Legislative Updates from the Covenant with North Carolina's Children

Provided by Stacey Massengill, NCSPA Legislative and Public Policy Committee Member



Originally Submitted by Rob Thompson, Executive Director of the Covenant with North Carolina's Children



In this update:

I. State Budget Update
II. Child Poverty Issues for Legislature
III. Meetings with Congressional Delegation
IV. Juvenile Justice Meeting Reminder

I. State Budget Update

Some good news - thanks to the unanticipated success of a corporate tax compliance initiative, we're $30 million ahead of projected revenues for the year! But, without this windfall we would be $240 million under projections, due to slower than expected economic growth and persistent unemployment and underemployment.It's still quite likely that revenues fall under projections by the end of they fiscal year.

Even though the revenue picture is passable, we're spending more than anticipated. Medicaid is running a $250 million deficit largely due to rapid enrollment growth and a spike in utilization. It's also unclear how much money we'll need to pump into the state employee retirement plan and state employee health plan to keep them solvent. The Governor may need to use the remainder of our rainy day fund plus other fund balances to prevent more cuts for the current fiscal year.

As for next year's budget, it looks like we'll be dealing with many of the same problems with underperforming revenues, unrealized savings, and enrollment growth in key state services like Medicaid. However, if the Governor spends down all fund balances to fill this year's shortfall, it's likely that we'll be dealing with another round of painful cuts for next year.

II. Child Poverty Issues

At their next meeting, the Poverty and Economic Recovery Committee will focus on child poverty issues. Because the Covenant's members represent a wealth of diverse perspectives on child poverty, I wanted to see if any of y'all had perspectives on child poverty that might overlooked. If you have thoughts about what this Committee should discuss, please let me know and I will pass that on to legislative staff and Committee members.

III. Meetings with the Congressional Delegation

Mandy Ableidinger from Action for Children is setting up a series of meetings with NC's congressional delegation for the week of Feb. 15th, and we are looking for local groups and citizens to attend these meetings with her. If you are interested, please email Mandy at mandy@ncchild.org.

Here are the issues we are planning to discuss - health care reform, TANF reauthorization, Early Learning Challenge Grants, Juvenile Justice and Delinquincy Prevention Reauthorization Act, and one or two others. Mandy will be glad to brief you and send you materials on these issues if you are interested in attending a meeting.

IV. Juvenile Justice Workgroup Meeting Reminder

Thursday, February 4th @ 3pm

Participate via Phone:
Call in number: 1-866-210-1669
Passcode 2109520

Attend in Person: Action for Children. 1300 St. Mary's Street, Suite 500, Raleigh, NC 27605