School Saftey Measures To Be Reviewed

In the wake of recent school violence across the nation, Governor Mike Easley has asked Secretary Bryan Beatty of the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety and Attorney General Roy Cooper to coordinate a comprehensive review of North Carolina’s school safety programs. They will work with the Department of Public Instruction (DPI), the State Board of Education, and the Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to assess current efforts and determine if additional measures should be taken to better protect the state’s school students.

As part of the effort, Easley also asked the State Board of Education and DPI to ensure that school superintendents across the state begin an immediate review of their district’s safety plans for completeness and coordination with local emergency response agencies. Governor Easley also asked Health and Human Services Secretary Carmen Hooker-Odom to provide assistance due to the emotional impact the recent school violence incidents may have on students. In addition, the Governor urged Messrs. Beatty and Cooper to examine the use of technology and protocol measures, student and faculty response, as well as the communication between classroom and administrative offices to perceived problems. Governor Easley has asked Messrs. Beatty and Cooper to report back to him with recommendations for needed improvements as quickly as possible.

I look forward to reviewing the reports for our local schools and will work with the Governor, his administration, and other legislators to implement any needed school safety measures to ensure our students are safe.

Prescription Drug Assisstance For Seniors: North Carolina RX

Governor Mike Easley has announced a new prescription drug assistance program for North Carolina senior citizens. The program, funded for 2 years with $24 million from the Health and Wellness Trust Fund, aims to help qualifying seniors pay some or all of their Medicare Part D premiums. It also hopes to encourage some of the estimated 240,000 eligible seniors in our state who have not signed up for Part D to help them navigate the federal drug program and its medication management program involving pharmacists identifying potentially adverse drug interaction.



Under the new federal Medicare Part D program, which began last January, North Carolina seniors can choose from a variety of prescription drug insurance plans. For 2007, there will be 51 plans offered to North Carolina seniors. To participate in Part D, seniors must select a plan and pay the monthly premium. Plan premiums range in cost, from $17.80 to $85.90 per month for 2007.



North Carolina Rx will help pay premiums for seniors with incomes up to 175 percent of the poverty level ($17,150 for an individual and $23,100 for married couples). The plan also increases the amount of assets seniors may have and still qualify for assistance to $20,000 for an individual and $30,000 for married couples. Qualifying seniors who are at least 65 years old and on Medicare will receive a credit of $18 per month to help pay their premium. Approximately 50,000 North Carolina low-income seniors are expected to sign up for this benefit.



A special web site, www.ncrx.gov and a toll-free hotline, 1-888-488-NCRX (6279), have been set up to provide information about the new North Carolina Rx program and coverage.



Also, Wal-Mart has announced that it is now selling generic prescription drugs for $4 in North Carolina. The plan, which covers generic, or non branded, drugs for a 30-day supply, is open to anyone with a valid doctor’s prescription. No insurance is required. Pharmacies in both Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores will offer the low-cost prescriptions on 314 medications. To view a complete list(PDF File) of eligible medications, go to: www.walmart.com/pharmacy. Target stores will match the $4 Wal-Mart prescriptions and Kmart is offering 184 generics for $15 for a 90-day supply.

Education Programs Receive First Lottery Money

The new N.C. Lottery made its first ever transfer of proceeds to education on October 19, seven months after the games began. The state lottery commission will make periodic transfers to the Education Lottery Fund. At least 35 percent of net lottery revenues must be used for education initiatives such as pre-K programs, reducing class size, school construction, and college scholarships for needy students. The recent $95 million transfer represents 35.6 percent of the $233.1 million total the lottery collected since July 1 and another $12 million generated before that date. The lottery also made a $50 million transfer in late June, but that went into a reserve account.

Guilford County’s public schools and other counties across the state will begin receiving these new funds in the near future. Guilford County is expected to receive approximately $2,372,013 in funding for school construction and $2,572,028 for pre-K education as part of this first installment of new education funds from the lottery. Funds for reducing class size and college scholarships will be announced in the future.

State law requires that at least 50 percent of the total proceeds from the lottery be paid out in prizes, no more than 8 percent for administrative costs, 7 percent to retailers, and the remaining 35 percent to education. Of the funds for education, 50 percent goes to cutting class size in early grades to 18 students per teacher and to the More at Four program for at-risk pre-kindergarten children, 40 percent for school construction, and 10 percent for need-based scholarships for college, university, and community college students in North Carolina. North Carolina’s lottery dedicates a higher percentage of lottery proceeds toward education than most others in the nation.

The N.C. Department of Public Instruction (DPI) will manage the distribution of the funds for the various education programs except the college scholarships, which will be handled by the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority.

Greetings From Raleigh 11-03-06

It’s appropriate at this time, I think, to thank you again for your support during my first term as your House representative. Your concerns, ideas, and suggestions have been fundamental, important considerations in all of the decisions I’ve made on behalf of my constituents. I hope I will be honored again with your mandate and support as we look forward to the new legislative session scheduled to begin on January 24, 2007. Please continue to provide your wise counsel on issues that concern you.

