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Worker says he was targeted for politics

Submitted by bniolet on September 1, 2009 - 6:47am.

An assistant auditor has sued the state, claiming that his bosses are going after him because he is a Republican.

Darryl Black sued the Office of the State Auditor, saying that after Democratic Auditor Beth Wood was elected, supervisors in her office began pressuring him to take a voluntary layoff because he is a Republican.

A spokesman for Wood and the Auditor's Office said he could not comment on the lawsuit because it involved personnel issues.

Prior to 2007, Black says in the lawsuit, he received good or even outstanding performance reviews. In 2008, before the most recent election for auditor, Black wrote letters published in The News & Observer. He did not identify himself as a state employee and the issues he wrote about were not connected to his duties as an auditor.

Black previously had run for the legislature as a Republican and he believed his managers knew of his political leanings.

More after the jump.

Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly identified the administrative employee who had previously been let go. The employee is a 23-year veteran of the office, not a 23-year-old. Dome regrets the error.

State Health Plan looking for overcharges

Submitted by bniolet on August 20, 2009 - 8:03am.

* State Health Plan officials are auditing payments to 15 North Carolina hospitals after learning they had not notified the plan of rate changes going as far back as 2003.

The audit is to determine whether the hospitals overcharged for out- patient medical services. The plan had negotiated contracts with the hospitals that set rates for those services, and it required the hospitals to tell the plan if rates changed. If those rates had increased beyond the contract terms, the health plan, which is supported by taxpayers, may have overpaid hospitals for their services

"The really important matter," said Lacey Barnes, the State Health Plan's deputy executive administrator, "is if they didn't tell us and it resulted in an overpayment. And that's what we don't know." (N&O)

* State mental hospitals and homes for the developmentally disabled are eliminating 354 jobs including 75 layoffs in the wake of budget cuts enacted by Gov. Beverly Perdue and legislators earlier this month.

Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro, cited for chronic understaffing by federal regulators last year following the death of a neglected patient, is cutting 123 full-time positions. All but 31 of the positions being eliminated are vacant. (N&O)

* A paperwork logjam has prevented auto dealers from receiving reimbursements from the federal government under the Cash for Clunkers program, and many have had enough. Local dealers say the delay is causing a cash-flow crunch, and some are no longer participating — despite the fact that it brought people back to showrooms.(N&O)

Budget would protect K-3

Submitted by bniolet on August 3, 2009 - 2:27pm.

House and Senate budget negotiators were finalizing the finer points of the state budget Monday.

The plan right now is to get the document read into the record before midnight so the House and Senate can take its first vote Tuesday. There is no bill to read yet, but lawmakers talked about the basic points.

In education, the current proposal would leave K-3 alone and increase class size in higher grades. Local school administrators would have to find further cuts. Officials would also have flexibility to move money around or tap stimulus funds to mitigate cuts.

"They are far better at determining what needs to be done than we," said Sen. Tony Rand, a Fayetteville Democrat and the chamber's majority leader.

The education cuts would have been far worse without some $990 million in proposed tax increases, said Sen. Linda Garrou, a key budget negotiator.

"Children in North Carolina are going to get a quality education," she said. "I can't tell you the number of teachers we would have lost if you did not have this additional revenue."

Rand said the budget would include some layoffs of state employees.

"There will be some but we've tried to minimize it," he said.

Update: The final budget agreement would not specifically raise class size in grades 4 through 12. Local school officials would have to find ways, including possible class size increases, to cut spending.