Vol

Before the deadline on the introduction of new bills passed near the end of May, a flood of bills was introduced. Legislative leaders are still pushing for an early adjournment of the session, and many of these new bills are not likely to see the light of day. Still, many are worthy of consideration, and many will be back again when the new General Assembly is sworn in in 2009.

Here are brief summaries of the new bills, arranged by broad categories:

CAMPAIGN AND ELECTION LAWS

H 2650, Elections Oversight Funds, would create the Joint Legislative Elections Oversight Committee to review campaign finance regulations on an ongoing basis and make recommendations. $100,000 is allocated. Introduced by Rep. Goodwin; referred to House Appropriations Comm.

CHILDREN AND FAMILIES

H 2471/S 1924, Require Carbon Monoxide Detectors, would require the use of these life-saving devices in all owner-occupied homes and all rental units with a fossil-fuel-burning heater or appliance, fireplace, or attached garage. Introduced by Rep. Weiss and Sen. Purcell; referred to House Insurance Comm. and Senate Commerce Comm.

H 2487/S 1891, Change Format of Drivers Licenses/Under 21, would require DLs for people not old enough to purchase alcohol to be in a vertical format, rather than the horizontal format we all have now. It is said that this would make it easier for store clerks to prevent underage sales. Introduced by Rep. Folwell and Sen. Bingham; referred to House Appropriations and Senate Commerce.

S 1860, Amend Child Abuse, is identical to H 2339/S 1816. See RR, May 27. Introduced by Sen. Allran; referred to Senate Judiciary II Comm.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

H 2674, Crime Commission Study Juvenile Jurisdiction/Funds, would require a study of expanding the jurisdiction of the juvenile justice system to include youth who are 16 and 17 years old. $25,000 is allocated for the study. Introduced by Reps. Bordsen and Love; referred to House Rules Comm. The House budget calls for this study and allocates $200,000 for it.

EDUCATION

H 2418/S 1752, Reestablish Committee on Dropout Prevention. This Committee was created in 2007, but with the provision that it would go out of existence after making a report in December 2007. H 2418 would reestablish the Committee and would give it $15 million to allocate as dropout prevention grants. Introduced by Reps. Parmon, Fisher, Bryant, and Tarleton and Sen. Malone; referred to House and Senate Appropriations. The House budget reestablishes the committee and allocates $12 million for it.

ENVIRONMENT

H 2526/S 1871, Motor Vehicle Emissions Study, would require the Environmental Review Commission to study the costs and benefits of adopting California’s motor-vehicle emissions standards in NC. Introduced by Reps. Harrison, Martin, Samuelson, and Sen. Clodfelter; referred to House Environment Comm. and Senate Rules Comm.

H 2527, Recycle Plastic Bags, would increase the state’s goal for recycling plastic shopping bags from 25% to 75% and would require large and medium-sized retail stores which use plastic bags to provide bag recycling. Introduced by Reps. Harrison and Martin; referred to House Environment Comm.

H 2529, Extend Climate Change Commission 2008, would extend the final reporting date to April 2009. Introduced by Reps. Harrison, Thomas, Underhill, Wilkins; referred to House Environment.

H 2532/S 1946, Codify Energy Efficiency in Public Buildings, would require new and renovated state buildings, including university and community college buildings, to meet tougher standards for sustainable, energy-efficient construction. Specific standards would apply to energy and water use. A separate bill, H 2531, Energy-Efficient Buildings if State Funds, would similarly codify building standards and also apply them to public school districts and anything else funded through the state capital budget. Introduced by Reps. Harrison and Carney and Sen. Cowell; referred to House Energy & Energy Efficiency and Senate Commerce.

H 2709, No Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining, would prevent coal-fired plants in NC from using coal mined by mountaintop removal and would allow power companies to pass along their increased costs for coal mined by other methods. Introduced by Rep. Harrison; referred to House Public Utilities.

