State Happenings

1
State Happenings

• Major state budget legislative issues
• Major statewide issues
• Major local issues

Rebecca Troutman NCACC Research Public
Technology Director
2
State Budget Compromise
3
State Budget Compromise

• Salary Adjustments
• 550 per state employee with additional 2 weeks
  vacation
• 1.81 for non-central office certified school
  employees
• 1.86 for principals assistants

4
State Budget Compromise

• Public Education Adjustments
• Maintains public school capital funding
• Local schools discretionary cuts of 44.3 mil
• Provides 5 in low wealth 1 mil in small
  schools
• Reduces grade 2 class size with increase of 25.3
  mil (from 1/20 to 1/18)
• Relaxes teacher certification requirements for
  out of state lateral
• State BOE to study school nursing ratio
  requirements
• Establishes community college trust fund to match
  1 state with 2 foundation for scholarships
  25,000 limit for each

5
State Budget Compromise

• Human Services Adjustments
• Increases More at Four by 7.4 mil to serve
  10,000
• Increases Health Choice funding by 12.2 mil
• Reduces Medicaid coverage for welfare to work
  clients from 2 to 1 years
• Requires enrollment in Medicare if eligible
• Allows pilot of qualified nurse to serve as local
  health director
• Conforms asset transfer for special asst with SSI
• Cuts Smart Start by 7.7 mil
• Adds 12.5 mil to Mental Health Trust Fund
• Charges local health for pap smear lab at 1 mil

6
Article 44 Hold Harmless

• All counties adopted by July 1, 2003 start
• G.S. 105-521
• DoR Fiscal Research calculated expected sales
  receipts May 1 for upcoming fiscal year 365.1
  (NCACC NCLM asked for lowered revision from
  original May 1)
• Used 2002-03 distribution of local sales to
  compute local share
• Hold harmless if 100 or more, sales tax share
  less 100 of reimbursements
• 38.8 mil hold harmless (20.7 county only)

7
Article 44 Hold Harmless

• Moved from Sept 15 distribution to Aug 15
• Guarantees for 2 years with intent for 10 years
• Hold harmless from state sales tax pool, not
  local
• July 2003 begins monthly distribution of sales
  tax
• Disbursement 45 days from month end instead of
  quarterly
• August 15, 2003 distributions for last quarter
  collections
• September 15, 2003 distribution for July, 2003
• Monthly distributions thereafter

8
State Budget Special Provisions

• Budget director must reduce approps by increased
  receipts
• Budget director must review non-reverting,
  off-line funds, funds authority
• DoA OMB to set up surplus property ID
  disposal system s to general fund
• DoA to establish Real Property Mgt Adivsory
  Council to review surplus property
• State cant disburse grant funds unless grantee
  meets reporting requirements

9
State Budget Special Committees

• Joint Committee on Executive Budget Act Revisions
• 4 Representatives on Appropriations 4 Senators on
  Appropriations Committee
• Recommend changes to Act to modernize improve
  budget preparation, budget adoption, budget
  execution, program evaluation
• Reports its recommendations to the 2003 General
  Assembly on or before April 1, 2004
• Study Impact of Exempting Conservation Lands on
  Property Tax

10
State Budget Special Committees

• Blue Ribbon Commission on Medicaid Reform
• Examine State's Medicaid program make
  comprehensive recommendations for fundamental
  reform, including
• Methods to responsibly restrain the growth in
  Medicaid spending
• Best practices in public private sectors in
  managing administering health care
• Options for maximizing existing resources while
  controlling Medicaid program costs
• Current services available appropriateness of
  services

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State Budget Special Committees

• Blue Ribbon Commission on Medicaid Reform
• Opportunities for change thru federal waivers
  other management tools
• How to minimize the State and county share of
  Medicaid costs maximize federal participation
• Medicaids role in State's economy
• Consists of 12 members 6 each from House Speaker
  Senate President with 3 legislators maximum
  from each

