A bill has been introduced which would make health insurance available to all children in North Carolina. H 1476, Health Insurance for All Children, would establish a program to provide for about 87,000 children currently without coverage and not qualified for Medicaid or NC Health Choice (which provides coverage up to 200% of the federal poverty level). Most of them are in families earning more than 300% of FPL. For those in families with incomes between 200% and 300%, the families would pay part of the cost, through premiums assessed on a sliding scale based on income. (In other words, those at 275% FPL would pay higher premiums than those at 225%.) The rest of the costs would be paid by the state. For children in families over 300% of poverty, the family could buy into the health insurance plan but would have to pay the full premium for the insurance, with no subsidy from the state. H 1476 allocates $4.7 million for FY ’07-’08 and $7 million to FY ’08-’09.

The North Carolina Council of Churches has long been involved with obtaining health care for children. The Council was instrumental in setting up the Caring Program for Children, which was a collaborative venture with congregations and Blue Cross Blue Shield to provide insurance for children whose parents didn’t have access to it at work and who didn’t earn enough money to buy coverage for their children out-of-pocket. When the federal government offered money for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Council and the heads of our member bodies called on the General Assembly to start what is now NC Health Choice.

H 1476 continues the drive to guarantee that all children have access to the health care they need. Introduced by Rep. Insko; referred to House Insurance Comm.

OTHER HEALTH BILLS

H 1358, Consumer Health Freedom Act, would allow certain practitioners of alternative or complementary health to provide their health care services without having a medical license as long as they don’t engage in specified activities, such as prescribing drugs, performing surgery, claiming to be a physician, etc. The bill would require these practitioners to inform patients in writing that they aren’t physicians and give information about the nature of the health care services to be provided. Introduced by Reps. Parmon, Johnson, Wiley, Harrison; assigned to House Health Comm.

H 1424, Medicaid County Share Reduced, would cap the county share of Medicaid at 2005-06 levels. It would allocate $100 million for FY ’07-’08 and $154 million for ’08-’09 to provide further reductions for the counties most severely impacted by Medicaid costs. Introduced by Reps. Owens, Michaux, Yongue, with 118 of the House’s 120 members as co-sponsors; referred to House Appropriations Comm.

H 1446, Funds/School-Nurse-to-Student Ratio, would allocate $13 million for FY ’07-’08 and $26 million for FY ’08-’09 to increase the number of school nurses. The money would be used to improve the nurse-to-student ratio to one nurse for every 1,641 students in the first fiscal year and to one to 1,309 in the second. Introduced by Rep. Carney; referred to House Appropriations.

H 1513, Funds for Seniors’ Prescription Drug Costs, would allocate $500,000 per year to increase the monthly subsidy available to those eligible for assistance in paying the premium for the Medicare Part D prescription drug program and to enable them to purchase drug coverage with no annual deductible. Introduced by Rep. Insko; referred to House Appropriations Comm.

H 1689, Tax Credit for Smoke Ventilation Systems, would allow an individual or corporate income tax credit for the installation of a ventilation system in an establishment that has a smoking area. The credit would be equal to 25% of the cost of the system. Introduced by Rep. Brown; referred to House Finance Comm.

H 1835, Liability of Purveyors of Food for Obesity, would prohibit suits against producers and sellers of foods which cause obesity. Introduced by Reps. Daughtridge, Hill, Crawford, and Bruaker; referred to House Commerce Comm.

HEALTH OF FARMWORKERS

H 1818, Agricultural Family Protection Act, would provide protection from pesticide contamination or poisoning for farmworkers and their families. Records on the sale and application of pesticides would have to be provided to the state Labor Department, health care personnel treating suspected victims of pesticide poisoning, or an employee filing a workers compensation claim. Operators of migrant housing would have to provide at least one working telephone, with contact information for the nearest emergency medical care facility, and would have to provide one showerhead with a separate shower for each eight migrant farmworkers. Violations could be punished by a fine of up to $2,000. Introduced by Reps. Blue and Martin; referred to House Agribusness Comm.

