Highlights of N.C. House budget bill

Highlights of the $20.3 billion 2007-08 state spending plan given final House approval Friday. The figures reflect increases or reductions to base budget expenses, some of them based on projected rises in recurring spending.

Salaries and benefits

Average 5 percent salary increase for public school teachers; 5 percent for community college faculty and judges; 4.25 percent for most state employees and university workers: $558.1 million.

Additional 31-year salary step for public school teachers: $9.9 million.

Two percent cost-of-living adjustments for state retirees: $29.6 million.

Fifth and final installment of retirement funds intercepted in 2001 to narrow budget shortfall: $45 million.

Higher patient out-of-pocket costs, cash influx to cover projected shortfall in state employee health plan: $134 million.

Public schools

Replace 151 fewer school buses next year: -$4 million.

Student performance bonuses for teachers: $70 million.

Provide more funding for low-wealth school districts: $20.3 million.

Expand "Learn and Earn" high school initiative to 12 more schools: $3.4 million.

Deliver college courses electronically to high school students through Gov. Mike Easley's Learn and Earn Online program: $6.4 million.

Upgrade public school broadband connectivity: $12 million.

Hire school safety officers at middle schools and high schools: $2 million.

Increase school district funding for instructional supplies and materials: $3 million.

Increase district funding for academically and intellectually gifted programs: $1.8 million.

Increase district funding for children with disabilities: $5 million.

Provide additional money to help small-county school districts: $1 million.

Support mentors for beginning principals: $2.9 million.

Hire 60 literacy coaches in schools with eighth grades: $3.4 million.

Support pilot programs for Chinese, Farsi and other critical foreign languages: $1 million.

Establish district dropout prevention competitive grant program: $7 million.

Supplement funding for elementary school cafeterias operating in a deficit: $7.5 million.

Train mathematics teachers in financial literacy: $250,000.

University of North Carolina system

Direct campuses to cut 188 middle management positions: -$18.7 million.

Eliminate N.C. Progress Board: -$228,000.

Reductions of 23 positions, other spending cuts recommended by President's Advisory Committee on Efficiency and Effectiveness: -$4.1 million.

Provide tuition grants to 1,000 additional students attending private colleges in North Carolina, raise grant to $1,950 and expand to part time students: $5.5 million.

Provide need-based financial aid for more than 46,500 students at UNC campuses: $27.6 million.

Indigent care services at East Carolina University outpatient center and UNC Hospitals: $3.5 million.

Equipment for UNC-leased buildings at North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis: $1 million.

Improve N.C. Central University law school to address American Bar Association accreditation recommendations: $2.5 million.

Begin Education Access Rewards North Carolina Scholars program, which provides up to $4,000 grants to low-income college students: $25 million.

Community colleges

Fund enrollment for additional 2,300 students: $3.3 million.

Increase community college tuition by 6.3 percent: -$7.5 million.

Additional funds for Allied Health programs: $2 million.

Improve community college broadband connectivity: $3.9 million.

Purchase of instructional equipment: $10 million.

North Carolina Motorsports Consortium funds: $500,000.

Operational funds for N.C. Military Business Center: $500,000.

Competitive grant program for campuses for facility and equipment needs: $13 million.

Health and Human Services

Sustain provider network that coordinate free care for low-income uninsured patients: $2.3 million.

Reduce child care subsidy waiting list by 2,000 children: $8.4 million.

Fund 1,050 scholarships for child care providers studying early childhood education or child development: $1.1 million.

State match to purchase more than 650,000 treatment courses of antivirals in case of pandemic flu and create climate-controlled storage space: $9.7 million.

Fund HIV prevention and activities, including counseling and testing: $2 million.

Help local health departments: $4 million.

Family planning services to uninsured women ineligible for Medicaid: $200,000.

Hire 80 public school nurses: $4 million.

Fund tobacco "quit line": $1 million.

Reduce Medicaid provider inflationary reimbursement increases by 50 percent, with some exceptions: -$27 million.

Medicaid cost containment activities, including increased fraud and abuse detection: -$13.3 million.

Eliminate Medicaid coverage of orthotics and prosthetics for adults: -$492,000.

Two hundred additional slots for Community Alternatives Program: $3 million.

Expand Medicaid coverage for foster care adolescents age 18-20: $216,000.

Create N.C. Kids Care, which provides health care coverage to 11,800 children in families that earn between 200 percent and 300 percent of poverty level: $4.7 million.

Fully fund N.C. Health Choice program: $7.5 million.

Reduce funds for mental health, developmental disabilities and substance abuse services based on historical availability of funds: -$2.3 million.

Realign mental health, developmental disabilities and substance abuse services for other programs: -$21.2 million.

Reduce budget of Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh to account for anticipated closure in the fall: -$32.6 million.

Reduce budget of John Umstead Hospital in Butner to account for anticipated closure in the fall: -$33.9 million.

Open and fund new central regional psychiatric hospital in Butner: $61.9 million.

Transfer half of forensic unit from Dorothea Dix Hospital and Broughton Hospital in Morganton: $4.7 million.

Fund local substance abuse programs: $7.3 million.

