opportunity Scholarship Grant Program.
- SB-757 Reenact EITC: This bill would reinstate the Earned Income Tax Credit that was eliminated in 2013.
- SB-759 Funds/Youth Tobacco Use Prevention: Would appropriate funds to be used by the Division of Public Health to educate adult leaders and youth about the dangers of electronic cigarettes and other tobacco products.
- SB-773 Reenact Child Care Tax Credit: This bill would reinstate the child care tax credit that was repealed.
- SB-776 Appropriations Act of 2016: This is a placeholder bill that will be used for the Senate’s proposed budget.
- SB-785 Child Welfare System Recommendations: This bill would require changes to the child welfare system with semiannual reports until a final report is due in February of 2019. The plans would bring our state into compliance with national standards for child welfare policy and practices as recommended by a Federal review done earlier this year.
- SB-786 Appropriations Act of 2016: Another place holder bill for the Senate budget.
- SB-794 Authorize Needle Exchange Programs: This bill allows organizations both governmental and nongovernmental, to operate a needle exchange program and offers certain immunity to volunteers and staff operating the program.
Governor’s Proposed Budget
Last week, legislators got to preview the Governor’s proposed budget. Here are highlights as it relates to the social work profession:
- A 3% bonus with $3,000 cap for state employees.
- 3.5% bonus with a cap of $3,500 for school personnel.
- An increase to the Salary Adjustment Fund by $27 million to raise below market-value salaries or state employees in high-demand fields.
- Money to add 320 slots for Community Alternatives Program for Disabled Adults (CAP/DA).
- $1 million for Project CARE to support families receiving services for Alzheimer’s and Dementia care. The money is also used to support family caregivers.
- $2.5 million is added to the Innovations 1915(c) Waiver to serve 250 more youth.
- Under recommendations from the Governor’s Task Force on Mental Health and Substance Use:
– $9 million to support recommendations to combat the state’s heroin and prescription drug use.
– $5 million to support therapeutic courts and diversion from the justice system to treatment.
– $13 million for case management.
– $3 million to support emergency housing for those with mental illness transitioning out of emergency departments and correctional facilities. - Using money from the Dorothea Dix Trust Fund, the following would be funded:
– $2.5 million for Mental Health First Aid training – which would train 14,700 people.
– $150,000 to fund 6 scholarships for individuals proficient in American Sign Language to serve those with mental illness and substance use issues.
– $3 million to divert people with behavioral health issues from the justice system to treatment.
– $2 million to build local in-patient bed capacity for children.
– $12 million for rural hospital bed construction and/or conversion.
– $300,000 to support the development of psychiatric advance directives to communicate an individual’s preferences regarding treatment (a recommendation from the Governor’s Task Force on Mental Health and Substance Abuse).
– $250,000 to support a veterans’ outreach initiative to connect vets to housing. - Significant investments are made to child welfare to bring NC up to national standards following a review this year that highlighted NC’s need to change policies and recruit and retain quality staff. The money will go to operate training for staff, educational incentives, improve the foster care licensing process, expand evidenced based practices to families, and more.
Upcoming Advocacy Days
- May 3rd: NC Community Recovery Advocacy Day: from 9 am to 5 pm
Register online: http://rcnc.org/nc-community-recovery-advocacy-day/ - May 10th: NC Coalition on Aging Day at the Legislature: from 8 am to 3 pm
Find out more online or contact Kay Castillo if you are interested in attending, advocacy@naswnc.org http://www.nccoalitiononaging.org/ - May 17th: Equality NC Lobby Day
- May 25th: Medicaid Expansion lobby day- more details to come!
NASW-NC works on behalf of the social work profession on a variety of issues. It is a member benefit provided by NASW-NC to have a registered lobbyist advancing and supporting the profession of social work in North Carolina. The North Carolina Chapter works with National NASW on Federal issues such as reimbursement rates, immigration, student loans, and more. Your membership dues help support our advocacy efforts everyday on the state and federal levels. Thank YOU for being a member and staying engaged in supporting the social work profession.
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