One of the most important things we try to do in government is create opportunity.
We do that in a number of ways — education, economic development and health care among them. During this past session, my colleagues and I worked together to pass a number of new laws and to approve new spending that will give hundreds of thousands of people in this state more opportunity. These changes will allow children who aren’t fortunate enough to be born into wealthy families a better chance to succeed. They will also help adults who find themselves in difficult circumstances work their way to prosperity.
Also during the past session, the General Assembly recognized its role in past injustices. We issued formal apologies for our government’s role in slavery and in the Wilmington Race Riots of 1898, hoping that these recognitions will help our state and nation heal from the lingering effects of these atrocities.
Thank you for taking the time to read this update. Please contact me if you have any questions or if I can be of any help to you.
Education
We set aside $17.5 million for the Disadvantaged Student Supplemental Fund. Legislators also appropriated $2 million for the Child Welfare Post-Secondary Support Program to help students aging out of foster care. This money will help pay for a college education for those students who choose to attend a public institution of higher learning in North Carolina.
My colleagues and I set aside $5 million to help children with disabilities.
Our schools received $37.5 million to lower the student/teacher ratio to 18:1 in K-3 classrooms.
Small county schools that have experienced a decline in the average number of enrolled students since 2001 will receive $2.1 million. This money will be used to lower the teacher/student ratio in grades K-12.
We set aside $5.4 million for school systems that will receive less Low Wealth Counties Supplemental Funding in 2007. This additional money will restore 75 percent of the system’s decrease in Low Wealth Counties Supplemental Funding.
This session my colleagues and I helped create the Education Access Rewards North Carolina, or EARN, Scholars program by setting aside $127 million for it over the next two years. This program will give more North Carolinians access to higher education by providing $4,000 grants each year to the 25,000 community college and University of North Carolina system students with the greatest financial need. All North Carolinians with family incomes of less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level are eligible for the program.
The General Assembly has set aside $475,000 to expand the Male Minority Mentoring program. The program focuses on increasing the graduation and retention rates of minority males at our community colleges through mentoring, retreats, community service and counseling and other personal growth opportunities. It will now be implemented at 15 additional community colleges.
Health
This session we set aside $1 million to be distributed to the food banks in our state.
The Community-Focused Eliminating Health Disparities Initiative will receive $500,000. This money will be used to fund grants for public health departments, faith and community based organizations, and American Indian tribes. The programs focus on eliminating health disparities in minority groups through preventative measures and will focus on issues such as infant mortality, HIV-AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections, cancer, and diabetes.
An additional $500,000 will be used for the Health Disparities Initiative in honor of recently deceased African-American legislators. This money will be used to address cultural barriers and provide better education on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases that are more common in minority populations including breast cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, HIV, hypertension, and sickle cell anemia.
We set aside $862,000 to expand Medicaid coverage for foster care adolescents under the Federal Foster Care Independence Act.
Development
The Land Loss Prevention program will receive $350,000 to provide legal representation to poor small farmers and rural landowners in underserved tobacco dependent communities.
The North Carolina Community Development initiative will receive $3 million to provide grants, loans, administration, and technical assistance for community development projects throughout the state.
We set aside $1.5 million for the North Carolina Institute of Minority Economic Development. The institute focuses on developing underused sectors of the state economy and strengthening the economic power and stability of underrepresented North Carolinians.
The General Assembly appropriated $3 million to the North Carolina Minority Support Center. This money will be used to help low-income/wealth individuals and communities build credit and obtain assets through minority community development credit unions in North Carolina.
Culture
We set aside $500,000 for the International Civil Rights Center and Museum. Another $100,000 will be used for the African-American Monument Project. This funding will be used to build a monument in the State Government Complex in Raleigh to commemorate North Carolina’s African American history.
The General Assembly passed a resolution (S 1572) to acknowledge and apologize for the state’s failure to protect citizens during the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot.
Economy
This year we set aside $48.3 million to provide for a 3.4 percent refundable earned income tax credit. This tax credit would lower the tax burden for many of the working people who earn about $40,000 or less. We also set aside $50,000 for the Earned Income Tax Credit Carolinas Initiative. This initiative provides free tax preparation for low income taxpayers.
Legislators set aside $3 million for a workers opportunity credit as an add-on to the federal credit as an incentive to businesses that hire disadvantaged workers. Disadvantaged workers include those who are coming off some sort of public assistance, convicted felons and other groups that find it particularly difficult to find and keep a job.
We set aside $1.7 million to provide for a 2.2 percent cost of living increase for retirees of the Teachers’ State Employees’ retirement system. We also approved a 5 percent raise for teachers and a 4 percent raise for state employees and community college personnel.
Please remember that you can visit the General Assembly’s website to look up bills, view lawmaker biographies and access other information.
House Legislative Intern Program
Undergraduates and Graduate students from Universities and four-year colleges in North Carolina are eligible for legislative session internships in the State House of Representatives or Senate. Applicants may also be subject to their individual school or department qualifications or requirements. Students typically do legislative research, bill tracking and constituent correspondence for Members of the House of Representatives. There are opportunities to attend public meetings, committee hearings and interact with Staff and Legislators. A mutually beneficial working relationship between the legislative offices and interns is a goal of the internship program.
There are a limited number of paid internships. Internship applications will be accepted through March 31 for the Session beginning on May 13, 2008. Please contact the following office for detailed information about the Intern program:
Intern Coordinator, Office of the Speaker
Room 2304 Legislative Building
Raleigh, NC 27601
919.733.3451
DATE and TIME CHANGE-Grant Writing Workshop
A grant writing workshop is scheduled for Thursday, April 10, 2008, 10:00 AM-3:00 PM at the Vance-Granville Community College Civic Center in Henderson. (Meeting was tentatively set for April 22.) Additional details will follow at a later time.
I plan to attend the following meetings/events:
Please invite me to attend your county, city, community or civic, etc. meetings or events.
As I’ve said many times before, I hope you will continue to let me know how you feel about the issues that are being debated by the North Carolina Legislature and the challenges you and your family are facing each day.
By working together, we can make Northampton, Vance and Warren Counties and all regions of North Carolina a better place to live, work and raise a family.