NC Legislative Update: Friday Wrap Up

North Carolina Budget:

Looks like the Senate is ready to roll out their budget.  On Monday, June 16 the appropriation subcommittee will unveil their budgets.  On Thursday we were hearing rumors of a $20 million dollar cut to the Health and Human Services budget. We will update on where that cut was once we see the budget.

It is also looking like the Senate is trying to increase the teacher pay raise to 5%.  The House had included a little over 3% pay raise in their budget for a teacher pay raise.  

Senate Health and Human Services Appropriation Subcommittee will be meeting on Monday, June 16th at 3:00pm in room 643 of the Legislative Office Building to roll out their budget.  We will be blogging live from the meeting. You can also listen on line by going to the NC Legislature's website.

Bills:

Medical Release of Ill or Disabled Inmates.

This week Governor Mike Easley signed this bill into law.  As discussed earlier in this blog, this law would permit non violent prisoners who become terminally ill or permanently disabled to be paroled, per the parole commissions recommendation.

Autism Committee Recommendations. House Bill 2553

This bill includes removing the current age restrictions for the Silver Alert System.  This legislation came out of the Autism Committee Report.  Currently the Silver Alert System can only be activated if a person is 18 years or older, is missing and has a cognitive impairment or has dementia.  If this law passes the Silver Alert System will require no age limit for activation.

This bill was taken up by the House Health Committee on Wednesday, June 11th.  The bill received a favorable report from the committee and has been referred to appropriations.

A Quick Look At Next Week:

On Wednesday, June 18th House Bill 12: Students Ineligible for Special Education Protection will be taken up by the Senate Education Committee. There will be a committee substitute for this bill.  This bill protects unidentified, eligible students with disabilities from long-term suspensions when schools fail to identify them and their performance and behavior clearly established the need for such services.