DEATH PENALTY

H 1526, Streamlined and Cost Effective Capital Case Act, would limit the number of aggravating circumstances in death penalty cases and require a judge to decide before the trial begins whether or not there is substantial evidence of at least one aggravating circumstance. If not, the trial would be conducted as a non-capital case. Introduced by Rep. Bryant; referred to House Judiciary I Comm.

H 1691, Suspend Execution for Two Years, would call a temporary halt to executions to allow for the evaluation of proposed changes to capital punishment laws. Introduced by Reps. Parmon, Cunningham, Alexander, and Luebke; referred to House Judiciary I Comm.

H 1728, Auditor Study Death Penalty Costs, would require a study of the costs of administering capital punishment and the savings from its repeal. Introduced by Rep. Insko; referred to House Rules Comm.

OTHER BILLS REGARDING CRIMINAL JUSTICE OR JUVENILE JUSTICE

H 1481, Juvenile DWI/Detention and Study Sanctions, would allow a juvenile to be put in secure custody (the juvenile court’s equivalent of being jailed) if that juvenile is charged with driving while impaired or driving after consuming alcohol or drugs and is a danger to others. The bill would also call for a study of dispositional alternatives (i.e., sentencing options) for juveniles in these circumstances. Introduced by Rep. Glazier; referred to House Judiciary II Comm.

H 1484, Inpatient Treatment Program/Female Offenders, would allocate more than $1 million in each budget year to set up a community-based substance abuse treatment facility for female offenders. Introduced by Reps. Insko and Justice; referred to House Appropriations Comm.

ENVIRONMENT

H 1822, Phase Out Lagoon and Sprayfield Systems, would make permanent the moratorium on new or expanded lagoon and sprayfield systems for dealing with hog wastes. It would also set a timetable for phasing out already-existing systems and would prohibit any increase in capacity for hog slaughter facilities until the phase-out is complete. Introduced by Reps. Jones and Harrison; referred to House Agriculture Comm.

H 1826, Climate Change/State Agency Reports, would require annual reporting by the state on its activities related to climate change and global warming. Introduced by Reps. Harrison and Underhill; referred to House Energy and Energy Efficiency Comm.

H 1699, Option to Stop Junk Mail, would allow individuals to put their names on an opt-out list and not be sent junk mail. Political and charitable organizations could continue to send junk mail to everyone. Introduced by Rep. Fisher; referred to House Judiciary I Comm.

H 1776, ABC Recycle Amends, would amend a law, scheduled to go into effect next year, which requires ABC on-premises permit holders to recycle bottles and cans. Under H 1776, beer bottles would be removed entirely from the recycling requirement, and permittees in areas where recycling services are not provided for businesses would also be exempt. Introduced by Rep. Gibson; referred to House Environment and Natural Resources Comm.

WAGES

H 1709, Increase/Index State Minimum Wage, would increase the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour by 2008 and would apply a cost-of-living adjustment in future years. Introduced by Rep. Adams; referred to House Commerce Comm.

H 1550, Education Assistance for Minimum Wage Workers, would provide scholarship assistance to state residents who have worked full time for at least 18 months in minimum wage jobs and who are enrolled at a community college or four-year college. Funding would come from lottery revenues. Introduced by Rep. Blackwood; referred to House Education Comm.

DISCRIMINATION HAS MANY OUTCOMES

S 1534/H 1788, UNC/Report on Minority Medical and Dental Students, would require the UNC System to report on the number of minority students and faculty in medicine and dentistry and to report on efforts to address the shortage of health professionals in underserved areas of the state. Introduced by Sen. Albertson and Rep. Adams; referred to Senate Judiciary I and House Education Comms.

H 1558, 1898 Wilmington Riot Reconciliation Act, puts some of the provisions of earlier race riot bills into one bill. It includes:

· Declaring that the state’s actions and inactions violated federal civil rights laws and apologizing on behalf of the state.

· Providing a two-year time period for legal claims by the estates of those who were injured or killed or who suffered personal or property losses. The amounts awarded for damages would include inflation, loss of use since 1898, and 8% compound interest.

Introduced by Reps. Wright and Jones; referred to House Judiciary II Comm.

H 1631, Safer Communities Act, would expand the state’s hate crimes laws to include gender, sexual orientation, disability, and age among the protected categories of people. Introduced by Rep. Harrison; referred to House Judiciary I Comm.

