You Don’t Say
“You get the right plane, you get the right pieces together, I just think it’s going to take off.”
Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, on the Boom Supersonic airplane factory. (The News & Observer, 6/17/24)
House Budget
Will Doran, WRAL News and Colin Campbell, WUNC Radio, 6/17/24
2024 House Budget: Committee Report | Bill Text
Teachers and state employees would receive modest additional raises — and the state government would also give a massive boost to private school tuition vouchers — under a budget plan House Republican lawmakers made public Monday night.
The plan would also plug most of a looming hole in child care funding to be created when federal funds expire at the end of the month. And it would spend millions more on renovating Poe Hall, the N.C. State campus building where officials found chemicals that have since been blamed on a potential cluster of cancer cases among people who worked and studied in the building.
A budget plan for this year was approved late last year. But lawmakers are meeting during this year’s short legislative session to discuss what — if anything — to do with a $1 billion surplus.
Yet while both chambers of the legislature are controlled by Republicans, leaders in the state Senate have been more skeptical of spending that surplus than House leadership. So there’s no guarantee that what the House proposed Monday will become law — but it’s at least the start of public negotiations between the chambers.
Under the current state budget, most state workers and the average teacher will receive a 3% raise. The House budget proposal unveiled Monday seeks to boost that to 4% for most state workers, and to 4.4% for the average teacher — with a particular focus on teachers in the first few years of their career.
Starting annual teacher pay is already scheduled to increase from $39,000 to $41,000. The new proposal would boost that to $44,000 a year. Teachers would make $50,000 a year after a decade in the classroom.
“The House budget fully funds Opportunity Scholarships for the thousands of North Carolina families who have applied to the scholarship program,” House Speaker Tim Moore said in a statement.
“Parents must be empowered to make the best education choices for their families regardless of income status, but school choice is not a zero-sum game. Therefore, the House budget also raises starting teacher pay to $44,000 and restores masters pay for teachers, ensuring every public school classroom has a qualified teacher who is compensated like the professional that he or she is.”
The budget would also restore a master’s degree pay program for teachers that GOP leaders controversially slashed a decade ago; it would set aside an additional $8 million per year to boost the salaries of teachers who have an advanced degree in the subject they teach.
Other details of the budget plan include:
- $71 million for even higher raises for corrections officers or probation and parole officers to address high levels of staffing vacancies in those public safety jobs.
- $487 million to provide more private school tuition vouchers.
- $135 million for child care subsidies.
- As much as $180 million for the Poe Hall renovation.
- No extra money for the State Health Plan, which State Treasurer Dale Folwell has said is underfunded by $240 million.
“One thing has remained clear: we cannot leave Raleigh without addressing the childcare crisis,” Rep. Donny Lambeth said in a statement. “The House budget continues 75% of current stabilization grants to keep childcare centers open and parents can remain in the workforce, while giving the state time to develop a more sustainable model for childcare costs.”
Demcorats, business groups and others have called for more childcare funding.
The budget plan would also spend more than quadruple that amount on private school tuition vouchers, with nearly half a billion set aside to eliminate a wait list for that program — a wait list that began this year after lawmakers opened up the voucher program to wealthy families and others who hadn’t previously qualified.
In addition to spending the billion-dollar surplus, the budget plan also takes an additional half billion dollars out of savings for two big-ticket spending lines. That’s a tactic Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, has said he strongly opposes.
But Republican House leaders say they hope they can get the Senate on board because they didn’t dip into the regular savings fund, but rather found the money in two smaller reserves that are set aside for specific issues: health care and economic development.
The budget proposes taking $350 million from a Medicaid reserve to fund cost overruns in that program, which officials blame on Covid-era rules that allowed more people than normal to remain eligible for Medicaid.
It would also take $150 million out of an economic development savings reserve to fund a highway interchange and other road work on U.S. Route 421 in Randolph County, part of a deal for an enormous Toyota factory under construction nearby.
Hours before the proposal was released, House Democrats said the budget bill amounts to political theater because the Senate isn’t on board. They say the GOP’s budget process is “broken.”
“To use this week to pass a budget bill that cannot become law is disrespectful and disingenuous to the people that put us here,” House Democratic Leader Robert Reives said in a news release Monday. “State Senate leadership has made it clear they are not participating in this theater.”
Reives pointed out that the last time Democrats ran the short session budget process in 2010, the House and Senate were able to get a compromise budget to the governor’s desk by the end of June.
Committee hearings on the House budget bill are scheduled for Tuesday, with plans to hold floor votes on Wednesday and Thursday. [Source 1] [Source 2]
Casino Lawsuit
Danielle Battaglia, McClatchy, 6/17/24
A lawsuit filed by former Rockingham County Commissioner Craig Travis against Commissioner Kevin Berger, the son of Senate leader Phil Berger, provides new details about how, Travis alleges, state lawmakers and local leaders attempted to secure a casino in Stokesdale.
Berger is one of three commissioners, along with the chairwoman of Rockingham County’s Republican Party and three political organizations, named as defendants in the libel lawsuit, which accuses them of false statements that cost Travis his election.
Neither Berger, Commissioner Don Powell nor GOP chairwoman Diane Parnell knew about the lawsuit when McClatchy reached out for comment. Commissioner Mark Richardson could not immediately be reached for comment.
“When (Travis) campaigned on his opposition to the pro-casino measures supported by the incumbent Commissioners and opposed by the majority of the residents of Rockingham County, the defendant Commissioners sought to discredit him by publishing defamatory statements to voters in the 2024 primary election,” the lawsuit states. “This unlawful course of action was financially supported by a Virginia-based dark money organization, which through local conduits, spent tens of thousands of dollars to oppose the plaintiff’s campaign for a seat on the Board of Commissioners.”
For a moment, it appeared that the effort to defeat Travis failed and Travis had unseated Berger. On March 5, election results showed Travis leading Berger by just seven votes. But once provisional and absentee ballots were added, Berger pulled ahead by three, and a recount confirmed his reelection.
