Orange County NC Website
3 <br />General Assembly take leadership in making funding available <br />to local governments to address the nutrient management <br />reductions that may be required, and in particular consider the <br />creation of a revolving fund (perhaps administered by the <br />Clean Water Management Trust Fund) to provide starter funds <br />for nutrient trading possibilities among the jurisdictions and <br />public private entities. <br />Human Services <br />1. Mental Health Funding — Seek legislation to ensure that state - funded mental health, <br />developmental disability, and substance abuse services are available, accessible and <br />affordable to all citizens and that sufficient state resources fund service provision costs <br />inclusive of sufficient crisis beds. <br />(See also Item #16 of Orange County's Legislative Matters <br />Resolution) <br />2. Health and Social Services Funding — Support state funding to provide adequate health <br />and social services, specifically: <br />• assist each school system in reaching the school health nurse:student ratio of <br />1:750 and incorporate into the allocation formula a criterion that recognizes the <br />level of county effort in funding school nurses. The Legislature should <br />examine the appropriateness of the target ratio for small school districts and <br />consider whether a target of nurse hours per day per school is a better measure <br />of nurse availability; <br />• restore the financial incentives for counties that opt to be "Electing Counties "; <br />• restore funding of the Division of Emergency Preparedness and Regulatory <br />Compliance within the county health departments to previous levels; <br />• support additional funding for child -care subsidies and increase the <br />administrative limit from 4 percent to 5 percent to enhance program integrity <br />and eligibility review; <br />• increase the "general aid to county" funding for local health departments to <br />build necessary infrastructure and support the capacity to provide essential <br />public health services; and, <br />• support funding for the NC FAST automation initiative in social services. <br />3. Local Discretion, Inspection Fees — Support legislation that would provide greater <br />discretion at the county level to establish fees for the inspection of food and lodging <br />facilities. <br />4. Records Sharing, Communicable Diseases — Support legislation which provides <br />immunity from civil or criminal liability to persons required to provide information and <br />records to health officials conducting communicable disease investigations when such <br />information is not otherwise covered by the Health Insurance Portability and <br />Accountability Act or other federal or state law. <br />5. Allocation Formulas, Health and Human Services — Support a study with <br />representative stakeholder participation to examine the county allocation formulas <br />applied by the Department of Health and Human Services to determine the sufficiency, <br />equity and efficiency of each formula, assuring that formulas fairly respond to the needs <br />of all counties. <br />