NC Budget Cutting Rampage Continues

{Pic by Artgerm at Deviant Art}

Education is getting slashed across the state. Mental Health is being decimated. Now all those other our other social services are going under the hatchet as well. To put this in perspective, the money saved in this budget will be a drop in the bucket compared to the strain put on counties and municipalities across the state. It will fall to us to provide services for our most vulnerable populations – children, disabled, mentally ill, elderly. The problem, of course, is that we local governments don’t have any money either. Non-profits are struggling as well. Families are losing jobs and making enormous sacrifices to make ends meet. This move by legislators is shortsighted and irresponsible. We’ll be paying for it one way or another, and all of us will be affected.

AC-T:

The General Assembly has proposed slashing $2.4 billion from the state’s Department of Health and Human Services budget over the next two years in an attempt to close a $4 billion budget gap.

In all, 717 state jobs in human services would be cut, and programs like N.C. Health Choice, the children’s health insurance plan for low-income families, would be slashed.

State DHHS Secretary Lanier Cansler said the cuts, if left as they are in the House version of the proposed budget, “would change the way we do things.”

“If I eliminated every employee I have statewide, I’d only be halfway to the cut target,” Cansler said.

The Department of Health and Human Services accounts for 23 percent of the overall state budget, but it is being asked to take 50 percent of the cuts, said Elaine Mejia, director of the Budget & Tax Center of the N.C. Justice Center.

All of those teabaggers out there are getting their wish, deep cuts to that damnable nanny state. All the libertarians now have the chance to show us how the free market is going to solve the problem of caring for people without money or resources. All the Democrats and Republicans in Raleigh who think this budget is the right way forward ought to have sick children and elderly disabled people dropped at their doorsteps.

This budget will create crisis across the state now and for the next generation. Please contact your representative today and let him/her know what you think.

Rep. Susan Fisher – 919-715-2013 – Susan.Fisher@ncleg.net
Rep. Jane Whilden – 919-715-3012 – Jane.Whilden@ncleg.net
Sen. Martin Nesbitt – 919-715-3001 – Martin.Nesbitt@ncleg.net

If you’ve still got some wind in your sails, give a call to the House Leader and the Governor:

Joe Hackney – 919-733-3451 – Joe.Hackney@ncleg.net
Bev Perdue – 919-733-4240 – no email, but here’s an online contact form