After the short session ended this summer, members and staff organized and prepared for interim studies that will fill our time during November and December. Out of the studies will come proposals for legislation to be considered in 2007. Under the following topic entitled, “Committee Work Continues”, you will find my assignment to various studies, so please “weigh in” with your views on any of those topics.

During the interim, you can contact me via email at pricey@priceyharrison.org or 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.

Please visit my new web site, WWW.PRICEYHARRISON.ORG for news and information.

Legislative Recap

The following is a list of some new laws that took effect on October 1, 2006, which will make our neighborhoods safer, reform our campaign finance laws, and better protect our schoolchildren and consumers. Please feel free to contact me if you would like additional information on these issues or any others that were considered by the General Assembly during this year’s session.

Schoolchildren’s Health Act (S.L. 1006-143, HB 1502) – As of October 1, 2006, the “Schoolchildren’s Health Act” requires several environmental health changes benefiting children in public schools in North Carolina: schools must come up with a plan to keep buses from idling too long; schools will have to limit the use of pesticides, mercury, and arsenic-treated wood; and, schools will have to notify parents within 72 hours of spraying in and around schools. Also, schools must notify parents of the existence of mold and mildew in schools. Further, schools are banned entirely from using arsenic-treated wood on playgrounds. The “Schoolchildren’s Health Act” uses common-sense, low-cost, and even cost-savings measures to reduce student and staff exposure to hazardous contaminants in school buildings.

First Phase of Video Poker Ban Takes Effect (S.L. 2006-6, SB 912) – Video poker machines will be banned in North Carolina beginning on July 1, 2007, and the estimated 10,000 current machines were required to be reduced by one-third on October 1. The new law requires machine owners or businesses to downsize from their current maximum of three machines to two, and from two machines to one machine by March 1, 2007. Current machine owners must sell their machines to individuals outside of North Carolina or to the Cherokee Casino in western North Carolina, which will be allowed to continue operating under the new ban.

Protecting Consumers Against Identity Theft (S.L. 2005-414, SB 1048 & S.L. 2006-173, HB 1248) – Legislators approved far-reaching identity theft protections during the 2005 session, most of which became law previously. On October 1, the remainder of this new law took effect, which will provide additional protections of an individual’s social security number. Businesses will no longer be able to: (1) intentionally communicate or make available to the general public an individual’s social security number; (2) intentionally print or imbed a individual’s social security number on any card required for the individual to access products or services provided by the business; (3) require an individual to transmit his or her social security number over the Internet, unless the connection is secure or the social security number is encrypted; (4) require an individual to use his or her social security number to access and Internet website, unless a password or unique personal identification number or other authentication device is also required to access the website; and (5) print an individual’s social security number on any materials that are mailed to an individual, unless the state or federal government requires the social security number to be on the document to be mailed.

During this year’s session, legislators also approved a bill (S.L. 2006-173, HB 1248), which requires local and state governments that suffer a security breach that could lead to identity theft to inform citizens of the breach. The new law will require governments and public agencies to follow the same requirement as businesses and must alert customers when confidential information is compromised. The corporate requirement passed in 2005 as part of a broad identity theft prevention law (Identity Theft Protect Act of 2005; SB 1048). The Secretary of State’s Office will have one year to meet a requirement to keep personal identifying information off of its website, which currently contains an estimated 500,000 online records. During that time, the office will be required to study how to remove personal data from documents already available through its website.

Safety Training Required for ATV Drivers (S.L. 2005-282, SB 189) – A new law took effect last December that prohibits the operation of all-terrain vehicles (ATV) by people less than eight years old, requires eight to fifteen year old ATV drivers to only ride on vehicles with smaller engines, and makes it unlawful for a parent or legal guardian of a child under 16 years of age to permit that child to operate an ATV without constant supervision of a person 18 years old or older. Now, every ATV operator born on or after January 1, 1990, must also have a safety certificate indicating successful completion of an all-terrain vehicle safety course sponsored or approved by the All-Terrain Vehicle Safety Institute.

Permitted Uses of Campaign Funds (S.L. 2006-161, HB 1845) – Candidates and campaigns will only be able to use campaign funds for expenses related to their campaigns and office-holding duties and will be prohibited from using the funds for personal use under a new law that took effect on October 1. Under the new law, campaign funds may be used for the following campaign purposes: ordinary expenditures made in connection with the candidate’s campaign or with fulfilling the duties of elected office; donations to certain charitable organizations (not one where the spouse or child of the candidate is employed), to a political party, or to another candidate; to return contributions to a contributor; or for the payment of penalties assessed against the candidate’s campaign committee by a board of election or court. The bill also prevents heirs of deceased candidates from inheriting campaign money.

Citizens Beware: Sweepstakes & Lottery Scams on the Rise

N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper recently issued a warning to consumers and banks about lottery and check scams. Nearly 400 people have told state officials about losing money in lottery schemes this year – just under the total for all of last year. Lottery-scam complaints to the Charlotte-region Better Business Bureau about lottery scams are up 80 percent from a year ago to more than 1,400. Lottery scams have been around for years, usually aimed at the elderly, but complaints are growing because crooks now also target younger victims, hoping to take money from less experienced consumers.