12
Medicaid Relief

• County membership selected Medicaid relief as 1
  priority
• Seek legislation to implement a 6-year phase out
  of county participation in the costs of Medicaid,
  beginning with a cap at current costs in the year
  2003
• State
• 3 House 5 Senate proposals introduced
• Aiming for study commission to initiate phase out

13
Medicaid Relief

• Federal
• Temporary FMAP increase of 2.91 percentage points
• 10 billion nationally
• Last qtr for 2002-03 all for 2003-04
• NC county savings 37 mil
• NC-DHHS also rebased earlier Medicaid estimate
• Total change for 2003-04 386.9 from 437.5
• State savings 191.6 mil

14
2004 Estimated Social Services Costs
15
Property Tax Legislation of Interest

• Publicize Revenue-Neutral Tax Rate S511 SL
  2003-264
• Budget officer must include in budget
  revenue-neutral property tax rate in revaluation
  year
• Neutral rate to produce revs by current rate if
  no reval occurred
• Neutral Rate current rate plus
• Growth factor avg annual incr in tax base due
  to improvements since last reval
• Adjustment for annexation, deannexation, merger,
  etc.

16
Property Tax Legislation of Interest

• Exempt Off Campus Housing s277
• Exempts from property tax educational property
  held by a non-profit entity
• Loss of 24 mil in property values for
  Wataugua--precedent set for continued erosion of
  base
• House Finance to consider

17
Legislation of Interest

• Help America Vote Act H842 SL 2003-226
• Conforms with federal legislation to improve
  voting process (e.g. Florida)
• Designates state voter registration list as
  official record for all elections (now at county
  level)
• Counties must use state computer system for
  record maintenance
• DMV to provide jury lists of drivers voters
• Allows electronic capture of signature as valid
• Levers punch-cards not permissible effective
  1/1/06

18
Legislation of Interest

• Help America Vote Act H548in budget
• Enabling legislation to receive match federal
  funds to replace ineligible equipment other
  deficiencies
• Section 101 8 mil 3 mil for education/training
  local elections 5 mil to comply w/ statewide
  voter standards SIEMS
• Section 102 900 k to replace remaining punch
  cards
• Title II estimated 36 mil requires state plan,
  match of 5
• State plan to determine county distribution (need
  80 mil to change all systems)

19
State Issues of Interest

• Mental Health Reform
• Phase I counties, 14 area or single programs,
  beginning transition to LME model
• Albemarle, CenterPoint, Crossroads,
  E-N/W-G/Riverstone, Guilford, Mecklenburg, OPC,
  Pathways, Peidmont / Davidson, Smoky Mountain,
  Tideland, VGFW, Wake, Duplin-Sampson/Lenoir/Wayne,
  Neuse
• Durham, Mecklenburg, Pitt, Wake opted for county
  LME
• County policy group formed

20
Rural Internet Access AuthorityProgress to Date
http//www.e-nc.org/

• LEG-UP Program
• Combined TOPS grant RIAA funding 1.5 mil
• 2 phase project involving 55 local govts from
  e-Communities
• Focus on e-government connectivity applications
• Training, decision-making, portal development
  sustainability, e-apps
• Participants to serve as mentors

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Rural Internet Access AuthorityProgress to Date
http//www.e-nc.org/

• LEG-UP Program
• 1st Phase with 20 locals underway
• Several in consortium
• 2 day training recently concluded
• Website development
• IT decision methodology
• Vendor show
• Developing portal connectivity plans due 6/16
• Next steps
• Training for applications

22
Rural Internet Access AuthorityProgress to Date

• Where to from here?
• RIAA legislative authority expires 12/03
• Asked members interested parties (eg us) to
  determine priorities for moving forward
• Proposed legislation to convert to e-NC Authority
  (h1194)
• Continue to manage, oversee, and promote efforts
  for high-speed broadband Internet access in rural
  urban distressed areas
• Serve as States central Internet access policy
  planning body

23
Homeland Security

• 2003 US budget approp 1 bil new
• 400 mil grant for equipment 80 local/20
  state
• 93 mil for training
• 105 mil for exercises
• NC share 13.9 mil 8.6 county/city 2.2
  regional 3.1 state
• Must be allocated 80/20 local/state
• Purchase equipment base of 10,000 pop.
  allocation .7861 per
• Exercise base of 2,500 pop. allocation of
  .1244 per
• Training base of 1,000 pop. allocation of
  .0373 per
• Smaller pots for competitive grants

