February 5, 2007
George Reed, Editor
General Assembly Convenes;
Hackney Elected Speaker
The 2007 session of the North Carolina General Assembly convened on January 24 amid the usual ceremony and swearing in of members. The Senate elected Sen. Marc Basnight (D-Manteo) to an unprecedented 8th term as President Pro Tem. And the House elected Rep. Jim Hackney (D-Chapel Hill) as Speaker. Hackney is a long-time advocate of open and honest government. Raleigh Report members also know him as hard-working, smart, fair, and accessible. He has long opposed the death penalty and has championed environmental legislation for all of his twenty-six years in the House. On the flip side, he was one of two progressive members of the House whose switch from lottery opponent to supporter enabled former speaker Black to hammer through the lottery last session. Sen. Charlie Dannelly (D-Charlotte) was elected as Deputy President Pro Tem of the Senate, and Rep. William Wainwright (D-Havelock) was elected Speaker Pro Tem in the House.
This year’s session is a “long session,” in which the state’s budget for the next biennium (fiscal years ’07-’08 and ’08-’09) will be adopted.
The House and the Senate each adopt their own rules of procedure at the start of a session. (As of this writing, the Senate has adopted permanent rules. The House has adopted temporary rules, and a bill with permanent rules is in the House Rules Comm.) While they never get a lot of media attention, these rules play an important part in determining which issues are heard, how voting minorities are treated, and how long the session lasts. This year, the rules are interesting for several points which seemed aimed at past problems. Among the provisions:
· The House prohibits blank bills. The Senate limits them to two per member. (Blank bills are introduced with no content in order to meet deadlines for the introduction of bills. Content is then added at a later date. Some members were introducing many blank bills.)
· The House would reduce the vote needed to sustain an appeal from a Speaker’s ruling from 2/3 to a simple majority, thus making it easier to overturn a Speaker’s ruling.
· The House would prohibit cutting off debate until three speakers have been heard on both sides of an issue (if there are three members wanting to speak on each side).
· The House would make it harder to add members to a committee later in the session and would eliminate the use of floaters (loyal supporters of the Speaker who were made ex officio members of all committees). This would make it harder for the Speaker to “stack” a committee in mid-session.
· The House would prohibit holding committee or subcommittee meetings on the floor of the House. This tactic was sometimes used to speed passage of a bill and to limit participation in the committee meeting.
· The House would require the presiding officer to recognize calls for a roll call vote, both on the floor and in committee meetings.
· The House would remove the prohibition in previous rules on amending a bill’s title on the floor. This earlier provision gave more power to committees and made it harder for the full House to change or expand the contents of a bill.
· The House would reduce the vote necessary to recall a bill from committee and bring it to a vote on the floor from 3/5 to a simple majority. This would make it harder for a speaker or committee chair to keep a bill bottled up in committee.
· The House would delay the voting on a conference committee report until members had had time to study the report. (Temporary rules say that the vote would have to be delayed at least one day after the conference committee report becomes available; the permanent rules would raise it to three days.)
Deadlines are also included in the rules. They are as follows:
· In the Senate, all local bills must be introduced by March 7, and all public bills by March 21.
· In the House, bills from study commissions and government agencies must be in by March 14, local bills by March 28, non-money public bills (i.e., neither spending nor revenue) by April 18, and money bills by May 9. If a money bill is introduced between April 18 and May 9, and the appropriation or revenue provision is later removed, the bill is no longer eligible for consideration.
· Crossover day—the date by which non-money bills must have been passed by one house and “crossed over” to the other—is May 17.
STATE EITC BILLS INTRODUCED
The federal Earned Income Tax Credit rewards low- and moderate-income working families with a refundable tax credit, worth up to $4,716 for families with two or more children and $2,853 for those with one child. (Families without children are not eligible.) The average EITC for
Being refundable means that workers who don’t pay any income tax or who pay less income tax than the credit they are due, get a check for the difference. (Some opponents of the EITC have labeled it “welfare” since people can get back more money than they’ve paid in income taxes. It is worth noting that these workers are still paying other taxes and fees: payroll taxes, excise taxes, sales taxes on everything they buy, drivers license and vehicle registration fees, etc.) The federal credit has been credited (!) with lifting more people out of poverty that any other existing program.
The families of one in five
S 7/H 6, Rewarding Work Tax Credit, would be for 5% of the federal credit and would be available to all who qualify for the federal credit. (Introduced by Sen. David Hoyle (D-Dallas) and Reps. Wainwright,
H 51, Earned Income Tax Credit, is like S 7/H 6, but with a credit equal to 10% of the federal credit. (Introduced by Rep. Jennifer Weiss (D-Cary).)
JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT YOU HAD HEARD THE LAST OF LOTTERY LEGISLATION
As reports show that North Carolinians are not buying lottery tickets as mindlessly as had been expected, look for bills this session to tweak how the lottery is operated and how funds are distributed. Here are the first two in the hopper.
S 2/H 9,
S 47, Lottery Proceeds Do Not Supplant School Funds, would require local school boards and counties receiving lottery funds for education purposes to use those funds to supplement, not supplant, funds already being spent on education. (Introduced by Sen. Robert Pittenger (R-Charlotte).)
STRENGTHENING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE LAWS
The following bills are from the Joint Legislative Committee on Domestic Violence and are sponsored by its co-chairs, Sen. Julia Boseman (D-Wilmington) and Rep. Marian McLawhorn (D-Grifton).
S 28/H 47, Violate Order/Possess Deadly Weapon Felony, would make it a felony to violate a domestic violence protective order while armed with a deadly weapon.
S 27/H 44, DV Orders/Repeat Violators. Current law makes it a felony to violate a protective order after having been convicted of three prior offenses. S 27/H 44 would reduce it to one prior conviction.
S 29/H 46, DV Victims/Security, would require the state to determine whether existing guidelines are sufficient for protecting the safety of guests at DV shelters. It would also require, where feasible, private waiting areas in courthouses for victims of DV who are there to appear in court against their offender.
S 31/H 43, DV Appropriations, would make the following allocations for the 2007-08 fiscal year:
· $2 million for DV programs funded by the Council on Women and the DV Commission.
· $1 million of TANF money for local DV initiatives.
· More than $500,000 to expand the family court pilot program.
· $2 million for construction of shelters for victims of domestic violence.
· $2 million for visitation and exchange centers.
S 32/H 42, Amend DV Laws/Homicide Reporting, would make it easier for law enforcement to arrest someone suspected of communicating threats or stalking (in the context of domestic relationships). It would also require the state to keep track of the number of homicides involving people in domestic relationships and if there were protective orders in those cases.
A separate bill from Sen. Boseman, S 9, Domestic Violence Order/No Firearm Purchase, would make mandatory a current optional provision, that the person subject to a domestic violence protective order is prohibited from buying a gun for a fixed amount of time.
EDUCATION FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
The House Select Committee on the Education of Students with Disabilities has produced several bills. They include:
H 13, Alternative Programs/Students with Disabilities, would establish a pilot program in three school districts to create appropriate alternative learning programs for long-term-suspended students, including students with disabilities who have been placed on homebound instruction for discipline purposes.
H 14, Homebound Instruction for Disabled Students, would prohibit a student with disabilities and with discipline problems from being assigned to homebound instruction unless that is the least restrictive alternative for that student.
H 15, Textbooks and Assignments on Short-Term Suspension, would make clear that students on short-term suspension (10 days or less) could take textbooks home for the suspension period and could ask about homework assignments.
H 17, Study Services for Students with Disabilities in High School, would look at the delivery of educational and other services.
H 20, Homebound Instruction Standards, would make clear that students with disabilities are entitled to a free appropriate public education and a sound basic education and that this extends to homebound instruction.
(Each of these bills has been introduced by Rep. Rick Glazier (D-Fayetteville), chair of the House Select Committee, and other members.)
SMOKING AND HEALTH
With attention newly focused on the health consequences of second-hand smoke, two bills have been introduced to prohibiting almost all smoking in state buildings.
S 43/H 24, Smoking in State Government Buildings/Prohibition. These similar bills would prohibit smoking in all state buildings, except where the smoking is part of scientific or medical research. H 24 would also repeal the state’s smoking law, adopted in the 1990s with the support of tobacco interests, which says that it is the state’s policy to provide for smokers and non-smokers and pre-empts local governments from adopting more stringent non-smoking ordinances. (Introduced by Sen. Bill Purcell (D-Laurinburg) and Reps. Weiss and Glazier.)
OTHER HEALTH CARE BILLS
S 24, Funds/Chronic Disease Prevention and Control, would allocate more than $4 million in each year of the biennium to expand statewide capacity for chronic disease prevention and control. (Introduced by Sen. Purcell.)
