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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 03-11-2019 Legislative Breakfast 1 APPROVED 04/02/2019 MINUTES BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS Legislative Breakfast March 11, 2019 8:30 a.m. The Orange County Board of Commissioners met for a breakfast meeting with the Orange County Legislative Delegation on Monday, March 11, 2019 at 8:30 a.m. at the Solid Waste Administrative Offices in Chapel Hill, N.C. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Penny Rich and Commissioners Jamezetta Bedford, Mark Dorosin, Sally Greene, Mark Marcoplos, Earl McKee, Renee Price COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: None COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: John Roberts COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager Bonnie Hammersley, Deputy County Manager Travis Myren, Clerk to the Board Donna Baker, Assistant to Manager for Legislative Affairs Greg Wilder (All other staff members will be identified appropriately below) LEGISLATIVE DELEGATION PRESENT: Senator Valerie Foushee, Representative Verla Insko, Representative Graig Meyer Commissioner Rich called the meeting to order at 8:35 a.m. Chair Rich said this year's Legislative Issues work group was comprised of Commissioner Price and Commissioner Dorosin. She noted in the Board's agenda packet that a lot of the stated goals have been around for a long time on the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) legislative agenda. Chair Rich said the Board, in selecting its legislative issues, also looked at the priorities of the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners (NCACC). She said the BOCC list is in no special order. Chair Rich said in a SAPFO meeting she attended last week, the group asked her to ask the Delegation to support House Bill 251, and whether there is any chance of this bill being approved. She said class size is a great concern for both school districts. Representative Insko said she is still working with the Medicaid expansion bill, and their goal is to identify different interest groups across the state that will be helped by this expansion. Representative Insko said a public hearing to hear both bills has been requested; they are confident one bill will pass in the House, but not sure about the Senate. Representative Insko said a $72 million appropriation was given to the state to support urban and small urban transit systems. She said she is working on this issue. Representative Insko said more bills are coming forth to put additional funding into mental health reform. Representative Insko said she would like to hear about Cardinal Innovations, and there is some interest on the GOP side about making changes to Cardinal. She said are they are fortunate to have Secretary Cohen, and she said this is a big transition. Representative Insko said they would be going live with 4 state and one regional state wide pre-pay plan, and there will be a broker that will be responsible for this. Her concern is about people that have moved, and this is supposed to go live in November. She said they are enrolling clients now. She is concerned about not having enough senior staff at the Department to fill in gap. Senator Foushee said the letters go out in July, and clients need to sign up by November. 2 Commissioner Bedford said (after the meeting she sent a letter to the BOCC about this subject) the Secretary of NCDHHS has requested that NCACC coordinate and facilitate a process, including consultation with LME-MCOs, to develop recommendations to NCDHHS related to the establishment of regions for Tailored Plans; also that each LME-MCO has been asked to appoint a county commissioner to serve on the committee. Once the committee is fully constituted, it will begin work soon, as NCDHHS requests recommendations by June 1st. This is an opportunity for all our counties to provide input on an important decision for our counties and state. Commissioner Bedford said it would be best for Orange County to be aligned with Durham and Wake counties, instead of going to places like Charlotte. Commissioner Price said the tailored plan shows Orange County in region 4 and that includes Wake and Durham. Representative Insko asked if Commissioner Price would forward that information (which Commissioner Bedford provided to all after the meeting via email). Commissioner Price said the maps came from the NCDHHS. Commissioner Price said she will send the letter about the maps to the group (which she did after the meeting). Chair Rich asked Commissioner Bedford to please bring forth a petition anyway. Bonnie Hammersley said staff will look into this as well. Senator Foushee said her committees are healthcare, state and local government, IT, etc. She said they do not have a coverage gap bill in the Senate, and it is clear there will not be any movement on that bill — and it is likely an expansion bill will pass the House. She said the Senate will be passing small bills that relate to insurance coverage to force compromise in the budget about Medicaid expansion. She said it will be probably be influenced by Carolina Care, if it passes the House. Senator Foushee said she is working on calendar flexibility and both the GOP and Democrats are filing these bills, as this