Dave Richard, executive director of the ARC of North Carolina, will be the next director of mental health, developmental disabilities and substance abuse services at the state Department of Health and Human Services.

He replaces acting director Jim Jarrard.

Richard has been at the ARC of NC for nearly 25 years. He starts his new job May 28.

"His extensive expertise in program implementation, public education, government affairs, and his deep understanding of individual and community needs will help us improve customer service as we seek to help every North Carolinian fulfill their potential," DHHS Secretary Aldona Wos said in a statement.

As ARC executive director, Richard was an outspoken critic of the Medicaid managed care system for mental health that now governs payments and treatment.

He said recently that he liked the plan for the statewide Medicaid waiver that Gov. Pat McCrory's administration is pursuing.

A major immigration bill is headed to the House floor after clearing a final hurdle Tuesday. The measure --dubbed the RECLAIM NC Act -- grants driving permits to people who didn't enter the country legally. But it also allows law enforcement to detain those suspected of being here illegally.

The legislation could come to the House floor as early as next week.

In testimony at the House Finance Committee, the debate split along interesting lines. A number of groups that advocate for immigrants spoke against the reach of the legislation, saying the complications of getting driving permits isn't worth the hassle. And anti-illegal immigration organizations condemned the bill's Republican sponsors for granting driving privileges.

Debate over the House bill that would offer vouchers to public school students to attend private school turned into a real back and forth Tuesday as people for and against took turns arguing their positions.

The committee heard introductory remarks from the bill sponsors and public comment. Committee members didn't debate the bill, and there was no vote.

Charles Brown, chairman of the Scotland County Board of Education and vice-chairman of the Scotland Republican Party, said vouchers will undermine public education. "Education is not the place where free market principles work as intended," he said Public schools take all comers, while private schools do not, Brown said.

Only one in 10 North Carolina voters support a sales tax on groceries, according to a new Public Policy Polling survey, and many appear uninterested in the House and Senate tax plans.

The Senate tax plan would levy a 6.5 percent state and local sales tax on food -- 14 years after state lawmakers repealed it. Local governments currently can tax food at 2 percent but the state doesn't received the revenue.

The Democratic firm's poll of North Carolina voters found that 81 percent oppose the Senate's idea and another 9 percent are undecided. The House tax plan doesn't touch the food tax.

Asked if they support the Senate's tax plan (without description of what it did), 44 percent opposed the plan and another 42 percent were undecided. Only 14 percent support it. Likewise, the House plan -- which debuted Thursday -- fared about the same with just 11 percent supportive and 41 percent opposed. Another 48 percent were undecided.

NEARLY HALF VOTERS CONSIDER SAY #NCGA CAUSING NATIONAL EMBARRASSMENT: One of the more intriguing poll numbers in the latest monthly Public Policy Polling survey due out later today: 45 percent. That's the portion of voters who believe the N.C. General Assembly is causing the state "national embarrassment." The poll question comes after a number of hot-button legislative issues received national attention -- and ridicule. Another 31 percent don't think the state legislature is a blemish and another 24 percent are undecided. (More from poll below.)

TODAY AT THE STATEHOUSE: No rest for the weary this week on Jones Street. The Senate appropriations committee meets at 8:30 to discuss its $20.6 billion state budget. Democrats will raise objections but no significant changes are expected. At the same time, the House Finance Committee will consider a major immigration bill that is drawing increasing fire from the ACLU and others concerned about Arizona-type provisions about stopping and detaining people who did not enter the country legally. At 11 a.m., the House Education Committee will get its first look at a new private school voucher bill. Senate and House floor calendars are light after crossover week's flurry, but the House will give final reading to a bill limiting tolling of existing highways.

Gov. Pat McCrory will meet with the Philippine ambassador at 8:45 a.m. in a private meeting and later attend a N.C. Department of Transportation luncheon. McCrory will speak to a group of under-45 CEOs as part of the southern chapter of the Young Presidents' Organization conference and travel to Charlotte this evening for a forum with the city's other current and former mayors.

***This is the Dome Morning Memo. Read more new exclusive PPP numbers below and get more insights into the state budget. ***

House lawmakers will consider a revamped plan to provide taxpayer dollars to help send public school students to private schools.

Rep. Rob Bryan, a Charlotte Republican and lead sponsor of House Bill 944, said the new provisions help address concerns about accountability by requiring schools that receive more than $300,000 in voucher money to submit to an audit. Another part of the bill requires schools with more than 25 voucher students to report aggregate test scores.

The maximum voucher is $4,200 for a child who is eligible for free or reduced lunches, or $3,780 for families with income at 133 percent of the threshold that qualifies for the federal program.

Jonathan Wayne Broyhill admitted to police his “involvement” in the fatal stabbing of Democratic fundraiser Jamie Hahn last month, according to a search warrant made public today.

Police have said that Jamie Hahn and her husband Nation were attacked with a knife at their North Raleigh home on April 22. According to the warrant, Broyhill told investigators that he brought the weapon from his home on Glascock Street when he visited the couple that day. Read more here.

Now that the N.C. Senate is trying to move the State Bureau of Investigation to the N.C. Department of Public Safety, an outside group is putting a spotlight on Secretary Kieran Shanahan's record.

