I hope you had an enjoyable July 4th with family and friends.
The short session of the legislature ended Friday, July 1, 2016, and Sine Die was recorded at 11:59 PM. The adjournment followed a week of multiple committee meetings and late-night sessions.
SESSION REVIEW
Lasting just 68 days, the 2016 short session of the General Assembly was shorter than usual (election-year sessions have averaged 77 days since 2000). Overall, the session’s tone was one of bipartisanship and cooperation. In one of their last actions of the session, lawmakers repealed a section of HB2 that made it more difficult to file discrimination lawsuits.
Tax changes: The state budget, which is now waiting for Governor McCrory’s signature, increased the standard tax deduction from $15,500 to $17,500 for married couples filing jointly over the next two years. The deduction for a single person will increase from $7,750 to $8,750 over the same period. Projections show that a married couple making about $44,000 a year will save $115 annually with the change. Families making between $10,000 and $30,000 per year will see a savings of about $60. The number of taxpayers who will now owe no income taxes because their income will be less than the standard deduction will increase by more than 70,000.
Salary increases: Public-school teachers are slated to receive raises averaging 4.7 percent, boosting the average teacher salary for the coming school year to $50,186 including local supplemental pay. After entry-level salaries got a boost last year, these raises target more experienced teachers. The salary increases range from 2 percent for teachers with 25-plus years of experience to 8.1 percent for teachers with 14 years of experience. State employees will receive a 1.5 percent raise and a one-time bonus equal to 0.5 percent of their annual salary. The budget also includes $80 million for targeted raises, which would average 1 percent of employee salaries. State retirees will receive a one-time cost-of-living adjustment of 1.6 percent.
Tuition cuts and freezes: Tuition cuts will begin in fall 2018 at Western Carolina University, UNC-Pembroke, and Elizabeth City State University under the NC Promise Tuition Plan. In-state tuition for these schools will be $500 per semester and out-of-state tuition will be $2,500. Beginning in fall 2016, tuition rates across the UNC system will be fixed for at least eight semesters for incoming students, and undergraduate student fee increases will be capped at 3 percent per year.
Coal ash: A compromise coal ash bill will require coal ash ponds at half the state’s power plants to be capped. People living near coal-fired power plants who get their drinking water from wells will be given filtration systems or connected to municipal water by the fall of 2018. Coal ash will be processed into concrete and other material for reuse at three centers which will be established by Duke Energy.
Charter schools: A bill awaiting the Governor’s signature would turn over five low-performing traditional public schools to charter school companies. The five schools, selected by the State Board of Education, would become a statewide Achievement School District overseen by a superintendent the State Board of Education selects. Charter school companies would run the schools for up to eight years. A similar Achievement School District in Tennessee has not produced the promised results; showing no effect on student performance after three years.
Under other legislation effecting charter schools, no longer will those schools be reviewed every five years to ensure that they are meeting certain standards. Instead charter schools must only be reviewed once before their charters expire. Continuously low performing charter schools will no longer be in danger of having their charter revoked by the State Board of Education. Instead, these low-performing charters must only meet academic growth standards or have implemented an existing improvement plan.
Police bodycams: A new law related to policy body camera footage will require law enforcement to allow video access to anyone who is in the footage or that person’s representative in certain cases. An exception would be made for footage that is “of a highly sensitive personal nature,” footage that would “create a serious threat…to the administration of justice,” and footage that would “jeopardize the safety of a person.” An appeal to a Superior Court judge can be made for denied requests for video access.
S.C. Border: After roughly 20 years of debate, North Carolina lawmakers resolved a border dispute with South Carolina. The adjusted state boundary affects a handful of properties in Gaston and Union Counties near Charlotte. Several accommodations have made to make the transition easier for the residents forced to switch states.
Sex offenders: The legislature passed a law restoring parts of a 2008 law that prohibited sex offenders from being near children. Parts of the Jessica Lunsford Act were struck down earlier this year when a federal judge ruled that the law’s language was too vague and too broad.
Impaired boating: The penalties for killing or injuring someone while operating a boat while impaired have been increased to align with the penalties for impaired driving.
Courts: In response to a June ruling by the NC Supreme Court that the Department of Transportation was taking private property without paying for it because of Map Act development restrictions on property along the path of future road projects, those restrictions have been removed. Affected areas include the route of the future Interstate 540 loop in southern Wake County as well as the Winston-Salem Western Loop and the U.S. 17 Hampstead Bypass.
Several pieces of proposed legislation had not made the final cut by the time the General Assembly adjourned on July 1.
Regulatory reform: There were several deregulation bills in play but a final combination bill could not be agreed to and none of the several original bills was passed into law. Some of the items contained in the various bills included: repeal the ban on discarding televisions and computers in landfills, reduce the number of counties that must conduct vehicle emissions inspections, and allow a new technology to dispose of waste liquids from landfills without permits.
Math standards: High school students now take integrated math courses instead of separate classes on algebra and geometry. Efforts failed to either return to the traditional methods or give students a choice of systems.
Constitutional amendment to lock income tax rates: A proposal to write the current income tax rate of 5.5 percent into the State Constitution was introduced late in the session and did not gain final passage.
Wind power: A proposal to put vast swaths of the state off limits to wind farms, cell phone towers and other tall structures which would have put two wind farm projects at risk and hurt the wind energy industry did not pass.
Eugenics compensation: A bill that would have allowed counties to offer compensation to eugenics victims never got a hearing in the Senate. Some people who were sterilized by a county government were left out of a bill providing compensation to those who were forcibly sterilized by the state.
Sanctuary cities: The House never took action on a bill that would have eliminated school and road construction funds for local governments that refuse to enforce federal immigration laws.
Step therapy: Facing opposition from fellow Republicans, the House Rules Chairman killed his own bill to ban insurance companies from requiring patients to try cheaper alternative drugs. “Step therapy” is required by several large insurers when a doctor prescribes an expensive medication; patients must first try cheaper alternative treatments that target the same ailment. If those drugs don’t work, patients can then receive insurance coverage for the drug their doctor recommends.
Lead testing: A House bill that would have required older schools and child care facilities to conduct tests for lead in drinking water did not receive any action in the Senate.
In closing, I want to thank you for sharing your views, comments, and concerns through your e-mails, letters, phone calls, and office visits. I appreciate receiving input from you and I am honored to serve as your Representative for House District 66. I am glad to be home, and I look forward to seeing you in the district.
Please feel free to contact me when you have questions or concerns pertaining to Legislative matters.
State Rep. Ken Goodman, D-Richmond, is chairman of the Main Street Democrats Legislative Caucus. Reach him at 919-733-5823 and [email protected]. Visit www.mainstdems.org for more information.