Now Travis alleges in a lawsuit filed Monday that a series of attack ads stemming from his opposition to allowing a casino in Rockingham County led to his demise.
The saga, the lawsuit states, began as far back as August 2021, when NC Development Holdings, LLC, was formed in Delaware. The president of the company is Joseph Weinberg, the chief executive officer of Cordish Gaming Group, the casino division of Cordish Company.
The lawsuit alleges that Weinberg, along with Cordish’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer, made donations to Republican members of North Carolina’s General Assembly between Nov. 2, 2022, and Jan. 26, 2023. Weinberg made maxed out contributions of $5,600 to Senate leader Phil Berger, House Majority Leader John Bell and Rep. Jason Saine.
Saine has been a longtime supporter of gambling in North Carolina. Prior to receiving Cordish’s donation on Nov. 7, 2022, Saine was already attempting to legalize sports betting in the state.
The lawsuit says that after Saine received Cordish’s donation, he asked Greater Carolina Inc. – a tax-exempt political organization founded by Saine’s former chief of staff, Clark Reimer – to hire Spectrum Gaming Group to prepare a document in support of legalizing casinos and other types of gambling in North Carolina.
The report, published in March 2023, suggested operating casinos in Anson, Nash and Rockingham counties. Saine said Monday afternoon none of what’s alleged about him in the lawsuit is true. He said he wasn’t personally aware of Weinberg’s donation to his campaign committee, but if he received one it’s likely due to his ongoing support of gambling in the state.
As for Greater Carolina, he said, he doesn’t tell them what to do. He added that he could not handle working on casinos and sports betting at the same time.
The lawsuit alleges that during spring 2023, Cordish was speaking with the Senate leader, his son and other Rockingham County officials about the casino. NC Development Holdings hired Zach Almond — among several other lobbyists — to lobby on Cordish’s behalf, the lawsuit states.
Almond is an employee of The Differentiators, a political consulting firm founded by Berger’s former chief of staff, Jim Blaine and Berger’s former spokesman, Ray Martin. He also works for Almond Miner Relations.
Cordish applied to rezone 200 acres of land in Stokesdale, just inside Rockingham County’s boundary. The county’s planning board then began making changes that would make it easier for a casino to operate in Rockingham County.
On June 15 and 16, 2023, all of the Rockingham County commissioners and other county officials were in Maryland meeting with Cordish’s team, the lawsuit states. The lawsuit alleges that no minutes from this meeting were made available to the public and there was no notice ahead of time, despite a quorum of the board being present.
The lawsuit further states that the county commissioners denied to Rockingham County residents the meeting took place and told residents that Travis lied about the meeting, but that Rockingham County Attorney Clyde Albright recently confirmed the meeting.
The lawsuit does not say who Albright confirmed the meeting to, but said that Rockingham County residents had been asking for minutes of the meeting.
On Aug. 21, the commissioners met to consider the rezoning application. Nine hundred people attended the meeting, which had to be screened through a live feed in an overflow room. Both former Rep. Mark Walker, a Republican from Greensboro, and Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page spoke out against the casino, along with 16 other people. The commissioners unanimously approved it anyway.
The finalized bill was released to the public on Sept. 18, and tied to Medicaid expansion. A day later, Berger and Moore held another news conference, this time announcing they would separate the bill from Medicaid and the budget. Berger told reporters he didn’t think the casinos would be voted on during the current session. Immediately afterward, the only two members of Rockingham County’s planning board who voted against allowing casinos during the July 12 vote were removed from the board by the county commissioners.
Travis is represented by Alicia Jurney with Smith Debnam Law. He is suing for more than $100,000. [Source]
Supersonic Factory
Brian Gordon, The News & Observer, 6/17/24
With references to the Wright Brothers and the state’s role in early aviation, North Carolina leaders gathered Monday at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro to celebrate what they hope will be the next evolution in flight.
Boom Supersonic, a Colorado startup, cut the ribbon on its first “superfactory,” a 179,000-square-foot complex that could eventually produce up to 33 supersonic jets a year and employ thousands in central North Carolina.
In January 2023, Boom broke ground on its superfactory, where it aims to create a commercial aircraft, called Overture, able to shuttle passengers at speeds around 1,300 mph over water. This is roughly twice the speed of today’s traditional airliners. Boom intends for the Overture to be certified to carry passengers by 2029.
“The supersonic airliners we are building here in Greensboro will be delivered to airlines on six continents, ensuring the future of American leadership in aerospace manufacturing,” Boom founder and CEO Blake Scholl told attendees Monday. The market is ready, he said, for another option besides the two dominant manufacturers: Boeing and Airbus. “It’s never been more obvious that the world is not well served by the duopoly that we have in commercial aviation manufacturing,” he said. “Our customers, like United, have been very vocal that they are looking for an alternative to brand A and brand B.”
Each Overture jet will be sold for $200 million. United Airlines and American Airlines have agreed to buy Overtures if and when the aircraft is ready.
The company announced its arrival in North Carolina in January 2022, entering an incentive agreement to create at least 1,761 jobs at the site.
The state landed the project nicknamed “Thunderbird” by edging out Florida after a long recruitment process. To attract Boom, North Carolina and Guilford County offered incentive packages worth more than $121 million if the company hires at least 1,750 people and invests $500 million in the Greensboro site. Under its state deal, Boom must reach an initial hiring threshold in 2026. Scholl said the company plans to build two to three additional “superfactories” on the airport grounds. With one structure complete, Boom will spend the next six to 12 months installing test equipment inside the building.
Democrats and Republicans spoke at the ribbon-cutting Monday, including Gov. Roy Cooper, who acknowledged the state has backed an unproven manufacturer.
“Sometimes, we all have to take a little bit of a risk,” he said. “This risk will pay off for your company, for its employees and their families, and their contractors, for the state of North Carolina, and for the world.”
Cooper, a Democrat, said most of the state’s incentives to Boom are “performance-based,” meaning the company will only benefit if it meets hiring and investment goals. He also said some of the taxpayer-funded improvements to the site, including to the building and surrounding roads, will make the airport grounds more attractive to potential employers regardless of Boom’s future.
