Tag search result

A bill that allowed 16 year-olds to donate blood led to 11,500 new donors in 2009.

Before the bill became law in August 2008, a donor had to be 17. After the change, 16 year old donors in the state contributed 8,052 pints of blood, according to the American Red Cross.

"We were extremely pleased that the North Carolina Legislators saw the value in moving the donor age to 16,” said Red Cross spokesman Barry Porter.

State Rep. Dale Folwell, a Winston-Salem Republican, co-sponsored a House version of the bill that eventually became law. He touted the increased donations in a news release.

According to the Red Cross, High School based blood drives in North Carolina grew by 11.9 percent in 2009 and 16-year-olds represented nearly 25 percent of all High School-aged donors.

"These statistics demonstrate that civic and service oriented teenagers are extending that attitude to saving lives through blood donation, Folwell said.

Did a new law cure the sick?

State Rep. Dale Folwell, a Winston-Salem Republican, sponsored the State Health Plan/Taxpayer Recovery Act, because a few members of the State Health Plan called for ambulances as many as 25 times in a year.

Before the law, the health plan paid the patient for ambulance trips provided by an out-of-network ambulance company. The patient was expected to use that money to pay the company. But some people were apparently keeping the money and ignoring the bill, Folwell said. The law primarily affected three dozen counties, including Forsythe, Guilford and Davidson, that did not have in-network ambulance services.

His bill simply said that ambulance payments — which are typically $300 to $350 — should be made directly to the ambulance company. Folwell said he has been checking up on the "MVPs" who took repeated ambulance trips. Since the bill became law, the repeated riders haven't needed an ambulance.

"I wanted the legislation to change the behavior of what we were trying to fix and that is fraud," Folwell said. "If these people coincidentally got healthy, God bless them."

Among all the conservative politicians at the N.C. General Assembly, it appears none are conservative enough to suit Civitas Action.

The non-profit voter education group, with has ties to the conservative John William Pope Civitas Institute, released its Conservative Effectiveness Rankings for the 2009 legislative session on Monday.

Rep. Dale Folwell, a Forsyth County Republican, snagged the title of the most conservative member of the N.C. House, with a 89.8 score on the 100-point scale developed by Civitas Action. At the other end of the spectrum, Speaker Joe Hackney, a Democrat from Orange County, was awarded a score of 0.

In the state Senate, Davie County Republican Sen. Andrew Brock was rated as the body's most conservative member, with a score of 79. Three Democrats, Sens. Ellie Kinnaird of Orange, Katie Dorsett of Guilford and Martin Nesbitt of Buncombe were all scored at the bottom, tying at 2.1 on the group's scale.

Civitas Action's scale is based on the elected officials' votes on bills and amendments the group identified as demonstrative of commitment to conservative ideals as "derived from free-market economic policies, limited government, personal responsibility and civic engagement," according to the group's web site.

By that measure, the most conservative member of the state House got the equivalent of a B+, whole the most conservative senator got a C+.

UPDATE: Bill Holmes, spokesman for Speaker Hackney, points out that the Democratic leader didn't vote on 49 of the 50 bills Civitas Action graded. The speaker typically only votes to break a tie or at other points where his support is determinative, Holmes said. Sen. Vernon Malone, who died in April, also got a 0 score from the group due to his being "absent" when many of the bills came up.

House Republicans want Gov. Beverly Perdue to jump into budget negotiations.

Republicans sponsored a resolution "inviting" the governor to comment on the House and Senate budget proposals.

"It sends a message that in this time of severe crisis that more hands on deck, more minds toward the problem is the best possible solution," said Rep. Dale Folwell, a Winston-Salem Republican and co-sponsor of the resolution.

The document also takes one more shot at the House budget proposal.

"The House balanced its budget with a combination of regressive taxes and taxes that make North Carolina a more expensive place in which to live and work," the resolution states.

During the House budget debate, Republicans praised Perdue's budget proposal, particularly for her plan to only budget for jobs that are filled. The accounting maneuver would have made hundreds of millions available at the start of the year. It also, House Democrats pointed out, would have wiped out a big cushion for emergencies.

"I just don't believe the governor of our state would propose something nonsensical," said Rep. John Blust, a Greensboro Republican, said during the budget debate.

Perdue, of course, hasn't been bashful about what she believes should be done about the budget. Her statewide barnstorm for more taxes continues Monday with stops in Greenville and Wilmington.

