Here are actions taken during the last two weeks of the session on bills which have been tracked in Raleigh Report. Keep in mind that any bill not passed in this session will have to start over as a new bill when the 2009 General Assembly convenes next year. The Governor has 30 days in which to sign or veto bills sent to him by the General Assembly during the last ten days of the session.

H 44, Domestic Violence Orders/Repeat Offenders, has been signed by the Governor.

H 93, Transport of Individuals in Wheelchair Study, awaits the Governor’s signature.

H 819, Electronic Recycling Amends/Add TVs, awaits the Governor’s signature. These provisions regarding discarded TVs are similar to those of H 1777, which failed to pass last year. In addition, H 819 delays the start of a program to keep discarded computer equipment out of the waste stream, established last year, from 2009 until 2010.

H 822, Swine Farm Siting Act Amendments. The Senate attempted in the session’s closing days to weaken restrictions on rebuilt or expanded hog facilities. The House refused to go along with these changes, and the bill died when the session ended.

H 964, Expand Definition of Home Care Services, awaits the Governor’s signature. This was the bill which, as first written, could have required licensing for churches and other groups providing certain volunteer non-medical services to people in their community. The NC Council of Churches worked behind the scenes with the bill’s sponsors, none of whom intended to impede religious organizations, to add a specific exemption for services provided by volunteers.

H 1366, School Violence Prevention Act, failed to pass after opponents, mostly religious and/or social conservatives, lobbied the Senate heavily, arguing against protections from bullying on the basis of sexual orientation. A conference committee report which included the list of characteristics most likely to produce bullying was never voted on, and the bill died when the session ended. If you are communicating with senators about this bill, be sure to ask whether they supported the inclusion of the list and the inclusion of sexual orientation in the list. If they opposed either the inclusion of the list or the inclusion of sexual orientation, you may want to ask if they think gay or lesbian students aren’t actually subject to harassment and bullying because of their sexual orientation or if they think that this harassment and bullying are OK.

H 2105, Compensation for Erroneously Convicted, awaits the Governor’s signature.

H 2340, Transporting Children in Open Bed of Vehicle, awaits the Governor’s signature.

H 2487, Change Format of Drivers Licenses/Under 21, awaits the Governor’s signature.

H 2529, Extend Climate Change Commission 2008, has been signed by the Governor.

H 2623, Emergency Foreclosure Reduction Program, awaits the Governor’s signature.

H 2688, NCIOM – Access to Health Care Study Group. This bill, which would initially have created the Ruth Easterling and Bill Martin Health Care Policy Council, has now been reduced to a study bill, with the Institute of Medicine commissioned to conduct the study. The bill did not pass, but the study was included in the studies bill. (See below.)

H 2720, Energy-Efficient State Motor Vehicle Fleets, failed to pass, but was included in the studies bill. It had already been watered down by the Senate so that, instead of requiring that most new state vehicles have fuel efficiencies in the top 10% of their class, it merely stated a preference that new vehicles be in the top 50%. (See below.)

H 2805, Poor People’s Campaign 40^th, was introduced a week before the session ended and was not voted on before adjournment. It would have honored the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968 and Dr. Martin Luther King for the leadership he was exerting in that Campaign at the time of his assassination. It was sponsored by Reps. Pierce, Bryan, and Hall.

H 2806, Offshore Drilling, was introduced in the session’s last week. It was a resolution urging Congress to permit states to allow offshore drilling for oil. It was sponsored by Reps. Stam, McGee, Folwell, and Justice. It was sent to the House Rules Committee and not voted on before adjournment.

S 83, Amend Domestic Criminal Trespass, was amended so that it would have given immunity to domestic violence shelters if an abuser entered the shelter and injured someone. It did not pass, however.

S 685, Up Penalties Cross Burn/Illegal to Hang Noose, awaits the Governor’s signature. It became the vehicle for the provisions of S 1988 (which did not pass), specifically including:

· Placing of a burning cross on any public property becomes illegal if it is done with the intent to intimidate. Current law did not apply to public property that was not a “public street or highway.”

· Current law makes it a crime to “place an exhibit” with the intent to intimidate. S 685 specifies that a noose qualifies as such an exhibit.

· Violations of these laws move from a Class I felony (the lowest) to a Class H, so penalties would be slightly higher. Serious misdemeanors committed because of the victim’s race, color, religion, nationality, or country of origin also move from Class I to Class H felonies.