The schemes usually start small, such as a letter requesting a processing fee of $25 to $50 in order to win $1 million, but they can escalate and cost some unwitting consumers well into the thousands with bogus checks meant to cover fees. Some people have lost more than $100,000. More elaborate scams often require victims to send more money to receive their winnings, but offer to repay them with a check. Victims send the scammers the fee, usually around $1,000 to $5,000, and then try to cash the bogus check they receive later at their bank.

Here are some warning signs that the check you got in the mail is a fake:

• You’ve been told that you’ve won a lottery called “El Mundo,” “El Gordo” or from a foreign country such as Canada, Costa Rica or Australia.
• You’re told to wire, send, or ship money immediately to a large U.S. city or abroad, especially to England, Canada, or Nigeria.
• You’ve posted an item for sale online and receive a check for more than your asking price.
• You’re told that you can receive a commission for transferring money through your account.
• You get an email or telephone request to confirm, update or provide your personal account information.

North Carolinians who receive what they suspect is a counterfeit check or get a call or letter claiming they’ve won a phony lottery should not respond. Instead, report the scam to the Attorney General’s Office by calling 1-877-5-NO-SCAM toll-free within North Carolina.

Thanks for sharing your ideas and suggestions during the past two years. I deeply appreciate your support. Please continue to call on me if I can assist you in any way.

Cheers,

Pricey

Greetings From Raleigh 10-02-06

As you know, the 2006 short session of the North Carolina General Assembly ended two months ago, but the work continues in the district and in Raleigh. I was recently appointed to the Land and Water Study Commission which will consider the Land for Tomorrow initiative. I am also serving on the following interim committees: the Environmental Review Commission, the House Select Committee on Capital Punishment, the House Select Committee on Complementary and Alternative Medicine, the Legislative Committee on Global Climate Change, and the Study Commission on Land and Water Conservation.

I’m very proud of the progress we made during the short time we were in Raleigh this summer; some significant changes occurred in education, health care, the economy, and reducing crime. Several of the new laws went into effect on October 1, 2006, and others will take effect in the coming months. I will update you on those in future posts.

The Legislature will reconvene on Wednesday, January 24, 2007 at noon. During the interim, you can contact me via email at Priceyh@ncleg.net or Pricey@priceyharrison.org., 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.

Recap Of Important Legislation- 2006 Session

Below is a short recap of some of the most important legislative accomplishments of the 2006 session. Feel free to contact me if you would like additional information on these issues or any others that were debated by the General Assembly during this year’s session.

EDUCATION:
Education remained the #1 priority throughout this year’s session. I’m extremely proud of our many accomplishments, which will improve education from early childhood through adulthood. We were able to dedicate more funding to our children’s education than ever before. (The budget included $10.8 billion in resources dedicated to improving education and increasing teachers’ salaries. This total represents more than $943 million above last year’s budget and is in addition to $425 million in expected revenues from the new North Carolina Education Lottery.) We gave teachers the substantial pay raise they deserve (an average of 8%), which will bring them closer to the national average and will help us reduce our teacher shortage. We dedicated over $75 million to address the on-going Leandro school funding lawsuit, which will help our low-wealth schools and disadvantaged students and provide additional funds for literacy coaches and high school reforms. We also eliminated a $44.3 million recurring reduction in public school budgets ordered annually since the 2003 budget shortfall, a priority of our Guilford County School Board.

We continued our investment in outstanding universities and community colleges, which educate North Carolina citizens at all stages throughout their lives. UNC campuses across the state will receive $185.7 million to help build new classrooms and buildings, including projects at UNCG and A&T. The budget also substantially increases financial aid available for students attending our state’s universities and community colleges, and we gave parents a new tax deduction when they save for a child’s college education.

We established a new lottery oversight committee, which will ensure that all lottery proceeds go to early childhood education, reducing class size, school construction, and college scholarships. And, schools will be required to set aside time when students can recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION:

I worked hard to push for good environmental bills and fight bad ones this session, and overall we had a decent session. The best news comes from the budget where I pushed for legislation to provide funding for testing and emergency drinking water supplies for North Carolinians obtaining their drinking water from sources located near known contaminated hot spots. I also successfully pushed for funding for shellfish protection programs, and for restoring funds for the pesticide disposal program. I was not as successful in seeking funding for farmland preservation, despite gathering 93 cosponsors for funding, or for getting additional sedimentation and erosion control positions funded. Our biggest water quality problem is runoff, largely from sediment, and NC has not adequately funded that program for years. Additional provisions in the budget provide for expanding the state park at Hickory Nut Gorge, funding testing for new private drinking water wells, and fully funding Clean Water Management Trust Fund.

We vastly improved groundwater protection for those 2.7 million North Carolinians drinking from private wells. In addition to the funding listed above, we established comprehensive well construction standards statewide.

