RALEIGH, N.C. – Highlights of the $20.05 billion budget for North Carolina state government for the 2009-10 fiscal year tentatively approved Wednesday by the state Senate. The monetary figures reflect increases or reductions to base budget expenses, some of them based on projected increases in recurring spending. For tax changes, figures are for the amount of revenue generated or lost.
SALARIES AND BENEFITS
- experience-based salary increase for public school teachers, instructional support and administrators, equal to average 1.8 percent increase for teachers and 1.6 percent for principals: $65.4 million.
- no pay increase for rank-and-file state employees.
- state contribution to state employee and judicial pension system: $22.3 million.
K-12 SCHOOLS
- reduce textbook allotment due to delay in new math books for grades 6-12: -$38 million.
- reduce funding for school district administrative offices: -$6.5 million.
- transfer More at Four early education program to Department of Health and Human Services: -$86 million.
- discretionary reduction for local school districts: -$7.8 million.
- eliminate funding for several state-administered standardized tests for students not currently required by federal law or grants: -$3.6 million.
- reduce staff development money by 50 percent: -$6.3 million.
- eliminate funding for activities designed to improve performance for poorly performing students: -$38.4 million.
- decrease money for teacher salaries while increasing average class sizes by two students: -$322.7 million.
- order State Board of Education to eliminate 100 positions at the Department of Public Instruction: -$5.4 million.
- support 12 early-college high schools opening in 2009-10 school year: $3.7 million.
- fund dropout prevention grants: $1 million.
- create new standard course of study, consider replacing existing standardized tests and pilot diagnostic tests to identify strengths and weaknesses of individual students: $3 million.
- suspend transfer of corporate income tax funds to Public School Building Capital Fund: -$60.5 million.
- expand North Carolina Virtual Public School, which lets student take classes online: $2 million.
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA SYSTEM
- reduce system spending, with system flexibility on where to make cuts: -$75.4 million.
- remove expected increases for overtime pay, unemployment and workers’ compensation and disability benefits: -$7.8 million.
- remove inflationary adjustment for library books and periodicals: -$14.1 million.
- fund UNC system’s need-based financial aid request: $23.4 million.
- matching grants for endowments fund to award campus professorships: $6.8 million.
- continue to implement recommendations of system campus safety task force by increasing number of campus mental health workers and police: $5 million.
- hire new faculty, develop curriculum at new East Carolina University dental school: $3 million.
- indigent care at East Carolina University medical school and UNC Hospitals: $4 million.
- hire researchers, buy equipment at North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis: $3 million.
- faculty recruiting and retention fund: $2 million.
- funds for several campus projects: $11.2 million.
- hire more faculty and staff, buy equipment at University of North Carolina School of the Arts film-making school: $1 million.
COMMUNITY COLLEGES
- fully fund costs of additional 15,259 full-time students on system campuses: $10.4 million.
- reduce spending at central office, with system flexibility on how to make cuts: -$490,000.
- reduce extra funding for multi-campus centers, off-campus centers: -$2 million.
- eliminate funds for regional criminal justice, fire training coordinators: -$1.2 million.
- restructure fees charged to continuing education students: -$9.4 million.
- eliminate expected increases in state aid to campuses: -$18.5 million.
- eliminate tuition waivers for senior citizens and prisoners: -$6.1 million.
- 65 additional nursing faculty to address waiting lists at nursing programs: $4.8 million.
- re-establish, improve vocational and technical education programs for transportation, engineering, military and green technology sectors: $4.5 million.
- purchase instructional equipment for all 58 colleges: $10 million.
- restore funding to North Carolina Military Center: $1.3 million.
HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
- reduce funding for Smart Start child care initiative: -$15 million.
- replace state child-care subsidy with one-time federal block grants: -$12.5 million.
- transfers More at Four funds to department to create high-quality classroom subsidy program for 4-year-olds: $46 million.
- replace classroom subsidy program for 4-year-olds with federal stimulus funds: -$37.2 million.
- eliminate 376 vacant positions within Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services: -$12.9 million.
- reduce department-wide spending, with flexibility given to department secretary: -$23 million.
- close two 25-bed units at Broughton and Cherry state mental hospitals: -$6 million.
- close Wright school in Durham and Whitaker school in Butner for emotionally and behaviorally disturbed children at end of 2009, reduce 98 positions: -$2.9 million.
- create additional local inpatient psychiatric hospital beds to improve local crisis system: $12 million.
- maintain 36-bed overflow unit at Dorothea Dix mental hospital in Raleigh, hire 174 positions: $3 million.
- rely on federal stimulus funds to improve electronic health records at state mental hospitals: -$21.1 million.
- eliminate 46 vacant positions in Division of Public Health: -$1.8 million.
- reduce funds to purchase pharmaceuticals for AIDS Drug Assistance Program, replaced by reserves: -$3.1 million.
- eliminate media contract for smoking cessation, state funding for telephone tobacco quit help line: -$607,000.
- hire 20 additional public school nurses, bringing total to 232: $1 million.
- shift funds from NC Kids Care program to NC Health Choice children’s health insurance program, increase funding to enroll 15,583 additional children: $14.8 million.
- competitive grants for community health centers: $6 million.
- rural hospital operations and maintenance: $2 million.
