Barbara Baldwin

This certified budget document outlines the current operations appropriation for the State of North Carolina for the fiscal biennium 2025-2027. It details financial allocations for general fund reserves and projects estimated receipts from a wide array of general fund tax and non-tax revenue sources.

This document outlines the requirements for North Carolina's Comprehensive Strategic Economic Development Plan, mandating the Secretary of Commerce to apply strategic planning principles to economic development efforts. The plan aims to establish priority development objectives, optimize resource utilization, and ensure commitment to achieving goals. Key components include comprehensive public and private input, an environmental scan of economic data and assets, and the formulation of vision statements, mission statements, and quantifiable, time-specific goals and objectives. The strategic framework integrates workforce preparedness and seeks to balance development opportunities across rural and urban regions, ensuring equity for all populations. The plan requires annual updates and evaluations of the State's economic performance against its stated objectives.

The meeting covered several critical updates regarding the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (SFRF). Key discussions focused on Session Law 2025-97, which provides increased flexibility for SFRF projects, specifically for revenue replacement projects, concerning the movement of funds. The session detailed the mechanics of a potential general fund swap out, allowing unspent SFRF dollars to be replaced dollar-for-dollar with general fund revenues to complete existing projects, with a required project completion date of June 30, 2027. Furthermore, the meeting outlined expenditure deadlines, confirming that program costs must be liquidated by December 31, 2026, with allowable administrative closeout costs permitted until April 30, 2027. The process for reporting unexpended balances by April 15th to facilitate these reclassifications was also detailed.

This Preliminary Reform Plan outlines a vision for systemic change in North Carolina's social services programs, mandated by SL 2017-41. It documents the current service delivery framework, assesses its effectiveness, and provides recommendations for improvement across child welfare, adult protective services, public assistance, and child support enforcement. Key focus areas include establishing a new regional structure for supervision, enhancing accountability measures, addressing staffing and salary inequities, refining policy development and dissemination, improving training and workforce development, leveraging community resources, and integrating continuous quality improvement and data-informed decision-making to ultimately improve outcomes for vulnerable citizens.

This document, a Final Report on the Social Services Reform Plan for the State of North Carolina, developed by the Office of State Budget and Management with the Department of Health and Human Services, outlines recommendations to reform the state's social services system. The plan focuses on implementing regional supervision of local agencies, improving data usage for managing program outcomes, addressing staffing and resource challenges related to policy, training, community resources, mental health services, and technology, developing a transparency and wellness dashboard, and establishing a continuous quality improvement (CQI) plan. The overarching goal is to enhance outcomes for children and families, strengthen state supervision, and improve accountability across local, regional, and state levels, with key implementation strategies spanning from April 2019 to April 2024.