Dozens of people representing patients, educators and health-care providers urged House budget-writers last night to protect their programs from additional spending cuts when they draw up their state government budget for the coming year.
More than 250 people attended a public hearing by the House Appropriations Committee at N.C. State University in Raleigh, with more participating by conference call at three community colleges from Bladen County to Sylva.
The House plans to decide on its version of the plan by the end of next week.
Speakers said they understood the difficult financial times faced by the state but said that cutting programs they're interested in would be devastating to the most vulnerable citizens.
"This does not relieve the state of its responsibility to the folks we represent," said Sally Cameron with the N.C. Psychological Association, who urged that mental-health programs be preserved. "Continued reductions would further harm the economic recovery because we are part of the economic engine in jobs, but more importantly it will hurt the people of North Carolina."
Carol Artis, 45, of Goldsboro asked legislators not to reduce Medicaid payments for speech pathologists and audiologists who help people such as her autistic son, Kyle.
She urged that the budget "not be balanced on the backs of children who have done nothing but be born with a disability or be born poor."
The committee, which is considering changes to the Senate's $19 billion budget approved last week, held a similar public hearing last year designed to get people involved in the budget process. Once the House votes on a budget, negotiators from both chambers will work out differences in hopes of getting a final budget to Gov. Bev Perdue before the new fiscal year begins July 1.
"Tonight we have set aside specifically to hear from you personally about what your priorities are, and what you think our priorities ought to be as we go through this budget process," House Speaker Joe Hackney, D-Orange, said at the start of the meeting.
Several speakers urged House members to restore cuts in the Senate budget that reduced the Smart Start early childhood and health initiative by $10 million, or more than 5 percent, and the More at Four preschool program by 15 percent in state funding. Lorie Barnes with the N.C. Association for the Education of Young People asked attendees in Raleigh to picture people around them as children, when brain development is so crucial.
"It's absolutely critical to provide high-quality experiences for those children," Barnes told the association members. "We implore you to reverse the cuts to early care and education programs ... because these young children are counting on us for this early start."
Other speakers included public-school teachers and a representative of the State Employees Association of North Carolina who opposed the Senate budget provision that would allow local school districts and the University of North Carolina system to furlough workers to save money.
Nurses who provide personal care services through Medicaid to the elderly and disabled living at home and operators of assisted living centers asked for additional funds.
Several parents of deaf children also asked that House members follow the Senate's lead and shift control of the state's deaf and blind schools from the Department of Health and Human Services to the education department, saying it would improve services for their children.
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