Boom was one of five taxpayer-backed projects North Carolina announced across 2021 and 2022 that promised to create at least 1,500 jobs — the others being Apple, Toyota, VinFast, and Wolfspeed.
Senate leader Phil Berger, a Republican, said as the “world continues to get smaller,” demand for supersonic passenger travel will grow. “You get the right plane, you get the right pieces together, I just think it’s going to take off,” he said. “And if these folks are successful, and I think they will be, they would be years ahead of their competition.” [Source]
Settlement Secrecy
Tyler Dukes and Virginia Bridges, The News & Observer, 6/17/24
University of North Carolina leaders refuse to release details on why the state agreed to pay millions to former students over allegations of decades-long sexual abuse by faculty at the state’s most prestigious arts campus.
Actions by state lawmakers last year ensured they’ll never have to. In May, the UNC System and the UNC School of the Arts agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by dozens of alumni accusing administrators of turning “a willful blind eye” to teachers abusing and exploiting students from the 1960s to the 2010s.
The institutions will pay $12.5 million to settle with about 65 former students over the next four years. “Resolving the disputes on the terms specific here avoids protracted litigation and achieves a balanced resolution that honors claimants and, in some cases, their memory,” the agreement, obtained by The News & Observer through a public records request, says.
What neither the university system nor the school are disclosing, however, is why they reached that conclusion. By state law, the state attorney general’s office must review any proposed settlement of more than $75,000 and detail why such an amount would be justified. The analyses can reveal key insights into how the state thinks it might fare if a case goes to civil court — and which facts and arguments would be most convincing to a jury.
Take, for example, the 2015 memo justifying a $2.5 million settlement for the family of an inmate who died of thirst after weeks in solitary confinement in a western North Carolina prison. The document showed the state’s lawyers believed the “repeated, widespread and inflammatory failures on the part of various prison staff” made litigation a “worst-case scenario,” WRAL News reported.
Nazneen Ahmed, a spokesperson for Attorney General Josh Stein, acknowledged such a memo exists for the UNCSA settlement. But her office can’t share those records because they’re protected by attorney-client privilege, she said.
North Carolina public records law exempts communication between public agencies and their lawyers, but it makes clear that those agencies can make such correspondence public. Both the UNC System and the UNC School of the Arts refused to release the attorney general memo after The News & Observer requested the records late last month. “As is standard practice with state agencies in North Carolina, the university system does not release documents from the attorney general’s office that contain privileged information or legal advice to the university,” UNC System spokesman Andy Wallace said in an email.
Until last year though, attorney-client privilege didn’t last forever. For decades, state public records law opened up attorney communication with public agencies after three years. But buried in last year’s 600-page budget, state lawmakers included language that quietly repealed that three-year limit.
That means if agencies want to keep secret records justifying the spending of millions in public money, they can.
The change to attorney-client privilege went largely overlooked amid the legislature’s move to effectively exempt themselves from state public records law, said Kym Meyer, the past president of the N.C. Open Government Coalition and litigation director for the Southern Environmental Law Center. Attorney-client privilege does serve a purpose, allowing lawyers to provide candid advice and strategy. But once that process is over, Meyer said, the public should eventually have the ability to see how governments and their attorneys acted in their interest.
Such transparency is especially valuable for formal memos written by the state’s top lawyers, she said. “A memo like this — this is not a little email communication between an attorney and a client while they’re trying to haggle out details,” Meyer said.
Multi-million-dollar settlements with the state aren’t all that uncommon, according to the latest N.C. Department of Justice report to lawmakers. From just September through March 2024, the attorney general’s office was involved in more than 200 settlements paid by various state government agencies. The majority of those settlements — about 80% — were payouts to property owners for land seized for road construction and other N.C. Department of Transportation projects, the DOJ report shows.
Agencies also paid out more than $34.3 million in that six-month period to settle more than 40 claims over state worker injuries, accidents and other disputes.
This figure does not include the UNC settlement over sex abuse claims. Every one of those cases, by state law, requires a formal legal opinion that the public is no longer entitled to see.
Meyer said she’s more concerned about another aspect of the change. Making attorney-client communications public, even after a three-year waiting period, is a safeguard to ensure the government and its lawyers act on behalf of the public, she said. More secrecy could open the door to improper or unethical behavior — for example, situations where state agencies act to protect themselves instead of the people.
“If you know there’s going to be scrutiny, you’re going to be straight up,” Meyer said. “If you can assume no one is going to look at your conversations, who knows what kind of conduct you’re going to engage in?” [Source]
Emission Goals
Zachary Turner, WFAE Radio, 6/17/24
Duke Energy has requested until 2035 to eliminate most of its state carbon emissions to meet a significant increase in future energy needs. North Carolina’s utility consumer advocate largely confirmed Monday Duke’s own forecast. But told state regulators that Duke should meet more aggressive carbon reduction goals through renewables, such as solar and battery infrastructure.
“Based on our investigation — we looked at many different interim compliance years, inputs, and modeling assumptions — we believe Duke should pursue interim compliance by 2034,” said Jeff Thomas, an engineer with the independent state agency known as the Public Staff.
This recommendation was among many presented to the North Carolina Utilities Commission Monday. Lawyers for consumer, businesses, and environmental interests gave their guidance for retiring coal plants, procuring offshore wind, and reducing future natural gas development.
State regulators plan to make a decision on the carbon plan by the end of the year. [Source]
Charlotte Stadium
Mark Ramsey, The Charlotte Observer, 6/17/24
Charlotte City Council members heard conflicting views from a half-filled chamber Monday on whether to contribute hundreds of millions to renovations to Bank of America Stadium. The council held a public hearing a week ahead of its scheduled vote on Tepper Sports & Entertainment’s plan for the largest and most expensive renovation yet to the home of the Carolina Panthers and Charlotte FC. The stadium also hosts college football games, such as the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, and concerts.
