Tag search result

Rep. Nelson Dollar of Cary, one of the most influential members of the Triangle delegation, filed for re-election today.

Dollar, a four-term House member, is part of the House Republican leadership. He is a chair of the House Appropriations Committee, chair of the House Health and Human Services Committee, and a chair of the House redistricting committee.

“As a member of the new Republican majority in the General Assembly,” Dollar said, “I was pleased with our ability to successfully tackle a number of critical issues including balancing the state's budget, passing jobs legislation, giving citizens a voice in annexation laws, and fixing the state's workers's compensation system.”

Dollar represents the strongly Republican leaning 36th House district that includes Cary, Apex, Swift Creek and Fuquay Varina. (He is also this correspondent's representative.)

Health care providers and advocates for the sick and elderly are trying to keep the pressure on legislators to fill a $139 million hole in the state Medicaid budget.

Mary Bethel, an AARP lobbyist, read part of a statement signed by 24 groups at a legislative committee meeting today.

Medicaid recipients need assurances that their health care won't be eliminated, she said.

The statement says, "It is imperative that the General Assembly provide funding to the Department of Health and Human Services to plug the $139 million Medicaid shortfall. Medicaid recipients and those whose livelihood relies on Medicaid as a funding source are dependent on this being done immediately."

AARP North Carolina, the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, and the N.C. Justice Center were among the organizations that signed on to the statement.

Republican legislators have been arguing with the state Department of Health and Human Services and Gov. Bev Perdue's office over how to cover the shortfall.

Perdue's administration says leading House Republicans have gone back on their promise to cover it.

Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Cary Republican, did not respond directly to this afternoon's statement, but said earlier in the meeting that it impractical for the state to cut provider rates enough and eliminate enough services to make up for the shortfall.

"Some people who've been worried about that should not be," he said.

Most of the shortage is for Medicaid liabilities the state Department of Health and Human Services usually leaves out of its budget, he said. "There's a cash-flow problem that agency has."

Dollar said legislators are willing to work with Perdue's office to solve the problem. "We've extended a hand for some time to the governor's office to work with the governor on this issue," he said. "We've gotten a lot of politics in return."

State officials have worried for months that shortfalls in the Medicaid budget would force more medical service and provider rate cuts. But a key legislator told them Tuesday not to fret - they’re covered.

Legislators walked back from their budget demand for more provider rate reductions and medical service cuts in the Medicaid program, with a key budget writer saying money would be found to cover a shortfall.

State administrators had been looking at options for making more rate and service cuts because the state Department of Health and Human Services determined soon after the state budget passed in June that it would not be able to hit the Medicaid savings target of $350 million. The state budget says DHHS Secretary Lanier Cansler has to make more cuts on his own if it looks like the items detailed in the budget weren’t going to save enough money, and a report last month anticipated savings were going to come in $139 million short. An advisory committee has been meeting for months working on suggestions for savings.

Rep. Nelson Dollar, who helped write the Medicaid budget, said the federal government would probably not approve another provider rate cut on top of the reductions that the state has already asked for, and that more reductions to patient services would likely be counterproductive.

 “I think we can get around any language that has to be gotten around,” said Dollar, a Cary Republican.

Dollar blamed the shortfall on problems left over from former Gov. Mike Easley’s administration.

“We have a one-time financial issue,” Dollar said. “We need to solve it with one-time money.”   

Dollar said “a number of options” for finding the money are being discussed, without offering specifics.

Cansler said he was relieved.

Senate Minority Leader Martin Nesbitt said Dollar is kidding himself if he thinks the Medicaid shortfall is a one-time issue.

“Growth is anticipated on top of growth,” the Asheville Democrat said. “Once it has a ripple, it carries forth. They’ve got some work to do.”

A bill approved by the N.C. House Monday seeks to prohibit UNC-System universities and the state's community colleges from considering whether a student comes from an accredited high school when making decisions about admissions, scholarships and loans.

The bill was sponsored by Republican lawmakers in Wake and Burke counties to help their embattled school districts deal with the possible loss of high school accreditation. It also would require the state Board of Education to begin accrediting North Carolina public high schools at the request — and expense — of the school districts.

Democrats pointed out that funding for the state BOE in the would be slashed in the budget approved by the GOP-controlled legislature last week, and questioned whether the agency could properly administer any new duties.

But House Bill 342 passed the Hose by a vote of 66-46 with the support of Republican lawmakers that included sponsoring Wake County representatives Paul "Skip" Stam of Apex, Nelson Dollar of Cary and Marilyn Avila of Raleigh. 

The legislation is aimed blunting the authority of AdvancED, an Alpharetta, Ga.-based organization that accredits most of the state's high schools.

The bill was introduced in March two days before AdvancED issued a critical report requiring Wake County Public Schools to correct dozens of issues or risk losing high school accreditation. The school board, which tilts conservative by a 5-4 split, was accused of regularly violating its own policies while making key strategic decisions about the assignment of low-income and minority students over the past year.

AdvancED has also warned Burke County's high schools that they'll lose accreditation at the end of June unless the school board makes changes. Loss of accreditation could make it harder for students to get into some universities or receive some scholarships and financial aid.

The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration.

The partisan politics of the Wake County School Board spilled over to the state legislature Monday night as the House voted largely down party lines to support a Republican-backed bill to have the board chair vote on all issues.

Currently, the chair of the nine-member board votes only in the event of a tie.

Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Cary Republican who is the primary sponsor of House Bill 498, said Wake is the only urban school district in the state where the chair doesn't vote. 

Rep. Rosa Gill, a Raleigh Democrat and past chairwoman of the Wake School Board, said that was for good reason. A non-voting chair allows that leader to serve as a creditable peacemaker and consensus builder between different board fractions.