· The Legislative Research Commission is required to study recent cross burnings and noose hangings and make recommendations as to whether the laws need to be strengthened further.

S 847, Prevent Agricultural Pesticide Exposure, awaits the Governor’s signature.

S 1669, Community Colleges/Tobacco Free, has been signed by the Governor.

S 1681, Smoke-Free Motor Fleet, awaits the Governor’s signature.

S 1860, Amend Child Abuse, awaits the Governor’s signature.

S 1924, Require Carbon Monoxide Detectors, awaits the Governor’s signature.

S 1948, Codify Energy Efficiency in Public Buildings, awaits the Governor’s signature.

The total budget (General Fund) is $21.3 billion. Of this money, $11.4 billion is for education (public schools, community colleges, and UNC System combined), $4.9 billion is for health and human services, $2 billion is for justice and public safety (including prisons and courts), and $460 million is for natural and economic resources.

Here are some specific appropriations in the budget. Keep in mind that these are CHANGES in the base budget amounts approved last year, NOT necessarily the total amounts the state puts to these purposes.

EDUCATION

· $35 million for fuel for school buses. The budget adopted a year ago was based on diesel fuel that cost $1.83/gallon (!). Education officials are concerned that even $35 million in new money is not enough to deal with current prices.

· Almost $20 million is transferred from the lottery reserve fund to maintain class sizes for grades K–3 at 18 students per teacher.

· $90 million for ABC bonuses.

· $6 million for the Disadvantaged Student Supplemental Fund. There was already $70 million in the base budget.

· $15 million for dropout prevention grants. The Committee on Dropout Prevention is reestablished.

· $30 million for More at Four.

· $500,000 for pilot program to address child obesity.

· $500,000 for Communities in Schools, money which will be matched in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

· Elementary schools are given until the end of the 2009-10 school year to implement improved nutrition standards.

HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

· $4 million as grants to community health centers.

· The AIDS Drug Assistance Program is authorized to provide assistance to people with HIV with incomes up to 300% (currently 250%) of the federal poverty level. In case of a shortage of funds, priority will go to lower-income individuals.

· $250,000 as grants to school-based health centers providing preventive health care.

· Reduces General Fund money for child care subsidies by $6.8 million by replacing it with federal TANF block grant money. An additional $9 million in TANF funds will go for child care subsidies: $4.9 million to remove 1,110 kids from the waiting list, and $4.1 million to maintain services for 931 kids (whose funding was coming from a nonrecurring source).

· $500,000 for Smart Start.

· $2 million for demonstration projects to reduce obesity and related chronic diseases.

· $247,000 to reduce risks of pre-term births and to educate new parents about safe sleep for babies.

· $500,000 for the Tobacco Quitline.

· $1 million to prevent chronic illness among minorities.

· $4.8 million for essential services in local health departments.

· $500,000 for the Healthy Start Foundation.

· $275,000 to recruit minority students for pharmacy schools.

· $250,000 for the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Coalition.

· $400,000 for teen pregnancy prevention, teen parenting, and school dropout prevention.

· $75,000 for osteoporosis education.

· $450,000 for stroke prevention.

· $8.1 million to increase foster care and adoption assistance payments.

· $1 million (from sources other than the General Fund) to help families of 125 medically-fragile adopted children in meeting non-medical expenses.

· $1.5 million to regional food banks, with up to a third of that amount being available for increased fuel costs.

· $350,000 for child advocacy centers.

· A reduction of $35.3 million in inflationary increases in payments made to many Medicaid providers.

· Saves $7 million by delaying the start of NC Kids’ Care, a program to assist working parents whose kids don’t qualify for NC Health Choice by offering children’s insurance on a sliding premium scale based on the parents’ income. The budget bill also reduces those who will be able to sign up by cutting off income eligibility at 250% of poverty, down from 300%.

· $6 2/3 million for additional Community Alternatives Program (CAP-MR/DD) slots.

· $5 million for a 5% increase in Medicaid dental reimbursement rates.

· $9.4 million for NC Health Choice, supporting an additional 7,341 children.

· $645,000 for a transition in claims processing for NC Health Choice.

· $5.6 million for mobile crisis intervention teams (mental health).

· $8 million to increase local psychiatric impatient capacity.

· $1 million for respite beds for people with developmental disabilities.

· $6 million for walk-in crisis and immediate psychiatric aftercare.