affects a large number of counties. Senator Foushee said in terms of the environment, there are no huge improvements to report, but a general feeling of some negotiations in this session. She said there is more engagement from residents, and she has seen the GOP reaching across the aisle for the first time in her tenure. She said she has been asked to support two GOP bills lately, and she hoped that the budget will be more advantageous for NC residents this coming year. Chair Rich said in reference to the flexibility for the school calendars, she did look toward the Visitor's Bureau for support, but the hotel industry, etc. is not supportive of it. Senator Foushee said it will be a struggle over this bill, and hopefully they will see some positive results. She said her bill aligns with the schedules of the community colleges. Representative Insko said she asked some Republicans if they put the Medicaid bill in the budget, and they said not yet, but it will probably end up in their budget. Representative Meyer said he is glad Senator Foushee is optimistic. Representative Meyer said he is less so, and to him, the Medicaid expansion is a 50-50 shot. He said his inclination, as of now, is that they may not even have a budget this year and everything would stay at current funding levels. Representative Meyer referred to the school funding issues, and he thinks HB 251 will pass. He said this is an agency bill from the State Board of Education asking for flexibility with the class size mandate, and would add two provisions for flexibility: one around the facilities, and one around the availability of qualified teachers. He said if these two provisions are added, the bill becomes neutered for every school district in the state. He said this will be voted on in the next week or two. Representative Meyer said they are working extensively on the Broadband bill. Senator Foushee said there is also a county caucus that is comprised of past County Commissioners, and they are working on a non-partisan bill for broadband. 3 Commissioner Greene asked if the expected improvements could be explained. Senator Foushee said public-private partnerships are being pursued, whereby counties and municipalities can provide the infrastructure for the telecommunications companies to provide service. Representative Insko said the Governor has a proposal for this, and also for hot spots. Senator Foushee said the NCACC is still working on the counties' behalf. Representative Meyer said he has trumpeted Orange County as an example of how to work with the public private partnerships with broadband. Representative Meyer said the Speaker's school bond has passed through all House committees, with the exception of the Rules Committee who will review it today, and it will be on the floor on Wednesday, and they will be introducing a democratic bill that is twice the size of the GOP's. He said the State Treasurer released a debt affordability study that says that $2 million is the maximum amount that the State can issue, and that is why the GOP has limited its bill to this amount. He said this study is based on policy decisions that were made by the Treasurer. Representative Meyer said the General Assembly should be making policy decisions, and not the Treasurer. Commissioner Dorosin asked if there is a chance of this passing. Senator Foushee said zero. Representative Meyer said the House leadership thinks there will be hybrid bond; a pay- as-you-go plan. Senator Foushee said there will not be a pure bond bill that passes. Commissioner Greene asked Representative Meyer if brand new state employees will not have a retirement plan at all, in the fairly near future. Senator Foushee said that started in 2017. She said as grim as some of these things sound, the Governor has veto power now so there has to be negotiation on both sides. She believes they are at a point where the people are going to force elected officials to represent them. She said there are House Bills that pass, but not in the Senate, and that is where they will see horse-trading. She does not think any of these issues will be resolved quickly, and there will not be many special sessions anymore but they may recess to a date certain while they negotiate what will happen. Senator Foushee said she believes things will change significantly. Representative Insko said an example is what will happen to Medicaid, and if the HB gets to Senate and what will they demand back. She said stalemate is a possibility. Senator Foushee said the 2020 elections will provide a push to take action (in hope of re-election), and will be one of many factors to bring about positive changes. Representative Insko said that is why they need activists on the ground. Commissioner Dorosin asked if there are any prospects for bills for independent re- districting and privatizing ABC. Senator Foushee said referred to the first one, and said last week at the North Carolina chamber, Phil Berger said this bill would not leave the Senate. Representative Meyer said if there is a major court case that would result in judges redrawing the districts, then there may some capitulation on this issue, in order to have control over the redistricting. Representative Meyer said he is on the ABC committee this year, and there will be some modernization of the ABC, but not privatization. He said there will be some debate of some hybrid liquor licenses, and it is likely best for consumers to simply expand the hours. He said they are also working to have ABCs be more responsive to bars and restaurants with things such as delivery etc. Senator Foushee said in order for the modernization to occur, a number of restrictions will need to be removed, which she thinks will happen. 