Cheers,
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Miscellaneous
Fuel
School buses that use diesel fuel must be able to operate with B20, fuel that contains at least 20 percent of biodiesel. Senate Bill 1452 also requires that beginning June 1, 2008, at least 2 percent of the fuel purchased annually by local school districts for school buses must be a minimum blend of B20. Thomasbuilt buses, here in NC, do meet the standard. Another bill, Senate Bill 1277, requires that new state-owned vehicles that run on diesel fuel must carry a warranty that assures they are capable of running on B20.
Bioenergy
Conservation
Renewable Energy
Sentate Bill 3 also changes our renewable energy tax credit to now allow a donor to a non-profit to take advantage of the tax credit that would otherwise be available to the non-profit. This should encourage churches and other non-profits to pursue more aggressive renewable energy options, such as solar panels.
Greetings From Raleigh 08-30-07
This week's newsletter highlights some of our energy related bills from this session. It is becoming abundantly clear that we are having a potentially inalterable impact on the earth's climate, seemingly directly related to our carbon emissions. Scientists say that if we don't act soon to reduce our carbon emissions, we will be close to reaching a tipping point of catastrophic climate change by 2015. NC ranks 24th in the world in carbon emissions (more than many similarly-sized countries) and we must act immediately to reduce our contribution to this problem. It is also clear that fossil fuel resources, particularly oil, are not infinite, and many of them are located in parts of the world that don't like us very much.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Miscellany
Regards,
Water
A new law allows existing hog waste lagoons to continue to operate, but bans the construction of new ones. Hog lagoons have become an environmental concern in the past decade as the number of swine farms have grown. The pits, where the hogs' waste is collected and then sprayed on fields as fertilizer, often breach their banks during hurricanes or heavy rains, polluting waterways and soil and contaminating the groundwater. The state has had a moratorium on new lagoons for the past 10 years, but replacing them with new, cleaner technology is expensive. The bill, Senate Bill 1465, (I co-sponsored the house companion, House Bill 1115), signed into law, proposes a $2 million a year cost-sharing program to help farmers pay the cost of replacing the pits with more environmentally friendly systems. The new systems could produce useful byproducts such as compost or electricity from the methane gas released. The law includes a provision that allows up to 50 swine farms to join a pilot program that will allow farmers to sell methane gas to power companies. The compromise bill is supported by farm, industry, and some environmental groups and would represent a major step forward after years of trying to find better ways to handle hog waste. The neighbors of the offending hog farms are upset that we have not done more to phase out the lagoons by a date certain. Representative Earl Jones and I introduced House Bill 1822, to phase out lagoons and sprayfield systems, but it had no traction this session.
Air
Land
We strengthened regulations for the construction of landfills this session, requiring companies to prove they have adequate funding to maintain, close, and provide post-closure maintenance for a landfill. Several companies had planned to build landfills in
Greetings From Raleigh 08-23-07
Last week's newsletter summarized the highlights of our session completed on August 2, 2007. For the next several weeks, I will try to focus in more detail on specific issue areas. This week's focus is on conservation and environmental protection.
Investments in these projects and others will protect the natural resources that have made North
We also made several changes to improve and strengthen the state's energy policies. These changes will reduce our dependence on foreign oil as well as our carbon footprint, strengthen the local market for alternative energy, and save us all money over time. I will share some of those new policies with you in more detail in the next newsletter.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Miscellaneous Bills To Be Considered In The Short Session
House Bill 205, which I introduced with Rep. George Cleveland, would repeal the in-state tuition provision for out-of-state athletes which had been slipped into the 2005 budget. Taxpayers will be subsidizing UNC system booster clubs with $8 million in 2008 as a result of the provision, and the cost will continue to increase. The bill was approved overwhelmingly by the House and may be considered by the Senate in the short session.
House Bill 1889, which I introduced with Representatives Brubaker, Gibson, and Hill, would remove a disincentive for conservation that exists in the present use value system. Under current law, if a property owner takes a tract of land out of cultivation and turns it over to wildlife or conservation management, he or she must pay a large tax penalty. This bill creates a new category of present use value for such instances, and was approved overwhelmingly by the House at the end of session, despite opposition from the counties, Farm Bureau, and the Forestry Association. I was proud of my colleagues for recognizing this problem and supporting this bill that we have been working on for over 5 years.