The plan calls for $650 million in city money, which would come from hospitality tax revenue. That money can only be spent on a limited number of tourism-related projects.
The plan includes a 20-year non-relocation agreement for both teams, though that could be bought out after 15 years.
Charlotte initially didn’t plan a public hearing and had scheduled a public forum on the same day as the full council’s vote. But the city held Monday’s hearing after some council members said they needed to hear more public input. Some online questioned whether the city was limiting public comment by holding the hearing during business hours on a weekday and not publicizing it more.
Hundreds also submitted their thoughts on the plan through an online survey, and those comments primarily opposed the deal.
Of the 23 people who spoke Monday, 15 supported the project and six opposed it. Others offered more mixed opinions. Those who spoke in support of public investment in the stadium said it’s essential to maintaining an asset to the city’s economy. But others questioned the plan, whether the city has been transparent about it and team owner David Tepper’s history.
Mayor Vi Lyles thanked the crowd for offering an “array” of views on the proposal. “You’ve given us a lot to think about,” she said. The City Council didn’t vote or take any action based on Monday’s comments. It’s expected to vote on the plan June 24.
City Council members also voted unanimously Monday to approve a Panthers’ rezoning petition to make way for the team’s new practice facility. The rezoning request was for 12 acres on the east side of South Cedar Street. The Panthers want to expand their footprint with a new fieldhouse, outdoor practice fields and a fan area after announcing they would move training camp to Charlotte from Wofford College. [Source]
PFAS Cleanup
Gareth McGrath, Wilmington StarNews, 6/17/24
The tussle over pollution from “forever chemicals” is heating up in both Raleigh and Washington, especially over who should be on the financial hook to clean up the PFAS contamination in public drinking water systems. Last week, an environmental committee in the N.C. House passed a bill that would require manufacturers of manmade per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), including GenX, to cover clean-up costs for public utilities.
According to the proposed legislation, the bill would target PFAS manufacturers like Chemours, which produces the substances at its Fayetteville Works site about 100 miles north of Wilmington, not PFAS customers. While Chemours makes PFAS compounds and has a long legacy − along with its former parent DuPont − of discharging the chemicals into the environment, PFAS customers use the forever chemicals in a host of household items, medical devices, weatherproof products, and firefighting foam.
The legislation would require PFAS manufacturers to finance the costs “to procure, implement, maintain, and operate technology to reduce PFAS concentrations in finished drinking water below the permissible concentration level.”
Utilities would then reimburse ratepayers through a reduction in future rates if it had previously spent funds to deal with PFAS contamination in its water systems. Both the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority (CFPUA), which serves the majority of residents in New Hanover County, and H2GO, which serves customers in northern Brunswick County, both have spent their own funds to build systems to filter out PFAS contamination in the raw water drawn from the Cape Fear River.
The primary sponsors of House Bill 864 are Republican Reps. Ted Davis Jr. of Wilmington and Frank Iler of Brunswick County. Southeastern North Carolina is the epicenter of the PFAS crisis in North Carolina, with the StarNews first breaking the story of unknown compounds in the region’s drinking water in 2017.
While the legislation still faced numerous legislative hoops to jump through in the N.C. House and Senate, the bill appears to have broad support from both Republicans and Democrats. It also is likely to curry favor from Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who hasn’t always seen eye to eye with the GOP-dominated General Assembly but has been very vocal during his two terms that PFAS manufacturers should have to clean up the mess they created.
After passing the House Environment Committee, the bill will now be taken up by the chamber’s Appropriations Committee.
As legislation moves forward in North Carolina to financially punish PFAS manufacturers, the plastics industry is striking back against new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations that set legal limits on levels of certain “forever chemicals” in drinking water systems.
In a historic announcement in April, EPA Administrator Michael Regan traveled to Fayetteville to announce the agency’s first-ever drinking water standards for six PFAS compounds, including GenX. While the heath impacts from PFAS are still emerging, the substances dubbed forever chemicals because they don’t easily break down in the environment or human body, already have been associated with several forms of cancer, developmental problems in young children, and thyroid issues.
According to the EPA, the new rule’s requirements will be phased in over the next five years, with initial PFAS monitoring required to be finished within three years and then two additional years for capital improvements if the numbers come in too high. As of April, the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality reported more than 300 water systems in the state − including 42 large municipal utilities serving a combined three million residents − have PFAS levels that will exceed the new federal standards.
However, the plastic industry claims the EPA is exceeding its regulatory authority to all but remove the six manmade chemicals from tap water could have devastating impacts on manufacturers and local economies. The American Chemistry Council and National Association of Manufacturers, in its petition filed earlier this month in a D.C. appeals court, said the EPA rule was “arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion.”
Among the worries of PFAS manufacturers is that the EPA rules could open them up to more financial liability in helping utilities meet the new water standards.
The Biden administration has earmarked $10 billion from the bipartisan infrastructure law to help utilities deal with PFAS contamination. But the Denver-based American Water Works Association (AWWA) fears officials are seriously underestimating the true cost to utilities of meeting the new − and future − PFAS drinking water standards.
Earlier this year, Chris Moody, AWAA’s regulatory technical manager, said a recent study found the cost of PFAS treatment nationally to be several times higher than the EPA’s estimates, potentially requiring an investment of up to $40 billion. [Source]
Tailored Plans
Jaymie Baxley, NC Health News, 6/18/24
Medicaid is about to change for tens of thousands of North Carolinians with complex health care needs. For most of the state’s 2 million-plus Medicaid beneficiaries, nothing will happen.
The state plans to move about 160,000 enrollees, many of them people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, onto specialized Medicaid plans beginning July 1. These so-called “tailored plans” are geared toward beneficiaries who require more extensive care and support than typical Medicaid participants.
Tailored plans are part of the Medicaid “transformation” that North Carolina started in 2021. That year, the state changed its delivery system for Medicaid services. Providers who had been reimbursed directly for services by the state now receive care paid for by commercial insurers, who are paid a fixed, per-member, per-month rate to manage the state’s Medicaid population and get them all of the care that they need.
