June 26, 2015 Womble Legislative Update
By Unknown
The budget gridlock rumors on Jones Street are real. A
decorated Christmas tree arrived in the Senate chamber this week to emphasize
how far apart the two chambers are on next year’s spending plan. Next year
starts on Wednesday. Speaking of next year, in the absence of a new budget the
legislature must pass a “continuing resolution” to keep state government
running or face a government shutdown. We don’t know exactly what was going on
behind the closed doors of the caucuses, but the General Assembly adjourned
until Monday with no plan in place. Early next week will be a pressure cooker.
Keeping the Government Running
Because the final budget won’t be in place by the end of the
fiscal year (June 30), the General Assembly must pass a continuing resolution
that will keep the government running until a compromise budget bill can be
worked out. On Thursday, the House and Senate both took a recess after
completing their calendars in hopes that a continuing resolution could be voted
on and passed before legislators went home for the weekend. After
extending the recess several times, both chambers adjourned for the day without
taking anything else up. Leaders from both chambers weren’t able to agree
on a few things, including:
- Teacher assistant funding- While the House budget plan
leaves teacher assistant funding levels unchanged, the Senate budget cuts
about 5,000 teacher assistant positions. This point of contention is
being addressed in the continuing resolution because school districts will
need to begin making personnel decisions before the school year starts in
August.
- Driver’s education- While the House budget plan leaves
driver’s education funding intact, the Senate budget eliminates the limit
on the fees a local school board can currently charge a student for
driver’s education for the 2015-2016 school year, moves driver’s education
to community colleges in 2016-2017, and eliminates the requirement that
students take driver’s education.
- The length of time the continuing resolution would
cover- While House leaders would like for the expiration date to be
somewhere around the end of September, Senate leaders want an earlier
date. House leaders are predicting that budget negotiations could
last several months, but Senate leaders have dismissed that idea.
Reforming Medicaid
HB 372 –
2015 Medicaid Modernization – passed the House this week and was sent to
the Senate. Instead of being welcomed with open arms, the bill was sent
directly to the Senate Ways & Means Committee, aka “The graveyard of the
Senate.” The Senate sends bill to that committee as a statement. In
this case, the Senate has included their much more dramatic Medicaid reform
proposal in their budget and will continue to push for it during budget
negotiations.
The House plan:
- Medicaid would remain within the Department of Health
and Human Services
- Provider-led entities would be the only organizations
allowed to operate health plans
- Full capitation would be phased in over five years
- Supported by the Department of Health and Human
Services, the North Carolina Hospital Association, and the NC Medical
Society
- Medicaid would be removed from the Department of Health
and Human Services and would be overseen by a new Health Benefits
Authority which would be run by an appointed board
- The board would contract with three private healthcare
management providers who would serve Medicaid patients state-wide
- The state would be divided into six regions and offer
contracts to two local provider-led organizations in each region
- Full capitation would be phased in over two years
A conference report for HB
640 – Outdoor Heritage Act – has been adopted by the House and Senate,
toppling one of the remaining blue laws in NC which prohibited Sunday hunting
with a gun; it awaits ratification and the Governor’s signature. The bill would
allow hunting on Sundays with guns on private lands with permission of the
owner, without dogs, and not between the traditional church-going hours of 9:30
am – 12:30 pm. There is no hours restriction on private hunting
preserves. No Sunday hunting in Wake or Mecklenburg counties (they meet
the 700,000 population threshold). The three hour no hunting period
was a nod to the conservative religious movement that seeks to keep the
congregation in church on Sundays whether they hunt or not. The
conference report received bipartisan support from urban and rural legislators.
SB 36 –
Greensboro City Council Changes – is a bill that we told you about back in
March. Introduced by Senator Trudy Wade, the bill makes changes to the
Greensboro City Council by shrinking it from nine members to seven, making the
mayor a non-voting member in most cases, and extend member terms from two years
to four years. Although it passed through the Senate easily, it was met
with resistance in the House. The Guilford County House delegation (with
the exception of Rep. John Faircloth) has banded together and come out against
the bill or insisted on adding a referendum which would allow Greensboro
residents to vote on the changes. As a result, they garnered the votes to
add a referendum to the bill. However, seeing that her bill was meeting
resistance, Senator Wade added the language to a House bill that was being
heard in the Senate. HB 263 –
City Elections/Trinity – was originally a non-controversial bill that only
applied to the City Council in Trinity. It passed the Senate and has been
sent back to the House for concurrence with the new title “City
Elections/Trinity and Greensboro.”
The
original bill sponsor, Representative Pat Hurley, is urging her fellow House
members to concur with the changes made by the Senate in order to save her
original bill. It was placed on the calendar twice this week, but not
voted on because it didn’t have the votes. It has now been placed on
Monday’s calendar. It’s anyone’s guess as to whether it will actually be
voted on.
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