· $7.2 million to add 107 new direct care staff positions in the state’s psychiatric hospitals.

· $5.2 million to maintain a 60-bed overflow unit at Dorothea Dix Hospital.

OTHER

· $200,000 for the Farm to School program.

· $200,000 to the Land Loss Prevention Project and Financial Protection Law Center to help low-income people avoid foreclosure and home loss.

· Eliminates $1.5 million which would have expanded the number of public defender offices and attorneys. Provides an additional $1.1 million to pay private attorneys assigned to provide indigent defense.

· A study is mandated on the impact of raising the age of jurisdiction for the juvenile justice system from 16 to 18. Up to $200,000 can be spent on the study.

· $22.6 million to restore funding for the Juvenile Crime Prevention Councils and an additional $500,000 for JCPC.

· $9.1 million to restore the Criminal Justice Partnership Program, and $257,000 to expand it.

· $1 million for the Rape Victim Assistance Program, intended to keep rape victims from having to pay the costs of forensic exams.

· The divorce filing fee is raised from $55 to $75 with the additional revenue to be given to domestic violence shelters.

· $1 million from the State Banking Commission to make grants to nonprofit counseling agencies to help homeowners avoid home loss.

· $3 million to the Housing Finance Agency to expand the Home Protection Program statewide. This program provides counseling services and mortgage assistance to people who are at risk of foreclosure due to job loss.

· $7 million to the Housing Trust Fund for additional apartments for people with disabilities.

· $2 million for the Housing Trust Fund for affordable housing for low- and moderate-income families, bringing the total to $10 million. Advocates for affordable housing had lobbied for $50 million.

· Most classroom educators at all three levels of the state’s education system get raises averaging 3%. Most other state employees get raises of the greater of $1,100 or 2.75%.

· UNC is to study the feasibility of building wind turbines in the Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds.

· The state Earned Income Tax Credit will be raised from 3.5% to 5% of a taxpayer’s federal EITC, but it won’t go into effect until the 2009 tax year.

· The gift tax, which is paid primarily by wealthier people, will be repealed effective January 1, 2009.

· There will be a three-day sales tax holiday for Energy Star products in early November. Products include washers, freezers and refrigerators, central and room air conditioners, heat pumps, ceiling fans, dehumidifiers, and programmable thermostats.

The General Assembly adopted the Studies Act of 2008 on the last day of the session. It now awaits the Governor’s signature. Presuming that he signs it, the following are among the issues which may (or, in some cases, must) be studied. In most cases, reports are due by the convening of the 2009 legislature.

Legislative Research Commission (LRC) studies:

· Prohibit the execution of those with severe mental disability (H 553).

· Felony murder rule (H 787).

· Report denial of some pistol permits (H 1287).

· Energy-efficient state motor vehicle fleet (H 2720).

· Educational assistance for minimum wage workers (H 1550).

· Capital murder statute (H 1526).

· Expunction of youthful offenders’ criminal record (H 898).

· Expiration of concealed handgun permits (and specifically whether sheriffs should be given a time limit for reviewing renewal applications so that permits don’t expire while the review is under way).

· Impact of smoking prohibitions in foster care homes, including the health benefits of such a ban vs. a possible reduction in the number of available foster care homes.

Other studies by existing or new groups:

· Joint Legislative Health Care Oversight Committee to study do-not-resuscitate orders.

· Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee to study raising the compulsory attendance age for public schools from 16 to 17 or 18 (H 2289),

· Environmental Review Commission to study

o costs and benefits of the adoption of the California motor vehicle emissions standards for NC (S 1871, H 2526),

o permitting of commercial-scale wind farms (H 1821),

o setting a date for the phase-out of hog lagoons (H 1822),

o plastic shopping bags (H 2527),

o recycling for fluorescent lamps (H 838), and

o a possible ban on certain fire retardants that are toxic.

· Study Commission on Aging to study the state’s readiness to respond to the coming wave of older adults (H 2324).

· State Board of Education to study physical education in the public schools (H 2592).

· NC Institute of Medicine to study access to health care in NC.

· Poverty Reduction and Economic Recovery Legislative Study Commission, newly created, to make recommendations on reducing poverty (H 2687).

· Higher Education Civic Education Study Commission to make recommendations about having mandatory service-learning as a graduation requirement at all colleges and universities receiving state funds. “Faith-based programs” are among those listed as possible locations for these service-learning activities.