H 1366, School Violence Prevention Act, would prohibit bullying or harassing behavior, provide guidelines for identifying it, require that it be reported, and prohibit retaliation against those who do report it. Bullying or harassing behavior would include acts motivated by race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, physical appearance, or disability. Introduced by Reps. Glazier, Fisher, Justice, Stiller; referred to House Education Comm.

DEALING WITH DIVORCE

H 1725, Resolve Custody/Equitable Distribution before Divorce, would require people getting a divorce to resolve questions about the distribution of property and child custody before the divorce is finalized. Introduced by Rep. Alexander; referred to House Judiciary I Comm.

H 1781, Divorce Effects Program/Parenting Plan, would require parents with minor children to complete a divorce effects program and enter into a parenting agreement before finalizing a divorce. Introduced by Rep. Hilton; referred to House Children, Youth, and Families Comm.

PEOPLE WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

H 1435, Funds for Respite Services, would allocate $5 million in each budget year for respite services for individuals with developmental disabilities or mental illness. Introduced by Reps. Barnhart, England, Insko, Earle; referred to House Appropriations Comm.

H 1797, DHHS Plan/Psychiatric Hospital Closure, would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to submit a plan for the provision of community-based services for people with mental illness prior to closing any state psychiatric hospital. Introduced by Rep. Weiss; referred to House Mental Health Reform Comm.

TAXES

H 1564, Repeal Estate and Gift Taxes, would end these two taxes, most often paid by wealthy people, in 2009. Although the short title of the bill includes the words “expand the sales tax base to offset the loss in revenue [because of the repealed taxes],” the bill itself calls only for a study and recommendations. So the result of the bill could easily be the permanent loss of revenue to the state. Introduced by Reps. Carney and Barnhart; referred to House Rules Comm.

H 1565, Local Fiscal Modernization, includes the following:

· Local governments could adopt any amount of room occupancy tax as long as it is approved by the voters.

· One-half cent of the sales tax would be transferred from local governments to the state, and the state would pay all of what is currently the counties’ share of Medicaid.

· The cigarette tax would increase from 35¢ per pack to 75¢.

· All cities would be allowed to collect a municipal vehicle tax of up to $20.

Introduced by Reps. Carney and Barnhart; referred to House Rules Comm.

H 1605, Sales Tax Refund Act/Reduce Corporate Rate, would cap the sales tax refund allowed to nonprofits and lower the corporate income tax rate from 6.9% to 6.4%, two apparently unrelated matters. (Under current law, churches and other nonprofits are exempt from sales tax on many items and can apply for a refund of these taxes that they have paid.) H 1605 would limit the refund annually to the first million dollars requested, plus 25% of the requested amount over $1 million. This would limit refunds only for those nonprofits with qualifying purchases of more than about $14 million. Introduced by Rep. Folwell; referred to House Finance Comm.

H 1610, Property Tax Deferral, would give low-income elderly or disabled people an alternative to the homestead exemption. Under H 1610, up to 50% of the property tax levied on a residence could be deferred until 1) the owner dies, 2) the property is sold, or 3) the owner has not lived in the residence for 3 years. Introduced by Rep. McElraft; referred to House Aging Comm.

MISCELLANEOUS BILLS

H 1496, Same Day Voter Registration Funds, would allocate $1.5 million over the next two years to pay for same-day voter registration. Introduced by Reps. J. Harrell, Goforth; referred to House Appropriations Comm.

H 1847, Report Lost or Stolen Gun, would require people to report it if a gun of theirs is lost or stolen. They could not be prosecuted for failure to have a permit for the gun if they could legally have obtained a permit and they have no prior convictions for failing to report the loss of a gun. Introduced by Rep. Hall; referred to House Judiciary I Comm.

H 1554, Inter-faith Food Shuttle Funds, would allocate $125,000 to a food rescue program in Raleigh that uses a blast-freeze process to preserve perishable foods for later use. The bill would also allocate $779,000 to assist other organizations in setting up similar programs. Those who attended the Council’s “Come to the Table” conference in Cedar Grove earlier this month learned about the benefits of the blast-freeze process. Introduced by Rep. Coleman; referred to House Appropriations Comm.