I worked hard for a much needed twelve-month landfill moratorium. Six proposed mega dumps in eastern NC counties would have resulted in NC importing an additional eight million tons of trash annually, becoming the fourth largest trash importer in the US. The moratorium puts a halt to that for twelve months while we consider the impact and establish an environmental justice study to look at the practice of landfills being sited in low income, often minority, communities.

We passed the School Children’s Health Act, which reduces students’ exposure to toxins in schools, including mercury products, arsenic in treated wood products, and emissions from idling buses.

We took a small step toward a sustainable energy policy, by enabling government buildings to finance energy efficiency measures with future energy cost savings. A comprehensive Energy Independence Act was pared down to include measures involving studying and planning for energy efficiency. I had pushed for the state’s adopting a renewable energy portfolio standard, as twenty two other states have done, but it seems we will wait until the Public Utilities Commission finishes its study on this subject next year. I had also pushed for an energy future use study, which would have accounted for public health and environmental impacts in arriving at the cost of energy generation, but the bill was killed by the utility lobbyists.

Bad bills that passed included a bill that will let Duke Energy emit more pollution than NC’s regulations allow at its Cliffside, NC plant. Several of us fought that hard, but lost. Another bad bill will allow for inadequate mitigation for development in the nutrient sensitive Neuse and Tar-Pamlico watersheds.

We did manage to stop several bad environmental bills. Risk –Based Environmental Remediation would have lowered groundwater cleanup standards and enabled polluters to walk away from future liability with a small fee. Another bill would have allowed for weakened protection for trout waters. Finally, the billboard industry had pushed legislation that would have doubled the area of tree clearing in front of billboards and made the public foot the bill.

Unfortunately, there were also several good bills that did not pass, including many I had introduced. In addition to those mentioned above, I had also pushed for clean cars legislation to reduce emissions from those mobile sources. I had also pushed for better tax treatment for land held for conservation purposes. I tried to require better disclosure of coastal hazards in real estate transactions on the coast. I pushed for better management of the waste from our hog industry. And I supported the land for tomorrow bond initiative, which has been turned to a study I hope to participate in. I also pushed for the reduction of products containing mercury, which will be studied by the Environmental Review Commission, on which I sit.

HEALTH CARE:
Improving health care in North Carolina by making it more affordable and accessible for all of our citizens was another top priority during this year’s session. As stated on opening day, most House members believe that health care should be a part of the job – if you work, you should have health insurance. Unfortunately, half of the 1.3 million uninsured North Carolinians work full-time jobs. To help address the problem, we passed numerous bills this session that will improve and expand health care and services in communities across our state.

The House Select Committee on Health Care, and its six subcommittees held numerous meetings prior to May and made recommendations for legislation on issues including access to health care, ways to decrease the number of uninsured North Carolinians, and the state’s increasing costs associated with Medicaid.

After three years of work and passage by the House several times in recent years, we finally approved a new tax credit for small businesses that offer health insurance to employees. The new $250 tax credit will go to small businesses that offer health coverage to employees making less than $40,000. This credit is intended to help our valuable businesses with one of their fastest growing expenses, plus allow more North Carolinians to get or keep health insurance.

The House overwhelmingly passed legislation creating a new high-risk insurance pool, which would cover people who can’t afford health insurance or qualify under traditional plans. Unfortunately, the Senate did not take it up prior to adjournment. Supporters of the bill said this was a first step toward providing affordable health care to our state’s 1.3 million uninsured.

This year’s budget provides more than $4.2 billion for health and human services. As part of an on-going reform effort that began in 2001, we dedicated $95 million in new funds for mental health, developmental disabilities, and substance abuse programs, including $14.4 million for the Mental Health Trust Fund. We provided $27.4 million in relief to all 100 counties to freeze the counties’ portion of Medicaid expenses at the 2005-06 year’s level. More than $30 million is provided for child care services and subsidies, which will maintain the current 2,650 child care slots, remove 3,096 children from the waiting list, and create 3,100 new slots.

IMPROVING OUR ECONOMY & CREATING NEW, GOOD PAYING JOBS:
North Carolina’s economy has steadily improved during the last few years; however, some communities continue to experience job losses and unemployment rates higher than the state or national rate. In an effort to strengthen our economy and create new jobs, my colleagues and I were successful on numerous fronts. We approved a $1 increase in the state’s minimum wage, which will increase the salaries of approximately 140,000 North Carolinians from $5.15 to $6.15 per hour starting January 1, 2007. We provided substantial pay increases for our valuable teachers and state employees – teachers received an average 8% increase and state employees received a 5.5% increase.

We approved legislation to vastly improve job creation programs, like the One North Carolina Fund and Job Development Investment Grants (JDIG), which have created over 33,000 new jobs across our state since 2001. The budget provided $15 million for the One North Carolina Fund and $5 million for the One North Carolina Small Business Fund. Legislators also made major improvements to the William S. Lee Act, which was created 10 years ago and has created more than 130,000 new jobs across the state during the past decade. Under this program, companies receive tax credits based on the location of new jobs – companies receive higher credits if jobs are located in the more economically distressed or impoverished counties of the state.