24
Homeland Security

• NC Dept of Crime Control Public Safety
  administering agency thru Div. of Emergency Mgt.
• Finalizing sub-grant agreements for local funds
  disbursementeverything thru reimbursement basis
• County emergency mgt director single point of
  contact including cities in spending decisions
• All first responder disciplines must be
  represented
• County/city mgt to be involvedstudy list of
  allowable purchases for long-term benefit
• i.e communications infrastructure, radios, mobile
  data terminals

25
Homeland Security

• 2003 US supplemental approp 2.3 bil new
• 1.3 bil grant 80 local/20 state
• NC share 31.9 mil 25 mil for locals
• Considering same distribution method as 2003
  budget
• 200 mil critical infrastructure 50 local/50
  state
• NC share 6 mil
• 700 mil to high-threat urban areas (none in NC)

26
Local Government Issues

• Debt setoff
• Background
• NCACC NCLM organized program to allow members
  to submit delinquent debts gt50 for setoff
• DoR matches against individual income tax refund
  sets off debt--money returned to submitter
• Must contain name, social security number, other
  data elements in prescribed ascii format
• Locals must adhere to definitive notice appeals
  before submission first in, first collected
• New Developments
• 2002 legislation to charge debtor 15 fee
• Locals can combine debts to meet 50 minimum

27
Local Government Issues

• Debt setoff http//www.ncsetoff.org/
• Entities Submitting Data 94 (up from 34 last
  year)
• 55 counties 73 cities signed up
• Total Amount of Debt Submitted 21,503,081
• Total Number of Debtors 81,960
• Total Number of Debts 114,999 (10 fold incr)
• Totals for first 11 Matches (as of 06/17/03)
• Dollars Sent to locals 929,272
• Number of Matches 5728

28
Local Government Issues

• 6.4 Mil EMS Federal Medicaid Increase--
• NCACC completing third year of cost finding
  process to increase federal reimbursements
• Counties (2 cities) completed cost report to
  document actual EMS costs--438 per trip (up from
  412)
• Counties (2 cities) received federal share
  (61.46) of difference in state-set reimbursement
  rate -80 statewide cost per trip (less 2
  consulting fee)
• Annual process, ongoing general county revenue
  stream
• All public EMS providers billing Medicaid must
  participate

29
Local Government Issues

• e-Civis Grants Locator http//www.ecivis.com
• NCACC NCLM new program to increase federal
  grants
• Members may subscribe to Grants Locator thru
  e-Civis at reduced price
• Reflects 40 off list price, if register by
  October 31, 2003
• e-Civis subsidiary of Ferguson Group

30
Local Government Issues

• e-Civis Grants Locator http//www.ecivis.com
• Web-based grants search, notification, tracking
  mgt system
• Details grant programs, with electronic access to
  application federal standard forms, guides,
  instructions,
• Lists previous winners winner applications
• Allows users to establish ongoing search criteria
  to monitor grants by subject area receive
  notification for new grants
• Allows managers to track employee grant activity
• Can sign up for free trial

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Ketner 2002-03 Winners

• Alamance, Rett Davis team, Timber Production
  Mgt. Revenues
• Cabarrus, Eileen Sousley Debbie Hinkle, On-line
  Office Supply Swap Shop
• Catawba, Debbie Bradley team, Employee Health
  Clinic
• Duplin, Mary Anne Lane team, Open Access
  Scheduling
• Hertford, Brenda H. Allen Avis Murphy, Client
  Financial Assistance Database
• Macon, Kim Angel, Cross County Transit Website
• New Hanover, Kimberly Roane team, Medical
  Records Barcoding Project
• New Hanover, Kathryn A. Bujalski, Overdue Book
  Management by Telephone
• Randolph, Thomas M. Wassack, Mobile Mugshot
  System
• Wake, Emmett Curl team, Online Business Listing