Gun issues saw little momentum this session. Two important bills that passed the House appear mired in the Senate, and we were not able to make any progress on setting up a data base to avoid the type of situation that arose with the tragic Virginia Tech shooting. House Bill 1287, sponsored by Representatives Jeffus, Sutton, and me, would have allowed for sharing of information among Sheriffs’ departments when an individual has been turned down for a gun permit. House Bill 1847 would have required reporting of lost or stolen guns to reduce illegal gun trafficking. The gun lobby appears to have effectively stopped both of those important bills in the Senate. Representatives Glazier, Weiss, and I will continue to work on the data base issue for involuntary commitments to prohibit access to gun purchases. There will be grant money available as a result of federal legislation inspired by the Virginia Tech tragedy. The NRA has supported the federal bill, so we hope to avoid that opposition at the state level.
Two bad environmental bills are still alive. Senate Bill 150 would permit additional tree removal around bill boards. The bill passed the Senate, but doesn't appear to have any momentum for House action. Another troubling environmental bill, Senate Bill 599, which would allow Figure 8 Island to construction a terminal groin at the north end of the island in contravention of our 20- year-old ban on hardened structures on our beaches, also appears to have little momentum in the House.
House Bill 1587 which would have effectively prohibited local governments from offering broadband and wireless services was turned into a study bill, and should be alive in the short session. This bill was actively opposed by all consumer interests as well as those representing local governments.
There are other bills relating to the death penalty, school bullying, comprehensive sex education, gay marriage, eminent domain, and others, that will still be alive during the short session.
Additional Ratified Legislation
Spay Neuter Funding
Sen. Kinnaird's bill, Senate Bill 684 which establishes a spay and neuter funding mechanism, was approved during the final days of session. NC had the highest kill rate (over 250,000 in 2006) of abandoned pets in the US, spending over $35 million of taxpayer money in capturing, housing, and euthanizing the animals. A portion of pet fees from rabies inoculations will be set aside to provide funding for lower income pet owners to spay and neuter their pets. This has been a years’ long battle, and animal activists agree that this is progress.
Adoptees
Adults who were adopted can now more easily access information about their birth parents and medical information, as a result of the approval of House Bill 445. The bill is scaled down from its original proposal, but advocates anticipate the issue being studied in the interim, with proposed changes coming in the short session.
Consumer Protection
We passed three important bills on issues relating to predatory lending and mortgage protection, which Governor Easley signed into law today. House Bill 1374 makes the foreclosure process fairer and helps protect homeowners from abusive mortgage loan servicing. House Bill 1817 protects home buyers from predatory lending practices and ensures they can afford to repay the loans made to them. House Bill 947 requires notice to tenants (and an opportunity to terminate the lease) when the property they are renting is foreclosed on.
Assistance to Seniors
In addition to several items in the budget, we approved several bills aimed at protecting our senior citizens. House Bill 1499 expands and improves the property tax homestead exemption. House Bill 1537 improves the process for the recovery of estates of individuals forced to go on Medicaid, most typically when they enter a long-term care facility. Senate Bill 56 overhauls the penalty review process and makes other changes to long term care regulations that are more compassionate and consumer friendly. We also established a rating system for adult care homes.
Public Safety
Ethics 8-16-07
Election Reform
In the final days of the session, we passed House Bill 1517, which establishes a pilot project of public financing for three Council of State races; the Insurance Commissioner, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the State Auditor. The program is modeled on the judicial public financing program. This is a voluntary program; candidates must opt-in.
We approved House Bill 1828, which I sponsored, and is meant to help participants in the judicial public financing program access rescue money when attacked by third parties, especially 527s. This bill is intended to prevent situations like ‘fairjudges.net’, which undermined the integrity of the judicial public financing program. The recent Supreme Court case, Wisconsin v Right to Life, has limited the regulation of 527s.
