Tag: Pat McCrory

Budget Preview: North Carolina’s Justice and Public Safety budget requires adequate funding to fulfill responsibilities

March 15, 2013 at 5:13 pmCategory:NC Budget and Tax Center

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The safety and quality of life of communities across the North Carolina rely in part on investments in our judicial and public safety systems. Significant funding cuts to the Justice and Public Safety (JPS) budget in recent years have challenged various JPS agencies to take on more responsibilities with fewer resources. Since FY2009, net appropriations for the JPS budget have been cut by more than $218 million.

In recent years, cuts in funding to the JPS budget have also resulted in increases in court costs and fees. However, the Fiscal Research Division reports that court costs collections are down about 10 percent. The legislature closed four minimum custody programs in order to reduce costs in 2011. Furthermore, state funding has been completely cut for some divisions within JPS, which are now mandated to operate as fully-receipt funded operations. Read More…

McCrory signs bill blocking Medicaid expansion

March 6, 2013 at 5:34 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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Gov. Pat McCrory signed the bill this afternoon that prevented North Carolina from adding groups of low-income residents to Medicaid insurance, putting the state in with a handful of other states with Republican governors that have turned down the expansion.

The expansion could have given 500,000 low-income residents health insurance, and would have been largely paid for with federal dollars in the first three years. McCrory signed the bill into law in private, without press or media access to the signing.

The N.C. Justice Center’s Adam Linker offered his take here on McCrory’s decision, saying that, “(i)t will mean more people delay necessary health care treatments. It will mean a population that is sicker and dies sooner….”

McCrory’s press office released this written statement from there governor afterwards:

In my first eight weeks as governor I’ve had to make some difficult decisions.  My team conducted a thorough review of the Affordable Care Act and its impact on North Carolina.  Before considering Medicaid expansion, we must reform the current system to make sure people currently enrolled receive the services they need and more taxpayer dollars are not put at risk.

 

Hey Gov McCrory: NC Medicaid not broken, actually best in nation (video)

March 6, 2013 at 12:23 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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Governor Pat McCrory today will reject billions of federal dollars from Obamacare to cover 500,000 more poor people under NC’s Medicaid program.  McCrory says the main reason is that NC Medicaid is “broken.”  But that’s just a talking point borrowed from Governors in states like Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina.  McCrory should be proud of NC Medicaid, our Community Care program – it’s award-winning and seen as a national model and national leader:

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McCrory apparently standing up on one issue

February 28, 2013 at 2:50 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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Pat McCrory 2Raleigh’s News & Observer reports that Gov. McCrory has given a “thumbs down” on the proposal to re-legalize payday lending in North Carolina. Meanwhile over at the General Assembly, there’s no word whether bill sponsor Sen. Jerry Tillman slammed any doors when he heard the news, but reliable reports indicate that the Senator is, shall we say, seriously miffed at the Guv.

Let’s hope McCrory sticks to his position anyway and kills this nutty idea before it goes any further.

The Guv gets at least a couple things right

February 22, 2013 at 3:16 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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Pat McCrory 5Well, it’s a start.

As reported byUnder the Dome Gov. McCrory told MSNBC that he was worried about federal sequestration and that many Republicans come across as too “negative” and “strident.”  These comments — particularly the first one — contrast sharply with yesterday’s statement from Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger’s office that efforts by advocates to call attention to the threat of sequestration were “a publicity stunt.”

Unfortunately, McCrory also used the interview to defend his decidedly negative and strident position on unemployment insurance — which he helped shred by signing disastrous legislation earlier this week — and his plan to block Medicaid expansion (an idea that’s now being embraced by more and more Republican governors around the country).