Because of the complexity of their health needs, some Medicaid participants have continued to receive care under the state’s old fee-for-service model, where each visit, test and procedure are paid for individually. Tailored plans are designed to bring those beneficiaries into the managed care system.
North Carolinians who are enrolled in Medicaid and have care needs stemming from an intellectual or developmental disability, severe substance use disorder, serious mental illness or traumatic brain injury.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services promises that tailored plans will offer all the same benefits as standard plans, but with “more enhanced behavioral health services.” Some of the services exclusive to tailored plans include:
- Intensive care delivered in the home
- So-called ”multisystemic therapy,” which takes place in the home and sometimes in the community, used to manage someone with severe behavioral issues
- Psychosocial rehabilitation, intensive services that help someone with a severe mental health issue function more effectively in the community which can help people with mental illness develop emotional skills to manage stressful situations in their work and social lives
- Access to psychiatric residential treatment facilities
- Medically monitored residential treatment for substance use disorder
Unlike standard plans, tailored plans will be administered by four state-funded behavioral health organizations that cover different regions of the state. These organizations, known as LME-MCOS, include Partners Health Management, Alliance Health, Vaya Health and Trillium Health Resources.
The plans won’t cover dental services or the “fabrication of eyeglasses,” according to DHHS. Services provided through the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly — a program that provides comprehensive care and medical services for frail seniors who have both Medicare and Medicaid — are also excluded.
The same goes for services provided by Children’s Developmental Services Agencies which serve children aged 0 to 3 years old who have developmental delays. [Source]
CMS Plan
Ann Doss Helms, WFAE Radio, 6/17/24
The five-year academic plan that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools posted Monday has been hashed out for almost a year in talks with CMS employees, families and community members. It’s 31 pages of goals and guardrails, pillars and priorities — with 69 strategies for how Superintendent Crystal Hill expects her staff to make a difference for kids.
When Hill formally unveiled the plan to about 1,300 CMS administrators Monday, she offered more of a pep talk on how to make steady progress toward consistently high academic achievement, racial equity and graduates who are well prepared for adult life. Hill, who is completing her first year as superintendent, told the school and central office administrators that her mantra of “excellence without exception” requires small, steady improvements, not perfection.
“I am so happy to say that I am not the same leader that stood before you last year, because I took very seriously the importance of getting 1% better each and every day,” she said.
The new plan builds on a previous five-year plan that took shape in a stretch of leadership churn and pandemic turmoil. Like the old plan, the new one sets targets for improvements in reading and math scores and preparation for life after high school. But there have been changes:
The old plan set goals for improvement in reading scores for Black and Latino third-graders. The new one includes two reading goals: One for K-2 students and another for grades 3-8, when students take state reading exams. It doesn’t narrow the focus by race, but Hill said racial equity has to be part of the work.
Both plans call for improvement in high school Math 1 scores, but the new one includes students who take the course in middle school.
Both plans encourage schools to make sure students go beyond a basic diploma to build skills and credentials that will help them in college and careers. The old one focused on diploma endorsements, a measure that proved problematic in CMS and across the state. A one-year plan that was also released Monday outlines plans to collect data on a new mix of test scores and credentials in the coming year. That will be used to set goals for ensuring that students are prepared for what Hill calls “the three E’s,” employment, enrollment in college or enlistment in the military.
Hill urged the assembled administrators to help people understand goals that can look unambitious — such as raising the percentage of students earning college-and-career-ready scores on reading exams from 31% to 50% by 2029 — are challenging but realistic. She said a national speaker recently said that raising scores by 3 percentage points a year requires “a Herculean effort” — a phrase she asked the group to repeat aloud — and says CMS will go beyond that. [Source]
Student Mental Health
Chantal Brown, Education NC, 6/17/24
North Carolina students are reporting fewer mental health challenges and suicidal behaviors, according to results from the 2023 NC Youth Risk Behavior Survey. The biannual survey, which anonymously surveys middle and high school students, has been conducted in the spring of every odd year since 1993. The last survey was conducted in 2021, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is so encouraging to see that students are not only recovering from the effects of the pandemic, but in many cases doing better than they were in 2019 and before,” said the Department of Public Instruction’s (DPI) Deputy State Superintendent Michael Maher.
High school students who reported seriously considering suicide in the past year dropped from 22% in 2021 to 18% in 2023, per survey results. The percentage of LGBTQ+ high schoolers who seriously considered suicide also decreased, from 48% in 2021 to 37% in 2023. However, that rate is still much higher than for heterosexual students, at 13% in 2023.
The percentage of high school students who reported feeling sad or hopeless dropped to 39% in 2023, after reaching 43% in 2021. The percentage of middle school students feeling sad or hopeless dropped from 35% to 32% during the same time period.
The North Carolina Youth Risk Behavior Surveys are given to representative samples of randomly selected middle and high school students in odd-numbered years. The surveys are anonymous and parents can opt their child out of participating.
The agency chooses questions for the surveys from a list created by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) that is used by education agencies and schools across the nation. About two-thirds of questions came from the CDC’s standard questionnaire and it was submitted to them for final approval before being administered. “Results allow health and educational professionals to track the prevalence of youth risk behaviors over time,” DPI’s presentation said.
In a press release, DPI linked gains in mental health with students becoming more physically active. Over the last 10 years, DPI’s presentation to the Board showed that the more that students report that they are physically active five or more days a week, the less likely they are to report they are sad or hopeless.
Among high school students, more students are getting at least an hour of activity five or more days a week from 2021, from 34% to 42%, according to the survey results. For middle schoolers, that rate also increased from 44% in 2021 to 52% in 2023.
Ellen Essick, section chief for DPI’s NC Healthy Schools, told the Board that “the positive effect of exercise on mental health is well documented.”
The Board discussed an amendment to the existing Healthy Active Children Policy that would encourage high schools to offer students 60 minutes of physical activity per week. The current policy calls for 30 minutes per day of physical activity for K-8 students. The Board is set to vote on the policy at its July meeting.
