As we wrap up the legislation passed during the General Assembly’s 2006 Short Session, it is interesting to reflect on the new laws that were passed and see the direction the Democrat-led legislature and governor are taking North Carolina.
Democrats have complete control over the House of Representatives, Senate and governor’s office. Although all General Assembly members can file bills, the Democrats control which bills are considered, which committee, if any, will hear the bills, and which bills will be debated and voted on in each chamber. Only the proposals they support become law.
Not much is heard about what the Republicans propose. Since they are in the minority, most of their ideas are never heard. That doesn’t meant they don’t have good ideas.
In this analysis of the Short Session, we present a balanced view of what did and did not pass. We’ve highlighted some of the most important bills that passed, out of the 1,976 bills that were filed. Just as interesting, and in many ways more informative for conservatives, is the list of bills that did not pass or even get consideration.
The bill number is referenced at the end of the description. To check the votes on each one, just click on the bill number. This will take you to the General Assembly Web site for a full text of the bill, the names of the sponsors, and how each member voted.
SIGNIFICANT LEGISLATION ENACTED
Jobs and Economic Development
• Instead of rewriting the Bill Lee Act, as has been promised since 2000, the General Assembly expanded the amount of money available for economic incentive grants and reallocated the formula to attempt to steer more jobs and more investment to high-unemployment counties. Cost? $1.2 million initially; in five years it will hit $17 million. (House Bill 2170)
• One North Carolina Fund, a.k.a. governor’s walking around money, was increased from $6 million to $15 million; Job Development Investment Grant (JDIG) was doubled from $15 to $30 million; another $5 million for the One North Carolina Small Business Fund (in addition to last year’s $1 million start-up funding); and a new Economic Development Reserve Account with $10 million. (House Bill 2170)
• A new Job Development Investment Grant Reserve fund is established with no limit on the amount of taxpayers’ money that will go into the fund. It is the General Assembly’s intent to appropriate whatever funds each year that may be needed to meet the anticipated cash requirements of the JDIG program. (Senate Bill 1523, sec. 40 (f))
• After reports of misspending at two regional economic development partnerships, laws were enacted to tighten the oversight of all seven regional economic development partnerships. (House Bill 1417)
• Raises the minimum wage by $1.00 to $6.15 per hour. (House Bill 2174)
Immigration
• Instead of allowing a federal Taxpayer Identification Number as an identification option, the law now requires a person to have a valid Social Security number to receive a driver’s license. (Senate Bill 602; Sec. 35.2)
• Requires a check on the citizenship status of all new state government hires through a Homeland Security database. (Senate Bill 1523; Sec. 23.1(a))
• Creates criminal offense of trafficking a person for sexual servitude/amends offense of involuntary servitude. (House Bill 1896)
Healthcare
• Provides a $250 tax credit to small businesses that provide health insurance to employees making less than $40,000 a year. (Senate Bill 1741; sec. 24.4(a))
• Changes law requiring a comprehensive eye exam for all incoming kindergarten students (Black Eye Bill) to only those who indicate a problem on initial screening. (House Bill 2699)
• Gives counties $27 million to temporarily freeze increases in their Medicaid costs. North Carolina is the only state that requires counties to share in the Medicaid burden. (Senate Bill 1741)
• Allocates $75 million for community based mental health services. Thanks to poor planning, mental health reforms from past years were not adequately funded and have thrown the state’s system into chaos. The Mental Health Legislative Study Commission recommended $150 million just to begin addressing the needs. (Senate Bill 1741)
• Bans smoking in all General Assembly buildings. (House Bill 1133)
Education
• Gives public school teachers, on average, an 8 percent pay raise; community college and university faculty got a 6 percent increase. (Senate Bill 1741)
• Expands the More at Four program, creating a whole new grade, requiring classrooms, teachers and support with no indication of where future funding will come from. (Senate Bill 1741)
• Provides $41.9 million in additional funding for low wealth school districts. (Senate Bill 1741)
• Allows public/private partnership lease agreements as an option for school construction. (Senate Bill 2009 = House Bill 2780)
• Establishes a public/private partnership in a research campus in Kannapolis to assist Dole Foods/Murdoch project that is worth more than $8 million. (Senate Bill 1741)