- eliminate 53 vacant positions within central management, Medicaid management and information systems: -$1.6 million.
- eliminate 30 vacant positions in Division of Social Services: -$695,000.
- replace state funds with federal funds for welfare cash payments, maternity home services, child welfare collaborative programs, foster care and adoption and child support enforcement: -$15 million.
- regional food banks funds: $1.5 million.
- reduce prescription drug costs for Medicaid patients through utilization management: -$25.8 million.
- extend freeze for Medicaid provider inflationary increases: -$101.4 million.
- increase efforts to obtain payments for Medicaid service through third parties: -$20 million.
- modify Medicaid in-home and adult-care home personal care services benefits to prevent overuse: -$54.9 million.
- limit weekly hours for Community Support Group program services: -$15 million.
- eliminate Medicate funds for HIV case management: -$1.7 million.
NATURAL AND ECONOMIC RESOURCES
- reduce spending in Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, with flexibility on where to cut: -$2 million.
- eliminate eight positions in Department of Labor, reduce spending with flexibility on where to cut: -$567,000.
- 25 percent reduction in Labor Department apprenticeship program, made up for with new fees: -$450,000.
- eliminate 32 vacant positions at Department of Environment and Natural Resources, reduce spending with flexibility where to cut: -$6 million.
- matching money for drinking water and clean water fund: $8 million.
- reduce spending in Department of Commerce, with flexibility on where to cut: -$623,000.
- create Small Business Assistance Fund to provide loans to guarantee commercial loans and finance bonds so businesses can leverage better federal stimulus money: $3 million.
- create Main Street Solutions economic development funds for smaller cities. $3 million.
- regional economic development commission funds: $3 million.
JUSTICE AND PUBLIC SAFETY
- reduce spending in Department of Correction, with flexibility to decide on cuts: -$54.5 million.
- remove expected increases for Department of Correction overtime pay, workers’ compensation, hospital medical services and inmate food and clothing to prior-year levels: -$26 million.
- reduce spending in state courts system, with flexibility on where to cut: -$7.3 million.
- eliminate 25 vacant court positions: -$1.3 million.
- freeze experience step increases for magistrates and court clerk salaries: -$2.3 million.
- reduce Sentencing Services program by 10 percent: -$283,000.
- reduce spending in Office of Indigent Defense Services, with flexibility on where to cut: -$1.6 million.
- reduce spending in Department of Justice, with flexibility on where to cut: -$2.7 million.
- eliminate seven central office positions and 25 vacant positions in Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and reduce spending in department: -$4.9 million.
- eliminate funding for Governor’s One-on-One mentoring program: -$1.6 million.
- eliminate Support Our Students grant program for after-school initiatives: -$6.6 million.
- close Samarkand Youth Development Center for female delinquents, shift them to Chatham County facility: -$5 million.
- close Dobbs Youth Development Center, which is being replaced by new center across the street: -$7 million.
- raise pay for 1,048 probation and parole officers: $2.4 million.
- hire 128 more probation and parole officer management positions: $7.9 million.
- eliminate 114 vacant and filled positions in Department of Correction: -$4.4 million.
- close McCain Correctional Hospital, eliminate 343 positions: -$9.1 million.
- close three other prisons by mid-2010, eliminate 117 positions: -$4.2 million.
- transfer State Capitol Police from Department of Administration to Department of Crime Control and Public Safety: $3.7 million.
TRANSPORTATION
- reduce funds for small construction projects to reflect declining projected revenues: -$7 million.
- additional state highway system maintenance funds: $12.8 million.
- reduce Department of Transportation administrative expenses: -$11.7 million.
- reduce ferry division funds: -$2.2 million.
- reduce public transportation program funds to reflect declining projected revenues: -$24.9 million.
- reduce State Highway Patrol spending: -$9.4 million.
- freeze experience pay increase for state troopers: -$1.7 million.
- make various Highway Trust Fund allocation changes to reflect falling revenue projections: -$157.3 million.
OTHER STATE AGENCIES AND FUNDS
- plan efforts to establish foundation to compensate those forcibly sterilized by the state in the mid-20th century: $250,000.
- eliminate 20 vacant positions in Department of Administration: -$976,000.
- reduce spending at state historic sites, history museums by 6.4 percent: -$1.1 million.
- reduce state aid to libraries: -$994,000.
- reduce spending at General Assembly: -$4.7 million.
- reduce Governor’s Office budget: -$503,000.
- eliminate 14 vacant positions in Department of Revenue, make other spending reductions : -$2.6 million.
- reduce balance in trust fund for voluntary campaign finance program for some statewide offices: -$1.5 million.
- various information technology changes: $12.7 million.
RESERVES AND CAPITAL PROJECTS
- reduce Job Development Investment Grant reserve: -$8.4 million.
- switch construction of Biomedical Research Imaging Center at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from pay-as-you-go funding to bonds: -$172 million.
- reserve in case Council of State refuses to issue bonds for Biomedical Research Imaging Center: $74 million.
- water resources development projects: $17.6 million.
TAX PROVISIONS
- Yet-to-be-determined tax increases to balance budget: $500 million.
- Increase court fees, fees within Health and Human Services, Secretary of State’s Office: $37.7 million.
Source: Senate report on continuation, expansion and capital budgets.