“Students can’t reach their full potential in the classroom if they are not mentally and physically well,” Essick said. “Giving them more access to exercise during the school day should ultimately result in better academic outcomes.” [Source]
Election Recounts
News Release, 6/17/24
The State Board of Elections is proposing temporary amendments to rules governing election protests and recounts so that post-election proceedings are completed in a timely fashion. The rules would be in effect on a temporary basis, to ensure that they can become effective before the general election.
Gaps in the current timelines for election protests and recounts can lead to unnecessary delays in the final certification of elections. In recent years, election protest decisions and appeals have led to delays in certification for weeks, or even months, after an election. Such delays could be especially problematic in a presidential election, because federal law sets a strict deadline for states to certify their selection of presidential electors, in advance of the Electoral College meeting.
If adopted by the State Board and approved by the Rules Review Commission, the temporary amendments would be in place for the 2024 general election.
Pedestrian Deaths
Vibhav Nandagiri, NC Health News, 6/17/24
North Carolina’s roads are becoming an increasingly dangerous place for people who aren’t in motor vehicles. In 2022, 269 pedestrians and 20 bicyclists died on North Carolina roads. From 2018 to 2022, the state experienced a nearly 20 percent increase in the number of pedestrians killed. Of 1,784 deaths on roadways in North Carolina in 2022, 289 — or 16.2 percent — were pedestrian or bicyclist fatalities.
There are similar trends at the national level. From 2010 to 2021, the U.S. experienced a 77 percent increase in pedestrian deaths, according to a report by the Governors Highway Safety Association. This same report cited 2022 as the deadliest year for pedestrians on U.S. roadways since 1981. While preliminary national data from 2023 points toward a dip in pedestrian fatalities, these numbers far exceed those from just a decade ago.
In response to these trends, many across the state are looking for innovative approaches to pedestrian and bike safety. Public health advocates, in particular, have been at the forefront of a broad coalition of university researchers, government agencies and nonprofit advocacy groups working to improve safety for the most vulnerable on roads. “We’ve seen a resurgence … for the need to draw upon public health approaches to attack the public health crisis that is happening on our roads,” said Nancy Pullen-Seufert, senior research associate at the Highway Safety Research Center at UNC Chapel Hill.
Pullen-Seufert believes changes to the transportation system can be made more robust by incorporating public health methodologies. “I think the bringing together of public health and transportation is vital,” she added.
There are many reasons for the increase in crash fatalities: Wider roads (especially in suburbs), more distractions and larger cars have contributed to the high rates, but they are certainly not the only reasons.
A report by Smart Growth America found metro areas in the South and Sun Belt to be driving a large portion of the increase in pedestrian fatalities. Meanwhile, a New York Times article published last year found dangers for pedestrians to be especially pronounced in poorer suburban areas, many of them in the South. Communities of color are disproportionately represented in pedestrian crashes and deaths.
The highway safety center at UNC works on a variety of projects in and out of the state. A large portion of their work relates to bike and pedestrian safety, which they tackle from a number of perspectives. “Public health actually has a lot of different frameworks and approaches that have been applied to, for example, occupational safety, that could be applied to transportation,” said Elyse Keefe, road safety project coordinator at the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center.
Keefe’s primary role at the center is to coordinate the NC Vision Zero network. Vision Zero, an approach to road safety with a goal of achieving zero deaths within the transportation system, was started in Sweden during the 1990s; it has since been adopted by states across the United States.
As of 2023, 21 North Carolina communities were taking part in Vision Zero initiatives. These initiatives have already brought about several small-scale infrastructure changes, avoiding costly and lengthy approval processes for larger transportation projects. These “quick build” projects — such as setting up high-visibility pedestrian crosswalks, painting bike lanes, giving pedestrians a head start at crowded intersections and building neighborhood traffic circles — serve as low-cost traffic interventions that improve safety for all road users.
Vision Zero’s methodologies were recently found to have led to significant public health improvements in New York City. Research published in the American Journal of Public Health in May 2024 found that, from 2014 to 2019, the city’s Vision Zero policies resulted in a 30 percent reduction in pedestrian injuries and a 26 percent decrease in fatalities.
Proponents of Vision Zero acknowledge and accept that accidents will happen on roadways even when people have the best intentions. What they are working toward is designing safer systems that limit the severity of injuries and deaths.
Mark Ezzell, director of the North Carolina Governor’s Highway Safety Program, described this approach as a “paradigm shift.” The highway safety program runs through the state Department of Transportation and provides funding and technical assistance for North Carolina’s Vision Zero network. [Source]
Harbor Expansion
Trista Talton, Coastal Review, 6/17/24
The dates may have changed, but the host of concerns raised over the past few years have not as the North Carolina State Ports Authority’s plan to deepen and widen Wilmington Harbor is cast back into the public spotlight.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Wilmington District hosted Thursday its first public meeting since publishing a notice of intent that the agency is preparing an environmental study of the ports authority’s proposal to make room for larger container ships to get to and from the Wilmington port.
The Corps’ notice kickstarts the process in which the public can provide comments, be they questions, suggestions or concerns, on the proposed project.
“We wanted to get this feedback before we invested a lot in our analysis,” said Bret Walters, Wilmington District Planning and Environmental Branch chief. “This is the opportunity to weigh-in very early in the process.”
Walters was among several Army Corps officials on hand at the meeting last week in Sunset Park Elementary School in Wilmington to answer questions and discuss the project with members of the public. The Corps hosted a series of virtual meetings the first week of this month, each day focusing on specific topics ranging from how material dredged from the channel might be used to how the project might affect cultural resources along the river.
Five years have passed since the ports authority announced its proposal to deepen the harbor from 42 feet to 47 feet, widen the channel in multiple areas, and extend the ocean entrance to the Cape Fear River. The ports authority maintains that the changes are needed to keep the Wilmington port, which is more than 25 miles upriver from the Atlantic Ocean, competitive with other East Coast ports by making room for larger container ships coming from Asia. The changes would accommodate large vessels that can carry 14,000, 20-by-8-foot shipping containers that have been traveling through the Panama Canal since its expansion in 2016.