S 25/H 23, Funds for Statewide Health Promotion, would allocate $4.3 million in each year of the biennium to support one public health professional per county working on public health issues of physical inactivity, poor nutrition, and tobacco use. (Introduced by Sen. Purcell and Reps. Weiss, Verla Insko (D-Chapel Hill), Bob England (D-Ellenboro), and Arthur Williams (D-Washington).)
S 26/H 25, Funds for Healthy Carolinians, would allocate $1 million ($10,000 per county) to establish health promotion work in each county. Specific objectives may be found at www.healthycarolinians.org. (Introduced by Sen. Purcell and Reps. Weiss, Beverly Earle (D-Charlotte), McLawhorn, and Alice Bordsen (D-Mebane).)
H 50, Justus-Warren Task Force Recommendations, allocates about $1 million in each fiscal year for stroke prevention and treatment. (Introduced by Rep. Weiss.)
H 3, Long-Term Care Insurance Tax Credit,
would reinstate an income tax credit of 15% of the premiums paid for long-term care insurance. This credit expired in 2004. (Introduced by Rep. Mitchell Setzer (R-Catawba).)
H 57,
PROTECTING GOD’S GOOD EARTH AND ALL WHO LIVE HERE
With the world’s scientific community in virtual unanimity that global warming is happening and that human behavior is its primary cause, elected officials are looking for ways to make a difference. Even though President Bush has finally acknowledged the danger of global warming, it is unclear what help is going to come from the federal level. So states are looking at what they can do.
Use of renewable energy sources is one important way to reduce emissions coming from electricity generation, which is one of the most significant contributors to greenhouse gases. S 3, Promote Renewable Energy/Energy Efficiency, would encourage the use of renewable energy and energy conservation measures in NC. At the outset, electricity companies would be required to have at least 1% of the electricity they sell generated from renewable sources or saved through energy efficiency. By 2018, the percentage would have to be up to 10%. Renewable sources would include solar, wind, biomass, and others, but not fossil fuels or nuclear energy. (Introduced by Sen. Charlie Albertson (D-Beulaville).)
Another sort of environmental danger is addressed in H 36, Hazardous Materials Task Force Recommendations. It would make several changes in regulation of hazardous waste facilities in the aftermath of a serious fire in Apex last fall. Provisions include:
· Facility operator must get input on its contingency plans from local government and emergency response agencies and must verify that the local agencies have resources adequate to respond to an emergency at the facility.
· Operator must maintain offsite copies of information on the waste at the facility.
· Operator must notify property owners and residents within ¼ mile of a proposed facility.
· Operator must report to the state on changes in sensitive land use or population density near the facility, and the state must consider that information in deciding how often to inspect the facility.
· Operator must provide security and surveillance at all times.
· Operator must have wind monitors onsite.
· A task force is established to study hazardous waste issues.
(Introduced by Reps. Weiss, Deborah Ross (D-Raleigh), Ty Harrell (D-Raleigh), and Nelson Dollar (R-Cary).)
OTHER INTRODUCED BILLS
S 13, Defense of Marriage, would amend the state constitution to say that marriage is the union of one man and one woman at one time. The amendment would also prohibit courts from interpreting the state constitution to give rights, privileges, or benefits of marriage to unmarried individuals or groups. If approved by the General Assembly, the amendment would be on the ballot for the November 2007 general election. The NC Council of Churches opposes constitutional amendments defining marriage because they write discriminatory language into a document intended to extend, not limit, rights. (Introduced by Sen. Jim Forrester (R-Stanley).)
S 39/H 30, Raise Cap on Charter Schools, would raise the cap from 100 to 125 statewide. The local cap of no more than five charter schools per school district would be unchanged. (Introduced by Sen. Smith and Rep. Jim Gulley (R-Matthews).)
H 38, Missing Persons Alert/Persons with Dementia, would create a process for issuing such alerts and posting information on overhead message signs on highways. (Introduced by Reps. Earline Parmon (D-Winston-Salem), Larry Womble (D-Winston-Salem), Insko.)
S 51, Funds for Housing Options for Mentally Ill, would allocate $1.5 million for FY ’07-’08 and $3 million for ’08-’09 to increase the availability of housing options for people with disabilities. Priority would be given to people transitioning out of psychiatric hospitals and long-term care facilities. (Introduced by Sen. Katie Dorsett (D-Greensboro).)
S 58, Transport of Individuals in Wheelchair Study, would require such a study by the Department of Transportation. (Introduced by Sen. Stan Bingham (R-Denton).)
(Bills are not yet being assigned to committees. Those assignments will be noted in the next issue of Raleigh Report.)
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