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Consortium Members,
For those of you who are wondering why the Senate is moving so fast to put
out a budget, the article below should help to shed some light on the subject.
Again, PLEASE remember this weekend to continue to attempt to contact the
co-chairs of the Senate Full Appropriations committee. The cut to the Adult
Home Care Management, Adult Home Specialist Fund, State Transitional Medicaid
Coverage and Medicaid coverage for pregnant women and infants as well as to
our 19 and 20 year old foster children is unacceptable. (See my previous e-mail
from Wed 4/23 for details.)
If we do not get these changed in the Senate
version of the budget it is UNLIKELY that it will change at all.
THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT IF YOU WANT TO SEE THESE PROGRAMS SAVED!!! Please call
the co-chairs!
Sen Linda Garrou - Forsyth - Lindag@ncleg.net - Home Phone - 336-922-4192
Sen Walter Dalton - Cleveland, Rutherford - Walterd@ncleg.net - home phone
(828) 287-2908
Sen Kay Hagan - Guilford - Kayh@ncleg.net - She only lists her Raleigh Office
# (919) 733-5856
Sen Charlie Albertson - Duplin, Harnett, Sampson - Charliea@ncleg.net only
lists Raleigh Office #(919) 733-5705
Sen Web Gulley - Durham, Granville, Person - Wibg@ncleg.net - Home # (919)
683-1584
SENATE BUDGET: Senate leaders are preparing to roll out a
$15 billion state budget plan as early as next week, a move critics say is
designed to sidestep the need to plug a revenue hole that could top $300 million.
By turning out a proposed budget next week -- more than two months before
the start of the fiscal year -- the Senate avoids taking into account April
revenue figures that will follow just days later. The figures are expected
to show tax collections falling 20 percent, or $300 million, below projections,
meaning the current year's shortfall will widen. Just as important, a shortfall
in the current fiscal year lowers the revenue available for next year's budget.
Officials in Gov. Mike Easley's office have said they should be able to make
up a shortfall in the 20 percent range for the current fiscal year by using
money held back from state agencies. But legislators' starting number for
next year's budget -- $14.4 billion before new tax growth is added -- would
have to be reduced by a like number. Both House and Senate leaders hope to
approve a final budget a few weeks before the start of the fiscal year on
July 1. In 2001 and 2002, budgets weren't enacted until months after the start
of the fiscal year. With quicker action, school systems and local governments
will know exactly how much money they will get from the state before they
have to finalize their budgets, said Sen. Walter Dalton, D-Rutherford, a co-chair
of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Typically, it takes more than a month
for one chamber of the General Assembly to turn around the budget plan approved
by the other. But Senate budget writers say joint budget meetings attended
by House and Senate members earlier in the year have helped speed the process.
Once the Senate approves a budget plan, House and Senate negotiators will
have to develop a final compromise proposal. Both Dalton and Hagan said budget
negotiators could adjust the budget as needed if the April numbers dictate
a change. Critics, though, think the Senate could try to shift blame back
to the House if more budget cutting or tax hikes are necessary, or foist an
unbalanced budget onto Easley. (Scott Mooneyham, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, 4/23).