A plethora of concerns have been discussed about the proposed project over the past few years. Environmental experts and advocates argue that deepening the channel could exacerbate saltwater intrusion through to the Northeast Cape Fear River and adjoining creeks, eradicate fish habitat, harm cultural resources, and disproportionately affect minority communities along the river.
During the virtual meetings held earlier this month, members of the public again posed those concerns to Army Corps officials, offering a new line of questioning about how disturbing the sediment in a river contaminated by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, could further affect its quality. The public review and comment period is expected to open in late 2025. A final environmental impact statement is projected to be released in fall 2026. [Source]
Truist Breach
Richard Craver, Winston-Salem Journal, 6/17/24
As many as a combined 65,000 Truist Financial Corp. employees and customers appeared to have been affected by a data breach in October by a hacking group known as Sp1d3r.
Several media outlets, including American Banker and Atlanta Journal-Constitution, reported Friday that the hacking group is selling data affecting employees and certain customers for $1 million. DarkTower intelligence analyst James Hub has been credited for spotting the data breach on the dark web on a hacking forum.
As of April, Truist’s workforce count was about 49,000, which includes about 10,000 Truist Insurance Holdings employees who were scheduled to transition in May to the former subsidiary’s new privately held ownership. The information is supposed to contain bank transactions with names, account numbers and balances and source code for Truist’s Interactive Voice Response automated phone system for transferring funds.
Sp1d3r also has been connected with putting up for sale data belonging to Advance Auto Parts.
Truist said in a statement Friday that it has “experienced a cybersecurity incident that was quickly contained.”
“In partnership with outside security consultants, we conducted a thorough investigation, took additional measures to secure our systems, and notified a small number of clients last fall.”
However, Truist said that “based on new information from the ongoing investigation of the October 2023 incident, we have notified additional clients. We’re also providing awareness to teammates.”
“We have found no indication of fraud arising from this incident at this time, but out of an abundance of caution and to provide care, we’re making identify protection services available at no cost.” [Source]
CPA Group
David Mildenberg, Business NC, 6/17/24
The North Carolina Association of Certified Public Accountants named Mark Soticheck II as chief executive officer, effective July 1. He has been chief operating officer of the Mooresville-based trade association since May 2016. Sharon Bryson, who had led the group since 2016 and been a staffer for 39 years, retired in January. The N.C. CPAs had selected her successor, Greg Wilder, chief operating officer of the Georgia Society of CPAs. He was slated to start on Feb. 19, but changed his mind and turned down the job in January.
Solticheck has led the 12,500-member group on an interim basis in recent months.
“Mark’s extensive experience within the organization and his forward-thinking approach are invaluable assets that will undoubtedly strengthen our association,” Courtney Knoll, chair of the NCACPA board of directors, said in a release. Sotichek worked at Fidelity Bank and Dixon Hughes Goodman before joining the trade group, according to his LinkedIn profile He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from Florida State University. [Source]
Medicaid Fraud
Allison Ballard, Wilmington StarNews, 6/17/24
A New Hanover County social worker has been sentenced to prison after being convicted on federal charges of defrauding N.C. Medicaid. Felicia Moore Jones, 52, was sentenced to 14 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. She was also ordered to pay $400,000 in restitution, which is the amount that she was accused of stealing.
“This defendant used her government position to steal from a government program intended to help the needy,” said U.S. Attorney Michael Easley in a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice. “Now, she will be forced to repay what she took and spend the next 14 months behind bars.
Moore was found guilty of conspiring with Lakia Washington, a licensed mental health counselor. According to the release, Jones used her government employment to obtain the personal information of residents enrolled in Medicaid. In exchange for an agreed-upon fee, Jones would then give that information to Washington, knowing it would be used to generate fraudulent claims for services never rendered.
Washington, a 39-year-old Clayton resident, pleaded guilty last year to fraudulently claiming to provide counseling to fake patients, including an unborn child, through her L.W. Therapeutics & Consulting, LLC practice. She is awaiting sentencing and faces up to 10 years in prison. [Source]
Horse Death
Mark Price, The Charlotte Observer, 6/17/24
A wild stallion known for leading around a “harem” of blonde mares has died on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, officials say. Junior had to be euthanized on June 11 “due to severe colic,” the nonprofit Corolla Wild Horse Fund reported in a June 17 Facebook post. He was in his 20s, officials said.
“Junior was well-known on the beach as the lead stallion of the ‘blonde harem’ that lived around Penny’s Hill,” herd manager Meg Puckett wrote. “He was steadfast in his kindness and sensibility, extremely respectful and naturally well-mannered. … He did not have a patient bone in his body, though. … He will be greatly missed.”
Junior is among the stallions that have been famously photographed brawling on beaches in front of tourists. Stallion fights are typically over mares or turf and can be vicious, including bites and bone-breaking kicks. Junior had to be removed from the wild to a farm after he nearly choked to death on an apple he swallowed, the fund reported. That near-death experience was followed by two serious bouts with colic.
