Agenda - 03-16-2021; 6-b - Orange County's Proposed 2021 Legislative Agenda

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4 the prevention, intervention and treatment of adolescent substance abuse, gang involvement and domestic violence; Abolish State Death Penalty — Support legislation to abolish the State of North Carolina's death penalty; 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; Voter Registration and Voting — Support legislation to restore straight party ticket voting and to provide public financing of judicial elections, and eliminate any requirements for photograph identification; Bail Reform — Support legislation to develop and fund a plan to help reduce unnecessary arrests by expanding the use of citations or summons, replace money bail with non-financial, least restrictive conditions, 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, and reduce disparity within the pretrial justice system. Currently, indigent or poor people charged with crimes are often unable to get out of jail prior to trial because of their inability to pay; Increase Access to Medicaid — Support legislation to increase access to the Medicaid program to make health insurance available to North Carolina residents at 138% of the poverty level and as additional support for rural hospitals; Mental Health — Seek legislation to develop and fund a plan to reduce the number of people with mental health issues in county jails as well as ensure that adequate State-funded mental health, developmental disability and substance abuse services and facilities are available 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; Re-instatement of Earned Income Tax Credit — Support legislation to re-instate the State Earned Income Tax Credit which greatly benefitted low wage earners until its elimination after the 2013 tax year; Agriculture — Support Conservation of Working Lands and Farmland Preservation — Support a revision to the revenue and acreage requirements of the Use Value Program to reduce acreage requirements, balanced by increasing the income threshold; Recycling — Support legislation to provide additional funding to local governments for recycling to cover significant increased costs for recycling these materials, especially for electronics, and to oppose the lifting of restrictions on disposal of electronics in landfills; Transportation Funding — Support increased state funding for transportation construction and maintenance needs, recognize Bike and Pedestrian modes of transportation, and support legislation to ensure that the STI funding formula recognizes that one size does not fit all and that projects in both rural and urban areas are prioritized and funded, and eliminate the cap on light rail funding;