4 Chair Rich asked if cost is being discussed. Senator Foushee said there has been no discussion about cost or lowering the cost. Representative Meyer said costs will stay high because, as a state, North Carolina has one of the lowest usage and highest revenue rates. He said there is no desire to change that. Representative Meyer said price revenue versus volume revenue may be a suggested change, but he is not sure this will pass this year. Commissioner Dorosin said last year they talked about changing the way BOCC members are elected, and concluded that if they did anything it may get the attention of the General Assembly, who may just do it themselves. He said the GOP does not have a super majority, and asked if it would be a safer time to consider these changes. Senator Foushee said the GOP still has the majority, and from her from her vantage point, there could still be retribution. Chair Rich asked if there is any interest in increasing minimum wage. Senator Foushee said no. Commissioner Marcoplos asked if there is a general sense of the GA on climate change. Representative Insko said the GOPs in the House are aware of climate change, but there is not much talk about it. She said they are still concerned about communities still needing clean up from last storms. Representative Meyer said the Clean Energy bill has strong Republican allies in the House. Commissioner Marcoplos said it is a winning campaign stance. Representative Insko said most are focused on the 2020 election, and those issues that are most important. Commissioner Marcoplos said he is involved in the light rail process, and noted what a strange beast the railroad is for several reasons. He said he would like to see this change for many reasons. Representative Insko said that would be a good study bill for them to look at. She said a lot of people do not know a lot about this issue. Commissioner Marcoplos said it was created by the state, but it is a private company with a lot of control. Representative Meyer said former Durham mayor, Bill Bell, is on this NC Railroad board, and the governor has some appointments coming up to this board. Representative Insko said the State does create private agencies. Commissioner Marcoplos said this particular case has so many implications, and the more he learns, the more astounded he is about the power held by this entity. Representative Meyer said most legislators do not pay attention to this, and most do not have a background on transportation, which creates a large deficit in leadership. Chair Rich referred to criminal justice reform, and asked if there is any update. Representative Meyer said there is a new interim Executive Director of the Administrative Office of the Courts, and the implementation of raising the age had been on hold until this person was in place. He said some attention will be paid to this over the upcoming session, but he is unsure how much. Representative Meyer said there is the intention to fulfill the commitment to raise the age. Commissioner Price said bail reform is another part of the criminal justice issues. Senator Foushee said there are still some differences in how this is handled in districts across the state, and that is where the changes will come. Chair Rich referred to voter ID, and Orange County may need to hold an election early, and it is unclear how the ID issue would play out if this early election is needed. Representative Meyer said Representative Lewis drafted a bill to delay voter ID implementation until the primary elections of 2020. 5 Representative Insko said voter ID for college students is a problem too. Commissioner Greene referred to item #16, bona fide farm use, and asked if there is non-partisan support for this. Senator Foushee said this is a very controversial issue in the Senate. She said she had worked on this in the last session, and one of the Senators is no longer serving. Representative Meyer said they thought they had some progress on this in 2017, but they had three meetings in the interim and this did not come up. He said Senator Jackson and Representative Dixon do not believe the government should be able to tell someone what they can do on their land. Representative Insko asked if the County could explain the problem with refunding the Machinery act. John Roberts said to fix judgement errors, and this has been on the list for years. John Roberts said assessors measure a house, and measure it twice the size; they cannot refund the tax. Chair Rich said this happened to her, and she paid $14,000 excess tax over ten years. Representative Insko said this problem needs solving. Commissioner Dorosin said there are various issues on school education funding: use of private taxes, surplus in voucher funds, etc. He asked if these funds can be used in other ways. Representative Meyer said he sees no significant increases in education funding. He said there will be a