H 2710, Income Tax Credit—Energy-Efficient Homes, would permit corporate and individual income tax credits for building or manufacturing energy-efficient homes. The credits would range from $1,000 to $2,000 per home and could not exceed the amount of tax the taxpayer owes. Introduced by Rep. Harrison; referred to House Finance Comm.

H 2720, Energy-Efficient State Motor Vehicle Fleets, would require the state to buy new motor vehicles with a fuel economy rating in the top 10% for that class of vehicles. Introduced by Reps. Thomas and Harrison; referred to House Energy & Energy Efficiency Comm.

S 1769, Energy Efficiency Sales Tax Holiday, would give an annual one-week exemption to certain Energy Star appliances, heating and cooling units, insulation and skylights, certain home electronics, and lighting, including compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). Introduced by Sen. Snow. S 1944 would allow an Energy Star sales tax holiday, but in August, as part of the back-to-school sales tax holiday, and not including insulation and skylights, home electronics, or lighting other than CFLs. Introduced by Sen. Hartsell. H 2605 would give a three-day tax holiday in November and would cover items similar to those in S 1944, minus the CFLs. Introduced by Reps. Luebke, Harrison, and Weiss. All three bills have been referred to Finance Committees. The House budget sets up a three-day Energy Star tax holiday in November, covering washers, driers, freezers, refrigerators, room air conditioners, dehumidifiers, programmable thermostats, and CFLs, and allocates $1.2 million to offset the lost tax revenues.

FARMWORKERS

H 2460, Prevent Agricultural Pesticide Exposure/Funds, would add agricultural workers to those protected against retaliation in the workplace. It would also direct the Pesticide Board to require pesticide applicators to record the time of day when a pesticide application is completed and keep records related to general-use pesticides for two years (instead of 30 days). It also allocates almost $700,000 to prevent agricultural pesticide exposure. (Introduced by Reps. Blue, Martin, England; referred to House Judiciary II Comm.)

GUN VIOLENCE

H 2747/S 2081, Firearms/Mental Incompetence, would require a judicial determination of involuntary commitment to be reported to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. This would make it easier for sheriffs and others conducting background checks on people wanting to buy guns to enforce state law, which prohibits issuing a permit to someone who has been adjudicated mentally incompetent or mentally ill. Introduced by Rep. Glazier and Sen. Rand; referred to House Judiciary II and Senate Judiciary I Comms.

HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE

H 2592, DPI to Collect Childhood Obesity Statistics, would require the Department of Public Instruction to gather data on childhood obesity and physical education in the schools. Introduced by Reps. Bell and Glazier; referred to House Education Comm.

H 2660, Increase Cigarette Tax to 75 Cents. It is currently at 35¢ per pack. This is a large enough increase to have an impact on smoking rates, especially by discouraging youth from starting. Introduced by Reps. Glazier, Luebke, and Weiss; referred to House Finance Comm. The Governor’s budget proposed a 20¢ increase; the House budget took it out.

H 2688, Health Care Policy Council. Identical to S 1668. RR, May 27. Introduced by Reps. Insko and Holliman; referred to House Health Comm.

H 2691, Tobacco-Free Schools/Discretionary. A law enacted last year requires local school boards to prohibit tobacco use, including smoking, on school campuses. H 2691 would make it discretionary, allowing school boards to continue to permit smoking in schools. Introduced by Rep. Allred; referred to House Education Comm.

HUMAN RIGHTS

H 2417, Crimes of Torture and Enforced Disappearance, would create state criminal laws covering these two acts. Torture would be defined to include the intentional infliction of serious physical or mental pain or suffering, by or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official, in order to obtain a confession or punish or intimidate. Enforced disappearance is defined as the arrest, detention, or abduction of a person by or with the authorization of a state or a political organization, followed by a refusal to either acknowledge the deprivation or give information about the person’s fate or whereabouts, with the intention of depriving the detainee of due process of law. The bill would give the state jurisdiction not only if the crimes were actually committed in NC, but also if 1) a person commits an act in NC that is in furtherance of a conspiracy to commit the actual offense outside NC, or 2) if a person enters into a conspiracy to commit one of the offenses in NC, even if the conspiracy was created elsewhere. Introduced by Reps. Luebke, Harrison, Coleman, Jones; referred to House Judiciary I Comm.