Current school board chairman Ron Margiotta, a Republican, backs the change.

Rep. Deborah Ross, another Democrat from Raleigh, pointed out that the local board split 5-3 on the issue on that the county's legislative delegation was also divided on the issue, with all the Democrats opposed.

"Things are pretty hot with the board right now," said Ross, referring to contentious issues such as school assignment policy. "The last thing the Wake Schools need right now is another point of controversy."

Dollar then attempted to ask Ross a question, but mistakenly referred to her by the name of Rep. Jennifer Weiss. Ross declined to yield the floor for Dollar's question.

"I prefer not to yield until he learns who I am," a testy Ross replied.

Dollar then asked his rhetorical question to fellow Republican and bill co-sponsor Rep. Paul "Skip" Stam, who promptly agreed with him.

The measure passed its second reading 71-47. A third reading, required to pass the chamber, is scheduled for Wednesday, when Gill said she planned to offer a new amendment. If approved, the bill will then go to the Senate for consideration.

Legislators working on the details of the state Department of Health and Human Services budget this week adopted most Gov. Bev Perdue's proposed cuts as a baseline, with the intention of finding more reductions.

The Perdue reductions the budget subcommittee adopted totalled $218 million, and did not include the proposed retirement incentives of $10,000 or $20,000 - which Perdue estimated would cut 53 positions -  and her reductions in the children's health insurance program called Health Choice. Perdue assumed the program's costs would drop while enrollment goes up.

This isn't how things usually go in budget committees, and some legislators wondered why they were voting on items the group may well revisit.

The DHHS committee has to find $591 million in cuts.

"Why do we need to vote if we're going to go back and change it?" asked Rep. Beverly Earle, a Charlotte Democrat. "I don't really trust anything around here these days. Why is it necessary to vote one way or another?"

Rep. Verla Insko, a Chapel Hill Democrat, said she didn't like all Perdue's recommendations, while Rep. Bert Jones, an unaffiliated member from Reidsville, said adopting Perdue's cuts may impede legislators' carving deeper.

"We're going to be different from how we see things in the budget," he said.

Subcommittee co-chairman Nelson Dollar, a Cary Republican, said voting did not limit what legislators could do, and described the $218 million as a starting point.

"We have another $373 million in reductions that we have to go," he said.

State Republicans are highlighting seven Democratic House seats they believe could go their way in the fall based on polling results published by two conservative-leaning polling outfits.

Democrats hold 68 seats and Republicans hold 52 seats in the state House. The House Republican caucus believes the polling data shows it has a chance at taking enough seats to win a majority.

The polls were conducted over the last few months for the conservative Civitas Institute and by the Carolina Strategy Group, a Raleigh firm whose principals lean Republican. The polls in question were generally surveys of registered voters in a district, which doesn't necessarily measure opinion of the people who will actually vote in a local legislative race.

But the analysis is instructive as to which races Republicans are targeting for the House. Notably, the list includes the seat now held by Democratic Majority Leader Hugh Holliman, a Lexington Democrat. Holliman faces his 2008 challenger, Rayne Brown.

A look at the other races after the jump.

The state House easily passed a bill on second reading Tuesday that would allow local school boards to effectively convert low-performing schools into charter schools, as long as the State Board of Education approves it.

Senate Bill 704 is expected to pass on its third vote, scheduled for Wednesday, before it goes back to the Senate. Gov. Bev Perdue is on the record supporting the measure.

Though these reconstituted schools would operate under provisions much like the state's charter schools, the bill's supporters are being careful to call them "charter-like entities," so not to violate the state's cap of 100 charter schools.

Though Republican legislators have long called for more charter schools in the state, the party's leaders derided the Democrat-sponsored legislation as "charter lite." They said the bill was little more than a thinly veiled effort to win federal Race to The Top grants without making a genuine effort to increase the numbers of independent charter schools that are outside the control of the public school bureaucracy.

"It's silly," said Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Republican from Cary. "It's a fig leaf. It's not real reform."

Though Democrats voted to incorporate one of two GOP-offered amendments into the bill, Minority Leader Paul "Skip" Stam of Apex still urged his members to vote against the measure. It still passed 68 to 45.

Republican lawmakers are complaining that Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue stole their idea when she announced the other day that the state would form a partnership with IBM to investigate Medicaid fraud.

House Republican leader Paul "Skip" Stam of Apex said that when then GOP state Sen. Robert Pittenger of Charlotte offered a bill in 2003 to do the same thing, Perdue, then the lieutenant governor, did nothing to support it, Rob Christensen reports.

Stam also noted that in 2009 he and Rep. John Blust of Greensboro and Nelson Dollar of Cary offered similar legislation that was included in a different form the budget bill.

"Republicans were delighted that the Democrats finally agreed that it was time to save money," Stam said.

Republican Tom Murry, a pharmacist, lawyer and Morrisville town councilman, plans to run for the Western Wake County seat state House seat now held by Democrat Chris Heagarty.

Murry's campaign sets up a GOP primary with Todd Batchelor, the former state GOP finance chairman, who had earlier announced his candidacy for the District 41 House seat, Rob Christensen reports.

"I have decided to run because the people in western Wake County and across North Carolina are ready for conservative leaders with a proven record of focusing on what will help our local businesses create jobs and improve the quality of life for our citizens and families," Murry said.

Murry, 32, has the endorsement of state Reps. Marilyn Avila and Nelson Dollar, and Wake County Commission Chairman Tony Gurley.

The district, which includes parts of Cary, Morrisville and Raleigh is considered a swing district.

It was held for years by Republican Russell Capps, before Democrat Ty Harrell won the seat in 2006. Harrell resigned the seat last year in the middle of an investigation regarding his use of campaign funds. Heagarty was appointed to fill the vacancy.