bill introduced to take surplus voucher money and put in school capital funding, but this will not pass. He said the best-case scenario is around putting more money into facilities and limited increases in teachers' pay and other issues. Commissioner Dorosin asked if the pay-as-you-go funds could be described, and if it is dependent on future legislators continuing to fund it. Representative Meyer said it is a promise without a binding mechanism, and until 2008 7.25% of corporate tax went into a school facilities fund. Representative Insko said over the years, she thinks $4 billion has been taken out of the revenue stream. Representative Meyer said they have taken out $3 billion out of revenue stream. Commissioner Dorosin referred to Pre-K, and asked if there is a possibility to expand it. Representative Insko said Republicans have come around on early childhood education and early intervention. Commissioner Dorosin asked if this will result in more funding. Representative Insko said probably so. Chair Rich asked if there is a place to put these children. Representative Insko said Pre-K can be done in the private sector. She said they are losing their childhood work groups. Commissioner McKee asked if there is any discussion of picking up costs for charter schools. Representative Meyer said yes. Senator Foushee said there is one senator pushing it, but it does not have large support. Representative Meyer said the charter school issues come up at the end of their sessions in May. Commissioner Greene asked if that is a successful strategy. Representative Meyer said no. Commissioner Price asked if there is any chance of putting money into the census. Representative Insko said no, they do not have the money. Commissioner Marcoplos asked if there are any bills that they can speak on. Representative Meyer said school safety bills just passed, and there may be increased education spending for social workers, nurses, counselors, etc. He said the school safety 6 omnibus requires all school resource officers (SROs) to have racial equity training, which was cause for celebration. Commissioner Marcoplos said the BOCC can pass a resolution in support of this. Chair Rich said the County encourages its employees to also take the racial equity training. Representative Meyer said the standard SRO training does include issues of equity and justice with youth of color, and this simply writes it in as a statute requirement so that it cannot go away. Representative Insko asked if Orange County sends resolutions to other counties to garner greater support. Chair Rich said yes. Commissioner Dorosin said if the BOCC wants to get other counties to sign on to resolutions, it is best to reach out directly. Commissioner Price said if anyone can be part of the NCACC process, such as steering committees, that would be helpful. Representative Meyer said the BOCC could pass a resolution for comprehensive training of SROs for racial equity training (HB 76). Commissioner Price referred to the raise the age issue, and said it is one of the NCACC's top priorities, and it is helpful to talk to their peers across the state. John Roberts referred to item #6 on page 4, and asked if this is still on the table. All legislators said they have not heard anything about that. John Roberts referred to item #23 on page 6, and said there has been a bill filed and asked if it has any chance. Senator Foushee said the shooters are in the House. Representative Meyer said the House leadership is not interested in any gun bills, and may not do any abortion bills either. Commissioner McKee asked if there is any chance of impact fees coming back, Senator Foushee said no. Commissioner Bedford asked if the Governor's budget will include any increase for an innovations waiver. She said there have been 200 slots previously, with a large waiting list. Representative Insko said that is in the works. The meeting adjourned at 9:40 a.m. 2019 ORANGE COUNTY PRIORITY LEGISLATIVE ISSUES Broadband/Digital Infrastructure — Support legislation, funding, and other efforts that provide counties with flexibility and opportunities to support options for increasing access to high-speed internet connectivity and expanding digital infrastructure/broadband capability to the un-served and under-served areas of the state. Access to high speed internet connections will reduce disparities, enhance quality of life for all the State's residents, and broaden opportunities in areas such as education, jobs creation, small business development, health care, civic participation, and growth in farm enterprises. Priority School Issues— Support legislation to address the following issues related to schools: a) Provide local school systems with calendar flexibility, including the opportunity to align with nearby community college schedules; b) Provide full funding for State allotments including Average Daily Membership (ADM) growth, and support legislation to provide for an overall increase in funding based on average daily memberships outside of the current formula system; c) Impose class size reductions commensurate with State funding for staffing; and 7 d) Provide additional revenue options, including a statewide bond and lottery proceeds, to equitably address statewide public school and community college capital challenges and