The full House will get its first look today at $18.5 billion budget proposal that slashes spending across state government, but spares several programs by including $780 million in new taxes.

The House budget bill made it through a key committee late Wednesday after a contentious debate in which Republicans franticly tried to stop Democrats from using a parliamentary maneuver designed to fend off any changes to the budget proposal.

The Democrats changed the title of the bill to an unwieldy recitation of all the taxes the budget would raise. House rules say amendments can’t be contrary to the title of a bill, which means removing the taxes would be tough.

House Republicans have stood firmly against any new taxes. Democrats have been divided over the issue with supporters saying the taxes are needed to avoid painful cuts to education and social services. The state is facing a $4 billion deficit.

"We had very egregious cuts that a lot of us on both sides of the aisle had trouble with," said Hugh Holliman, the House majority leader and a Lexington Democrat.

Rep. Paul Stam, an Apex Republican and the House minority leader, protested the Democrats’ late move to cut off substantial changes.

"It spends too much. It taxes too much. We’re in a deep recession. We shouldn’t be doing this," Stam said. "It will hurt the economy of the state."

The debate gets testy after the jump.

The House approved the State Health Plan bill.

Members voted 60 to 56 in favor of the bill. House Republicans objected to the final version.

Members cited the increased cost to state employees and the removal of a provision that would convert the plan to a calendar year.

"The only thing the House could have been proud of and stood up for is converting the plan to a calendar year," said Rep. Dale Folwell, a Winston-Salem Republican.

Converting the plan's calendar would put it in line with most other health plans and allow families to better plan for health care costs.

But the conversion would cost the state an additional $60 million over two years. It would cost employees an additional rate increase.

Rep. Hugh Holliman, the bill's primary sponsor and House Democratic leader said the compromise bill was meant to be a short-term fix that will help the struggling plan stay solvent while officials consider a long-term fix.

"I think this is a fair compromise," Holliman said.

Maybe they were getting hungry.

As the night wore on, state representatives began talking less about hypothetical examples of how restaurants would fare under a smoking ban and more about their favorite greasy spoons.

Rep. Dale Folwell took the cake with references to four specific restaurants.

Toward the end of the debate, the Winston-Salem Republican mentioned three local restaurants that went smoke-free or limited smoking on their own: Cloverdale Kitchen, the Lighthouse Restaurant and Noble's Grille.

"For 43 years, I've been eating pancakes and lasagna and other things at a place called Cloverdale Kitchen," he said. "Cloverdale Kitchen a couple of years ago went non-smoking on their own and business increased."

He also noted that he liked to eat at Ted's Kickin Chicken in Winston-Salem on Thursday night for "biker night."

Rep. Cary Allred also name-checked Sharky's Grill in Burlington, while Rep. David Lewis noted that McDonald's has gone smoke-free. The Applebee's restaurant chain also came up at one point.

Recent House bills of note:

H.B. 661: City Managers on School Boards, Rep. Ray Warren

H.B. 677: Require a "First in Flight" Background, Reps. Lucy Allen, Lorene Coates, Nelson Cole and Becky Carney

H.B. 691: State Contracts/Slavery Profits, Reps. Larry Womble, Earl Jones, Annie Mobley and Earline Parmon

H.B. 708: Furlough of State Employees, Reps. Ray Rapp, Rick Glazier and Margaret Dickson

H.B. 711: Sales Tax Fairness Act, Reps. Winkie Wilkins and Dale Folwell

H.B. 724: Open Records Attorneys' Fees, Reps. George Cleveland and Curtis Blackwood

Rep. Dale Folwell filed legislation Wednesday that he said fixes a flaw in the State Health Plan that could allow for fraud against the state and municipalities that provide ambulance service.

The flaw: Plan members are cut a check for the cost of an ambulance ride when the provider's not part of the plan's network, Dan Kane reports.

The check is in the member's name, so if he or she pockets it, the ambulance service is out of the money. Each trip costs roughly $500.

At least 24 municipal services are not in the plan's network, including those serving Durham, Forsyth, Mecklenburg and Randolph counties, Folwell said.

He presented anecdotal evidence of ambulance riders failing to pay for the service. In one case, a public school retiree from Forsyth County requested 22 ambulance trips last year, collecting nearly $12,500 from the health plan. The county has yet to be reimbursed for the ambulance service.

More after the jump.