RALEIGH -- Everyone agrees: Someone else should be cut.
The state House started its work on its budget proposal this week, and members listened Monday night to the public's ideas about what the House should do.
The state is facing an $800 million revenue shortfall, and the Democrats who control both chambers do not have an appetite for raising taxes in the middle of an election year. The state constitution requires lawmakers to balance the budget, which means someone or something is going to get cut from the budget.
"We are in a recession, and we do have to make cuts," House Speaker Joe Hackney, an Orange County Democrat, told the audience of more than 250 people. Remote feeds of the event were also held at three community college campuses across the state.
Those who spoke Monday night each said the cuts shouldn't affect their program or priority.
Charlene Garner of Fuquay-Varina said her 82-year-old mother was recently diagnosed with obstructive pulmonary disease and has been told she cannot live alone. Proposed cuts to home care services could force her into a nursing home.
"My mother is a vivacious, humorous, intelligent woman," Garner said. "She doesn't belong in a nursing home."
Advocates for home personal-care services spoke several times Monday against proposals to replace those programs with a system meant to provide services for those who need it the most. Advocates for schools for the deaf and blind also offered comments about proposals to change how the schools are administered.
Last week, the Senate passed its version of the budget - a $19 billion spending plan that makes cuts across state government but adds money intended to help spur small business. The Senate's budget would allow local school boards to furlough teachers if necessary to meet state-ordered cuts. It cut nearly 200 jobs from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services but restores cuts made to mental health last year.
Sally Cameron, executive director of the N.C. Psychological Association, urged House budget writers to include the mental health money in its budget.
"North Carolina still faces economic recovery. This does not relieve the state of its responsibilities of the folks that we represent," Cameron said.
After the House passes its budget, the two chambers will hammer out a final compromise to send to Perdue. Interest groups who lost out in the Senate's budget see the House as a second chance.
On Monday night, most of those who spoke brought concerns that were likely familiar to budget writers.
Ardis Watkins, a lobbyist for the State Employees Association of North Carolina, said the organization wants the House to reconsider proposals for furloughs and to rethink proposals to privatize aspects of the state's probation system. Watkins noted that the organization spotted only about a quarter of the members of the budget-writing committee in the audience.
"Asking for public comment is great, but people aren't here to hear it," Watkins said.
The three community college campuses were supposed to have audio feeds of the hearing. At some point during the evening, the feed to Bladen County was cut off. Audio from all three campuses was at times difficult to hear and understand because of technical problems.
