Budget update
There's a lot of scuttlebutt regarding the budget going about, but there's only one piece I firmly believe at this point.
The House and Senate budget negotiators are hung up on fixing the Medicaid problem. Essentially, they have different ideas about how to make it so counties don't have to shell out for a share of the Medicaid health insurance program for the poor. North Carolina just about the last remaining state in the union that makes counties kick in for the general operation of the program.
Rep. Bill Owens, a Pasquotank Democrat and House Rules chairman, says that's exactly the sticking point at the moment.
"We need the Medicaid and a couple other things before we can determine availability," he said. For those who not fluent in legislative-speak, availability is how much tax revenue is available to pay for stuff. If you commit a bunch of money to pay for taking Medicaid off the counties, you get less availability for other stuff.
I asked Owens what the other "couple other things" were, but he went back to Medicaid. "That's the number-1 thing."
Folks on the Senate side are also saying that Medicaid is the big hump that budget negotiators need to get over before coming to a compromise on the rest.
You may remember the House put $100 million in its budget to alleviate the county's Medicaid burden next year. The Senate put this sort of vague language in their budget that basically said, "Gee, this is a problem, and we'll fix it."
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