INC NEWS - Budget plan would hurt local courts (H-S)

Mon May 9 20:40:00 EDT 2005

That's some budget

By JIM GOODMON

RALEIGH -- I have had a great week. The state Senate's budget was written just for me. Let me tell you about it. 
First, they lowered the personal income tax rate for the highest income level and since I am in that group, I want to thank them all. Now I will not move the family to Florida. 

Less state revenue means a cut in expenses, but no problem. The notables cut funding for teen drug courts, juvenile justice programs and other alternative sentencing programs, but I guess they did not see the WRAL-TV documentary that pointed out that 60 percent of the North Carolina prison population is made up of young black males, even though they are 10 percent of the state's total population. We have a crisis in our court system. The Senate leadership, for some reason, does not think of this as their problem. Maybe I should send them a DVD of the program. 

Next, they reduced the corporate income tax rate. That's right. Lower taxes for Capitol Broadcasting Co. I have decided to keep CBC here after all. 

The truth is there are so many tax loopholes for North Carolina corporations that you cannot tell what the rate is. Looks like nobody in the Senate read that report. Congratulations to N.C. Citizens for Business and Industry. 

What expenses do we cut to offset this revenue loss? Easy. A reduction in benefits to poor, blind, elderly Tar Heels will more than close the gap. The radical-right thinkers and radio "talkers" tell us we should be tired of all "those" people mooching off the rest of us and that it is time to stop the cycle of dependency. They are sure that poor people really want to be poor and there are not that many poor people anyway. Judging by the $167 million in human service cuts, the Senate leadership seems to agree. 

It just gets better and better. 

. . . 

Finally, the Senate also approved a lottery. I didn't think that would happen since the votes were not there to pass it. But they figured out how to avoid a real vote on the lottery. Good work. Party loyalty and all that. 

We have come a long way from the concept of the public voting on the lottery to the Democratic Senate not allowing anyone to vote on it. You know, the end justifies the means. Thank goodness most of our senators just sit there and follow instructions. 

It does make me wonder why we have more than four or five senators. The others have no input, cannot debate, always vote as ordered and for some reason accept their irrelevancy. Go figure. 

Back to the lottery: The Senate wants lottery advertising! They want the ads to say that when you play the lottery you are helping schools. No trouble here. All I have to do is run false advertising on my stations and head to the bank. Capitol Broadcasting will make millions on lottery advertising. 

So I am three for three. Lower personal income tax, lower corporate income tax, and millions for lottery advertising. And just think, this nonsense comes from a 278-page budget document that nobody had time to read much less discuss. 

. . . 

It is clear that our Senate leadership does not know where we are as a state, does not have a shared vision about where we should be in the future and has no coherent plan to move us forward. The appropriate word is dysfunctional. And my grandfather told me that how you do what you do is as important as what you do. 

But not to worry. I got mine. 

(Jim Goodmon is CEO of Raleigh-based Capitol Broadcasting, which owns radio and television stations in North Carolina, including WRAL.)

      © Copyright 2005, The News & Observer Publishing Company,
      a subsidiary of The McClatchy Company 

Your Servant
Rev.Melvin Whitley
2614 Harvard Ave
Durham NC  27703
(919) 596-9691 - Home
(919) 308-2844 - Cell
tellmelvin at nc.rr.com 
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  Subject: INC NEWS - Budget plan would hurt local courts (H-S)

  Budget plan would hurt local courts

  By John Stevenson, The Herald-Sun
  May 8, 2005   8:31 pm 

  DURHAM -- James Leak credits Durham's drug treatment court for allowing him to become a self-respecting nursing assistant rather than the homeless cocaine addict he was five years ago. 

  But under a 2005-07 Senate budget presented last week, $4 million would be cut from the judicial system's already depleted coffers, and three trend-setting treatment courts in Durham -- including the one that helped Leak -- might have to shut down. 

  The budget also threatens one of four positions in a local family court, along with Durham's Sentencing Services Program and other judicial functions. The sentencing program claims to save $1.6 million a year by coming up with alternatives to prison for many low-level, nonviolent criminals. 

  The proposed funding cuts are part of an effort to plug a billion-dollar gap in the state budget. 

  Leak doesn't claim to have a global perspective on such things. He just knows what happened to him. 

  "I had a cocaine problem. Period," said the 40-year-old, admitting he was addicted for two decades and committed numerous crimes to support his $300-a-day habit. 

  "Then the drug court came to me as a rescue from God," he told The Herald-Sun last week. "I took advantage of it. I am a miracle. Drug court helped me stay focused. It taught me responsibility and showed me that people cared about me. No matter what I was going through, they were there for me." 

  Leak will mark his fourth anniversary of being drug-free on Sept. 5. 

  "Life is getting better," he said. "Each day is an adventure. We truly need drug court. It turned my whole life around." 

  Durham is one of only a handful of communities in the state that has drug treatment courts. There is one for adults, another for youths and a third that takes a family-oriented approach. 

  The annual operating budget for all three is about $300,000. 

  A stick-and-carrot method is used. Successful participants receive praise from their peers and from judges. But the penalties, including jail, are stiff for those who disobey the rules and fail to stay clean. 

  In an interview last week, Director Peter Baker said 35 to 40 participants are in the adult program at any given time, while 15 to 20 people each are in the youth and family components. 

  It costs $2,000 to $2,500 a year to treat a participant, compared to an annual tab of $24,000 for imprisoning someone, according to Baker. 

  "There is an old saying that you can pay now or you can pay later," Baker added. "But in the situation we are talking about, it's pay now or pay now. We must pay now for people to be in drug court or pay now to incarcerate them." 

  Baker said the proposed budget cuts are worrisome for more than one reason. 

  "My concern is bigger than drug court, bigger than dollars and cents," he said. "My concern is that we as a state are going in the wrong direction as regards the way we respond to people in need." 

  The proposed 2005-07 budget does not mark the first time the treatment courts have been financially threatened. The same thing happened four years ago, but necessary funding was restored at the last minute. 

  Baker is more apprehensive now than he was then, however. 

  "We are facing a longer shot than ever before," he said. "I am not optimistic." 

  District Court Judge Richard G. Chaney, who presides over Durham's adult treatment court, said the Senate was misguided in its fiscal approach. 

  "It's short-sighted to think they will save money by eliminating this program," he told The Herald-Sun. "Without it, these people will go to prison. It costs a lot more to send them to prison. The savings are imaginary. There aren't any savings. Also, we're not just talking about money. We're talking about people's lives. Many of them lost everything and are basically living in the streets. Treatment courts restore their self-respect. You can't measure that in terms of dollars." 

  Another district court judge, Marcia Morey, said she had 600 cases in traffic court on Thursday. Dozens of people were told to come back another day because one judge and a few clerks couldn't deal with them all, she said. 

  "What we have is already inadequate," Morey griped. "It's irresponsible to take away any of our resources. It's reprehensible." 

  District Court Judge Craig Brown said essentially the same thing. 

  "The judicial system has received no substantial additional resources in half a decade," he noted. "We cannot keep Band-Aiding a system that is strained and about to break. There is no fat in our court budget. 

  "Another important point is that we can't just punish people," said Brown. "We've got to help people, too. But they're taking away the most creative items in our toolbox for doing that." 

  URL for this article: http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-605246.html

  © Copyright 2005. All rights reserved. All material on heraldsun.com is copyrighted by The Durham Herald Company and may not be reproduced or redistributed in any medium except as provided in the site's Terms of Use.

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