• Provides $140 million for construction on the university campuses, including $61 million for N.C. State’s Engineering School, $28 million for a genomic science building at UNC-CH and $27 million for a nursing school at UNC-Wilmington. (Senate Bill 1741)
Social Issues
• Requires schools to allocate time to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and display the American and North Carolina flags. (Senate Bill 700)
• Provides a one-year phase out of all video poker machines in North Carolina. (Senate Bill 912)
• Outlaws protests at funerals. (Senate Bill 1833)
Property Rights
• Repeals previous allowances for state government to seize private property for economic development purposes, but falls far short of guaranteeing those rights under a constitutional amendment. (House Bill 1965)
• Clarifies the definition of “blight” from a wide area to a specific parcel. (House Bill 1965— by Sen. Phil Berger’s (R-Rockingham) amendment
• Places a one-year moratorium on the construction of new landfills. (Senate Bill 353)
Government Reform
• Establishes Lottery Oversight Board in an effort to ensure all lottery proceeds will not replace existing funds. (House Bill 2212)
• Opens the cable TV industry to competition from phone companies. (House Bill 2047)
Crime and Safety
• Expands the crimes that require registration as a sex offender; increases oversight of sex offenders and sexual predators; and makes it a crime to fail to report an unregistered sex offender. (House Bill 1896)
• Bans convicted sexually violent offenders from holding jobs that require the supervision or care of children; bans convicted registered sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school or day care; and requires the most serious sex offenders to be tracked by satellite upon release from prison. (House Bill 1896)
• Establishes the N.C. Innocence Commission, spearheaded by former Chief Justice I. Beverly Lake, creating a first-in-the-country legal path to exonerate those who have been wrongfully convicted of felonies. (House Bill 1323)
• Prohibits drivers under 18 from talking on cell phones. (Senate Bill 1289 = House Bill 2206)
• Strengthens DWI statutes. (House Bill 1048)
• Increases funding to the court system, adding 90 prosecutors, 75 deputy court clerks and 9 victim witness assistants. (Senate Bill 1741)
Tax Reform/Budget
• Increases spending by 10 percent over the 2005 level. (Senate Bill 1741)
• Spends entire $2.4 billion surplus; $1.9 billion is non-recurring revenue. (Senate Bill 1741)
• Creates structural deficits in upcoming budgets, $1 billion shortfall anticipated next year, guaranteeing future tax increases. (Senate Bill 1741)
• Fails to permanently reduce the “temporary” sales tax increase, reducing it from 7 percent to 6.75 percent, not to 6.50 percent, as promised in 2001. (Senate Bill 1741)
• Fails to permanently reduce the “temporary” marginal income tax increase, reducing it to 8 percent, not to the 7.75 percent promised in 2001. (Senate Bill 1741)
• Caps the gas tax, but at its highest point – 29.9 cents per gallon, the highest of our neighboring states. (Senate Bill 1741)
• Gives state employees 5.5% pay raise (Senate Bill 1741)
• Gives state retirees 3% cost of living allowance (COLA) increase. (Senate Bill 1741)
Ethics/Campaign Finance Reform
• At the beginning of the 2005-2006 legislative session Jim Black was elected Speaker of the House by a 100 to 20 vote. (House Resolution 1). Despite a February 2006 State Board of Elections investigation that clearly implicated Black with campaign finance and other violations and with mounting evidence against him and his close allies, no effort was made to remove Jim Black as Speaker.
• Bans gifts, including dinners and drinks, from lobbyists. (House Bill 1843)
• Bars lobbyists from making campaign contributions to candidates and from bundling contributions from others. (House Bill 1843)
• Establishes an 8-member State Ethics Commission to conduct inquiries into possible ethics violations by all three branches of state government, although most of the work will be behind closed doors. (House Bill 1843)
• Requires increased disclosure of government officials’ personal financial records. (House Bill 1843)
• Requires payee lines on checks to be completely filled out on campaign donations. (House Bill 1843)
• Lowers threshold requirement to report occupation and employer of campaign contributions to $50. (House Bill 1843)
• Enacts electioneering (House Bill 1847) and candidate specific communications bills (House Bill 966) that raise serious constitutional questions — similar legislation has been litigated thru the Alaska courts. Alaska Right to Life Committee v. Miles, 441 F.3d 773 (2006). The U.S. Supreme Court may soon review the limits of electioneering — (see August 1 press release at http://www.jamesmadisoncenter.org.)