H 1474, Raise Compulsory School Attendance Age, would raise the age to 18. Introduced by Rep. Blue; referred to House Education Comm.

H 1638, Raise Cap on Charter Schools, would raise the number of charter schools by authorizing an additional 10% each year over the previous year. Introduced by Rep. Lewis; referred to House Education Comm.

IDENTICAL/SIMILAR BILLS

H 1376, Funds for School Nurses, is identical to S 1087. See Raleigh Report, March 30. Introduced by Rep. Tarleton; referred to House Appropriations Comm.

H 1467, Funds to Monitor Greenhouse Gas Emissions, is identical to S 1175. See Raleigh Report, March 30. Introduced by Rep. Allen; referred to House Appropriations Comm.

H 1485, NC Illegal Immigration Prevention Act, is similar to H 55. See Raleigh Report, Feb. 19. Introduced by Reps. Holloway, Blust, Cleveland; referred to House Homeland Security Comm.

H 1517, Voter-Owned Election Pilot, is similar to S 1128 (Raleigh Report, March 30), but would limit the expansion of publicly financed campaigns to the races for Auditor, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Commissioner of Insurance. This would be funded by an allocation of almost $2.3 million per year from the state’s budget. Introduced by Reps. Glazier, Ross, Rapp, Martin; referred to House Election Law Comm.

H 1543, Taxpayers’ Protection Act, is identical to S 14. See Raleigh Report, Feb. 5. Introduced by Rep. Dollar; referred to House Rules Comm.

H 1544, Medicaid Dental Reimbursement Rate, is identical, except for the name, to S 1062. See Raleigh Report, March 30. Introduced by Rep. Allen; Referred to House Appropriations Comm.

H 1567, Income Tax Modernization, is virtually identical to S 1547. See Raleigh Report, April 6. Introduced by Reps Carney and Barnhart; referred to House Rules Comm.

H 1600, NC Organic Economic Opportunities Study, is identical to S 967. See Raleigh Report, March 30. Introduced by Rep. Faison; referred to House Comm.

H 1645, National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, is identical to S 760. See Raleigh Report, March 30. Introduced by Rep. Goodwin; referred to House Election Law Comm.

H 1789, Nondiscrimination in State Employment, is identical to S 1534. See Raleigh Report, April 6. Introduced by Reps. Luebke, Womble; referred to House State Personnel Comm.

H 1849, Create the Office of Environmental Justice/Funds, is identical to S 1345. See Raleigh Report, March 30. Introduced by Rep. Pierce; referred to House Appropriations Comm.

STUDY BILLS

At the end of the session, the General Assembly usually adopts an omnibus bill authorizing studies on a host of issues during the interim between sessions. These studies often produce important legislation, along with the research to support the legislation. Bills authorizing studies come from the House and Senate Rules Committees, which is why bills calling for a study of a single issue end up in Rules. If you are interested in one or more of these studies and would like to see them included in the omnibus bill at the end of the session, you should communicate with members of the Rules Committees about your interest. Here are single-issue study bills which have been introduced recently:

H 1337, Study State Contracts with Minority Businesses, would authorize a study of the disparity in awarding contracts (including those for construction, services, and purchases) to minority businesses. Introduced by Rep. Jones.

H 1394, Study Increasing Glass/Plastic Recycling, would authorize such a study, with a final report in 2009. Introduced by Reps. Tolson, Wray, Crawford, Farmer-Butterfield.

H 1673, Litter Prevention and Control LRC Study, would authorize such a study with a final report in 2009. Introduced by Rep. Allen.

H 1678, LRC Study Littering, would authorize such a study, with a final report in 2009. Introduced by Rep. Cole.

H 1713, Study Racial Disparities in Juvenile System, would create a study commission made up of legislators to consider causes and solutions to the problem of racial disparities in the juvenile justice system. Introduced by Rep. Bryant and Wainwright.

H 1825, Study Electric Power Issues, would allocate $95,000 to study costs and methods of power generation, taking into consideration public health, environmental impacts and other impacts of the full lifecycle of fuels (as, for example, factoring in disposal costs for nuclear fuel rods). The report would be due by the end of this year. Introduced by Rep. Harrison.