Agenda - 09-02-2010 - 7c - Laserfiche WebLink

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