We provided close to $200 million in tax cuts for all North Carolinians, including a reduction in the state’s sales tax, effective December 1, 2006 – just in time for the holidays, and a reduction in the personal income tax rate, which will help approximately 30,000 small businesses. We also capped the state’s gas tax to ensure it does not increase further even if oil and gas companies continue to raise prices at the pump for consumers.

PROTECTING OUR FAMILIES & REDUCING CRIME:
Legislators took numerous important steps during this year’s session, which will reduce crime and better protect our families and communities. We strengthened our laws regarding sex offenders, DWIs, identity theft, and the production of meth, which is a dangerous drug impacting many of our rural communities. Legislators also approved vital funding in the budget for our courts, new judicial and law enforcement positions including several in Guilford County, and our state’s emergency preparedness efforts.

Following work by the House Select Committee on Sex Offender Registration Laws, the General Assembly passed numerous measures that crack down on sex offenders, which will better protect our children. Sex offenders will now be prohibited from living within 1,000 feet of a school or daycare center and will not be able work or volunteer in a position where they would interact with minors. Some of the worst predators face lifetime satellite monitoring under a new global positioning system (GPS), and all offenders must comply with tougher registration requirements, which will help authorities to update addresses and photographs. DMV is also instructed to search the national database of sex offenders prior to issuing a new driver’s license, which will help ensure criminals from other states also register and are monitored in our state. Legislators also took aim at human trafficking and sexual servitude by increasing penalties, especially for those individuals who harbor children. We included $1.5 million in the budget to upgrade the state’s sex offender registry, implement the global positioning system (GPS), and establish an email notification program so citizens can be notified when a registered sex offender moves into their neighborhoods.

Lawmakers approved legislation to create a first-in-the-nation Actual Innocence Commission, which will help ensure the wrongfully-convicted are not in prison and the guilty are. The commission will be focused on examining questions of innocence, while the current criminal appeals process is geared toward ensuring fair trials.

After three years of work, the state has overhauled and toughened our DWI laws. The new laws will impose tougher penalties for those who cause fatal accidents and limit the discretion of judges, which in the past has resulted in many DWI charges being reduced or completely tossed out of court. The DWI changes create three new felonies – and stiffer penalties – for automobile accidents that involve impaired driving and result in serious injury or death. The measure will also require merchants to keep records on keg sales and make it a misdemeanor for anyone younger than 21 to drink an alcoholic beverage.

The General Assembly also passed legislation to ban video poker. The new law, which was supported by the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association, requires current machine owners or businesses to downsize from the current maximum of three machines to two machines by October 1, 2006, and from two machines to one machine by March 1, 2007. A complete ban of the machines will take effect on July 1, 2007. The phase out of video poker will allow the more than 1,700 current employees in the industry to find new jobs while ridding the state of the controversial games.

CAMPAIGN FINANCE, LOBBYING AND ETHICS REFORMS:

House members spent close to eight months drafting various ethics, campaign finance, and lobbying reform proposals. I was appointed to the House Select Committee on Ethics and Governmental Reform, which was established at the end of last year and looked at numerous issues and ultimately recommended ten pieces of legislation.

Prior to adjourning, legislators approved some of the toughest and most far-reaching campaign finance, lobbying, and ethics reforms and regulations in the nation. We strengthened ethics regulations for the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government, and for boards and commissions. We established an independent, eight-member State Ethics Commission, which will conduct inquiries on complaints filed against all three branches of government. Following last year’s passage of tougher lobbying regulations, lawmakers went further this year by enacting additional reforms including a gift-giving ban and a ban on lobbyists contributing to political campaigns.

Legislators also approved bills that provide more control over the use of campaign funds and prohibit the use of funds for personal expenses, improves required training for campaign treasurers, bans the use of “blank payee” contribution checks, and requires stronger reporting requirements on campaign finance reports as well as efforts by lobbyists and politically active “527” groups. Unfortunately, we did not approve the public financing pilot project for four legislative races.

CRACKING DOWN ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION:
My colleagues and I approved several measures intended to combat illegal immigration in North Carolina. Driver’s license applicants will now have to produce a Social Security card or valid visa when applying for a North Carolina license. In recent years, illegal immigrants had used an Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITIN) as identification to obtain a driver’s license. Another new law would require state government, including the UNC system, community colleges, and public school systems, to use a federal database to ensure new hires are legal residents. The House also passed a resolution calling on the U.S. Congress to enact meaningful immigration reform, including locating a new immigration court in Charlotte and allowing local authorities to be able to work with federal agencies to deport illegal immigrants who are caught driving while impaired or for other serious crimes.

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I plan on spending the next three months splitting my time between my campaign for reelection and my work on interim committees, including Global Warming, Death Penalty, Environmental Review, and Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Thanks to all of you for your continued communications and advocacy on the issues. Please feel free to contact me if I can be of help.

Greetings From Raleigh 8-18-06

The 2006 short session of the North Carolina General Assembly has ended, and I’m proud to report that numerous newspapers, Governor Mike Easley, and various advocacy groups from across the state have all said that it was one of the most successful and productive sessions in recent memory. My colleagues and I remained focused from the first day of session until the last on our priorities of improving education, making health care more affordable, strengthening our economy and creating new jobs, reducing crime in our neighborhoods, and protecting our environment.