meet identified needs. Expansion of Medicaid Program — Support legislation to increase access to the Medicaid program to make health insurance available to approximately 500,000 more North Carolina residents and as additional support for rural hospitals. Minimum Wage Increase— Support legislation to raise the minimum wage to enhance people's economic security, improve access to safe and secure housing, boost the economy with increased spending, decrease dependence on government assistance programs, and improve the lives of families. Mental Health Funding — Seek legislation that: a) provides adequate State-funded mental health, developmental disability, and substance abuse services and facilities at the local level, accessible and affordable to all residents and that sufficient state resources fund service provision costs inclusive of sufficient crisis intervention and treatment, and to structure appropriate county participation in governance; and b) provides funding to develop and implement a plan to reduce the number of people with mental health issues in county jails (See EXHIBIT A— National Association of Counties (NACo) Stepping Up Initiative); Non-Partisan Redistricting Process for Elections — Support legislation to establish a process for an independent, non-partisan redistricting process after each United States Census for the election of representatives from North Carolina to the United States House of Representatives, the North Carolina House, and the North Carolina Senate; Criminal Justice Reform/Juvenile Jurisdiction — Support legislation to develop and fund a plan to: a) help reduce unnecessary charges and arrests by expanding the use of pre-arrest diversion and the issuance of citations or summons, replace reliance on money bail with non-financial conditions of release such as written promises to appear, or the least restrictive available conditions, and restrict detention to the small number of people for whom no condition or combination of conditions can reasonably assure appearance in court and public safety, reduce disparity within the pretrial justice system; support the collection of local data regarding pre-trial release outcomes; and increased funding for pre-trial release supervision programs that utilize evidence-based best practices; and b) address developmentally inappropriate limits on juvenile court jurisdiction, demographic and geographic disparities, inadequate representation in juvenile court, unnecessary juvenile detention, lifelong collateral consequences stemming from juvenile court involvement, and punitive school policies and practices that push students into the court system. Other Orange County Legislative Interests In addition to Orange County's Priority Legislative Issues, other legislative items of importance to the County for 2019 are as follows: 1) Child Care - Seek legislation to reverse changes made to the childcare subsidy program available to working families, including establishing eligibility for all children at 200% of the federal poverty level, to help many working parents who are trying to become more financial self-sufficient, and to prorate fees for children attending based on the hours attended; 8 2) County Jail System/Housing State Inmates Reimbursement— Support legislation to protect the fiscal viability of the county jail system by reinstating reimbursement for state inmates housed in county jails sentenced to 90 days or less; 3) Machinery Act— Support local governments' need for more flexibility to remedy measurement and/or condition property appraisal errors related to local property tax functions. North Carolina property tax law substantially limits the ability of local governments to address property tax discrepancies, such as prohibiting the refund of prior years' taxes paid after a measurement and/or condition property appraisal error is discovered. Just as local governments can recoup prior years' property taxes from owners for "discoveries", local governments should likewise be authorized to refund prior years' taxes paid when situations such as measurement and/or condition property appraisal errors are discovered; 4) Homestead Exemption — Support revisions to the Homestead Exemption provisions of the Machinery Act to: a) provide greater opportunities for low-income seniors to remain in their homes and not be displaced due to property tax burdens by approving a one-time ten percent (10%) increase in the base income qualification standard; and maintaining the current provisions which increase the income qualification standard each year based on any cost-of-living adjustment made to the benefits under Titles II and XVI of the Social Security Act for the preceding calendar year; and b) diminish the discriminatory features of the current exemption provisions relating to married couples by establishing graduated income qualification standards for single individuals versus married couples; 5) Sales Tax Distribution Formula— Support legislation directing that all sales tax be distributed on a per capita basis as it is fair and more equitable for counties with less economic development as compared to the point of delivery basis. The UNC School of Government has indicated that a per capita basis tax "would indeed be a more even distribution of LOST revenue across the state"; 6) Maintain