Tuesday, September 1, 2009

NCGA: Legislative Update 2 - The Arc of NC Legislative Agenda Wrap Up

Our second edition of the Legislative Update: The Arc of NC Legislative Agenda will look at a bill designed to bring more transparency to single stream funded local management entities. This bill also protects funding on HUD projects for people with developmental or intellectual disabilities.

House Bill 672/Session Law 2009-191: Accountability for State Funding/MHDDSA-Earle.

-The first section of this bill requires LMEs that use single stream funding to on a bi-annual basis to receive to report on the allocation of service dollars and receive public comment during a regularly scheduled board of directors meeting.

-The second section focuses on HUD group homes and apartments. The General Assembly appropriates state funding to group homes to be used in conjunction with federal HUD funding. After the biennial this funding can be moved. However, in some cases the removal of our state funding to these group homes and apartments can jeopardized our agreement with the federal matching money and the HUD contracts.

This section of the bill will require LMEs to seek approval for the reduction in funding from the Department of Health and Human Services prior to adjusting any funding associated with HUD group homes or apartments.

-The final section of this bill will direct the Department of Health and Human Services to analyze the effectiveness of single stream funding in LMEs that have been working with single stream for a year or more. These findings will be reported to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse Services as well as the Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee in the House and Senate.

Vote History: This bill passed the House 117 in favor 0 opposed and the Senate 45 in favor 0 opposed. The governor signed this bill into law on June 29, 2009.

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