The House Democratic Caucus announced a far-reaching agenda on opening day – May 9, 2006 – and on the final day of session, we noted that every item on our agenda and many other important bills had been passed during our ten weeks in Raleigh.

The Legislature will reconvene on Wednesday, January 24, 2007 at noon. 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.

In Other News...7-31-06

Additional Help For Teachers

Earlier this week, Governor Easley signed into law HB 1151, sponsored by Rep. Maggie Jeffus, which requires all North Carolina public schools to give teachers duty-free lunch periods as well as instructional planning time, with the goal of at least five hours per week. With this new law, North Carolina becomes the first state in the nation where a team of teachers decides how and when to establish planning time, according to the National Governors Association. The new law mandates that the School Improvement Teams, which include classroom teachers and administrators at each school, put into writing a policy to provide weekly planning time for teachers.

Only one-third of elementary teachers, according to the 2006 Teacher Working Conditions Survey, say they have adequate time for planning. Many teachers say they have no breaks between the beginning and end of the school day. As a result, teachers have little time to interact and learn from their colleagues in the same subject or at the same grade level in order to individualize instruction for each student.

There are 94,000 full-time public school classroom teachers in North Carolina, 47,000 of whom teach kindergarten through 8^th grade, who will benefit from this new law. The provisions will start with the 2007-2008 school year.

Governor Signs Identity Theft Bill to Protect Veterans, Military, National Guard & Reserves

Governor Easley has signed into law HB 2883, which protects veterans, active military, and members of the National Guard and Reserves against identity theft.

The new law says that members of the military and veterans who may have been victims of a computer security breach in Washington, DC will not have to pay the typical $10 fee to have personal financial information withheld from release by credit reporting agencies. The bill was drafted after a laptop computer belonging to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs containing sensitive information on up to 26.5 million people was stolen in May. The computer has since been recovered and investigators say the personal data has not been compromised, but veterans remain concerned about the integrity of their personal financial information.

Affected individuals need to submit a copy of the notification they received from the VA with their request to freeze their financial information to the credit reporting agency to avoid the fee. The law is effective immediately and continues until July 1, 2007, or when the federal government implements its own program to pay for the credit reporting freeze for those veterans and others.

Information on what the Veterans Affairs Department is doing concerning the data security breech can be found on the web at: http://www.firstgov.gov/veteransinfo.shtml or calling 1-800-333-4636 (FED INFO).

More information on how to avoid identity theft can be found in the web at: http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft.

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It has been a privilege to serve as your House member during these two sessions of the General Assembly. Please feel free to contact me anytime you have comments or questions.

Cheers,

Pricey

Enviornmental Issues 7-31-06

1-Year Halt on Landfills Passed

Legislators on Thursday gave final approval to a one-year moratorium on new landfills. The legislation (SB 353) halts the permitting process of some proposed projects and implements a study to determine the environmental implications of landfills on North Carolina, especially in minority and low-income communities.

I worked with environmental advocates in pushing for the moratorium in the House after the Senate sent us the bill based on a 48-0 vote. Six proposed new landfills – located in Camden, Brunswick, Hyde, Scotland, Richmond, and Columbus counties – which would significantly expand the state’s landfill capacity. The proposed projects would turn North Carolina, which is now a net exporter of trash, into the fourth-largest waste importing state, with an additional 8 million tons of trash expected annually from the 6 proposed sites. Many of the sites are in environmentally sensitive areas.

Stormwater Rules Approved

Legislators gave final approval on Wednesday to new rules that oversee how stormwater runoff is managed in more than 150 small- and medium-sized communities (SB 1566). The Senate voted unanimously to approve a House version of the bill that lays out rules for land developers who disturb at least one acre of land in unincorporated counties and small cities and towns. These developers would have to create and enforce a plan as to how they intend to control rain and other water runoff to reduce the chances that pollutants could enter waterways. The bill would require subdivisions and other home developers to install stormwater controls if they build near shellfish waters. Developers would have to set up retention ponds or vegetation to control rainwater runoff in coastal areas where more than 12 percent of the land is covered by buildings, pavement, gravel or athletic courts. This is a major step in water quality protection, and has been several years in the making. The measure now goes to Gov. Easley’s desk.

It was a good week for the environment, in sharp contrast to weeks that we’ve reported on the subject in previous newsletters. In addition to the landfill moratorium and the stormwater bill, there is more good news. A terrible bill relating to contaminated sites (HB1778, SB1132) was put to rest for this session. It would have drastically changed NC’s policies regarding cleanup of contaminated sites and resulted in potentially significant groundwater resource loss. The measure will likely return in 2007, but it is hoped with more time for all stakeholders to negotiate a more acceptable proposal. Also, SB1862, regarding nutrient offset payments for development in sensitive areas of the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico river basins, was amended via another bill, S 927, to reinstate the originally proposed phosphorus fee, leaving the bill only half as bad as it had been. S.2051, approved by the House last week, promotes energy and water efficiency, promotes the use of biofuels, and codifies energy assistance for low income individuals.

