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.

October 7, 2002

At 4am Friday October 4^th, the final gavel came down and the legislature finally completed their business and adjourned, ending one of the longest sessions in history. The two-year session, which began in January 2001 totaled 255 work days in the House and 241 work days for the Senate. The "short" session of the biennium, which began in May 2002, stretched over four months.

The length was reflective of a difficult and rancorous session. Members struggled with redrawing legislative districts, falling into bitter partisan fighting that stagnated the work of the General Assembly. The redistricting battle was settled, for the time being, by the State Supreme Court.

Then there was the state budget. Facing the worst economic situation since the Great Depression, lawmakers struggled to find the balance between funding services, cutting services, and raising new revenues. Republicans and Democrats differed on where the balance should be, and the House and Senate differed on how to put all the budget pieces together.

It isn’t surprising that a number of bills fell victim to the difficulty reaching enough consensus for passage. Among these bills were Mental Health/Substance Abuse Parity. There were several last minute bills that raised considerable concerns and required intense advocacy. One bill would have effectively placed a cap on the development of group home beds in many counties. This language was removed and new language requires local education authorities to pay for special education costs of out-of- county group home students that exceed the state and federal funds available. It also gives the Department of Health and Human Services greater authority to monitor these facilities. Another last minute bill concerned the financing for a new psychiatric hospital. This resulted in an announcement by Secretary Carmen Hooker Odom that she intended to close Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh within six years and build a new hospital in Butner. Her announcement raised serous questions around transition planning, the disposition of the Dorothea Dix campus, and community service development, among other things. In the end this bill, which also contained hundreds of millions of dollars in financing for prisons and other repair and renovations, fell victim of trying to do too much too late in the session. The House postponed the bill indefinitely.

Yet, in the midst of all debate and disagreement, the session did produce some notable legislation including the Mental Health Reform Bill, the establishment of a MH/DD/SA Trust Fund, and the state budget.

Perhaps what was most notable with regard to the budget was what didn’t happen. While the initial Senate Budget proposed a total of nearly $100 million in reductions for the MH/DD/SA system, the final reductions were significantly smaller. Below is an overview of the final version of the budget. Numbers in () are reductions.

Housing for people with Mental Illness                                     500,000
Residential Services for Women                                             1,000,000
Mental Health Trust Fund                                                       8,000,000
(Up to 7 million can be used for the site design and
capital planning cost associated with the construction
of a new psychiatric hospital)
Ruth M. Easterling Trust Fund for  Children  with                    1,000,000
Special Needs (To provide services to children
with special needs that are not currently provided
with State funds)

Turning an initial budget that would have been catastrophic to one that is survivable was no accident. It was the result of tremendous advocacy on the state level and from constituents, like you, at the local level. Many thanks to all of you who wrote letters, made phone calls, and came to Raleigh to meet with legislators. Your advocacy made a difference.

In the end, the budget changes were the result of legislators, especially in the House, who listened and were willing to fight to preserve mental health funding, often against tremendous pressure and odds.

Please take a moment to thank those legislators who fought so hard. These include:

Rep. Redwine Davidr@ncleg.net
Rep. Easterling Ruthe@ncleg.net
Rep. Nye Eddn@ncleg.net
Rep. Earle Beverlye@ncleg.net
Rep. Black Jimb@ncleg.net
Sen. Martin Billm@ncleg.net
Sen. Purcell Williamp@ncleg.net
Sen. Basnight Marcb@ncleg.net

Unfortunately, the budget has several places in which the Governor or Department will identify additional cuts. We will have to be vigilant to make sure that MH/DD/SA does not end up on the cut list.

Elections will be held November 5^th. Many legislators are not running for re-election. Others are now running in new districts. In many communities new legislators will be chosen. Attend public forums and ask candidates about their support of services for people with mental illness. And for heaven’s sake…VOTE. You can make a difference.

The newly elected General Assembly will convene at the end of January. They will come facing another mammoth state budget deficit likely to exceed $1 billion. We will have our work cut out for us.

Between now and then local communities will develop their local business plans to submit to the state in January as part of the mental health reform process. Many NAMI North Carolina members are active participants in this process. NAMI North Carolina has produced a whole series of Technical Assistance Bulletins to assist communities with this planning process. These can be seen at: http://www.naminc.org/TAB_home.htm

So while the General Assembly has gone home, our work goes on… and our advocacy makes a difference.