Earlier this session we passed House Bill 91 which allows for ‘one-stop’ registration and voting in advance of elections, with restrictions to guard against fraud. This should increase voter turnout, especially among young people.
Energy 8-16-07
Enviornment 8-16-07
Healthcare
A bill that provides insurance parity to people who receive mental health services was signed into law this session. The bill, House Bill 973, requires insurance companies to cover bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, anorexia nervosa and bulimia, and three other mental illnesses the same way that they treat physical illnesses. All other mental health conditions will be covered for up to 30 inpatient/outpatient days and 30 office visits. Mental health parity has been debated in the North Carolina Legislature for 15 years. 36 other states already offer some form of mental health parity. We, as a state, still have a long way to go toward fixing mental health reform, but this bill is a start and is expected to save the state money by reducing the amount spent for public mental health services
The General Assembly ratified a bill, House Bill 265, that would create a high risk insurance pool. The pool will help those who suffer from serious illnesses and are often considered uninsurable have access to health insurance. These people are often forced to pay expensive premiums because of their illness.
The General Assembly has agreed to take over the counties’ share of Medicaid expenses – estimated at $520 million this fiscal year - over the next three years. Rural counties are particularly burdened by the increasing costs of Medicaid. In addition, we decided to give counties more flexibility by allowing them to raise additional taxes for school construction, infrastructure, and other improvements. Counties can decide to raise the sales tax by a quarter of a cent or the land transfer tax to 0.6 percent with local voter approval.
Education 8-16-07
Greetings From Raleigh 08-16-07
Friday, August 03, 2007
Security
Just like you, we are passionate about protecting our children. We approved $4.8 million in grants for government agencies and groups working on gang violence prevention, intervention, and suppression efforts. We will continue efforts to protect our children from sexual predators by spending $237,000 to hire full-time investigators to handle child exploitation and sexual predator cases and $217,000 to operate a sex offender registry. We will protect children and victims of domestic violence by increasing spending on rape crisis and sexual assault services by nearly $900,000. We will help residents with lower incomes afford safe and affordable housing by increasing the North Carolina Housing Trust Fund to $5 million.
Cheers,
Pricey
Military 8-03-07
In support of our troops, the General Assembly approved business tax credits for employing reservists or National Guardsmen who are called to active duty. We have also set aside $420,000 to run three assistance centers to help families of deployed National Guardsmen. We will use $240,000 to hire four additional school counselors for largely military communities.
Economy and Finance
We have managed to make the budget fiscally sound and have set aside $175 million for our reserve fund and $145 million for repair and renovation of state owned buildings. We also gave local governments authority to enact a quarter-cent sales tax or a land transfer tax of 4/10 of a penny with voter approval. This will help them build new schools to lessen the demands of increasing school populations and to make other infrastructure improvements without raising property taxes.
Environment 8-03-07
Health 8-03-07
We must take measures to keep our people strong and healthy. My colleagues and I agree Medicaid costs -an estimated $500 million this fiscal year- are a huge burden for counties to bear. The state will take over the counties' share of Medicaid costs in a three-year phase out. Counties will have extra money for school construction and other local needs without raising property taxes. This method protects our small counties and rural counties with a large number of people on Medicaid. We are very proud of this Medicaid swap. Every county will end up with at least $500,000 more than they would have had otherwise.
Education 8-03-07
We allocated $11.5 billion - 56 percent of the total budget - to education. The House ensured that we will provide resources in public schools to those who need it most - poor people and those at risk of dropping out of high school. A panel will distribute $7 million in grants to help schools and groups working on dropout prevention. The Disadvantaged Student Supplemental Fund will be increased by $17.6 million and teachers will receive a 5 percent pay raise. We also increased funding for academically gifted students by $1.75 million, gave an extra $5 million for children with disabilities, and allocated $5.7 million to hire 100 literacy coaches for middle schools.
We will increase access to our universities and community colleges by providing $22 million for need-based grants in the
Greetings From Raleigh 08-03-07
The House and Senate gave final approval this week to a $20.7 billion budget that strengthens education; lifts the Medicaid burden from our counties; and improves our health, environment, and economy. This budget addresses the needs of our students at all levels, will ensure efficient spending in government, and moves