Progress North Carolina Action, a political group opposed to the Republican governor and legislature, is trying to draw attention to a News & Observer report earlier this month about Shanahan moonlighting in a second job. To keep his law firm role, Progress North Carolina says Shanahan should release a client list -- or resign office.

Here are some of the transportation funding and policy changes outlined in the proposed Senate budget (PDF) released Sunday. Some of these are new proposals, and others were previously aired this spring in separate legislation:

Try to acquire federal land around Oregon Inlet: The Oregon Inlet Land Acquisition Task Force is established to study the state's options for acquiring land around the Oregon Inlet from the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service so the state can preserve the navigability of Oregon Inlet.

Charge tolls on all ferries: Order the state Department of Transportation to begin collecting tolls on all seven ferry routes by November 1, with rates high enough to generate $5 million to $10 million a year in revenues. This would include tolls on the two routes that the General Assembly said last year would stay toll-free: Hatteras Inlet and Currituck Sound.

Gov. Pat McCrory is making his concerns known with the Senate budget. In a statement, McCrory said he is "pleased the Senate's budget proposal aligns with some of our major priorities." But his office issued a list of "areas for further review," aka "where the Senate went off-track."

They include: "elimination of Special Superior Court judges; transfer of the SBI; exclusion of drug treatment courts; no salary increases for state employees; no expansion of pre-K; no eugenics compensation; and does not allow for routine legal services in each agency."

The major differences will put the onus on the House to help carry the governor's water, unless the Senate bends to the governor's concerns, which seems unlikely given the tenor so far this session.

From AP: North Carolina's Democratic attorney general is opposing a state Senate budget provision that moves much of an investigative unit from his department to one headed by an appointee of Republican Gov. Pat McCrory.

Roy Cooper spoke against the idea Monday, alongside police chiefs and prosecutors who also oppose moving the State Bureau of Investigation to the Department of Public Safety, which includes all other law enforcement agencies. Opponents argued the move will inhibits the agency's independence from the executive branch, but they stopped short of calling it politically motivated.

Housing the agency under a department controlled by the governor runs counter to the SBI's mission, he added. "Putting the SBI under any governor's administration increases the risk that corruption and cover-up occur with impunity," Cooper said.

But Republican senators argued the unit is better grouped with the rest of the state's law enforcement divisions to enhance coordination among the agencies. The Republican budget estimates $2 million in savings from the consolidation in its second year. "It simply does not make sense for the state's top attorney to supervise the SBI, just like it wouldn't make sense for your local district attorney to supervise your sheriffs or police," said House Majority Leader Harry Brown, R-Onslow and one of the chamber's chief budget-writers. More here.

The state Senate’s $20.6 billion budget proposal has no raises for state employees, puts new limits on health services for some Medicaid patients, and anticipates a tax cut.

Leading senators discussed their reasoning behind the budget plan, which affects every taxpayer, public school student, and some businesses looking to move to the state.

“We live within our means,” said Sen. Pete Brunstetter, a Winston-Salem Republican and a chief budget writer, during a news conference Monday morning. “We’ve been through four very difficult years with recession and post-recession, and yet we manage this budget not only without a tax increase, but we manage it with some tax reform accounted for.”

Gov. Pat McCrory and GOP legislators have not agreed on tax change details, but generally, they want to want to reduce income tax rates and spread the sales tax to more services. Find more details here.

The recent debates in Washington about budget cuts and guns show increasing evidence of polarization, a new study highlights.

Researchers at Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill visualized the divide going back to 1the start of the 20th century. “We have not seen the current level of partisanship since the early 1900s,” professors James Moody of Duke and Peter Mucha of UNC-CH found. (Maybe this is why some in the U.S. Senate don't think so highly of political science research.)

SENATE BUDGET TIME: The state Senate released a $20.58 billion proposed budget late Sunday night that would eliminate class-size limits for the youngest public school students, move the State Bureau of Investigation to a department the governor’s appointee controls and puts various environmental programs under the control of a state agency. The proposal represents a 2.3 percent increase over the current budget and is about $17 million short of the budget Gov. Pat McCrory proposed in March.

Senate budget writers will hold a press conference at 10:30 a.m. to discuss it in more detail. Full Senate votes are expected later this week. More here.

NCGA PROTESTERS CHALLENGE CHARGES: As protesters gear up to assemble again Monday to highlight concerns about welfare cuts, health care funding, voting rights, racial justice, tax reform, environmental deregulation, workers rights and more, legal analysts are raising questions about whether the General Assembly police are within their power to arrest the nonviolent demonstrators. Irv Joyner, a law professor at N.C. Central University who has observed the demonstrations, said legal challenges of the arrests are being drafted. “We think we have clear-cut First Amendment issues,” Joyner said. Full story.

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The N.C. Senate's budget proposal will clock in at $20.58 billion, just short of Gov. Pat McCrory's $20.6 billion proposal, according to Senate leader Phil Berger's office.

The full budget is expected to be made public later tonight. According to a press release, the budget includes $10.2 million in the second year for a "pay for excellence" system for teachers, and eliminates the "flex cut" to local schools, a budget practice that had districts returning money to the state each year.

The budget adds $1.2 billion in state money for Medicaid, establishes a Rural Economic Development Division within the state Department of Commerce that will have its own assistant secretary, and puts $1.25 million toward fracking.

The Senate is expected to approve its budget this week and send it to the House.