ADVOCACY By Gregory K. Griggs, MPA, CAE NCAFP Executive Vice President
STATE
Legislative Session Proves Mostly Positive 2021 has certainly been a unique year, and that is no different when it comes to the North Carolina General Assembly. Fortunately, due to great collaboration within the House of Medicine, it has been generally a positive year on Jones Street in Raleigh. However, the General Assembly continues to meet to finalize budget provisions and redistricting, among other items. During the 2019 long session, the General Assembly and the Governor could not come to agreement on a complete state budget, so a series of mini budgets were enacted, leaving many areas utilizing “continuation budgets” at levels that were approved back in 2017. At the time of this writing, there is still hope that a complete budget will be enacted in 2021. However, we are already in the second quarter of the fiscal year. Earlier this year the House and Senate had each approved their own version of the budget. In September and early October, House and Senate leaders negotiated their differences behind closed doors before presenting a confidential proposal to the Governor. Since that time, the Governor and General Assembly leaders have been negotiating several provisions, including tax cuts, education spending, and possibly expanding Medicaid. On the positive side, there appears to be some
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The North Carolina Family Physician
