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GREENSBORO — Infant death logs, education of minority groups on health issues and a work force development program through Guilford County’s health department all are taking hits from state budget cuts.

Marriages and state access to birth and death records will cost more, too.

Local departments are still unsure exactly how much was cut as state agencies pick through the 2009-10 budget Gov. Bev Perdue signed into law this month.

“Under the current economic conditions, it is becoming more and more difficult to promote and contribute to the highest possible level of health for the residents of Guilford County,” Merle Green, the county’s director of public health, wrote in an e-mail.

Green is unsure of the details on the state cuts, but so are state health workers.

“They are reviewing all that stuff now and analyzing what all the directives are and how we can implement that,” said Carol Schriber, a spokeswoman for the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. “All that won’t be finalized until much later in the week.”

Her office, like others to be hurt under the 2009-10 state budget, hopes to avoid service cuts as much as possible while also working quickly within the gears of government to tell local offices what lies ahead.

More specifics from Green:

• A department that provided work force development and research for health departments has to be “disbanded due to state funding.”
• Money for a fetal infant mortality review program was cut. The program collects data from families and medical offices on infant death.
• Reducing state money to a grant process through the Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities will affect money that the county can use for AIDS/HIV awareness, diabetes education and faith-based medical training.

Meanwhile, Register of Deeds Jeff Thigpen said that  a marriage license will cost $60 starting in September, up from $50.

“If that $10 is going to keep you from getting the marriage license to get married,” Thigpen said, “then maybe you ought to rethink the wedding.”

And state requests for birth and death certificates will increase from $15 to $24. That doesn’t affect Thigpen’s office, but he said that records for a person who was born or died in Guilford County are still $10 a copy.

Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com