S 1988, Unlawful to Burn Cross/Hang Noose, would make such conduct criminal if it were done to intimidate another person because of race or other factors. The bill also calls for a study of recent cross burnings and noose hangings in NC, with the possibility of additional recommendations. Introduced by Sen. Doug Berger; referred to Senate Judiciary I.

IMMIGRATION

H 2717, Access to Higher Education, would prohibit the UNC System and the community colleges from adopting admission requirements related to an applicant’s immigration status. Introduced by Reps. Harrison, Luebke, and Glazier; referred to House Education Comm.

S 2019, Community Colleges Can’t Admit Illegal Aliens (sic), would require community colleges to check the immigration status of applicants and prohibit admission of those who are undocumented. Introduced by Sen. Phil Berger; referred to Senate Appropriations Comm.

LONG-TERM CARE

H 2404/S 1808, Increase Long-Term Care Insurance Credit, would increase the credit currently in effect to 75% of the premiums paid (currently 15%), with a maximum credit of $1,000 (currently $350). Introduced by Reps. England, Farmer-Butterfield, Boylan, and Sen. Malone; referred to House Aging and Senate Finance Comms.

TAXES

All of these bills are in the House or Senate Finance Committee.

H 2514, Lower Tax Rate for Certain Corporations, would reduce the corporate income tax rate from 6.9% to 5.0% for all corporations which do not reduce their fulltime workforce during the year and which get at least 60% of their income from doing business in NC. Introduced by Rep. Boylan.

H 2577, End Cigarette Export Tax Credits. Current law gives tax credits to companies paying taxes in NC for manufacturing cigarettes for export, with one credit rewarding companies which have increased their export business in the past decade. H 2577 would repeal these credits. Introduced by Rep. Luebke.

H 2642/S 2097, Increase Earned Income Tax Credit Percentage, from 3.5% to 5.0% of the federal income tax credit. Introduced by Reps. Wainwright, Weiss, Luebke, and Ross and Sen. Cowell. The House budget raises the state EITC, allocating $20.6 million to offset lost revenue.

H 2654, Repeal Sales Tax on Marina Diesel Fuel, for any and all watercraft. Introduced by Rep. Cleveland.

H 2695, Economic Enhancement to Create Jobs, would exempt from corporate income tax the first $85,000 of income “as an economic enhancement to create jobs.” The bill, however, does not require the creation of any jobs, nor does it speculate on how many jobs a corporation would create with the money saved by not paying the 6.9% tax on $85,000. (You can run the math to see how much money the credit could amount to.) Introduced by Rep. Daughtridge.

S 1817, Motor Fuels Tax Holiday, would remove the state excise tax on motor fuels for the months of July and August. Introduced by Sen. Forrester.

S 1861, Raise Homestead Exclusion to $35K, would have the same effect as H 2326. See RR, May 27. Introduced by Sen. Allran.

WORK AND WAGES

H 2670/S 2110, Authorize Healthy Families and Healthy Workplaces Act, would permit the introduction of a bill to require most workplaces to provide paid sick leave to their workers. Those of us accustomed to this employment benefit may not realize that more than 40% of workers in NC do NOT have paid sick leave, get their pay docked if they or their family members are sick, and may even jeopardize their jobs by being absent. Introduced by Rep. Adams and Sen. Dorsett; referred to House and Senate Rules.

H 2753, Authorize State Minimum Wage/Inflation Increases, would permit the introduction this session of a bill to give automatic increases to the minimum wage based on inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index. Introduced by Rep. Adams; referred to House Rules Comm.

S 2055, Pay Equity Study Commission, would set up a commission to study issues of pay equity between genders and races in state employment. Introduced by Sen. McKissick; referred to Senate Appropriations Comm.