Local Government Authority over Solid Waste Management— Oppose any shift of solid waste management and recycling services away from local governments; 7) Electronics Recycling — Support legislation to provide additional funding to local governments for electronics recycling to cover significant increased costs for recycling these materials and to oppose the lifting of restrictions on disposal of electronics in landfills; 8) Re-instatement of Earned Income Tax Credit— Support legislation to re-instate the State Earned Income Tax Credit which greatly benefitted low wage earners until its elimination after the 2013 tax year; 9) Voter Registration and Voting — Support legislation to restore straight party ticket voting and provide public financing of judicial elections and eliminate any requirements for photograph identification; 10) Abolish State Death Penalty— Support legislation to abolish the State of North Carolina's death penalty; 11)Fulfillment of Constitutional Duties — Oppose any legislation, that seeks to exempt any government employee or agent from fulfilling his/her constitutional duties, including but not limited to guaranteeing the right to marry for same-sex residents of North Carolina; 9 12) Oppose any shift of state transportation responsibilities to counties— Oppose legislation to shift the state's responsibility for funding transportation construction and maintenance projects to counties. Counties cannot afford to assume costs for maintaining secondary roads and/or funding expansion projects; 13) Expansion of Protected Classes— Seek statewide legislative action to provide all North Carolina local governments with the authority to include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes in order to protect these classes from discrimination and discriminatory practices; and authorize complaints for discrimination to be brought in North Carolina Courts by any Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recognized protected class; 14) Eminent Domain —Oppose adding language to a constitutional amendment on eminent domain that extends any further preemption of county authority to regulate the placement of telecommunication towers; 15) Fees-In-Lieu — NCDOT as Additional Recipient— Support legislation amending North Carolina General Statute 153A-331 to add a provision allowing counties to transfer fees collected as part of subdivision development, and in lieu of required street construction, to be transferred to and held by the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) for the future construction of roads intended to be added to the State Maintained system. Presently there is no mechanism where a county can collect fees in lieu of transportation improvement construction based on conditions agreed to by both parties during a conditional zoning process. These fees may be for a developer fair share of a future comprehensive intersection improvement but would not be built by NCDOT until other funding could be assigned to do a complete improvement; 16) Bona Fide Farm Use — Support legislation clarifying that the farm use and agriculture exemption of 153A-340 that restricts local zoning authority applies only to property on which the production of crops or livestock is the primary use. Clarify that marketing and agri-tourism activities must be secondary uses of the property and do not qualify for the exemption in the absence of the production of crops or livestock; 17) Revenue Options for Local Government— Support efforts to preserve and expand the existing local revenue base of counties and authorize local option revenue sources already given to any other jurisdiction to all counties. Oppose efforts to divert to the state fees or taxes currently allocated to the counties or to erode existing county revenue streams; 18) E-911 Funds— Support protection and broader applications of the NC 9-1-1 Fund to be used primarily for assuring that 9-1-1 systems are able to upgrade existing performance levels in order to pay for 9-1-1 operations or 9-1-1 related upgrades such as the infrastructure needed to migrate to next-generation (NG911) technology. Orange County has appreciated past efforts and supports future initiatives to assure our citizens are provided continued access to emergency services from all sources; 19) Renewable Energy— Support renewable energy initiatives available to residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural activities to create a market for energy credits. This support will provide incentives to produce renewable energy, which will become increasingly important to preserving and strengthening the economy and infrastructure, and in the case of agriculture help maintain rural heritage and culture; 10 20) Land, Water and Agricultural Preservation Funding — Support Park, Agricultural Preservation, Clean Water Management and other existing trust funds established for the protection of the State's land, water, biological resources, agriculture, and special places before they are irreversibly lost, and request that these funds receive additional funding, preferably through dedicated funding sources; 21) Agriculture—Support Conservation of Working Lands and Farmland Preservation — Support a revision to the revenue and acreage requirements of the Use Value Program to reduce acreage