WHAT DID NOT GET DONE
Bills That Died At Adjournment
Crime and Safety
• Allow police officers to photograph and take a thumbprint of drivers who cannot provide identification. (House Bill 2881)
Families and Property Rights
• Constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. (House Bill 55, House Bill 2438 , Senate Bill 8 , Senate Bill 1228)
• Constitutional amendment banning seizure of private property (eminent domain) for economic development. (House Bill 1854 , House Bill 2213 , Senate Bill 1222 , Senate Bill 1229)
Taxes and Budget
• Repeal all “temporary” taxes. (House Bill 1949, House Bill 1832)
• Reduce taxes and cut government spending. (Senate Bill 885)
• Enact Taxpayer Bill of Rights. (Senate Bill 274 = House Bill 424 , Senate Bill 1323)
• Establish zero-based budgeting. (House Bill 150 , House Bill 151 , House Bill 1457 , Senate Bill 325)
Environment
• Bond referendum to borrow more than $1 billion over 5 years to protect streams and waterways, preserve open land and buy conservation easements. (Senate Bill 1907)
• Ban electronics from landfills and impose a $4 fee on the purchase price of TVs and computers to fund recycling and disposal costs. (Senate Bill 1030)
• Allocate $10 million to convert hog waste to more environmentally friendly methods of disposal; opposition came mostly from pork producers (House Bill 2784); $5 million was proposed in Senate Bill 1971.
• Billboard owners lost their fight with DMV for permission to cut more trees so visibility of billboards is better. (Removed language from House Bill 1827 in House Transportation Committee before the bill was passed.)
Education
• Raise cap on charter schools that would increase school choice and relieve school construction burden on taxpayers. (House Bill 1368 , House Bill 2486 , Senate Bill 213)
• Move cut-off date for kindergarten students to enter school from October 16 to August 31. North Carolina is currently one of the latest in the nation, putting students at a competitive disadvantage. August 31 would make North Carolina’s date one of the earliest in the nation. (Most states use a September date, most common date is September 1. Latest date is January 1.) (House Resolution 2515)
• Ensure that lottery proceeds go to education and do not supplant current funding. (House Bill 1893 , House Bill 1943 , Senate Bill 1221, Senate Bill 1500)
• Ensure that illegal immigrants are not eligible for in-state tuition at any UNC University school or any community college. (Senate Bill 1608)
Immigration
• Establish the North Carolina Security and Immigration Compliance Act to provide for the comprehensive regulation of persons in this state who are not lawfully present in the United States by doing the following:
1. Require public employers to register and participate in the federal Work Authorization Program to verify information on all new employees;
2. Facilitate enforcement of federal immigration laws;
3. Determine the nationality and immigration status of persons jailed upon felony or impaired driving charges;
4. Establish and enforce ethical standards for immigration assistance services provided by individuals who are not licensed attorneys;
5. Allow no income tax deduction for compensation paid to illegal immigrants;
6. Require withholding tax on compensation paid to illegal immigrants; and
7. Require verification of lawful presence to receive public benefits. (House Bill 2809)
• Provide increased security for driver’s licenses, require proof of citizenship or lawful admittance for permanent or temporary residence in the U.S. (Senate Bill 419)
• Establish tax on illegal immigrants’ wire transfers. (House Bill 2560)
• Allow law enforcement officers to detain individuals they reasonably believe to be undocumented aliens at the scene of a crime or a traffic crash and take them before a judicial official to determine if they are a risk to national or state security. (House Bill 2808)
• Require proof of citizenship to vote or to receive public assistance. (House Bill 1018)
• Require anyone who knowingly employs an individual, who is not lawfully present in the United States, to be responsible for that individual’s necessary medical expenses. (House Bill 1018)
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