Heard in the Halls is an email service of NAMI North Carolina to provide updates on state legislative and policy issues. Heard in the Halls is produced for community advocates at least monthly and more frequently during sessions of the General Assembly. To be added to the Heard in the Halls list send a message to heard@naminc.org with just "subscribe" (no quotes) in the subject. Because of the variety of e-mail servers, Heard in the Halls is sent in plain text and as a formatted attachment.

7/3/02

NO RELIEF

House Appropriations leaders are working to hammer out a budget to present next week. Because the House has not passed any legislation raising new revenues, the information we have received is that the House budget will leave the devastating cuts that were in the Senate budget largely unchanged.

House leaders are crafting a revenue (tax) package to raise funds so that the cuts can be eliminated or at least reduced. But they have been unable to get enough votes for passage because legislators fear that they will not be supported at home for their vote.

IMMEDIATE ACTION

The cuts to MH/DD/SA will occur unless we can convince legislators to support a tax package. EVERY HOUSE MEMBER NEEDS TO HEAR FROM A LARGE NUMBER OF CONSTITUENTS. Over this holiday weekend and through next week, contact your legislator and urge them to:

• support the tax package being developed
• have the courage to raise revenue so that people are not hurt when services they need to live are not cut
• you will support (vote for) them if they support the tax package
  

If you don’t know your Representative or how to contact them go to http://capwiz.com/cdpmi/officials/state/?state=NC and at the bottom of the page enter your zip code+4