The Raleigh Report
from the office of Representative Marian McLawhorn
July 8 , 2008
Representatives Marian McLawhorn, Edith Warren and Arthur Williams teamed up again this session to help East Carolina University secure nearly $106 million for a dental school and expansion of its medical facilities.
The final budget approved today authorizes $69 million for the construction of the School of Dentistry and up to 10 satellite campuses around the state and $36.8 million for the construction of a family medicine and geriatric center. Rep. McLawhorn also helped secure $1.5 million that will be used to expand the medical schools at East Carolina University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The additional students will spend their third and fourth years of medical school in clinical rotations in Asheville, Charlotte and selected cities in Eastern North Carolina.
The budget also includes $1.5 million to hire the professional staff needed for planning and operation of the ECU dental school.
Other items that will benefit the university include:
- $100,000 to East Carolina University Health Sciences Division and Project EAR to train teachers and therapists to work with deaf preschool-age children with cochlear implants.
- $150,000 in increased support for the Queen Anne’s Revenge Archaeology Project. The money will help with major recovery efforts, conservation and analysis of artifacts and images from the ship believed to have once belonged to the pirate Blackbeard. Much of the preservation work for the project takes place in a lab on the ECU campus.
The budget also:
Strengthens our economy. The budget increases the investment in critical economic-growth initiatives to help attract new jobs and employers and to help existing businesses grow and prosper, including small businesses. It invests in training our workforce to compete in the global economy with an emphasis on strengthening technology training at our community colleges and universities. The budget provides funds to help stabilize the housing market and help keep people from losing their homes to foreclosure.
Invests in education from pre-kindergarten through college. The budget provides a 3% pay raise to teachers, reduces class sizes, $15 million for initiatives to reduce the dropout rate and encourage students to stay in school, and expands More at Four high-quality pre-kindergarten education. It fully funds enrollment increases at state universities, allowing over 8,082 new students to attend this fall.
Improves health care for children and for senior citizens. The budget helps 7,341 more uninsured children get access to medical care, providing free health care to low-income and uninsured patients, and it provides in-home community health care for senior citizens. It also funds cutting-edge disease research.
Makes our communities safer. The budget includes $10 million to help stop the spread of gangs in our state, and it restores funds for juvenile crime prevention. The budget starts a pilot technology program to help law enforcement agencies communicate with each other to make sure offenders and probationers don’t fall through the cracks. It also provides funds to address illegal immigration and enforce sex offender laws, as well as assistance for victims of rape and domestic violence.
Protects our environment. The budget provides a $100 million investment in the Clean Water Management Trust Fund to combat water pollution in our state. It will protect sensitive land with $50 million for Land for Tomorrow, and it provides funding for water resource projects in light of the drought. It also invests in the NC Green Business Fund to expand North Carolina's growing "green" economy and "green" workforce development.