Orange County 2019 Legislative Agenda Documents

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1 2019 ORANGE COUNTY PRIORITY LEGISLATIVE ISSUES Broadband/Digital Infrastructure — Support legislation, funding, and other efforts that provide counties with flexibility and opportunities to support options for increasing access to high-speed internet connectivity and expanding digital infrastructure/broadband capability to the un-served and under-served areas of the state. Access to high speed internet connections will reduce disparities, enhance quality of life for all the State's residents, and broaden opportunities in areas such as education, jobs creation, small business development, health care, civic participation, and growth in farm enterprises. Priority School Issues— Support legislation to address the following issues related to schools: a) Provide local school systems with calendar flexibility, including the opportunity to align with nearby community college schedules; b) Provide full funding for State allotments including Average Daily Membership (ADM) growth, and support legislation to provide for an overall increase in funding based on average daily memberships outside of the current formula system; c) Impose class size reductions commensurate with State funding for staffing; and d) Provide additional revenue options, including a statewide bond and lottery proceeds, to equitably address statewide public school and community college capital challenges and meet identified needs. Expansion of Medicaid Program — Support legislation to increase access to the Medicaid program to make health insurance available to approximately 500,000 more North Carolina residents and as additional support for rural hospitals. Minimum Wage Increase — Support legislation to raise the minimum wage to enhance people's economic security, improve access to safe and secure housing, boost the economy with increased spending, decrease dependence on government assistance programs, and improve the lives of families. Mental Health Funding—Seek legislation that: a) provides adequate State-funded mental health, developmental disability, and substance abuse services and facilities at the local level, accessible and affordable to all residents and that sufficient state resources fund service provision costs inclusive of sufficient crisis intervention and treatment, and to structure appropriate county participation in governance; and b) provides funding to develop and implement a plan to reduce the number of people with mental health issues in county jails (See EXHIBIT A—National Association of Counties (NACo) Stepping Up Initiative); Non-Partisan Redistricting Process for Elections— Support legislation to establish a process for an independent, non-partisan redistricting process after each United States Census for the election of representatives from North Carolina to the United States House of Representatives, the North Carolina House, and the North Carolina Senate; Criminal Justice Reform/Juvenile Jurisdiction— Support legislation to develop and fund a plan to: a) help reduce unnecessary charges and arrests by expanding the use of pre-arrest diversion and the issuance of citations or summons, replace reliance on money bail with non-financial conditions of release such as written promises to appear, or the least restrictive available conditions, and restrict detention to the small number of people for whom no condition or combination of conditions can reasonably assure appearance in court and public safety, reduce disparity within the pretrial justice system; support the collection of local data regarding pre-trial release outcomes; and increased funding for pre-trial release supervision programs that utilize evidence-based best practices; and b) address developmentally inappropriate limits on juvenile court jurisdiction, demographic and geographic disparities, inadequate representation in juvenile court, unnecessary juvenile detention, lifelong collateral consequences stemming from juvenile court involvement, and punitive school policies and practices that push students into the court system.