requirements, balanced by increasing the income threshold; 22) Aquatic Vegetation Control — Support legislation to provide for and fund a comprehensive statewide approach to noxious aquatic vegetation control in public water reservoirs; 23) Concealed Weapons in Parks —Seek legislation re-authorizing counties to fully regulate the carrying of concealed weapons on county-owned playgrounds and in county-owned parklands and authorize counties to prohibit the carrying of concealed weapons on county and county funded college/university campuses, in addition to playgrounds; 24) Opioid Epidemic Efforts — Support adequate funding for programs to provide and expand access for individuals with opioid use disorder to seek and complete treatment, and sustain recovery, as well as increased funding to collect data regarding opioid overdoses and to provide for additional law enforcement to investigate and enforce drug laws; 25) Agricultural Economic Development— Support state funding and staffing for agricultural research, Cooperative Extension services and other agriculture-related efforts to support the largest economic driver in North Carolina; 26) Transportation Funding — Support increased state funding for transportation construction and maintenance needs, and support legislation to ensure that the STI funding formula recognizes that one size does not fit all and that projects in both rural and urban areas are prioritized and funded, and eliminate the cap on light rail funding; 27) Behavioral Health Services — Support increased state funding for behavioral health services and facilities at the state and local level, including dedicated resources for community paramedicine projects. Support Medicaid reimbursement to EMS for behavioral health transport to crisis centers and structure appropriate county participation in behavioral health program governance; 28) Adult Protective Services — Support increased funding and legislation to strengthen adult protective services; 29) Court Funding —Support increased state funding for NC courts, including reinstating funding for drug treatment court; 30) Crime Intervention Services — Support legislation and state funding to provide early intervention services through the Juvenile Crime Prevention Councils, and support increased state funding for the prevention, intervention and treatment of adolescent substance abuse, gang involvement and domestic violence; 31) State/County Partnership for Education —Seek legislation to establish a new state- county partnership to address statewide public school capital challenges--including but not 11 limited to maintenance, renovation, construction and debt--through a dedicated, stable funding stream that is consistent from county to county and sufficient to meet the school facility needs of all 100 counties; 32) Economic Development Efforts — Support legislation to grow North Carolina's statewide economy through sound state investments, including public infrastructure funding, competitive incentives, and coordinated efforts with county economic development services; 33) Exemption to 180 Day Temporary Electricity Connection Limit for Recreational Vehicles in a Campground or Other Similar Park— Support legislation to provide an exemption to the current 180 day temporary utility connection limit as contained within the building code for individuals utilizing campers and/or recreational vehicles as temporary housing units while supporting/visiting family members undergoing treatment in local hospitals; 34) School Impact Fee Authority— Support legislation authorizing all North Carolina local government jurisdictions providing funding for public education to levy impact fees on new residential development to help pay for school construction. The North Carolina General Assembly approved legislation in the 1980's for some jurisdictions to levy these impact fees to support public school infrastructure. The authority to levy the fee to support school facility needs should be available to all local government jurisdictions providing funding for public education; 35) Dangerous Dogs Determinations —Support legislation to change current law so that dogs from dog fighting investigations and seizures are not automatically deemed dangerous without further determination that the dogs alleged to have been owned or harbored for fighting demonstrate an increased potential for unprovoked attacks on persons or domestic animals, in order to alleviate the requirement to destroy these animals "sight unseen". Additionally, clarify at what point in the legal process a dog is "owned or harbored...for fighting," be it upon seizure, arrest, indictment, or conviction; 36) Legislative Leadership Term Limit— Support legislation that limits the length of time a North Carolina General Assembly member can serve in the same leadership position to eight consecutive years; 37) Smart Start and NC Pre-K— Support legislation to increase and ensure secure and stable funding, enhanced quality early care and education, and family access and benefits in settings public and private; and 38) Census Funding —Support legislation to provide statewide funding for a comprehensive 2020 Census process that proactively facilitates and encourages participation by all North Carolina residents. Penny Rich, Chair Donna Baker Clerk to the Board