Fund local crisis services to mentally ill and find employment for mentally ill, developmentally disabled and substance abusers: $6.5 million.

Nonrecurring assistance to counties to pay Medicaid expenses: $100 million.

Natural and Economic Resources

N.C. Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund, designed to prevent loss of farmlands: $8 million.

Hire two agricultural safety officers to conduct migrant housing inspections and train farmers: $125,000.

County grants to adopt local programs to enforce statewide private well construction standards: $300,000.

Test private wells for contamination and pay for alternative drinking water supplies: $615,000.

Shift funding for N.C. state aquariums from appropriation to admission receipts: -$3.2 million.

Matching funds for clean water, drinking water revolving funds: $9.4 million.

Market Blue Ridge Parkway's 75th anniversary: $100,000.

Eastern and western North Carolina film commission funds: $100,000.

Promote state's grape-growing industry: $1 million.

Create N.C. Green Business Fund, providing no-interest loans to small private business to encourage environmentally based economy: $1 million.

One North Carolina Fund for economic development: $13 million.

One North Carolina Small Business Fund for economic development: $4.8 million.

Operate N.C. Center for Automotive Research in Northampton County: $3.5 million.

Help Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte: $1 million.

Increase funding for N.C. Institute of Minority Economic Development: $1 million.

N.C. Community Development Initiative: $5 million.

N.C. Minority Support Center: $4 million.

Support Defense and Security Technology Accelerator, a business incubator to boost economic development in homeland security and defense industries: $1 million.

Expand N.C. Rural Economic Development Center Economic Infrastructure Fund and establish Rural Economic Transition Program: $19 million.

Justice and Public Safety

Create two new positions for Judicial Standards Commission: $193,000.

Hire 30 assistant district attorneys, nine victim witness or legal assistants: $3.4 million.

Funds 58 new deputy clerk positions in Superior, District courts: $2.3 million.

Funds for new three District Court judge positions: $443,000.

Raise hourly rate for privately assigned attorney for indigent defendants in non-capital cases: $5 million.

Hire more sworn agents, staffers and technicians at State Bureau of Investigation, startup cost for Triad regional crime laboratory: $1.6 million.

Staff and contractual service costs for flood plain mapping program: $4.1 million.

Grant to N.C. Sheriff's Association for technical assistance and training association with immigration enforcement, contingent on passage of other legislation: $750,000.

Gang prevention, intervention and suppression initiative grants, contingent on passage of other legislation: $4.8 million.

Reduce backlog of victims' compensation unpaid claims: $1.6 million.

Transportation

Reduce Department of Transportation division administration funds, in part to pay for Interstate 40 resurfacing project: $30.7 million.

Purchase one aircraft to upgrade department fleet: $3.4 million.

Replace obsolete State Highway Patrol helicopter and establish airborne unit to perform search and rescue operations during disasters: $3.6 million.

Hire 40 additional ferry division personnel, pay for rescue boats and generator upgrades to meet Coast Guard regulations: $5.4 million.

Reduce expenditures for Triangle Transit Authority's commuter rail project: -$23.4 million.

Create 24 positions to support advanced statewide emergency responder radio network: $2.8 million.

Reduce intrastate and urban loops system money allocated from Highway Trust Fund: -$5.7 million.

Other agencies and funds

Increase funding for rape crisis and sexual assault funds: $883,000.

Funds to Department of Cultural Resources to protect and preserve abandoned cemeteries: $133,000.

House remains of Civil War Confederate ironclad CSS Neuse: $500,000.

International Civil Rights Museum: $500,000.

Increase operational support for Queen Anne's Revenge archaeology project: $150,000.

State aid to local libraries: $475,000.

N.C. Housing Trust Fund, including money to build apartments for people with disabilities: $12.5 million.

Continue home foreclosure protection pilot program: $1.5 million.

Hold special bond referenda in November: $300,000.

Reserve for morale, recreation and welfare fund distributed to military installation: $1 million.

Reserves and capital projects

Continue upgrade of state's human resources, payroll and financial systems: $20 million.

State Energy Office reserve: $10 million.

University of North Carolina Distinguished Professors Endowment Fund: $6 million.

N.C. Court of Appeals building renovation: $10.5 million.

N.C. Museum of History chronology exhibit: $6.3 million.

Equipment for state secondary data center: $7 million.

Construct new buildings at eastern and western agricultural centers: $8 million.

N.C. Ports improvements in Morehead City, Wilmington: $7.5 million.

Phase II construction of UNC-Chapel Hill genomics building: $44 million.

Appalachian State University education building: $9 million.

Special indebtedness for construction projects, including prison additions, construction of new Department of Environment and Natural Resources building, Tryon Palace visitors center and university projects: $449 million.

Tax provisions

Extend state portion of sales tax at 4.25 percent: $258.4 million.

Extend individual income tax rate for top wage earners at 8 percent: $40.8 million.

Reserves for energy tax phaseout provisions, military tax relief and work opportunity tax credits: -$24.5 million.

Renew long-term care insurance tax credit: -$7 million.

Adoption tax credit equal to 50 percent of federal credit: -$3 million.

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