Colic is a general term for abdominal pain and is a leading cause of death in horses, experts say. [Source]
NC Insider Legislative Report
REQUEST A DEMO | LEGISLATIVE TRACKING SERVICE
HOUSE BILLS FILED
Monday, June 17, 2024
SENATE BILLS FILED
Monday, June 17, 2024
WHAT HAPPENED IN THE HOUSE
Monday, June 17, 2024
- Ref To Com On Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House
WHAT HAPPENED IN THE SENATE
Monday, June 17, 2024
- Passed 1st Reading
- SB 913 (Alexander, W.) EXEMPT./CAMPAIGN SALES/OTHER POLITICAL GROUPS
- Placed On Cal For 06/18/2024
- SB 776 (Jarvis) COMM. COLL. TRUSTEE TERMS/REGION 2
- Re-ref to Health Care . If fav, re-ref to Rules and Operations of the Senate
- HB 287 (Sasser) HEALTH CARE OMNIBUS
- Re-ref to Judiciary . If fav, re-ref to Rules and Operations of the Senate
- HB 971 (Crutchfield) HOTEL OPERATION AND PERSONNEL EDUCATION ACT
- Ref To Com On Rules and Operations of the Senate
- SB 913 (Alexander, W.) EXEMPT./CAMPAIGN SALES/OTHER POLITICAL GROUPS
- Reptd Fav
- Withdrawn From Com
WHAT HAPPENED IN HOUSE COMMITTEES
Monday, June 17, 2024
- All House Committees
WHAT HAPPENED IN SENATE COMMITTEES
Monday, June 17, 2024
- All Senate Committees
HOUSE CALENDAR
Tuesday, June 18, 2024
House Convenes at 10:00 A.M.
SENATE CALENDAR
Tuesday, June 18, 2024
Senate Convenes at 9:30 A.M.
- Local Bill — For Concurrence
- SB 776 (Jarvis) COMM. COLL. TRUSTEE TERMS/REGION 2
- Public Bills — Second Reading — Roll Call
- Public Bills — Second Reading
- SB 802 (Johnson, T.) C-PACE PROGRAM
HOUSE COMMITTEE MEETINGS
- Tuesday, June 18
- Wednesday, June 19
- 1:00 P.M.
- House Committee On Health, 643 LOB
- 1:00 P.M.
SENATE COMMITTEE MEETINGS
- Tuesday, June 18
- 9:30 A.M.
- Senate Committee On Rules and Operations of the Senate, 1027/1128 LB
- 2:00 P.M.
- 9:30 A.M.
- Wednesday, June 19
Other Legislative Studies and Meetings
LB: LEGISLATIVE BUILDING. LOB: LEGISLATIVE OFFICE BUILDING
- None Scheduled.
N.C. Government Meetings and Hearings
BOLD ITEMS ARE NEW LISTINGS
Tuesday, June 18
- 10 a.m. | The North Carolina Partnership for Children, Board of Directors will meet via Zoom. You may contact Yvonne Huntley at 984.221.1242 or email at [email protected] for additional information.
- 2 p.m. | North Carolina Health Information Exchange Authority – Q2 Advisory Board Meeting, SAS Institute Inc. 100 SAS Campus Drive, Cary.
- 4 p.m. | North Carolina State Ports Authority – June Finance Committee Meeting, 2202 Burnett Blvd. Wilmington.
Wednesday, June 19
- 9 a.m. | The North Carolina Real Estate Commission meets, 1313 Navaho Drive, Raleigh.
Thursday, June 20
- 8 a.m. | North Carolina Medical Board – June 2024 Board Hearing Meeting, 3127 Smoketree Court, Raleigh.
- 10 a.m. | NC Commission on Indian Affairs Quarterly Meeting, 325 N. Salisbury St. Raleigh.
Friday, June 21
- 8 a.m. | North Carolina Medical Board – June 2024 Board Hearing Meeting, 3127 Smoketree Court, Raleigh.
Monday, June 24
- 1:30 p.m. | The North Carolina Local Government Commission – Special Meeting, 3200 Atlantic Ave. Raleigh.
Tuesday, June 25
- 11 a.m. | Economic Investment Committee – Regular Meeting, 301 N. Wilmington St. Raleigh.
Wednesday, June 26
- 10 a.m. | North Carolina Rules Review Commission meets, 1711 New Hope Church Road, Raleigh.
Thursday, June 27
- 9 a.m. | North Carolina State Ports Authority – June Board of Directors Meeting, 2202 Burnett Blvd. Wilmington.
- 10 a.m. | North Carolina Human Trafficking Commission – General Commission Meeting, NC Judicial Center, 901 Corporate Center Drive, Raleigh.
UNC Board of Governors
23 S. WEST STREET, SUITE 1800, RALEIGH
Wednesday, July 24
- T.B.A. | The UNC Board of Governors, UNC System Office.
Thursday, July 25
- T.B.A. | The UNC Board of Governors, UNC System Office.
N.C. Utilities Commission Hearing Schedule
DOBBS BUILDING, 430 NORTH SALISBURY STREET, RALEIGH
Monday, July 8
- 7 p.m. | Public Witness Hearing – Joint Application of Public Service Company of North Carolina, Inc. and Enbridge Parrot Holdings, LLC to Engage in a Business Combination Transaction | G-5 Sub 667
Wednesday, July 10
- 6:30 p.m. | Remote Public Witness Hearing – Dominion Energy North Carolina 2023 IRP | E-100 Sub 192
Thursday, July 11
- 10 a.m. | Expert Witness Hearing – Application for General Rate Increase for HH Water, LLC | W-1318 Sub 1
Monday, July 22
- 2 p.m. | Expert Witness Hearing – Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC and Duke Energy Progress, LLC 2023 Biennial CPIRP | E-100 Sub 190
- 2 p.m. | Expert Public Witness Hearing – Joint Application of DEP and NCEMC for CPCN to Construct a 1360MW Electric Generating Facility in Person County, NC | E-2 Sub 1318, EC-67 Sub 55
- 2 p.m. | Expert Witness Hearing – Application for CPCN for 850 MW Natural Gas-Fired Combustion Turbine Electric Generating Facility Located at 8320 NC Highway 150 E, Terrell, NC 28682 in Catawba County | E-7 Sub 1297
Other Meetings and Events of Interest
BOLD ITEMS ARE NEW LISTINGS
Tuesday, June 18
- 10 a.m. | PRESS CONFERENCE: Senator Natalie Murdock, Press Room LB.
- 10 a.m. | Gov. Roy Cooper to visit The Early Learning Center Preschool, 4304 S Tryon St. Charlotte.
- 1 p.m. | PRESS CONFERENCE: Senator Lisa Grafstein, Press Room LB.
The post Insider for June 18, 2024 appeared first on State Affairs.
Source link