The news wasn’t all good. HB2812, Energy Future Act, which I introduced with 65 co-sponsors, and was headed to the omnibus study bill, was yanked out of the study bill at the last minute at the request of the Duke and Progress Energy lobbyists. The study would have required NC’s Public Utilities Commission to take into account public health and environmental impacts in the cost of electricity generation. I have been advocating for a more sustainable energy policy in NC, and this was to be a step in that direction.

Increased Restrictions On Sex Offenders

Sex offenders will face much stricter registration regulations in North Carolina beginning December 1, 2006. The House and Senate approved far-reaching legislation on Thursday, after months of work by the House Select Committee on Sex Offender Registration Laws and passage of several House bills that sought to better protect our children from these predators.

House and Senate members combined several bills previously passed by the House into one comprehensive package (HB 1896), which now awaits the Governor’s signature. The legislation prohibits a sex offender from living within 1,000 feet of a school or daycare center and bars offenders from working or volunteering in a position where they would interact with minors. Some of the worst predators face lifetime satellite monitoring under a new global positioning system (GPS), and all offenders must comply with tougher registration requirements, which will give authorities more chances to update addresses and photographs. The bill also takes aim at human trafficking and sexual servitude by increasing penalties, especially for those individuals who harbor children. The human trafficking provision would also apply to those involved in trafficking illegal aliens.

Legislators also included $1.5 million in the budget to upgrade the state’s sex offender registry, implement the global positioning system (GPS), and establish an email notification program so citizens can be notified when a registered sex offender moves into their neighborhood.

Many states have strengthened their sex offender laws since the 2005 kidnapping and killing of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who spent much of her life in Gaston County, N.C., before moving to Florida with her father. A registered sex offender has been charged in her death.

Grants Available For Small Businesses

The state is now accepting applications for One North Carolina Small Business Fund matching grants. These grants enable North Carolina’s small businesses to conduct the research and technology development that will generate the kinds of innovation critical to the future growth of our state’s economy. The One North Carolina Small Business Fund was approved by the N.C. General Assembly last year, with $1 million allocated for the first round of grants. Two dozen companies received grants last year. This year, the General Assembly approved an additional $5 million for the program in the budget.

For a business to be considered for a One North Carolina Small Business Fund grant, it must already have qualified for a federal Small Business Innovation Research or a Small Business Technology Transfer award. Under the One North Carolina Small Business Fund program’s guidelines, the state matches the federal money, with a $100,000 maximum per grant.

The application and more information on these matching grants can be found at: http://www.ncscienceandtechnology.org/OneNCSmallBusinessProgram/SBIRProgram_MatchSolicitation_NCBST–FY0607M.htm.

Improving Our States Economy

Legislators passed several bills last week that were aimed at improving our state’s economy and creating jobs. First, we approved changes to the William S. Lee Act, which has created at least 135,000 new jobs since it took effect in 1996. The program, which is the state’s primary economic incentives tool, provides tax credits to businesses that create jobs in poor and impoverished communities. The state’s 100 counties will now be grouped into three categories, or tiers, instead of five.

Companies that agree to build in 40 counties considered the most economically distressed would be eligible for the highest per-job credit of $12,500. Companies that build in the 20 most economically vibrant counties, largely in the urban Piedmont, would continue receiving $750 per job. Job creation in the 40 counties in the middle would warrant $5,000 per job. Development zones, or economically distressed areas where companies can receive more lucrative tax credits, would be replaced with smaller “urban progress zones” designed to better target impoverished areas. The bill also creates “agrarian growth zones” to provide similar improved credits for certain rural areas. Jobs must meet certain wage thresholds to qualify for the credit.

Secondly, we restored a tax credit for television and video production companies that agree to film in North Carolina. Last year, lawmakers approved a 15 percent refundable tax credit on companies that spend at least $250,000 on a production; however, the 15 percent credit turns into 8.1 percent for companies that file a North Carolina tax return because they must also pay the state’s 6.9 percent corporate income tax on the expenses they claimed to get the credit. The bill, approved by a vote of 77-25 in the House on Thursday night and sent to the Governor for his signature, accepts the Senate version of a House bill that repeals several laws so the film production companies can receive the full 15 percent credit. State film officials have said the quirk in the 2005 law meant the state didn’t land as many film productions as they would have liked, but hope to bring additional film projects to our state in the coming years.

North Carolina ranks third nationally in revenues from film, television, and commercial production and has held this position for the past 21 years. Our state has hosted more than 800 motion pictures, 14 network and cable television series, and countless national and regional television commercials generating more than $6 billion in revenues for local economies, and is currently in talks with 20 potential new projects.

"First In The Nation" Innocence Commission Created

Legislators took a “history-making” step this week as they gave final approval to legislation (HB 1323) that creates a one-of-a-kind legal path to exonerate the wrongfully convicted. Credit goes to Rep. Rick Glazier, D-Cumberland, for his hard work on the bill. The commission would be focused on examining questions of innocence, while the current criminal appeals process is geared toward ensuring fair trials. The commission would be made up of eight members, including a judge, prosecutor, victims’ advocate, defense lawyer and a sheriff, and the commission would employ a director to coordinate investigations.