S 2104, Poultry Worker Protection/Funds, would delegate to the state Health Director the Labor Commissioner’s authority to inspect poultry processing plants and would require poultry plants to maintain a written log of all injuries and health concerns and to have at least one licensed medical professional available to employees during plant operating hours. The bill allocates $350,000 for implementation. The bill comes after a series of reports in the Charlotte Observer earlier this year, detailing the failures of state regulators to provide adequate protection to poultry plant workers. Introduced by Sen. Clodfelter; referred to Senate Agriculture/Environment/Natural Resources Comm.

The following appropriations bills have been introduced. As you will see, many of them have found their way into the budget passed last week by the House and now in the Senate.

H 2226/S 1898, School Nutrition Program Funds. $20 million to enable public schools to implement higher nutrition standards for elementary schools. (Reps. Yongue, McLawhorn, Lucas, Johnson; Sen. Swindell) $4 million in House budget.

H 2421, Funds/Federally Qualified Health Centers. $10 million to increase access to preventive and primary care services for uninsured or medically indigent patients. (Reps. Martin and Glazier) House budget provides $5 million in grants for “safety net community health centers”.

H 2457/S 1735, Funds to Reduce Recurring Preterm Births. $100,000. (Reps. Earle, Weiss, Pierce; Sen. Purcell) House budget provides $247,000 total for improving birth outcomes and Back to Sleep (SIDS reduction).

H 2425/S 1777, Expand Flu Vaccine for Children/Funds. Almost $4.5 million to expand flu vaccinations for children. (Reps. Martin and Glazier; Sen. Nesbitt)

H 2461, Foreclosure Reduction/Legal Services Funds. $3 million for legal services for low-income homeowners to help prevent foreclosure. (Reps. Blue and Church.) House budget adds $200,000 for two agencies providing this service, plus $2 million for the Home Protection Pilot Program.

H 2462, Foreclosure Prevention Funds. $6 million to the Housing Finance Agency for nonprofit counseling agencies to help prevent foreclosure. (Reps. Blue, Church, Carney, Weiss.) House budget provides $1 million.

H 2465/S 1737, Funds to Promote Women’s Health/Childbearing Years. $75,000 (Rep. Weiss; Sen. Purcell)

H 2466/S 1732, Funds for Safe Sleep Campaign. $250,000 to reduce risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). (Rep. Weiss; Sen. Purcell) House budget provides $247,000 total for Back to Sleep plus improving birth outcomes.

H 2473/S 1728, NC Minority Support Center/Funds. $2.5 million to expand economic development lending and financial literacy. (Rep. Wainwright; Sen. Dannelly)

H 2474/S 1973, Farm to School Program Funds. $200,000 for the purchase of local produce from farmers, to be used in local schools. (Rep. Hill and Sen. Swindell) This money is in the House budget.

H 2525, Funds/Farmland Preservation Trust Fund. $20 million. (Rep. Harrison)

H 2649, Voter-Owned Election Funds. $3,580,000. (Rep. Goodwin)

H 2734/S 2047, Additional DSSF Funding for Schools. $50 million for Disadvantaged Student Supplemental Funding. Rep. Yongue; Sen. Dannelly. House budget adds $6 million.

H 2737, Funds for Testing Coordinators. $42 million to provide one testing coordinator for every 2,500 students. Reps. Yongue and Carney.

H 2744, Expand Access to Health Insurance/Children. $10+ million to add 10,683 children to the Health Choice program. Reps. Insko, England, Weiss, Martin. This money is in the House budget.

S 1910, Housing Trust Fund Appropriations. $12 million. (Sen. Dorsett) House budget has $2 million.

S 1914, Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention/ Dropout Funds. Identical to H 2225. See RR, May 27. (Sen. Dorsett)

S 1940, Communities in Schools Funds. Identical to H 2277. RR, May 27. (Sen. Malone) S 1974 is virtually identical to H 2089. RR, May 27. (Sen. Swindell) House budget has $500,000.