Greetings From Raleigh 7-31-06

My colleagues and I in the House held marathon sessions last week and completed our remaining work. We passed strong legislation on ethics and lobbying reforms, tougher regulations and monitoring of sex offenders, the creation of a new lottery oversight commission, a 1-year halt on new landfills, and efforts to crack down on illegal immigrants and drunk drivers.

House Speaker Jim Black (D-Mecklenburg), Majority Leader Joe Hackney (D-Orange), and other members of the House Democratic Caucus held a press conference on Thursday morning at the Legislative Building to highlight some of this session’s accomplishments. Hard work and on-going efforts by legislators and staff resulted in a surge in education funding, large pay raises for teachers and state employees, an increase in the state’s minimum wage, improvements of health care and mental health programs, numerous crime fighting measures, and tax cuts for all North Carolinians.

The House and Senate adjourned simultaneously at 1:09 am on Friday morning, bringing an official close to the 2 1/2-month session.

Below is a short re-cap of some of the final bills that we passed during our last week before adjourning. In the coming weeks, I will provide more information regarding our accomplishments on education, health care, our economy, the environment, and other important issues during this year’s short session.

The Legislature will reconvene on Wednesday, January 24, 2007. During the interim, you can contact me via email at priceyh@ncleg.net or by calling my Raleigh office at 919-733-5771 or in Greensboro at 336-274-5574. You can also find additional information on the General Assembly at www.ncleg.net.