After a formal inquiry, five of the eight commission members would have to find “sufficient evidence” of innocence to forward the claim to a three-judge panel. The judges would hold a hearing to consider evidence from both the prosecutor and the defendant. All three judges would have to find “clear and convincing evidence” to free a person. As part of a compromise devised by lawmakers, the commission during its first two years could not investigate claims from those who pleaded guilty, which is unfortunate, because innocent defendants sometimes plead guilty either because of mental illness or handicap, or pressure from prosecutors. After those two years, the commission could send such a claim to the three-judge panel only if all eight members agreed. The bill now awaits the Governor’s signature to become law.

Toughening DWI Laws

After three years of work, legislators have approved a far-reaching overhaul of the state’s DWI laws that would impose tougher penalties for those who cause fatal accidents and limit the discretion of judges, which in the past has resulted in many DWI charges being reduced or completely tossed out of court. The measure (HB 1048) would also require merchants to keep records on keg sales and make it a misdemeanor for anyone younger than 21 to drink an alcoholic beverage

The DWI changes create three new felonies – and stiffer penalties – for automobile accidents that involve impaired driving and result in serious injury or death. The new proposal would also put pressure on prosecutors. Under the new rules, if a person’s impaired driving charges are reduced or dismissed, the prosecutor must document his reasoning and the court will make that decision available to the public. Lawmakers had discussed this proposal as a way to prevent arbitrary dismissals or reductions. The bill also urges judges to get training on the DWI laws. Many of the reforms came at the request of Gov. Mike Easley’s DWI task force, which was formed in 2003 and turned over about 40 recommendations to the General Assembly in early 2005. There were no members of the defense bar on the task force, and defense lawyers have expressed some concerns with various elements of the bill.

Cracking Down On Illegal Immigration

Legislators approved several measures last week intended to combat illegal immigration. One bill headed to Governor Easley includes a provision prohibiting the use of Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITIN) to obtain a driver’s license, and instead requires a Social Security card or valid visa for all new applicants. Another measure (HB 1942) would require state government, including the UNC system, community colleges, and school systems, to use a federal database to ensure new hires are legal residents. The House also previously passed a resolution (HR 2692) calling on the U.S. Congress to enact meaningful immigration reform, including locating a new immigration court in Charlotte and allowing local authorities to be able to work with federal agencies to deport illegal immigrants who are caught driving while impaired or for other serious crimes.

Lottery Oversight Commission Established

The House and Senate approved legislation on Thursday that creates a new lottery oversight commission in an effort to ensure all lottery money goes directly to education programs. The nine-member panel will review the lottery’s annual revenue and make sure that the division’s proceeds are not supplanting existing education funds. The Governor, House Speaker, and Senate President Pro Tempore will each appoint three members to the commission, each deciding on at least one educator and one person who is experienced in financial management. That panel will meet at least four times each year and will provide an annual report to the Legislature. I was a primary sponsor of the bill. The lottery law passed last year requires that the net revenues go to early childhood education, reducing class size, school construction, and college scholarships. The Lottery, which began selling tickets on March 31, 2006, is expected to produce $425 million for education in its first year.

Legislators Approve Strong Ethics And Lobbying Reforms

The House and Senate overwhelmingly passed an ethics and lobbying bill (HB 1843) on Thursday, which supporters and advocates described as one of the toughest and most far-reaching package of reforms and regulations in the nation. The legislation strengthens ethics regulations for the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government, including boards and commissions. It establishes an independent, eight-member State Ethics Commission, which will conduct inquiries on complaints filed against all three branches of government. Following last year’s passage of tougher lobbying regulations (SB 612), lawmakers went further this year by enacting additional reforms including a gift-giving ban and a ban on lobbyists contributing to political campaigns.

Some reform advocates contend the bill didn’t go far enough because it didn’t attempt to bar lobbyists from soliciting others for campaign donations; however, supporters of the bill said that those changes would be unconstitutional. Lobbyists would also be prevented from “bundling” or collecting campaign donations, a practice in which several campaign checks are given at a time to a candidate, sometimes after a fundraising event. Even that provision could be challenged in court, supporters said.

The House agreed 109-1 and the Senate 46-1 to the comprehensive reform package that was more than a year in the making. House members spent close to 8 months on drafting various ethics, campaign finance and lobbying reform proposals. At the end of last year, House Speaker Jim Black established and appointed me to the House Select Committee on Ethics and Governmental Reform, which spent months prior to May on drafting legislative recommendations on various ethics, campaign finance, and lobbying reforms.

Governor Easley, who must still sign the bill into law, said: “The Legislature has taken on a difficult issue and worked hard on what has become much more complicated than anyone anticipated. Their action should be applauded.”

Legislators previously approved bills that provide more control over the use of campaign funds, improves required training for campaign treasurers, and requires stronger reporting requirements on campaign finance reports as well as efforts by lobbyists and politically active “527” groups.

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.