Legislative Update from Rep. Frank Iler – Mar. 16, 2015
The last two weeks in Raleigh saw us getting back to a busy schedule after two weeks of rough weather: we heard from the Chief Justice on the State of the Judiciary, we passed two important bills for economic development and transportation infrastructure maintenance, and we received the Governor’s budget.
The week of March 2nd started with an invitation to Chief Justice Mark Martin to address a joint session of the NC House and Senate. He was to deliver a State of the Judiciary address, a tradition that was suspended after 2001. The house also passed Senate Bill 14, which provided funds for the Academic Standards Review Commission and other commissions which we had previously set up and not adequately funded to do their jobs. It also corrected a provision in the “coal ash bill” that will help our farmers and others with small dams that have nothing to do with coal ash. This bill passed the House 116 – 1.
Tuesday, March 3rd, we resumed a full schedule of committees. The Joint Appropriations Committee on Transportation restarted our daily 8:30 A.M. meetings. Senator Rabon and I are two of the co-chairs of this committee. We have our morning coffee while getting fully up to date on NCDOT. This is very helpful to us, so that we can help write the transportation budget in a few weeks.
Our full House Transportation Committee had our first meeting on Tuesday. This is the committee that debates, amends, and passes transportation bills before they go to the House floor for final votes. We had three bills dealing with three-wheel enclosed vehicles, making it easier for military veterans to get a special license plate, and legally passing slow-moving vehicles. WE had good debates, passed the first two, and displaced (put a hold on) the third. I chaired this first meeting, having had the experience of chairing this committee the last two sessions.
On Wednesday, March 4th, the session began at two p.m. and lasted until about seven. At four o’clock we were honored to hear the State of the Judiciary address in a joint session with the Senate. Chief Justice Mark Martin reminded us of the cuts the NC justice system has made over the last decade, and that more resources are needed from the budget to bring on the new technologies and people to efficiently run the Judiciary branch. It was great to greet our sheriff and some of our area judges, who were in attendance.
Two major bills were debated on the House floor Wednesday. House Bill 117 – NC Competes Act restores some of the economic development funds previously cut, so that the Governor and the Commerce Department can better recruit new industries to the state. It passed on a two-day vote 87 – 32 and 88 – 29. Senate Bill 20 – IRC Update/Motor Fuels Tax Changes reduces the state gas tax to 36 cents per gallon and flattens it at that rate for the remainder of 2015. This will force us to come up with a better plan to fund road maintenance and construction prior to the end of this year’s session. It passed 70 – 47 and 72 – 42.
The Governor’s budget came to us late Thursday, the 5th. We got a full briefing on it on Tuesday, the 10th from the Budget Director. It spends $21.5 billion in 2015 – 2016 and $22.2 in 2016 – 2017. The House will be writing its own budget over the next few months in cooperation with the Senate. There are many items on which we will agree with Governor, and others on which we will disagree. I plan to be most involved in the transportation and education parts of the budget.
Most of the work the rest of the week was done in committees. They will continue to meet often and take up hundreds of bills the next few weeks.