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North Carolina Division of Aging and Adult Services

Priority 1: Appropriate $15 million in recurring funds for the expansion of Home and Community Care Block Grant services for impaired older adults.

Need for Legislative Action: In-home and community-based services help impaired older adults stay in their homes. Key services include home delivered meals, adult day care/day health care, in-home aide, and respite care for family caregivers. As the older population continues to grow, particularly the 85+ population which is more likely to need these services, so does the demand for services. Current resources are not adequate to meet the demand. Although increased funding has been earmarked for in-home and community-based services since 1995, there are currently approximately 7500 older adults on waiting lists for key services such as in-home aide services and home delivered meals.

Priority 2: Appropriate $2 million in recurring funds for the expansion of the prescription drug assistance program for persons 65 and over with incomes less than 150% of the federal poverty level who suffer from cardiovascular disease or diabetes.

Need for Legislative Action: Older adults need prescription drugs more than other age groups. Data from the Health Care Financing Administration indicates that for the year 2000, Medicare fee for service beneficiaries paid on average $1370 for prescription drugs. Medicare generally does not cover prescription drugs. Medicaid, which includes a prescription benefit, covers persons with income up to 100% of the federal poverty level. People just above the

Medicaid limit with an income up to 150% of the poverty level are the most vulnerable for not being able to afford their prescription drugs. Assistance is needed to help low-income elderly pay for their needed medications. The General Assembly appropriated $1,000,000 in the last legislative session for prescription assistance for low-income elderly persons who suffer from cardiovascular disease and diabetes. This effort is a good start, but more needs to be done to ensure that older adults have access to needed prescription drugs.

Priority 3: Pass legislation to further regulate mortgage lenders and brokers and support efforts to strengthen the effectiveness of state predatory lending laws.

Need for Legislative Action: Mortgage brokers, who handle the largest financial transaction that most families make (the purchase of their home) are very weakly regulated in North Carolina. Broker offices are currently required to register with the State, but the current registration system fails to adequately define the legal obligations of a broker to a borrower and does not provide authority for enforcing even the general prohibitions against fraud and misconduct that are included in the registration statute. Too many mortgage lenders are also unregulated under the current statute. Most mortgage bankers are exempt from registration and excluded from any "prohibited practice" requirements. In 1999 the General Assembly passed predatory lending legislation that is viewed as a model for other states. There are indications that groups opposed to this legislation will seek to have the legislation weakened in the 2001 session of the General Assembly. We encourage the General Assembly to not only withstand attempts to dilute this law but to take steps to further strengthen the law to guarantee the protection of our state’s most vulnerable citizens.

Priority 4: Appropriate $3 million in recurring funds to support senior centers.

Need for Legislative Action: There are 160 senior centers in North Carolina currently operational or under development in 93 counties in the state. These centers provide a variety of programs and services to enhance the health and wellness of older adults and to support their efforts to remain independent in their communities. There is a continuing need for additional general purpose funds for supporting senior center programming, for initiating new senior center building projects, for performing major renovations and repairs of existing centers, and for making equipment purchases for centers. The Division of Aging and Adult Services has established a new statewide certification process for senior centers that encourages centers to strive for levels of "merit" or "excellence". Funds requested would be used to reward centers for making investments to meet certification requirements while at the same time provide funding for those centers that are not certified but need additional resources so they can upgrade the quality of their programs and move closer to certification.

Proirity 5: Pass legislation to provide increased property tax relief for low-income elderly and disabled persons.

Need for Legislative Action: Many older and disabled homeowners in the state find it burdensome to pay the property taxes on their homes. This is particularly a problem for people on fixed incomes whose taxes are increasing as a result of rising real estate market values. The current Homestead Property Tax Exemption allows persons 65 and older and those who are disabled with incomes of $15,000 or less an exclusion of $20,000 on the value of their homes. Numerous bills have been introduced in recent legislative sessions to provide additional property tax relief to low-income elderly and disabled, however, none of these bills have passed. Steps need to be taken to provide additional property tax relief for older and disabled adults with limited incomes.