November 2, 2021
The State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2021-2022 began on July 1, 2021 with no budget passed by the NC General Assembly for the year. The Senate had passed their version of the budget in late June and the House passed their version in August. Reports indicate that the House and Senate have negotiated their differences and…
August 18, 2021
There was a moment in this Long Session of the NC General Assembly when it appeared there may not be a budget passed for the biennium of State fiscal years 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. But the Senate did finally present and quickly pass their proposed budget in late June and the House took some time before…
May 18, 2021
We are five months into the Long Session of the NC General Assembly (NCGA). Usually that means that we have already seen a budget proposal, but not this year. There have been many, many new bills introduced, so many of which could affect our service system in a positive way. There has been an…
Looking at the North Carolina health and human services public system from the 50,000-foot level will show that there is tremendous movement toward innovation and strengthening of the community-based service system. Medicaid Transformation has been at the forefront of catalysts for shifts in the public system, but that is not the only initiative that is…
March 23, 2021
Two bills have been signed into law that allocate federal COVID-19 funding and appropriate additional funding to address the pandemic in communities. The most recent bill, SL 2021-3: 2021 COVID-19 Response and Relief was signed into law by the Governor on March 11th. Some of the provisions include: For the Community Mental Health Block Grant:…
Congress passed the HR 1319, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, and it did include funding for mental health and substance use disorder services as well as home and community based services. Some of the largest allocations for BH/IDD in the American Rescue Plan include: • $1,500,000,000 in funding for block grants for community…
February 2, 2021
The NC General Assembly officially convened on January 13th and used the first two weeks of the long session to select committee members and appoint chairs. They reconvened on January 27th and began deliberations. Bills are slowly being introduced and committee work has not yet gotten underway. There are some new and familiar leaders in…
The Task Force was established by Governor Roy Cooper in June 2020 to “focus on addressing existing policies and procedures that disproportionately affect communities of color and developing solutions to ensure racial equity in North Carolina’s criminal justice system.” They have now issued their 2020 final report. The report includes recommendations related to the juvenile…